The tensions of travelling
The whole life of faith involves tension- between now and not yet, between promise and reality, between travelling and arriving. The writer of Hebrews explores this tension through Abraham's experience:
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. 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. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose builder and architect is God Hebrews 11:8-10
Abraham was called to be a traveller, and we have asked whether this is significant- does God require that as His followers, we have a nomadic mindset, not requiring physical, geographical or social roots but rather finding our security in Him? But here in these verses we see that Abraham travelled with a destination in mind- he was in fact drawn by the call of home.
People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 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. Hebrews 11:14-16
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. 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. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose builder and architect is God Hebrews 11:8-10
Abraham was called to be a traveller, and we have asked whether this is significant- does God require that as His followers, we have a nomadic mindset, not requiring physical, geographical or social roots but rather finding our security in Him? But here in these verses we see that Abraham travelled with a destination in mind- he was in fact drawn by the call of home.
People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 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. Hebrews 11:14-16
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