All these people died in faith. They hadn’t received the promise, but they had seen it from far off, and had greeted it, and had recognized that they were strangers and wanderers in the land. People who say that sort of thing, you see, make it clear that they are looking for a homeland. Had they been thinking of the place from which they had set out, they would have had plenty of opportunity to go back to it. But as it was they were longing for a better place, a heavenly one. That’s why God is not ashamed to be called ‘their God’ since He has prepared a city for them.
It was by faith that Abraham, when he was put to the test, offered up Isaac; yes, Abraham, who had received the promise, was in the very act of offering up his only son, the one about whom it had been said that ‘In Isaac shall your family be named.’ He reckoned that God was able to raise him even from the dead; and, in one sense, he did indeed receive him back from there.
It was by faith that Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. It was by faith that, when Jacob was dying, he blessed the two sons of Joseph, and ‘worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff’. It was by faith that, when Joseph was coming to the end, he spoke about the Exodus of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his own bones.
A heavenly place a place in the future but not yet realized. A child received, but still there is something more. The Hebrew scriptures always point beyond themselves. They point to a place and time that is better. They point to a reality that is better. They point to Truth, to a Way, a Life and a life more abundant. This is not a place one can get to by going backwards in the story, but to see that those of old looked forwards and their faith would be incomplete without ours. Everything is interconnected. Everything has been groaning with the pangs of childbirth up until Messiah had come. Abraham’s descendants would be named or called out by God Himself by faith, not by flesh, that is race, nationality, tribe, etc. Those seeking a homeland where righteousness dwells.
The homeland that the first hearers had in their possession (but not really – they were still in exile in their own land) was thought to be the fulfillment of those age old promises. Imagine the confusion, the crushed hopes…this is it? This is not the land of milk and honey? Our temple is corrupt. Pagan’s control our trade routes and give us permission to worship our God. There is constant upheaval. The people are in turmoil, infighting abounds. Jesus speaks not just for himself, but taking on all Israel’s anguish and torment as their King and High Priest on the altar of the cross … Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? In our pain and confusion and torment He cried out for us as well, His own body that includes the old and the new. Because God can do more than we can ask think or imagine even when we find ourselves having to bear a cup that takes us straight through death and out the other side. Remnant theology ended at the resurrection, the Spirit broads over the chaos again, the Word speaks new things into being again. Faith cannot be stopped, like the mustard seed…crush us and we are even more potent. Or do you not know that unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Faith spreads like wildfire… even a faith the size of a mustard seed can move an entire people into the sea and out the other side unharmed, renewed and better than before. God is doing this for the cosmos and it is his intention to sum all things up in Messiah.
The bible is not as concerned about life after death as we have tended to focus on for quite a while. To quote from the book Surprised by Hope and the phrase coined by NT Wright the bible is much more concerned with life after life after death. There is a crucifixion and there is a burial…but those things were happening en mass. What gives them power and sets Jesus apart from a hundred other failed Messiah’s is resurrection. It is resurrection that says Jesus is the Messiah and you crucified Him! Turn toward the risen Lord!!!
The Hebrew understanding (and our understanding should be) is that God is going to reclaim fallen creation and he started to do it through this very peculiar man Abraham and his descendants by faith and ultimately at the lowest point in history accomplished it at the cross in and through Jesus and began implementing that victory at the resurrection and then corporately at Pentecost. You see, it was because of their faith that He was not ashamed to be called ‘their God’. They believed God that not only would he fulfill the promises to their children or their children’s children, but they would somehow be able to participate as well. ‘Bring my bones’ indicates that we can make a pretty safe assumption that the faith of the bible is in a literal resurrection within creation and not just going to heaven when you die, but something even more awesome, more powerful than that. The devil loves gnosticism because it sets up the majority of professing Christians with only a secondary concern for God’s purposes for us and through us right here and right now. Jesus did not see the Father’s purposes that way, nor Paul, nor anyone else in the scriptures, yet we are plagued by this neo-gnosticism. That’s a stream we should stop floating down.
This God raises the dead to new life. In the New Heavens and New Earth, we will be able to participate then even if the getting there costs us the life we know today which it will. We will live in renewed bodies and worship in temples not made with human hands, but having foundations that cannot be shaken, incorruptible… a city that lives and breathes grace and truth and justice and mercy and faithfulness. A city set on a hill; a lamp that lights the whole house. We are not there yet, but the journey has begun the question is are we standing around pointing fingers heckling because we think we are more spiritual, are we even aware that this ark is being built? Seek the Lord and He will make all things clear to you.
May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
Come Holy Spirit fill us up. AMEN
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