Finally. Absolutely. Amply. Satisfied.

Jul 7

11 min read

This is the 4th in a series from a Bible Study on Hebrews Chapter 11 This one is from verses 8-22

If you’ve been following this summer’s posts on Hebrews 11, you know we’ve been describing a person who walks by faith. In the verses before us today, we have six new descriptions.

A person who walks by faith obeys

even when she can not see the end from the beginning.

Abraham obeyed God’s call even when he did not know where he was going.

What must “the call of Abraham” have been like? The message/promise he was given was itself fabulous. But there must have been something about the messenger that convinced Abraham of the truth of the message.

DId God send an angel? Was it a dream? Did God come in some sort of “presence?” Did Abraham hear God’s very powerful voice? Whatever, however, we know it had a long-lasting, faith-building effect on Abraham. The idol worshipper now believed that God existed and would reward him.

And therefore, Abraham obeyed.

What was it like when God called you to believe in Him?

Maybe it was a dramatic experience. Maybe it was a gentle growing into understanding.

The call of God on a person’s life is a mighty, powerful, awakening, life giving, life changing event. It brings to pass a new birth, a new creation, a new heart. It united you to Christ and gifted you with the Holy Spirit. It opened your eyes to see spiritual realities and caused you to respond in faith. All of this happened though you may have understood only a small portion of it.

Do you want your faith strengthened so that you willingly obey even when you can not see the end from the beginning? Meditate on the call of God and its ramifications. I’m happy to recommend some good reading!

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8,9

A person who walks by faith obeys a clear command

even though it contains uncertainties.

Abraham had been given a clear command. Go.

He obeyed. He left his country, his kindred and his father’s house. When Abrahm got to the Promised Land, it was owned and inhabited by other people. The only land he ever owned during his life was a plot of ground for a burial site. He lived in tents as a foreigner and an exile. He lived with a lot of uncertainties.

What should he do during a famine? What land should he “give” to his nephew Lot? How involved should he be in Lot’s troubles? Should he listen to his wife’s plan? What should he do about Ishmael?

Not one of the people listed in Hebrews 11 Hall of Faith was perfect. Abraham was not perfect. He did not always make the “right” decision. God had to intervene time and time again to save Abraham. Yet Abraham is called a friend of God and the Father of the Faith. His faith was counted to him as righteousness.

Why? Because through all the mess, or after all the mess, he kept believing what God said was true. He “saw” spiritual realities. This was the ballast of his life. Perfection was not what was commended. His persevering trust in God was.

Abraham had been given amazing promises. A Land. A Seed. A Nation. Blessings.

When did he realize the Ultimate promise he was given was a heavenly promise?

In Gen. 15:15-18 God tells him that he will die without possessing the land. In Gen 17:8,13 God talks about an everlasting covenant. Somewhere along the way, Abraham understood the promised reward would only be fully known in eternity. Somewhere along the way, Abraham understood that the promised seed who would bless all the nations was a future seed. (John 8:56). And that was enough.

Abraham was joyfully willing to live with the uncertainties of being a sojourner- living in tents far from what he knew as home - if it meant being near to God in this life and in God’s city forever.

There will be plenty of times in our lives that we wished God would make our path of faith obvious. (Would it then be a path of faith?) Obey what you know to be the clear commands of scripture. Trust God to lead you in His timing and in His way. He is often more concerned about our heart’s transformation than our next step.

A person who walks by faith believes God’s promises will come to pass

even if it will take a miraculous event to accomplish it.

When God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, we are given no hints that he doubted the appropriateness of this instruction. He trusted his friend. (James 2:23) I can imagine him having to work a bit to figure out how this new instruction fit with the promises.

His thinking might have gone something like this:

God promised that Isaac was the son of the promise.
Isaac has to be alive to be the son of promise.
God’s promises must hold true.
Isaac can not die or can not stay dead.

Conclusion: God is either going to provide a substitute or raise Isaac from the dead.

Our God is a miracle working God. Always has been. Always will be.

Sometimes though, I think we miss God's miracles because we are looking for something sensational and showy.

