Hebrews 11:9, 10 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob… I. OBSERVE THE CONTRAST UNDERLYING THESE VERSES. The tent is in one place in the morning, and may be miles away at night. The city always remains in the same place. Thus there is forcibly indicated an altogether different kind of occupation and interest for the dweller in tents from that for the dweller in cities. As the one class of men increases the other must decrease. The fathers dwell in tents; the children in cities. He who dwells in a tent can have no particular interest in the land where he happens to be at the time. If it supplies his wants for the passing day, that is all he needs to care for. But he who has a house built in that land must feel the deepest interest in its fame, prosperity, and development. II. THE PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF A PROMISE. He who called Abraham gave him a promise, and guided him, brought him at last into the land of promise. He dwelt in the land of promise, in however imperfect and fugitive a way. Thus we see how God gives us all that can be given under present conditions. The time had not yet come to possess the land - the seed of Abraham had to be immensely increased and vigorously disciplined before that was possible - but, nevertheless, Abraham could dwelt in the land. Satisfaction and joy would begin the moment obedience began. And have not we also entered in part on our inheritance? Do not the blessings of the heavenly state stream down upon us even now? Abraham enjoyed Canaan; he himself and his dependants got food, and there was abundant herbage for his cattle. He was happier in Canaan, even as a wanderer, than he could have been anywhere else in this world, for he was there by the will of God. III. THE FIRMER GRASP OF A PROMISE. Abraham probably had always led a nomadic life. Even in the land of his nativity and earlier days he would be more or less of a wanderer. The wandering spirit would be in him by nature, habit, tradition. Therefore as far as he personally was concerned, Canaan gave him all that earth could provide for the wishes of the heart. But he rises above the individual and the present. As he advances in obedience, the aims of God, the possibilities of his own life, the needs of all his posterity, rise more distinctly before his mind. For himself and his children, and all the families of the earth that are to be blessed in him, he looks for something better than a land to live in for a few years and then be buried in. There is a correspondence which cannot fail to be noted between what the writer of the Epistle says here concerning the tent and the city of foundations, and what Paul says (2 Corinthians 5:1) concerning the tent and the eternal, heavenly building of God. IV. PATIENCE HAVING ITS PERFECT WORK. He discerned that the city which was to have foundations worth calling foundations must come, not from the wisdom and power of men, but from the planning and fabricating of God. And foundation-work of this kind went on very slowly, according to human computation. The great thing to be remembered is that the foundation of this city of God lies outside the limits of the seen and the temporal. The city of God is to be looked at in a similar way to the rest provided for God's people already spoken of (Hebrews 4.). There remaineth a city which hath foundations, a house of God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Waiting is our great duty, rejoicing in the present indwelling of God's Spirit as the earnest, and knowing that the fullness will come in its own order. - Y. Parallel Verses KJV: By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: |
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