• Hebrews 11:13-16 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

Observation

Not Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, ever possessed the Promised Land. In fact it was almost 500 years after Jacob died that Israel first began to possess Canaan. All these died in faith, without receiving the promises. Far from being a lament, however, this statement is a positive declaration that these men died in perfect hope and assurance of fulfillment. For the person of faith, God’s promise is as good as the reality. His promise of the glory ahead was as encouraging and certain to the patriarchs as actually possessing it could have been.

These men of faith did not know what was happening. God had given them no inside information, no word as to when or how the promises would be fulfilled. He only gave the promises, and that was enough. They had a sampling of the Promised Land. They walked on it and pastured their flocks on it and raised their children on it, but they were not impatient to possess it. It was enough to possess it from a distance, because their primary concern was for a better country, that is a heavenly one.

In the meantime they were quite happy to be strangers and exiles on the earth. In the ancient world strangers were often regarded with hatred, suspicion, and contempt. They had few rights, even by the standards of that day. They were also exiles, pilgrims or sojourners. They were refugees in their own Promised Land. But these faithful patriarchs were passing through Canaan to a better place, and they did not mind.

The most positive thing about our faith is not what we can see or hold or measure, but the promise that one day we will forever be with the Lord. Christians whose faith does not extend to heaven will have their eyes on the things of this world and will wonder why they are not happier in the Lord. Nothing in this life, including God’s most abundant earthly blessings, will give a believer the satisfaction and joy that come with absolute assurance of future glory.

David declared, “One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord” (Ps. 27:4).

Job, after unbelievable trials, destitution, and illness, could say, “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:25-26).

This is the hope and the security of the believer—the positiveness of faith.

It is people of such faith that God blesses. He is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. Regardless of what we are in ourselves, if we trust Him, God is not ashamed to be called our God. The patriarchs honored God, and God honored them. Nothing is so honoring to Him as the life of faith. In fact, nothing honors Him but the life of faith.

Understanding

What is God saying to me?

This is where this issue of faith must really take hold for us – even if we never receive the promises as we envisioned, our hope and assurance is in God who will do what He promised.

Even if my sojourn through this world is not the way I expected it to go I am confident that God would have used me in some way to accomplish His purposes.

And there is no thought of going back to where I came from – I have burned the ships and there is only one way to go – pressing on the road of faith that God has me on.

Life Application

What will I do about it?

Am I okay if I never see the promise of God the way I envisioned it? My spirit says yes but my humanness squirms. I want God’s way as long as it is my way – but God I surrender my selfishness and ego-centric thinking. This is not about you pleasing me, it is about me pleasing you so that you are not ashamed to be called my God. I believe in You and I want to live that belief so strongly that you are pleased to be known as my God.

Father today I surrender my pride that drives much of my wanting you to perform these great things in and through me. Humbly I come to You for I know that you alone satisfy.

• Hebrews 11:9-10 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Observation

Abraham was immediately willing to give up his homeland, his friends, his business, his religion—everything. He wasted no time putting all these things behind him. But faith also has a time for waiting and for being patient.

Dwelling in tents was the way of travelers and nomads. Even in Abraham’s time, tents were not considered permanent residences. Not only Abraham but also his son and grandson, Isaac and Jacob, lived out their lives in tents. They were in the land God had promised, but they did not settle down in it. Those great patriarchs, in fact, would never possess the land, except by faith. The land was in sight but not in hand. Near as it was, the land was still only a promise. Abraham did not build any houses or cities.

He lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land.

As a transient in the land, he had to be patient. Because the land was promised to him, patience must have been all the harder. Abraham walked up and down the land God had promised him, yet never owned more than a small plot in which to bury Sarah (Gen. 23:9-20). It was promised but never possessed. Abraham’s faith required a great deal of patience in order to live without grumbling as an alien in his own land.

Abraham waited patiently for the really valuable things. He never saw God’s promise fulfilled; he just waited and waited and waited. Often the hardest times for us as believers are the in-between times, the times of waiting. We are tempted to say, even to God, “Promises! Promises!” Abraham spent a great deal of time waiting. He waited long years for the son of promise, who was finally given. He waited all his life for the land of promise, which was never given. Yet he waited and watched and worked in the patient belief that God is faithful.

