Honey From The Rock

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Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM PART 3

This entry was posted on 03-02-2009 and is filed under FAITH.

"By faith he [Abraham] 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" (Heb. 11:9 KJV).

Welcome to another week of "Honey from the Rock." I hope you had a great weekend for the Lord. We continue in our series "The Faith that Saves is the Faith that Obeys" from the faith chapter of the Bible, Hebrews 11.

Are you a sojourner? Abraham was. Since we are Abraham's seed, we should also experience sojourning in our life of faith. What does it mean to sojourn or be a sojourner? The English word means "to stay in a place temporarily." It comes from the Latin meaning "less than a day" or "a day's travel." In Greek it means "to dwell in a place as a stranger." Abraham was always on the go. He was a "pilgrim and a stranger" wherever he went. Peter says that's what we are too. "To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout..." (1 Pet. 1:1 NIV). The world should seem strange to us and we should be as strangers in this world.

One night during the Civil War, a captain cautioned his troops. "Boys, don't drive your tent stakes too deep tonight. We're moving on in the morning." I think that's the lesson we learn from the faith of Abraham today. We are temporary residents at best in this world. God has not told us to settle down here. We will not be here forever. So we move forward in faith, never getting too rooted in this world. That's why the Bible says Abraham lived in tents. A tent is a temporary structure. He knew that the next day he would have to strike the tent and keep pressing on. In fact, our very bodies are described as tents. "For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands; eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor. 5:1 NKJV). Then Paul goes on to say, "For we walk by faith, not by sight" (v. 7). The faith that saves is mobile.

Spiritual: "This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore."