Week 50 Hebrews 11
The chapter is about faith. Faith – says the writer – is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. As definitions go it seems a little vague. But I keep reading and soon see examples of People Who Had Faith. Then this: all these faithful ones died without receiving what God had promised them, but they saw it all from a distance…They agreed that they were no more than foreigners and nomads here on earth…They were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland.
So this adds a couple of points of clarification:
a) these people-of-faith were Citizens of This World
b) they didn’t place a whole lot of value to their World Citizenship
c) in fact they had a strong sense of the second-ratedness of This World. They had another world in mind. One they’d only seen from a distance. A better place.
I draw a rectangle on a sheet of yellow paper – the Material World. I put a stick figure inside that box – Guy #1. He’s a Pure Material Guy and he’s right at home in Material World. He likes it there.
A draw a second stick-man. Guy #2 is a resident of Material World too but he’s a dissatisfied nomad. A nominal resident only. He’s looking for a better place. A heavenly country. (So I have to draw a second box – the place where Guy #2 is headed.)
It looks like dissatisfaction and detachment are elements of faith.
Note: quotes from Hebrews 11:1 13-16 (NLT)