It is discouraging to pray and trust and work and see no results. A mother may pray for 15, 20, or 30 years for the salvation of her son, and never see him come to Christ. A minister may serve in a church faithfully for ten years and see little evidence of spiritual growth. True faith is deaf to doubt, dumb to discouragement, and blind to impossibility. No matter what it experiences, it sees only the promised success.

The secret of Abraham’s patience was his hope in the ultimate fulfillment of the promise of God. His ultimate Promised Land was heaven, just as ours is. Even had he possessed the land of Canaan in his lifetime, it would not have been his ultimate inheritance. He was patient because his eyes were on the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. As important as the earthly land was to him and to God’s promise, he looked up toward the heavenly land, which he knew he would inherit without fail.

It is when we concentrate on things below that we live and die with every little thing that goes wrong or seems to last too long or is not successful or appreciated. That is why Paul tells us to…

• • set our minds “on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2).

Understanding

What is God saying to me?

When our minds are on heaven we will be patient with what happens down here. If we look continually at the things of this world—its trials, troubles, and struggles on the one hand, or its money, fame, and pleasures on the other, then we cannot help becoming absorbed in the impatient desires of the flesh. But if we keep focusing on heaven, on God, on Jesus Christ, then we do not care about what goes on here.

• • “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus,” Paul tells Timothy. “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier” (2 Tim. 2:3-4).

Life Application

What will I do about it?

God I am beginning to get it. You have set me here to be a part in a chain of events. I am always frustrated because I cant see the fulfillment of those promises of being a Great Commission Movement but your timing and mine is different. I will be patient and I will keep my eyes on the prize – putting one foot in front of the other and being obedient while looking to eternity as the fulfillment of the ultimate promise.

God I will trust and be grateful for the journey.

• Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Observation

It was not Abraham’s plan to leave Ur and then Haran, and eventually settle in the land of Canaan. In fact, when he left Ur he had no idea where he was going. He was called by God, and only God knew what was in store for him.

In the Greek, he was called is a present participle, and the translation could be, “when he was being called.” In other words, as soon as he understood what God was saying, he started packing. It was instant obedience. It may have taken several days, or even weeks or months, to make final preparation for the trip, but in his mind he was already on the way. From then on, everything he did revolved around obeying God’s call.

The life of faith begins with the willingness to leave one’s Ur, one’s own place of sin and unbelief—to leave the system of the world. Giving up the old life is one of the greatest obstacles to coming to Christ, and is also one of the greatest obstacles to faithful living once we are in Christ. The force that makes us want to hold on to the old life is sometimes called worldliness. Worldliness may be an act, but primarily it is an attitude. It is wanting to do things that are sinful or selfish or worthless, whether we actually do them or not. It is wanting men’s praise whether we ever receive it or not. It is outwardly holding to high standards of conduct, but inwardly longing to live like the rest of the world. The worst sort of worldliness is religious worldliness, because it pretends to be godly. It holds to God’s standards outwardly (usually adding a few of its own), but it is motivated by selfish, worldly desires. It is pretentious and hypocritical.

Worldliness is not so much what we do as what we want to do. It is not determined so much by what our actions are as by where our heart is Some people do not commit certain sins only because they are afraid of the consequences, others because of what people will think, others from a sense of self-righteous satisfaction in resisting—all the while having a strong desire for these sins. It is the desire for sin that is the root of worldliness, and from which the believer is to be separated. The root meaning of holiness is separation, being set apart for God.

One of the surest marks of the demise of worldliness is a change in desires, in loves. As we grow in Christ and in love for Him, our love for the things of the world diminishes. They will simply lose their attraction. We will not want to do them like we used to. The pilgrimage of faith begins by separating ourselves from the world, and as we concentrate on Jesus and fellowship with Him, soon we do not care about the things we once loved so much.

Understanding

What is God saying to me?

And this is the glory of faith, namely, not to know where you are going, what you are doing, what you are suffering, and, after taking everything captive—perception and understanding, strength and will—to follow the bare voice of God and to be led and driven rather than to drive. Martin Luther

You can’t follow Jesus and stay where you are. Everyone who follows Jesus leaves something.

