Good Morning.
And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.” (Genesis 13:14-15)
Seeing that he was childless, it is conceivable that Abram may have once considered Lot to be his heir. Maybe for that reason, God had to wait until Abram had separated from all of his relatives before making the promise to give the land of Canaan to him and his seed. In every direction, he is promised the land that he sees and, yet, for all his days he was considered a sojourner.
Abram was given deed to the land even though he did not possess it as one might expect. The same is true for many of his descendants – e.g. Isaac and Jacob. Nevertheless, the Creator of all things promised it to him and, according to Scripture, Abraham believed God for this. The writer of Hebrews said:
“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; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” (Hebrews 11:9-10)
It was faith in the One who gave the promise that motivated Abraham to dwell as a sojourner in a land that God promised to him and his descendants. He kept his eyes on the Promise Maker rather than on his circumstances and, because of his great faith, God accounted it to him as righteousness. The writer of Hebrews went on to say that Abraham and other notable people “died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).
Imagine having been given a promise by the Almighty but not living long enough to see it come to pass. Nevertheless, imagine leaving this world completely assured that what God said would happen would come to pass. That is the kind of faith Abraham exhibited; he died never being able to realize the fruition of the promises made to him and yet believed God for them. Because he was “assured of them,” he walked in faith and obedience.
We in Messiah are regarded as the “seed of Abraham” (Galatians 3:29) and as such are among those to whom this promise was given. The question is, today, do we possess the same kind of faith demonstrated by Abraham? Are we fully confident that God will keep His promise to us even if we don’t live long enough to see it come to pass? If we are to be this type of person, we must fix our eyes on the One who makes the promise and not necessarily upon the promise itself. We will not be disappointed if we focus on what is eternal even as we believe for the manifestation of things in this temporal world.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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