THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM
Hebrews 11:8-22
Key verse 11:8
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.
When I was in high school I had a classmate named Janine Babulski. She was a nice person. She was friendly and kind. She got along with everybody. But Janine sometimes got made fun of because she wasn’t the quickest person. She didn’t always pick things up right away. Sometimes it seemed she was lacking in common sense. People didn’t think she was smart because she would ask dumb questions in class. The reality however was that every time we had an exam Janine Babulski got one of the highest scores. Whenever it was time for a test she did better than everyone else. And when I graduated she was sitting on stage with all the other really smart kids.
Abraham in the Bible reminds me a little of Janine Babulski. When we read Genesis and look at Abraham’s life it seems, compared to other figures in the OT, that he wasn’t the sharpest person or the most admirable person. He lied about Sarah being his wife-twice; he was doubtful and afraid; and even after he received God’s promise he tried to start a family with Hagar in the very next chapter. Yet in spite of all these things according to Romans he is considered the father of all who believe and the outstanding example of faith in this chapter. How is that? I think it’s because like Janine Babulski whenever exam time came in Abraham’s life he pleased God with his faith. When he was tested Abraham scored highest and did better than anyone else would have in his shoes. Though his faith started out small it grew to be great. In heaven, he is sitting on stage with all the other really faithful ones.
I pray through today’s passage we might be encouraged to know that God is not looking for perfect people. He is looking for faithful people who through their faith in God can be used to do great things for his glory. I pray that each of us may be commended for the faith we show in God’s promise and that we may pass the tests of life through trust and obedience to God.
I. By faith Abraham obeyed and went (8-10)
Read 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 tells us that God called Abraham and said, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” This was the first test of Abraham’s life. Verse 8 implies that this was difficult and took faith because he did not know where he was going. Actually it’s ridiculous to leave your home without knowing your destination. A friend invites you to dinner. The first thing you ask is where do you live? If it’s too far, I’m not going. Maybe it’s at a time and place that requires me to drive during rush hour. I’m not going because it’s not worth my effort. Yet it says when called to go, Abraham obeyed and went. “When called to go” can be translated as if the call was still sounding in his ears. There was no time for deliberation or calculation. No time to figure if it was worth his effort. Because if there was, it wouldn’t be “by faith.”
Abraham left all that was known to him and walked into the unknown by faith in God’s word and his promises. While the theme of this passage is faith, notice that the second most common word in this passage is promise. Read verse 9. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. The life of a stranger in a foreign country isn’t easy. There are issues with language, culture, security, and food. In a lot of ways, Abraham was helpless. To endure this life when he could have comfortably stayed at home required faith in God and his word.
To think about those in our ministry who choose to live as missionaries also helps us to understand what it means to hold on to God and his promise in a strange land. Language problems. Yes. (Curse words). Cultural problems. Check. (Tooth fairy). Security issues. Definitely. (Luke Kim and Joshua Kim). Food. Of course. (Philip Brown). M. Elijah Park told me that when he and others came to America they came knowing nothing except this was the land God had shown them and that God’s promise was the only thing they had to hold on to.
God’s promise to Abraham was a promise to bless and more importantly a promise to be a blessing. Like Isaac and Jacob, we too are heirs of God’s promise. We need to claim the promise of God to use us as a source of blessing in this generation. We do that by being obedient to his word and by leaving behind anything that may hinder our faith and distract us from God. Without obedience, Abraham would have never received God’s promise. Without cutting off worldly security, he never would have learned what faith is.
We live in a world that is made to distract us and give us sensory pleasure. Things are also designed to make our life easier and more convenient. Yet God is calling us to focus on him and to live as strangers in the world. He’s calling us to do what does not come naturally, that is to be a blessing to others by sharing with them the gospel of Jesus. His calling isn’t easy and it’s not convenient. It isn’t always enjoyable or cool. But it is blessed and it is forward looking, to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. C.S. Lewis wrote, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next… all left their mark on earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.” Esther G. Lee shared in our Friday meeting that there are many ways Jesus communicated to people in need. What message are you communicating to those around you who may not know Jesus? I pray we may take a step of faith trusting God into the unknown and sometimes scary world of evangelism so that we may be used as blessings to others.
II. Longing for a better country (13-16)
Read verse 13. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. The saints held on to their faith to the very end because their faith was based on their trust in God and his will, not just in what God would do for them in this life. This verse implies that we may be tempted to give up faith based on the negative circumstances of life or when it seems as if God is unresponsive to our need. If God promised to bless me, why do I have so much trouble at school, at home or at work? Maybe faith isn’t worth it. However, faith is always worth it. Our prayer as Christians should be: “God, whether or not you answer my desperate prayer, my faith is in you. Help me to trust in and do your will. Amen.” Because they longed for a heavenly home, Abraham and the examples of faith could pray this kind of prayer. They had confidence that God would culminate his promise in the future and that their time on earth was like a planted seed that would blossom when they were gone.
