‘By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going’ (Hebrews 11:8).

The writer of the letter now focuses on the example of Abraham in two sections with an interlude that although it can apply to the others that have already been mentioned applies particularly to him. So verses 8-9 basically give us the gist of Abraham’s story (Genesis 11:27-25:11).

In Genesis 12:1-3 we get the start of the story that these verses refer to. The Lord makes a promise to Abraham (as he will become known) that if he goes to the land that he will show him he will bless him and make him the father of a great nation. Not just that, the extraordinary part is that through Abraham: “all the families of the Earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).

Now that is quite a promise, but there are two things to note here.  Firstly, which is made very obvious in verse 8, Abraham has not got a clue where he is going! He is ‘flying blind’ with complete dependence on the Lord to fulfill his promises. Secondly, he was an unlikely candidate for God’s blessing. In Joshua’s address to the people of Israel in Joshua 24:2 Joshua makes it very clear that Abraham’s father, Terah: ‘serve other gods.’ He was a polytheist (one who worships many gods). But it is also strongly inferred that his family did as well with the use of the word: ‘they’. So that raises an intriguing possibility, was Abraham originally a polytheist? We do not know, but it seems very likely.

But what we do know is that Abraham’s introduction as a central character in Scripture is very abrupt in Genesis 12:1. Also, in Joshua 24:3 the phase: ‘Then I took your father Abraham’ gives the impression of a dramatic change in the narrative. Dale Ralph Davis writes: ‘Abraham rose out of the desolate pit and miry bog of paganism only because Yahweh touched him.’ He goes on to state that it was God who: ‘for no apparent reason, took hold of our father Abraham, the sinner.’^[1] So, however you look at it, Abraham was a product of God’s grace! God reveals himself to Abraham and then Abraham is off on what could almost be described as an over-extended camping trip! Why did he do it?  Verse 9 tells us, it was because he believed in the Lord’s promise to him.  So he lived in a tent, living like a refugee: ‘in the land of promise’.

 But we might be tempted to say: “hold on, that sounds downright weird! After all it is not very settled living in a tent. What happened, did Abraham ever see the complete fulfillment of all these promises?” The answer is a definite no!^[2] The writer of Hebrews makes it very clear in verse 10 that Abraham realised that God’s promises had an element in them to be fulfilled in the future. This was bigger than inheriting the land and being the father of a great nation, as amazing as that might seem to us! The phraseology of this verse highlights everything that Abraham did not have in his earthly life, after all tents do not have foundations like a city does. But Abraham would have the fulfillment of this promise in God’s time and in God’s way. A: ‘city that has foundations’ denotes permanence. It is rather interesting fact that at the end of his life Abraham only owned a tiny piece of the land which he had bought (Genesis 23 and 25:9).

So in his earthly life the promise was only ever partially fulfilled. So the writer uses Abraham’s example as someone who never saw the full extent of the promise, which God was going to so graciously grant to him, in his earthly life. We even see this in his change of name from Abram, ‘father of many’, to Abraham, ‘father of a people’ (Genesis 17:5), which during his lifetime Abraham could not live up to! The point is real faith endures regardless of whether the Lord’s promises are fulfilled in a person’s life time or they are fulfilled later!

However, what is clear is by using the example of Abraham the writer clearly sees him as a believer other Christians would do well to model themselves on.  Andrew Reid makes these helpful comments concerning Abraham which should make believers think and but also encourage them in any age: ‘The true believer is like him – a sojourner, a traveler, a wander, a pilgrim.  ‘The true believer has no fixed focus for his or her security, except in God and his word and purpose.’^[3]

[1]Dale Ralph Davis, Joshua, No Falling Words, (Fearn, Christian Focus Publications, 2000), 189.

[2] David. J. A. Clines argues that that ‘the theme of the Pentateuch is partial fulfillment-which implies also a partial non fulfillment-of the promised to all blessing of the patriarchs.’ David. J. A. Clines, The Theme of the Pentateuch. (Sheffield Academic Press, second edition, 1997), 30.

[3] Andrew Reid, Salvation Begins, Reading Genesis Today, (Sydney, Aquila Press, 2000), 95.