Hebrews 11 is a chapter filled with 16 characters from the Old Testament who provide great examples of faith to those who followed afterward. Among those 16 are the names are two women (Sarah and Rahab). Additionally, there are two other names found whose examples were anything but examples to imitate: Cain, who in jealousy killed his own brother, and Esau who regarded his birthright with such little esteem that he sold it for a mess of pottage.
The first eight names began with Abel and conclude with Joseph. Of those eight persons the record states, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own. And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from whence they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country, that is a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:13-16). It was both Abraham and his grandson Jacob who confessed they were sojourners on this earth: Abraham, when he wanted to buy a burying place for his wife Sarah, confessed he was a stranger on earth after he had dwelt in Canaan for 62 years. Jacob also confessed to Pharaoh that he was a sojourner on earth when he was 130 years old.
Both these were looking forward to the promised land, the land God had promised Abraham when he came from Haran into Canaan. After asking Abraham to turn and look in all directions, God promised him that all he had seen would be given to his seed after him. Neither Abraham nor Jacob saw the realization of the land promise God had made to Abraham. Still, they not only looked forward to the time when Abraham’s seed would possess Canaan, but also to another promise God had given them — the greater promise of a city which He prepared for them (Hebrews 11:16).
The writer described the next eight (Moses through Samuel) in this fashion: “And these all, having had witness borne to them through their faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better things concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:39-40). These individuals (except Moses) enjoyed receiving the land promise (they now possessed Canaan), but they had not received the promise (Hebrews 11:39). They had not received the city, the country God promised to their fathers. For 1,500 years Israel dwelt in Canaan, enjoying the land God had promised their father Abraham. But although they had dwelt there, then and even today (for remnants of Abraham’s seed still inhabit Canaan), there remains yet that promise of a “heavenly city.”
To those Hebrews to whom Paul wrote and who had embraced the gospel of Christ but now were discouraged and perhaps tempted to return to Judaism, the writer of the letter reminded them, “For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city which is to come” (Hebrews 12:14). To turn their back on Christ would be to lose any hope of ever enjoying the promised heavenly city.
John, exiled on Patmos, wrote, “And I saw a new heaven and new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:1-2). Such a city is worth waiting for!
Poets have composed and Christians often sing, “How beautiful heaven must be.” Like Abraham and the worthies of old, we too look for the city to come. And to all past generations of children of God, we add our plea to theirs: “O Lord, come” (1 Corinthians 16:22)!
Jim McDonald