“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” 4So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.” (Genesis 12:1-4) In Hebrews chapter eleven, God introduces us to the great heroes of faith. Abraham was one such hero of faith. When God called upon him to leave his home country and go to a land he was totally unfamiliar with and live as a wanderer he obeyed without hesitation. God told him He would give this land to his descendants but not for some 400 years. Abraham did not balk at any of these things but obeyed God without reservation. We learn why and how he was able to do that in Hebrews 11:8-16. “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; 10for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. 12Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants AS THE STARS OF HEAVEN IN NUMBER, AND INNUMERABLE AS THE SAND WHICH IS BY THE SEASHORE. 13All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. 15And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”
Verse 13 tells us the key to Abraham’s success. He saw the promises of God by the eye of faith. Faith, we are told in Hebrews 11:1, is the “assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Many people think faith is a blind leap into the dark, an unreasonable expectation based on wishes and desire only. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Faith has its basis in “evidence” for that faith. A good example of faith is our belief there was a man named Abraham Lincoln. No one alive today saw him or knows someone who saw him. But all the evidence of his reality allows us to have confidence he really lived due to the evidence we have. No one should ever apologize for being a person of faith.
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