Joni Eareckson Tada, one of my heroes of faith, who has prayed for physical healing for over four decades, puts the miracles of God in perspective when she said:

“I am convinced the real miracle is when God transforms a life of hardship and gives it power, and purpose, and contentment to love God no matter what the circumstances, and to love your neighbor.” https://joniandfriendsradio.simplecast.com/episodes/divine-healing-RSglgFRQ/transcript

Tether your prayers to the promises of God and watch what He will do!

4000 years after Abraham and Isaac walked away from that altar, he watched from heaven as God, his friend, offered His son on that same mountain. Abraham then fully understood what his test of faith pointed to. The grief of a father. The willing son. The provided lamb. The justice of God satisfied. The love of God manifested. The blessing of new life for God’s people made possible. (1 John 4:9)

Demonstrations of Love

Four thousand years ago he stood upon this hill

His hand with dagger poised o’er the body of his son-

Willingly bound upon the altar

and clutching to his father’s faith in the promise of return.

His strong belief subdued all doubt

about the final outcome.

Still real and cruel the agony.

“Must death by my own hand precede the resurrection?”

A voice from heaven silenced anxious contemplation

Pointing to the substitute provided.

“Your love for me is clearly demonstrated.”

And with his son, he worshiped and rejoiced.

Days of faith and faults are far behind him

As now with glorified eyes he gazes at the gathering on the hill.

One willingly bound is lifted up.

Anguish and misery mixed with blood and death.

He gasps as he grasps with fuller understanding

and turns from tortured scenes to

bow before His friend and King and God,

“Your love for me is clearly demonstrated.”

A person who walks by faith does not let disappointment or mistreatment become an excuse for bitterness.

What did Sarah know about God and His promises to Abraham?

Perhaps she only knew what Abraham told her and what she observed through his changed behavior. He had taken the radical step to obey God and go to a foreign land. She too felt the pain of leaving home. She did not have the option to question Abraham. But she watched God supply. She also did not have many options when Abraham put her in harm's way to save his own life! Imagine how grateful she must have been for the miraculous way God saved her.

I believe Sarah wanted to believe the promise that she would have a son. She was 65 years old when Abraham at 75 was given the promise. We don’t know how many years she and Abraham tried to conceive before her periods stopped, but it is easy to imagine that it might have been around the time she came up with the plan to have Abraham have a child with Hagar. She was 76. Perhaps she had had hope for eleven long years. But when her period ended, all hope died. Imagine how crushing it was to hear that Hagar got pregnant! It was confirmation that their inability to conceive had been her problem. Because of the way Sarah dealt with Hagar and Ishmael, we know Sarah to have a manipulative and harsh side to her. After 25 years of disappointment, It is not hard to see how she would no longer want anything to do with Abraham’s advances or that she submitted to them with coldness.

The first time we know that she personally hears God speak is when she is listening at the tent door. (Gen. 18:9-15) What does she think of God’s promise that she would bear a son? She laughed. A laugh of disbelief and bitterness. “Don’t try to make me hope again. I’ve been postmenstrual for fourteen years! My body is worn out. Even Abraham is an old man. There’s not going to be anything happening between us.” What does she do when God graciously calls her out for this? She lies. Twice. Suddenly she is afraid. It was a frightening experience to be exposed by a God who knows all - all that she did and all that she thought. The fear of the Lord was the beginning of wisdom for Sarah.

Over the next three months, something changed in her. She had had a personal encounter with the living God. She now knows from a personal encounter that He exists. She heard him tell her that nothing was too hard for him. Soon after she heard from Abraham what God had done to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and how He had rescued Lot and his daughters. Would this not also produce in Sarah a reverent fear?

And then Abraham puts her in harm’s way. Again. This time, Sarah went along with the deception! (Gen. 20:5) Perhaps it was because her faith was young and untaught and she was trying to learn to discern the will of the Lord? Perhaps as a woman of the times she had no other options but to submit to her husband's commands? (20:13) What does the Lord do? He stepped in miraculously and saved her, taking pains to let everyone know that Abimelech had not touched her. (20:16)

The description of this event with Abimelech - compared to when the same thing happened in Egypt - specifically involves Sarah in the story line. I think this event changed Sarah. She had seen the power of God and the faithfulness of God and she had experienced His grace. She believed that God is good and will keep His promise. She believed that God can do the impossible.

