Day 10

He stayed as a foreigner

To Start

Sit in silence for one minute, more if you’d like.

Pray

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Speak to me through Your Word today. Set my eyes on the city that is to come.

Read

Read Hebrews 11:9-10 & (if you have time) 2 Corinthians 5:1-4

• Remember to rely on God to understand what you’re reading.

• What does it mean that Abraham “stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise”? Given that Abraham was promised the land, why wasn’t it his? What do you think it was like to live in a half-kept promise?

• Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all lived in tents (despite their significant wealth). The tabernacle (the first “house of God”) was also a tent. Consider what you read in 2 Corinthians. What’s up with the tents? What do they symbolize?

  How might we today practice “tent living”?

• What is the “the city that has foundations”? Why would it be described that way?

• What are you looking forward to? Does your hope for the future play a primary role in charting the course of your life?

Hebrews 11:9-10

CSB: By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents as did Isaac and Jacob, coheirs of the same promise.¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

J.B. Phillips: It was faith that kept him journeying like a foreigner through the land of promise, with no more home than the tents which he shared with Isaac and Jacob, co-heirs with him of the promise. For Abraham’s eyes were looking forward to that city with solid foundations of which God himself is both architect and builder.

2 Corinthians 5:1-4

CSB: For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands.² Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling, ³ since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴ Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

J.B. Phillips: We know, for instance, that if our earthly dwelling were taken down, like a tent, we have a permanent house in Heaven, made, not by man, but by God. In this present frame we sigh with deep longing for the heavenly house, for we do not want to face utter nakedness when death destroys our present dwelling—these bodies of ours. So long as we are clothed in this temporary dwelling we have a painful longing, not because we want just to get rid of these “clothes” but because we want to know the full cover of the permanent house that will be ours. We want our transitory life to be absorbed into the life that is eternal.

From JL

[Much of the heart of this passage is repeated again In Hebrews 11:13-16, and we’ll spend five days in those four verses. So don’t worry if my comments today don’t feel like they’re addressing the heart of the passage.]

I don’t think we give Abraham enough credit. Which is saying a lot because he gets a lot of credit.

Put yourself in his shoes for a second…

You’re in Haran¹ with your family when the Almighty God (a God you don’t know super well, a God who doesn’t even have a name) shows up and makes you a promise. We don’t know if God simply spoke from nothing, a voice on the wind, or if He came in some sort of physical presence.

However God appeared, it’s enough to motivate a huge life shift in you. By faith, in obedience, you uproot your family and go—even though, as we saw yesterday, you do not know where you’re going.

What you do know is that you’ve been promised land.

But then, when you get to the land, it isn’t actually given to you. You live as a foreigner for the rest of your life—packing up your tent every few months, moving around, never belonging, never settling.

“By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise.”

That hits me right in the gut.

Sometimes God promises you something and you get a little taste of it but you don’t get all of it. And you won’t get all of it until the next life.

Have you been here? I have been here. And it’s a really hard place to be. But it’s not an impossible place to be. And it doesn’t mean God’s not faithful.

Most of God’s promises are kept over the course of generations. Some won’t “come true” until the kingdom-to-come comes. This is a very long game God’s playing. Which means, patience is required. And more than anything, faith. Faith that God isn’t done. Faith that He hasn’t forgotten.

And, perhaps, faith that you didn’t misunderstand His message.

That last one is big for me. So often when it starts to feel like God’s late (or incompetent), I turn on myself. Because I know God doesn’t lie. I know He’s faithful. I know He keeps His promises. So maybe I didn’t understand the promise.

((Surely Abraham wondered a time or two if he’d heard wrong.))

Maybe you did misunderstand the promise. That’s possible. But it’s also possible you just haven’t waited long enough.

Maybe this life you’re living right now isn’t your God-ordained destiny. Maybe you’re a foreigner and you feel it. Maybe you’re setting up tents and taking them down.

If that’s true, what do you do?

You do what Abram did; you stay.

You stay, because that’s where God put you. And you stay with faith, looking forward to the eternal, unshakeable keeping of God’s promises.

Pray

Our Father,

If we have been disobedient and have not listened to your call, call us again and give us the faith to answer.

If we have misunderstood your call, call us again and help us hear.

If we have been obedient to Your call and sojourn in the land you’ve chosen, teach us to stay.

In the Comments

Let’s talk about tents!

Why does the Spirit use so much tent symbolism in Scripture? What does it mean?

and then perhaps…

What does it look like to live as foreigners in tents today?

Godspeed,

JL

1. Wait a minute! Isn’t it Ur? Ah. Right… In Genesis 11, Abram has moved with his family from Ur to Haran. It’s in chapter 12 when Abram receives the first iteration of the promise. Two passages of Scripture make us think that Abram is in Ur when he receives the call: Genesis 15:7 (He also said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”) and Nehemiah 9:7 (You, the Lord, are the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and changed his name to Abraham.). Two possible solutions here: 1. God called Abram first in Ur and then again in Haran. 2. God motivated Abram’s father to pack up and go to Haran and then when his father was dead, called Abram to continue the journey.