Abraham left his homeland; Peter and Andrew left their boats and nets; Matthew left his tax collector booth.

Everyone who follows Jesus leaves something. We leave the old life behind. We leave our sin, our old habits and addictions. We may even leave some relationships behind.

And you can’t go if you don’t leave.

God often asks us to take the next step without knowing where it leads.

And we often don’t want to go without having the whole map in front of us!

If faith can see every step of the way, it is not really faith.

It takes faith—high-risk faith—to obey and go, to take the next step when you can’t see where it leads.

Life Application

What will I do about it?

The answer is the same again – I will obey and take the next step.We are not to worry about the end result we just need to take the next step.

• Hebrews 11:7b By faith Noah… condemned the world.

Observation

Noah’s obedience included his passing on to the rest of the world God’s message of coming judgment. God called Noah to preach while he built. The preaching was probably more difficult than the building. Hard jobs are always easier to deal with than hard people.

The times in which Noah grew up were among the most evil and corrupt in history.

• “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5).

If any man had reason to regret the time in which he lived it was Noah. But he did not complain about when he was born, his lot in life, or his calling. He obeyed as he was and where he was.

Noah’s job was to warn the people of his time that God would soon judge them because of their wickedness and unbelief. They had had the same opportunity to know God and His will as had Noah. The difference between Noah and everyone around him was not a difference in the amount of light but a difference in response to it.

Noah must have been tempted to make excuses about his qualifications for preaching and boat building. Surely Satan suggested to him more than once that he had plenty of time to build the ark “later.” One hundred and twenty years gives a great deal of opportunity for procrastination. But Noah did not make excuses or procrastinate; he simply preached and built, just as he was called to do. Amidst ridicule, wickedness, long years with little evidence of success, and many unanswered questions, Noah obeyed and obeyed and continued to obey.

Understanding

What is God saying to me?

Noah’s response to God in building the Ark had no grounds for obedience except trust in God. He believed God when He said that there would be rain and a flood even though there was no prior evidence to support that. And in building the Ark Noah preached. The Ark was his pulpit. People probably came from miles around to see this monstrosity that Noah was building in his backyard and it most likely led to Noah being able to tell them of God’s impending judgement. But that all laughed. It is as MacArthur says…the difference between Noah and everyone around him was not a difference in the amount of light but a difference in response to it. Because of Noah the people who came to see the Ark knew as much about what was going to happen as Noah did – they chose not to respond.

In building the ark, Noah condemned the world. It was not his intention to do so but by acting on the knowledge that he had (and which everyone else had) Noah condemned them for their sin and disobedience.

My actions of faith is a proclamation to others about God as well as a condemnation. I must be obedient to God, because that step of faith in every aspect of my walk with God, proclaims God’s truth to the world around me. When I proclaim it and continue to do it it, it forces the people around me to make a decision, they too must respond in faith or not.

Our actions regarding God’s ways are both a proclamation and a condemnation to the world around us.
Are we preachers of righteousness?

Are you making excuses and rationalizations for why you cannot walk in faith and obedience?

Are you waiting for the perfect time to begin “building the Ark?”

Life Application

What will I do about it?

Live in obedience to God so that my life is a testimony of the reality and power of God.

No complaining about what I am going through because these moments of trials and disappointments are simply opportunities for God’s power and glory to be demonstrated in me and through me.

• Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Observation

“Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). True faith always has actions to support its claim. Earlier in the second chapter of his letter, James condemns the man who says he has faith but who does nothing to help a fellow Christian in need. In order for faith to be valid, it must visibly radiate itself in good deeds. If you really believe in God, there will be evidence of it in the way you live, in the things you say, and in the things you do.

Abel illustrates the worship of faith, and Enoch the walk of faith. Noah, perhaps more than any other person in history, illustrates the work of faith—obedience.

Noah was a man of faith, and his life continually showed his faith by his utter obedience to God. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God” (Gen. 6:9). He worshiped God faithfully, as Abel had, and he walked with God faithfully, as Enoch had. He also worked for God faithfully.

Noah’s faith was amazing. It was amazing because of his absolute trust in God and because of his unhesitating and persistent obedience for 120 years in an undertaking that, from the human perspective, looked totally absurd and absolutely impossible.