Let’s look again at what was Sarah’s act of faith. Almost every other time in Chapter 11 what follows “By Faith” is an action. (offered, constructed, obeyed, invoked, blessed . . . . ) The translation of verse 11 has stumped scholars as they have tried to make sense of a verb that does not fit the subject. Clearly Sarah is the subject. The problem is that she can’t do what the verb says she does. The verb used refers to a man’s part in the act of procreation. (“to deposit seed”) To get around this, the translators have Sarah “receive” the action. I think the writer to the Hebrews is trying to tell us that by faith, Sarah willingly and expectantly participated in the act of procreation. Peter tells us that she put her hope in God and submitted to Abraham. She obeyed God and by faith happily received the “deposit of seed.” I think she giggled the night she and Abrahm were intimate and kept right on laughing through pregnancy and childbirth.

It doesn’t take long to live in this world to have a score of disappointments and many reasons to be bitter. Bitterness is the fruit of not forgiving. Forgiveness is not easy because the pain of sin is real. Forgiveness is not easy because we are wired for justice. Forgiveness is a supernatural act of faith. Don’t let bitterness grow in your heart. Beg God to help you to forgive. You cannot cling to bitterness and cling to your heavenly father.

A person who walks by faith can laugh at the future.

Sarah Laughed

Sarah laughed and I know why.

If she hadn’t have laughed, she might have cried.

The death of her dreams filled her with grief.

Laughter covered her unbelief.

“Stars in the sky and sands on the sea?

A nation of kings born out of me?”

The scope of the promise made Sarah feel small.

The reality inside her furnished no hope at all.

Father of Sarah, to your church you have given

Promises of triumph, a new earth and new heaven.

Comparing ourselves to the powers that be,

makes us feel helpless, hopeless and weak.

They have position, influence and riches.

They regulate politics, education and business.

They are the mighty, the wise and the noble.

We are the paltry, the laughable humble.

Sarah’s doubt was uncovered by the One who could see

and answer her cry. "What’s too hard for me?“

She would laugh again soon with immeasurable joy.

The unbelievable happened. She gave birth to a boy!

This laughter rings out through the pages of Scripture.

Implausible happenings there often are pictured.

With a word God divided the night from the day.

and fashioned a man from a piece of clay.

A slave rose to be the second in command.

His heirs escaped capture, crossing sea on dry land.

Water came from a rock. Walls tumbled from singing.

A boy slew a giant with a stone and a sling.

And what great reversal could ever compare

to the death on Mt. Calvary and the victory won there?

For laughter rang out in the heavenly sphere

when the enemy was vanquished and the King, risen, appeared.

In Him all the promises are "Yes! It is true!”

He’s watching and working till all things are made new.

His is the Kingdom, the power and glory.

Stop doubting and laugh through the end of the story.

A person who walks by faith sees all the promises of God fulfilled in Jesus.

Isaac’s birth was a fulfillment of the promise of a son. But there was so much more to the promise that Abraham and Sarah did not live to see. Nor did Isaac, Jacob or Joseph. “These all died in faith.”

Isaac, Jacob and Joseph lived long lives, but they are noted in Hebrews 11 for what they said at the end of their lives. Genesis tells us more about the failures of Isaac and Jacob than of their faith. If may be that their greatest act of faith was done as they were dying. But Joseph? He had trusted God for 93 years, many of them years of great suffering. God had used Joseph to save His people from starvation and still the only thing mentioned about him is his last words!

Why? Because faith looks beyond death - faith recognizes the temperalness of life on earth and the wonder of eternal life with God forever.

The Promised Land - land as far as the eye can see - is the heavenly city where God dwells.

The Promised nation - more in number than the sands of the sea - are the multitudes praising God in heaven from every tribe and nation.

The Promised seed is Jesus through whom all the families of the earth are blessed.

The Blessing is a way made so that sinners can experience life forever in the presence of God.

For all the promises of God find their Yes in [Jesus]. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 2 Cor. 1:20

Abraham Rejoiced to See My Day*

He died unsatisfied.

He had not planted the seed that grew

Into a longing.

Powerful. Persistent. Encompassing.

The seed was a promise.