“It was in faith that all these persons died. They did not receive the things God had promised, but from a long way off they saw them and welcomed them, and admitted openly that they were foreigners and refugees on earth.” (Hebrews 11:13)
This Scripture is talking about all those in the Old Testament who died in faith. They knew the Scriptures, the prophesies and believed them. They waited for the Messiah and His Promises, but died before He came. We can read about them in chapter 11 of Hebrews which mentions some of them. These are the ordinary people of great faith. (Hebrews 11:4-40) And there are others not mentioned that lived lives of great faith. “What a record all of these have won by their faith! Yet they did not receive what God had promised,” (Hebrews 11:39) Faith is what matters. Faith and Love. This is what pleases God, not works and not sacrifices to please Him. “For when we are in union with Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor the lack of it makes any difference at all; what matters is faith that works through love.” (Galatians 5:6)
These are the ones that waited after death for the resurrection of their bodies with the resurrection of Jesus. Their faith pleased God. “It was by their faith that people of ancient times won God's approval.” (Hebrews 11:2) God made good on His Promise. “the graves broke open, and many of God's people who had died were raised to life. They left the graves, and after Jesus rose from death, they went into the Holy City, where many people saw them.” (Matthew 27:52-53)
The Scriptures talk about Abraham’s faith. Although Sarah was 90 years old and Abraham 100 years old, they believed God for 25 years. Are you believing God for something? Has it been weeks, months or years since the promise? Don’t despair. Faith doesn’t despair. Faith believes God. Faith believes what God has said. The Old Testament believers prophesied about the coming salvation and without fulling understanding they believed. “It was concerning this salvation that the prophets made careful search and investigation, and they prophesied about this gift which God would give you. They tried to find out when the time would be and how it would come. This was the time to which Christ's Spirit in them was pointing, in predicting the sufferings that Christ would have to endure and the glory that would follow. God revealed to these prophets that their work was not for their own benefit, but for yours, as they spoke about those things which you have now heard from the messengers who announced the Good News by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things which even the angels would like to understand.” (1Peter 1:10-12)
The last phrase of Hebrews 11:13 talks of their faith in believing that their eternal home was not here on earth. They were, like we are, just passing through. “For there is no permanent city for us here on earth; we are looking for the city which is to come.” (Hebrews 13:14) It is where Jesus will reign and where His light shines so brightly there is no need for the sun and moon. John describes the New Jerusalem as he saw it in his vision. “The city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God shines on it, and the Lamb is its lamp. The peoples of the world will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their wealth into it. The gates of the city will stand open all day; they will never be closed, because there will be no night there. The greatness and the wealth of the nations will be brought into the city. But nothing that is impure will enter the city, nor anyone who does shameful things or tells lies. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of the living will enter the city.” (Revelation 21:23-27)
Jesus has made a promise to us. And we await with faith for that promise of a new body and a new home. Paul writes to the Philippians about it. “I have told you this many times before, and now I repeat it with tears: there are many whose lives make them enemies of Christ's death on the cross. They are going to end up in hell, because their god is their bodily desires. They are proud of what they should be ashamed of, and they think only of things that belong to this world. We, however, are citizens of heaven, and we eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven. He will change our weak mortal bodies and make them like His own glorious body, using that power by which He is able to bring all things under His rule.” (Philippians 3:18-21)
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