From the beginning of God’s dealings with his people, he has promised them a home. Paradoxically, God’s promise to Abraham to give him his own land and make him into a great nation hinged on Abraham leaving his home in the land of Ur (Gen. 12). When he left Ur, he left behind the gods that his fathers worshipped. Abraham obeyed God, but the land that God promised him was full of other nations who worshipped other gods. The writer of Hebrews summarizes Abraham’s life this way:
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to lie in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. (Heb. 11:8–9)
Abraham lived in the Promised Land, but he lived there as a sojourner. He didn’t farm the land or build a palace for himself. He lived in tents and grazed sheep. The father of God’s chosen people, the one who had been promised a land for his promised descendants, was a nomad. But Abraham did not consider God’s promise to have failed. He looked ahead for something greater: “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10).
Abraham believed God’s promise that there would be a day when his descendants would own the land God had pledged to him and would not have to live there as strangers among nations serving other gods. This promise was temporarily fulfilled during the reigns of David and Solomon. But it will be perfectly and permanently fulfilled when the spiritual sons of Abraham dwell in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:9–27).
Betsy Childs Howard is the author of Seasons of Waiting: Walking by Faith When Dreams Are Delayed and is an editor for the Gospel Coalition. Content taken from Seasons of Waiting by Betsy Childs Howard, ©2016. Scripture quotations within these excerpts are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187. www.crossway.org.