Noah Responded to God’s Word

When God told Noah that He was getting ready to destroy the world because of its wickedness and instructed him to build an ark (Gen. 6:13-14), Noah dropped everything and started building.

Noah probably lived in Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, a long way from any ocean or sizable lake. It is difficult to imagine how God’s message must have sounded to Noah. To most of us it would have been so strange, so demanding, so embarrassing, so absolutely overwhelming, that we would have done anything to get out of it. We would have thought up a thousand excuses for not doing it. We would have done our best to talk God out of the whole idea, or at least convince Him to get someone else for the job.

But Noah, did not argue, quibble, make excuses, complain, or procrastinate. He did not question God, but simply began obeying Him. He spent over one hundred years fulfilling this single command. True faith does not question, and Noah did not question.

Noah doubtlessly had a lot of things of his own to do. To surrender all his time and effort to building a boat took a special kind of commitment. He probably had little idea about what an ocean-going ship was like. Certainly he had never seen, or even heard of, a giant ship such as the ark was to be. He had no experience in shipbuilding, no easy access to building supplies, and no help except that of his sons. Even they were not able to help for many years after the ark was begun, because they were not born until after Noah was 500 years old (Gen. 5:32). One of the greatest practical acts of faith in all history was Noah’s cutting down the first gopher tree for wood to make the ark.

Noah was warned by God about things not yet seen.

He had never seen rain, because it probably did not exist before the Flood. He had never seen a flood, since floods could not have occurred without rain. Noah responded to God’s message by faith, “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

By faith Noah… prepared an ark.

He had nothing to go on but God’s word, which for him was more than sufficient.

That Noah’s faith was genuine is proved by his obedience to God’s word. In God’s economy, trust and obedience are inseparable. Just as Noah trusted and obeyed, God wants all who belong to Him to do the same. He wants us to trust Him in the trial we are going through, the temptation we are facing, the decision we are making. He wants us to worship Him rightly, as Abel did, and to walk with Him, as Enoch did. He also wants us to obey him, as Noah did. The Lord has arks for every believer to build. It is just as important for us to build the ark He gives us as it was for Noah to build the one God assigned him. Ours may not be as big or as awesome or as time-consuming as Noah’s, but it is the only one we can build that will please God. And, like Noah’s, when we build it in faith, according to God’s plan and by His power, it will accomplish what God wants it to accomplish. Also like Noah’s, our work for the Lord may look foolish and purposeless in the world’s eyes. But if it is His work, it will please Him, the only one a believer needs to be concerned about pleasing.

Understanding

What is God saying to me?

The phrase “in reverence” struck me as I was reading today. Noah, having heard from God (as He was walking with and worshipping God) IN REVERENCE obeyed.

Some translations say, in holy fear, but I don’t think that Noah’s action was out of cowering or servile fear. He was intimate with God so He did not have to fear Him but there was a reverent respect because of who God is. So because Noah knew God and spoke with Him, God told Him that a catastrophic event was going to take place and God gave Noah a way to save himself and his family. Noah, took what God had said as the absolute truth (in reverent respect for who God is) and acted on it even though the action would require a lot of work and change of lifestyle.

Life Application

What will I do about it?
God reveals to us what we must do to be saved – Accept His love, Believe in His Son and Confess our sins and by faith (in reverence) we must obey.

But even after we have become children of God, as we walk with God and worship Him, He will reveal what He is going to do and gives us a way to protect ourselves (to work out our faith) but so often we are not willing to take that step of faith because it will be difficult. Sometimes He requires that we leave a friendship, or say no to a “better” job opportunity. He asks us to surrender a habit, to surrender our time, TV watching habits or finances…all because He knows that doing so (although very difficult) will save us from some impending catastrophe.

Supplemental Reading: Psalm 31

• Jude 14-15 And about these also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

Observation

That Enoch preached for God we learn only from the book of Jude. We have no hint as to how effective it was, but Enoch’s purpose was to be faithful, not effective. He did what God required of him and left the results to Him. One thing is certain: because of his faithful preaching and faithful living, no one who heard Enoch or lived around him had any excuse for not believing in God.