It is a beautiful picture when we can say of someone’s life that they lived and died by faith. Charles Spurgeon wrote “Faith is as precious to die by as to live by.” M. Elijah Ku is a great example of a man who lived and died by faith. Though we earnestly prayed for his health, God had already prepared a heavenly city for him and called him home. In living by faith, however, he gave of his time, energy, and love to a nerdy intellectual college student named Steve Haga. When Steve rejected God’s word over and over, the temptation of any Bible teacher is to give up on the student. Only by faith can one persevere and that’s what M. Elijah Ku did. In the end, he only got a glimpse of God’s promise when Steve finally accepted Jesus through Bible study. But he never saw Steve fully blossom as a PhD shepherd and now as a missionary to Taiwan. What is in store for those who hold on to their faith?
Read verse 16. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. God is not ashamed to be called their God. There are two distinct instances in the Bible where I have seen this. First, in Genesis, note that God becomes the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is proud to identify himself with them. Second, in Job, see how God identifies himself with his servant Job. Have you considered my servant Job? It’s like a father proudly showing his new child to everyone around him. God is proud of him. Whether or not you like to admit it we all enjoy recognition from our father or mother. It never gets old to hear them tell us good job or that they are proud of us. Now multiply that feeling by thousands and thousands and you may have a sense of what it might feel like if God were to be proud of you. Imagine if God endorsed you. The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob…the God of the Living Stone team. I am the God of Lindsay, Landry and Lawson. In the heavenly realms, imagine if God proudly says to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Dave?” This is the most awesome blessing. God identifying himself with us. With me, a sinner. Actually, this is God’s desire to give us the best gift of all, himself.
We can be encouraged to know that when we make sacrifices for God in the present we please God and store up treasure in heaven. There are moments in each of our lives where we may need to make small decisions of faith like when you’re tired from a long day and you debate whether or not to go to Bible study that night. For those who choose to go, imagine God saying to the angels that’s my servant Paul. And sometimes there are moments where we need to make big decisions of faith like when you decide to pursue your career right away or postpone it to do a year of overseas missions. Imagine God saying to the angels that’s my servant when you decide to serve in a foreign country. Faith means knowing that God is worth any and every sacrifice we can make in this world. Including our very lives. I pray that we may all hold on to God and his word all the time and to the end of time. May we please God with our decisions of faith and may he not be ashamed to be called our God.
III. The test of faith (17-22)
Read 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. More than any other instance this final exam solidified Abraham as a great man of faith. God finally gave him a son and fulfilled his promise. But just as soon as Abraham received him God asked Abraham to give him away. If leaving your father’s household without knowing the destination seems ridiculous, this is beyond ridiculous. Ludicrous, crazy, nuts. But amazingly you see no complaining from Abraham. No demand for an explanation. No pleading. Actually, it’s almost peaceful the way Abraham obeyed. When Isaac asks him on the way where the sacrifice is, Abraham does not break down into tears but calmly and with faith says, “The Lord will provide.” How could Abraham be so obedient and responsive to God?
I believe it’s because Abraham came to know God. He knew God so personally and intimately that he didn’t have to think twice about doing what he commanded. His whole life of faith seems as if it was leading up to one point: the birth of his son, Isaac. When he finally got his son he was ecstatic and overjoyed. But his joy was not limited to the child. His delight was in God. They had taken an incredible 25 year journey together and God had shown himself personally to Abraham. Abraham knew God was just, faithful, loving, trustworthy, powerful. Abraham’s thought process was probably like this: God said he would bring descendants through Isaac. Well, God can’t break his promises because he is faithful. So even if Isaac dies I know God is also powerful and can do the impossible. So he will have to bring Isaac back from the dead. Abraham fully submitted to God’s will because he was confident in who God is.
Someone in our Bible study gave this insight. Man grows and knows God through the circumstances of life around him. More specifically, we know God by submitting to his will and obeying him by faith. How do we know God if we never put our trust in him or sacrificed anything for him or if we always lived in accordance with our own will? Abraham’s life of faith was a progression. Acts of obedience that revealed a little more about who God was to him. So that when the ultimate test came he was ready.
I pray each of us may grow in our faith like Abraham and come to know God very personally. This may mean challenges and struggles in life. But that’s how we come to know just how good God is. How do you know a true friend? Not in the good times, but in the bad times. God is the true God because he is sovereign and he will never forsake or abandon us.
I promised Paul Lim I would try to embarrass him in the message this week. So I’ll close with a story. When Paul was little for some reason he really looked up to me. I think he really wanted to be like me, cool like me, fun like me. And so being a kid he had this faith (though misplaced) that if he was doing it then it must be ok. Implicit in that is a belief that he would never do anything to harm me because that couldn’t be part of his nature. And so I remember convincing Paul that it was good idea for us eat toothpaste and how it tasted so good. What would happen now if I asked Paul to eat toothpaste with me? Imagine if we could bottle up that absolute trust that little Paul had and use it for ourselves to God. God surely will never do us harm but does everything for the good of those who believe in his name.
I pray we would have seen that though Abraham wasn’t perfect and though he had human limitations, God is not ashamed to be called his God because Abraham’s enduring faith and obedience. May we too follow the example of Abraham and seek to please God. May we know God through decisions of faith. Let’s read the key verse.