Hebrews 11:8-10 (NKJV) 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
In our last post I began looking at one of the most important members of The Hall of Fame of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11. His name was Abram later changed to Abraham. What made his faith worthy of the Hall of Fame? First, we found that he was willing to obey God without knowing the details of who, what, when, where and how. God told Abraham to leave his home and his family for a land he was going to give to him. He did not tell him any details. The bible says that “by faith Abraham went.”
One of the greatest hindrances to our faith becoming hall worthy is the need to know. We must understand that there are times when God cannot or will not tell us the details. In my experience, I know that if God told me everything about my immediate future, I would probably decide I had not heard from God. Most of the time what God wants us to do is impossible to one degree or another. It will almost always be something that will not make sense to our natural mind. If God told me in advance what he was going to do in most of the areas of my life, I would not have been able to believe it would ever happen.
God gives us what we need to know to obey him. That is usually all we get. If we obey, he gives us more. I heard an illustration that made sense to me. If I were a farmer and God said to start plowing a field, I would want to know how many rows. I might want to know what I was supposed to plant. How much could I make from the harvest. How long was the growing season, etc. All I really needed to know was to start plowing. God will give me more when I need to know it.
Hebrews 11:6 is another reason God will not always tell us the details. This verse says that without faith it is impossible to please God. Hall of Fame faith trusts God implicitly. We must be willing to follow him by faith, knowing that he loves us, has our best in mind and will bring us to the best outcome for us, our family and our impact upon the world for his Kingdom. If we will not walk by faith, we cannot please God. If we cannot please God, our faith will always fall short of the Hall of Fame.
I want to look at another thing about Abraham’s faith that caused him to get into the Hall. Verse 10 says he was looking for a city “who’s builder and maker is God.” There were many cities in Canaan. Lot, Abraham’s nephew, inhabited one called Sodom. It was probably much easier to live in the relative comfort and safety of a city as compared to living in tents in the wilderness. However, Lot found that to settle for something less than God’s best is always a lower life and often disastrous.
I do not believe Abraham ever saw the city he was looking for. He remained a nomadic wanderer his whole life. God’s promise to him in Genesis 17:8 was that he would give Abraham’s descendants the land in which he was a stranger. Abraham was a very rich man. He defeated other people in battle when it was necessary. He could have assumed that he was to take the land of Canaan. That would not have been a strange thing for his day. He was strong. He may have been able to overwhelm the rest of the inhabitants and become a king or ruler over them. I know this is speculation, but it could have been so in that day. The problem was that God had something better for Abraham than being the king of Canaan by force. He was going to make Canaan the homeland of Abraham’s descendants. Abraham could not win that by force.
Even if we discount the scenario above, there are many others, we could think of that Abraham could have chosen. He could have been satisfied that God had blessed them in the land. He could have simply settled down and enjoyed life. Instead, the Bible tells us that he trusted God even when it was impossible in the natural. God’s best was that this land become the homeland of Abraham’s descendants. The problem was that he had no descendants. He was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 when they conceived the child of promise.
Sarah had tried to solve this problem by the practice of giving her maid Hagar to Abraham so he could sleep with her and have a child. This child would be considered Sarah’s. To us this seems like a strange and extreme thing to do. In their day it was completely logical and legal. It seemed like a way God’s promise could be fulfilled, but it was a disaster that plagues us to this day.
Abraham suggested to God that a servant born in his house might be the answer. God responded by showing Abraham the stars of the sky and saying, “That is how numerous your descendants will be.” He made it very clear that the child from which all these people would come, would be born from Sarah’s body after she had conceived by Abraham. Anything less would not be God’s best. Anything less than God’s best would not have the effect that God needed in the world. Abraham’s blessing was going to bless every family born in the whole world. For that to happen, Abraham could not settle for anything less than God’s best.
There is always and easier way than to stand by faith in the face of natural impossibility. The devil will be sure of that. He and our own flesh will find alternatives that will still involve faith in God, but they will not be God’s best. I want to make something clear. God will not love you more if you go all the way to his best and he will not love you less if you do not. However, if we look at what Abraham gained for all of us by going all the way to God’s best, we see why it is so important.
If Abraham had settled for any scenario other than he and Sarah having a baby of their own, even though they were beyond the age to do so and considering Sarah had always been baron, they might have had a good life, but they would not have been the father and mother of nations. They would not have had one particular seed that became the savior of the world. His name was Jesus.
Jesus gives us another example of being willing to wait for God’s best even if it means trials. We read about it in the next chapter of Hebrews. It could be said that Hebrews 12:1-4 is an accounting of the greatest member of God’s hall of fame.
Hebrews 12:2 (NKJV) 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus endured the cross. He despised the shame of it. He suffered physically, mentally and spiritually in his death, burial and resurrection. He did it for the joy that was set before him. He could have called 10000 angels and not gone through the pain, humiliation and death of the cross and the grave. That is not just the words of a hymn. If he had done that, he would still have been the King but not the King of kings. He would be alive today, just as he is now. The difference is you and me. We would not be God’s children. God’s best in Jesus life was to purchase our freedom from sin. He did it all because he knew that to settle for less would have been an easier road for him, but the cost would have been God’s family.
What was the city Abraham was looking for? I think it was Jerusalem. I really believe it was the new Jerusalem spoken of in the book of Revelations. What I do know is that he never saw it on the earth. If we want hall of fame faith, we must become obstinate about not settling for less than God’s best. We must be willing to let him define what that is. He will always do right by us, but our obstinate obedience to the quest for the best will be the difference between having a good life and a life of impact. It will be one of the things that gets our faith into the Hall of Fame.
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