Jude’s report of Enoch’s preaching contradicts any notion that Enoch lived in an easy time for believing. He was surrounded by false teachers and false teaching. He could not possibly have preached as strongly as he did without considerable opposition. He battled against his own generation in the same way that Noah would later battle against his. He let them know they were ungodly, and he let them know God was going to judge them. I believe God was pleased with Enoch because his faith was not just something he felt in his heart. It was heard on his lips and seen in his life. His faith was active and dynamic, vocal and fearless.

Understanding

What is God saying to me?

It is easy to get discouraged when you are preaching and sharing the Good News with people and there seems to be no response. And not just from unbelievers either, it is discouraging when people who profess to be believers will not listen or respond to what God has asked you to say to them. The excuses and rationalizations and the lack of response gets to be so discouraging. But I am not the first to experience this and I will not be the last and God requirement for me is obedience – I must simply do what He tells me and leave the results up to Him.

Life Application

What will I do about it?

The more I dig in to faith the more I realize that faith requires a dogged determination that I will not give up in my obedience to God even when everything seems like it is going sideways.Faith is not just something felt in our hearts – it is heard on our lips and seen in our lives.

It is not enough simply to believe that God exists. In order to please Him it is also necessary to believe that He is moral and just, that He will reward faith in Him. We must recognize God as a personal, loving, gracious God to those who seek Him. Enoch did not believe God was merely a great impersonal cosmic force. He believed in and knew God in a personal, loving way. For three hundred years Enoch had fellowship with the true God, a God whom he knew to be just, merciful, forgiving, caring, and very personal.

The Bible tells us that God not only can be found but that it is His great desire to be found. David said to his son Solomon,

•  “If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever” (1 Chron. 28:9).
• “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth!” (Ps. 58:11).
• “I love those who love me; and those who diligently seek me will find me” (Prov. 8:17).
• “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13).

Jesus was very explicit:

• “For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened” (Luke 11:10).

It is not enough just to believe that He is. We must also believe that He rewards those who seek Him.

The reward that God gives for faith is salvation.

• “Whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
• “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:33).

In other words, every good thing that God has, including eternal life, constitutes the reward for belief. For faith we receive forgiveness, a new heart, eternal life, joy, peace, love, heaven—everything! When we trust in Jesus Christ, we become mutual heirs with Him. All that God’s own Son has is ours as well.

Understanding

What is God saying to me?

If you seek Him, He will let you find Him! God does not hide from us! He wants us to find Him, he desires to be known by us. How often I think that God does not want to have relationship with me because of something I did or did not do, but that is not the case – He is longing for us to seek Him so that we can find Him.

AND…

When we find Him we discover that He is not just waiting to be with us but He has a bag of presents waiting to give us. He wants to give us eternal life, salvation, peace, joy, unconditional love and forgiveness, heaven, and the list goes on. He wants to reward those who earnestly seek Him.

Life Application

What will I do about it?

That word earnestly is the key. It means to intensely search for. To prioritize my time so that I will find what I am looking for. To be diligent in my attempts to search God.

God I want to be earnest in pursuit of you. You are not a calendar item for me to fit in – you are my priority! You first and then everything else fits in. By faith I will chase hard after you because I believe that you care enough to respond to all who will pursue you with sincerity and diligence.

How will I pursue you?
By fasting and setting aside priority to pray and commune with you.
By prioritizing my time so that I gather together with your family regularly for worship and fellowship.
By PBand J-ing so that I can learn of you and allow you to speak to me.

• “No man has seen God at any time,” Jesus said (John 1:18).

Nor can we know God by reason. Two chapters of the book of Job (38-39) are devoted to God’s forceful and colorful illustrations of how man cannot even fathom the operations of nature. How much less can we understand God Himself by our own observations and reasonings.

God gives much evidence of His existence, but it is not the kind of evidence that men often are looking for. He cannot be proved by science, for example. Yet many things learned from science give evidence of His existence.

The law of cause and effect, for example, holds that for every cause there must be an effect. If you keep pushing further and further back for causes, eventually you will end up with an uncaused cause. The only uncaused cause is God. This is the argument used previously by the writer of Hebrews:

• “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God” (3:4).