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

IN FAITH THEY DIED, Part 2

This entry was posted on 04-16-2009 and is filed under FAITH.

Is there any other way to live than to live by faith? I think not. The "faith chapter" of the Bible, Hebrews 11, is one of the most loved chapters of all. Why? Because we find in it sketches of people who chose to live by faith. Every one of them could have chosen some other way to live. But they all chose the same path - faith in Almighty God - and they all died in faith as well. And here's the amazing thing about it. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Heb. 11:13 NKJV).

We Westerners want it all and we want it now. But our friends in Hebrews 11, whom we should all be good friends with by now, never received the promises in their lifetime. However, they saw them (through the eye of faith) from a distance and "hailed them with delight" as one translation puts it. Not only that, they freely confessed that they were "strangers and pilgrims," i.e., that they were only "foreigners and strangers here on earth" (Goodspeed). Does that sound, well, foreign to us today? I'm afraid it does. We live and think and act as if America is our permanent dwelling. We are actually refugees, sojourners, exiles on earth. Have we forgotten what we used to sing in Christian service camp? "This world is not my home, I'm just a passin' 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."

Prayer: Almighty Father, we confess with those before us that we are but strangers and pilgrims on this earth. We embrace Your promises. Help us to be true until death through Jesus Christ our Lord.