The Faith of Abraham

Hebrews 11:8-19

Key Verse 11:17a

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.

Abraham’s faith puts our life in the Lord into perspective – the life of pilgrimage. While on earth, we do God’s will. We live as holy pilgrims heading for God’s kingdom. We are not to take root here on earth. This hope sets us free from the things of this world. 

In order to correctly put our life in the Lord into perspective, John Bunyan wrote a book entitled The Pilgrim’s Progress. There he described our life in the Lord as a holy pilgrimage. In his book we see a man named Christian making a journey from this mundane world to a celestial city. His journey was not uneventful. It came with dangers and hardships. Oftentimes his journey got stalled. He got stuck in a place where he was not supposed to be. But by God’s grace he successfully overcame all the pitfalls and stumbling blocks, and made it to the desired haven. 

In many ways Abraham’s life journey resembles Mr. Christian’s in The Pilgrim’s Progress. He fumbled and stumbled here and there, but eventually he made it to the desired haven. How did he make it? Today’s Bible passage answers the question: “By faith”. 

In a way “faith” to Abraham is like a jumper cable to a used car. If you have a used car, one of the tools you must keep handy are jumper cables. I own a 1980 red Toyota MR2. Two Fridays ago I parked it on Paramount Boulevard and forgot about it. This morning I went out and saw a yellow card stuck underneath the windshield. It said that unless I move the car by April 4, the Downey police will come and tow it away. So I tried to move the car immediately, but it wouldn’t start. So what did I do? I brought my jumper cables and the brown minivan. I jump-started it. Then vroom: it started it up. In many ways, although we, as holy pilgrims, are supposed to make a seamless journey to God’s kingdom, we oftentimes end up getting stalled like my red Toyota. 

But if we learn Abraham’s faith we will not get stalled.  We can make our journey smoothly, still powerfully serving God’s will. What then did Abraham believe? Today’s passage reveals to us that Abraham believed in God’s will for him in four ways.

First, Abraham obeyed and went (8)

Look at verse 8. “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” Genesis 12:1-5 provide us with a factual background for this passage. God called Abraham at the age of 75. At first Abraham’s parents lived in Ur of the Chaldeans. Then they moved to Haran. Although Abraham was 75 years old, he did not have children. God then called him saying, “Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Genesis 12:2-3). So Abram left as the Lord had told him. The Genesis account gives us facts. But the Hebrews account reveals to us the spiritual meanings behind the factual accounts. So Hebrews 11:8 reads, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”

When we put together both accounts on Abraham’s life of pilgrimage we can see that God’s purpose for his children is a lot bigger than we can possibly imagine. Its dimensions are a lot farther, deeper, higher, and broader than we can possibly fathom. In fact it is infinitely greater than any spiritual man can possibly understand.

Keeping God’s purpose in mind then helps us to transcend what is limited. It keeps us from being stuck in what is limited and therefore not fully life-giving to man.  It helps man not to be attached to what is created. It pulls man out of all the confinements that keep him from growing up. It enables man to rule over the environments rather than to be ruled over. It helps you to be a master over God’s creation rather than a slave to God’s creation. 

In Ur, an urban city, and then later in Haran, Abraham must have been well established. He had friends and relatives. Perhaps he might have had nice real estate holdings. He must have stashed away a lot of movable assets in different places like a savings account or a money market account at the Bank of Haran. In addition, the land the Lord asked Abraham to leave was known as the land of idol worship. According to historians there were more than 3,000 idols. Abraham, most likely, kept some of these idols in a corner of his house and worshiped them, kissing them and bowing down to them.  

But by faith in God’s promises for him, Abraham left behind all these. He then obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 

Faith in God’s promises is the key to overcoming one’s attachment to or addiction to all that does not give life to man. Some are attached to the things of the past – past failures, and even past successes. They are stuck in the past. They then do not grow. They cannot move forward. Some are attached to what is lowly. So they suffer from the problem of “lust”—lust for people, lust for money, and so on.

But we cannot pass judgment on them. Rather we must understand that these people are addicted to what is created because they have no vision for what is better. They lack the vision for what is above—right above their noses, eyes, and then their eyebrows. Abraham was no different. God had mercy on him. So God called him by revealing to him a glorious purpose for him. 

While Genesis 12:2-3 describe extensively this purpose for Abraham, Hebrews 11:8 describes it in one simple word: inheritance. “Inheritance” sounds abstract. But characteristically it means “life security”. Normally girls are addicted to boys and boys to girls thinking that human relationships might give their life security. Indeed human relationships give you some level of security. But this kind of security is never secure in the true sense of the word “secure.” At best, things like human relationships are temporary and by the time you are forced to go without them, you get hurt and are pained ever so severely. You depend on them feeling ever so comfortable, but when what you depend on is gone, and when you haven’t found any viable alternative, what will happen to you? Who will bind the hurt? 

But we can escape these pitfalls when we remember God’s glorious purpose for his children. God loves his children. He wants each of them to be fully secure. Jesus calls God: our Father in heaven. One of the Father’s duties is to provide his children with the security of life. And it is God alone who can provide us with the life security which is fully secure. 

Second, A better country (10, 16; 12:22)

Practically, then, what kind of security does God the Father have in mind? We find an answer to this question in Hebrews 11:9-10 and 13-16. Let us read this passage. Here we find the expressions, “the city with foundations” (10), “a better country” (16a), “a city” (which God has prepared for them) (16b), or “the city of the living God” (Hebrews 12:22). 

These expressions refer to the spiritual environment which the Lord God has prepared for his children. They represent a life security, an eternal one. This security is spiritual in nature. 

In order to better understand this security, we must be careful not to be misled by the so-called “Promised Land.” The land God asked Abraham to go to turned out to be the land of Canaan. But God did not mean the physical Canaan when he talked about the “land” where Abraham was supposed to go. God had in mind a spiritual Canaan. This is what the word “inheritance” mentioned in verse 8 refers to. 

When we read Hebrews 11:9, we are kind of confused, for it uses two conflicting expressions: “home” and “a stranger in a foreign country”. “By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country.” They say, “There is no place like home.” We also know what the expression “home stretch” means. Home is home and a motel room is a motel room. But these conflicting expressions seem to confuse a motel room for home sweet home. What can we make of the seeming confusion? Philippians 3:12-21 saves us. Let us open the Bible and read this passage. Here Philippians 3:20 says that our citizenship is in heaven. Referring to the same truth Jesus said to his disciples in John 17 that we are in this world, although we are not of this world. So we say that we hold dual citizenship: citizenship in this world and citizenship in heaven. So the place we live here on earth like in Downey is our home which is not a real home. It is just like a motel room. Real home is not made of what is physical. It consists of more than rebar’s, concrete blocks, or two-by-fours. Essentially it is spiritual in nature. 

This is really fabulous because what is spiritual is incorporeal and therefore is not subject to limitations. It does not corrode. It does not spoil or fade. It is never used up. It remains brand new all the time. 

For this reason this spiritual environment is described as “a better country, a city with foundations.” I am not sure why the word “foundation” is plural rather than singular. I think it is plural because it has lots of dimensions. It can accommodate what is physical like the planet Earth or Mars, but it embraces far more than what is physical. The key thing to remember is it is inclusive of all the best we have known or will ever know all according to God’s time schedule. In a sense, the spiritual environment God has prepared for his children is like my eyeglasses. In the past I wore plain eyeglasses. Then bifocals came out, so I wore them. Then progressives came out and I wore them. Then a new technology called transition came out, and I am now wearing them – and I like the pair. When you go outside, the lenses become sunglasses. When you come indoors, they turn to regular eyeglasses. It is cool. 

The Lord God loves his children so much that he has already prepared a permanent and secure place for his children. This city was designed and built by God. By definition God is perfect. And the place he built for you and me is perfectly great. With this in mind, let us read once again Hebrews 11:13-16.

When we have this vision of the heavenly city, again we can live as holy pilgrims. As holy pilgrims we can choose not to take root in this world. Rather we use all the resources like youthful passion, time, intellect, money, degrees, and all other things to advance God’s kingdom.

