October 29, 2006
THE FAITH THAT WAITS
Hebrews 11:9-10

   The faith that inherits and the faith that obeys is the same faith that patiently waits. Even those who waited a "lifetime," and did not "inherit the promises," "died in faith," NOT in despair. The testimony of their lives was contentment based on conviction. Faith operates in the sphere of hope and "things not seen," yet is well able to see "things afar off" (in time, not distance). They were "persuaded of them...embraced them and confessed" they were strangers and pilgrims even while residing in the very land of promise! How could the land of promise be to them a "strange country"?
   Even as they surveyed that land, in faith they "looked for a city...," they sought a better country, a city with foundations, "whose builder and maker was God." Their faith saw far beyond Canaan. Faith could see that God's promises could not be realized or enjoyed except in resurrection! What seemed real to sight must give way to the true reality of the unseen.
   Lot also "looked for a city" as he beheld the well watered plain of Jordan. What he saw was "even as the garden of God"! It seemed like Eden re-stored, there for his taking. The believer is to walk by faith and not by sight. The attraction for Lot was simply the flesh and the lusts thereof. God's Eden cannot be enjoyed short of both redemption and resurrection.
   Unlike Lot residing in Sodom, Abraham "sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." The faithful confessed they were "strangers and pilgrims." Strangers are "away from home," and pilgrims are those enroute to a new home. To sojourn means "to dwell as a stranger." The faithful did not choose this path because of nomadic heritage, this was their conviction of faith.
   Only faith can contentedly "do without" rather than claim all blessings now because faith has to do with resurrection and new life. How many children of God press the question of bodily healing along these lines! They believe and teach that, if we all had sufficient faith, sickness among believers would be unknown. If this were a true biblical conclusion, could not the same be said of death? The work of Christ has not purchased immunity from sickness or death. He does give "the power of His resurrection" now, and will give incorruptible life after we have laid down this present life. The one we cannot keep. The other we cannot lose.

Ivan L. Burgener