Abraham set a good example. Lot did not have faith in the celestial city. So, he eventually got sucked into Sodom and Gomorrah. Then he fell victim to the evil environment. But unlike Lot, thanks to his faith in this heavenly city, Abraham stayed outside of evil environments. He then kept praying for his sheep Lot. When his sheep Lot got in trouble, he used all of his material resources and manpower to rescue him. After winning his own version of the Gulf War, he could have run for the presidency as the President of the Canaan. Then Sarah could have become the First Lady. Like Abraham Lincoln, then he can further fortify a united army under his banner, conquer the surrounding areas, and build his own kingdom. In this way he even can help God to fulfill God’s promise for the land. But Abraham did not do that. Rather, after winning his own Gulf War, the first thing he did was tithe. Then he went back to his life in tents. He continued to live as a holy pilgrim. 

The point is that this faith in the celestial city helps us to truly transcend what is limited. It then motivates us to keep all creation at our own disposal. 

In addition, when we have this faith, we can graduate from all kinds of disorderliness like fits of anger, envy, jealousy, anxiety, and even insomnia. When we have this faith, the Lord God blesses our faith and reveals that the spiritual reality of the celestial city is the highest reality above all other realities. Then this living hope even keeps the level of our blood pressure to remain where it should be. It helps you to keep calm and cool, steady and stable. It keeps you healthy first physically and spiritually. It improves not only your physical or spiritual health but your financial conditions. Like Abraham you can be extremely rich, but still not be attached to your possessions. It gives you the ability to keep everything you have at your own disposal in the true sense of the word disposal, and God tells you when to dispose of it and, when the time comes, how to dispose of it and how much of it to dispose. 

Third, descendants of faith (11-12)

While the celestial city represents a viable environment for his children, God’s promise about descendants represents God’s desire to populate the land with his children. God wants to fill the land with his children who are made perfect. God’s vision is to create a perfect land filled with perfect children. 

We can find this purpose in Hebrews 11:11-12. Look at this passage. “By faith Abraham, even though he was past age--and Sarah herself was barren--was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.” The number of stars and the number of sand are all symbolic of infinity. God wants to fill his kingdom with an infinite number of his children. 

One thing that strikes us here is that God allows Abraham to have his son Isaac only after it was conclusively proven that Abraham passed the age of procreation. Another thing that makes us stop and think is that God did not grant two Isaacs but only one Isaac. And it was from the line of Isaac that God chose to grant an infinite number of children. 

Why? What is the point? We can find God’s point in John 1:12-14. Let us all open the Bible and read this passage. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The key point is found in the expression “born of God”. Isaac was born of “God”, not of “natural descent”, nor of “Abraham’s decision” or “Sarah’s will”. 

Biblically speaking, Isaac then refers to those who believe in Jesus and are born again into God’s family, all according to God’s love and power. This then makes us stop and think about what we are to pray for. That is, we need to pray to present the gospel of Jesus Christ prayerfully to the dying world. This coming weekend, we have a spring conference. Let us all pray that God would bless this conference and help all who have not yet accepted Jesus to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior and be born again. 

Fourth, Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice (17-19) 

How then can this practically happen? What is God’s way to fulfill his purpose? How is God going to fill his home with tons of his children all made perfectly beautiful? We find an answer to this question in verses 17-19. “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.” This passage is associated with the events described in Genesis 22. 

What God asked Abraham to do in Genesis 22 and what Abraham indeed did in obedience to God’s command are all shocking. At first I think Abraham was also shocked when he first heard the command to sacrifice his son Isaac. Isaac was even more shocked. All the while, especially on the way to Mt. Moriah, particularly as he was brought bound and put on the altar, Isaac must have trembled in fear and anxiety. We know that Isaac is a quiet person. Was it because he was born that way? We do not know for sure. A friend of mine however presented an interesting theory: the event described in Genesis 22 shocked Isaac so much that throughout the remainder of his life, he remained very quiet. 

From a Biblical standpoint, Abraham and Isaac were playing out what the movie The Passion of the Christ is all about. Genesis 22 is a preview of the gospel. But this is not even the point. The point is that it is by faith in the gospel of Jesus who died on the cross for our sins and rose again for our justification that we are born into the family of God. It is this faith which motivates man to continue his journey to the celestial city. 

One word: the faith of Abraham 

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