He was in the place to which the Lord had sent him, the land gifted to him by the God of the covenant, yet his life there was marked not by privilege and permanence but by a careful humility that recognised it as provisional and penultimate.
The same was true for others listed alongside Abraham. “They didn’t receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.” (Heb. 11:13) Lives that displayed contentment in God now and confidence in his ultimate purposes.
Do you see the common thread? Strangers; foreigners. In a land that God has freely gifted yet recognising its prophetic witness to a greater reality: the city God had prepared for them, a city with foundations - a better country, a heavenly one. They lived faithfully in the light of the day whose dawn had begun but was as yet incomplete.
The physical land was not the true reality, however promised it was. Abraham knew that. The others knew it, too. And our lives now, for all their truth and substance, still have a shadowy aspect to them. Our adoption as God’s children by faith in Christ, while true and irreversible, awaits its completion in the redemption of our bodies, in the life and experience of the new creation.
Knowing that we have been called into God’s kingdom and into his family; knowing that the meek shall inherit the earth and that the Lord’s people will even judge angels, how ought we to live in this present world?
As Abraham did. As the unnamed others also did. And as Peter exhorts his readers: “Live out your time here as foreigners in reverent fear…As foreigners and exiles…abstain from sinful desires…” (1 Peter 1:17; 2:11)
But what did that mean then and what might it mean now? Many things, clearly, but some things are strikingly consistent. Abraham lived wisely, compassionately and peaceably among those who were also in the land. He was honoured as one whose God made him a blessing to others.
And Peter’s consistent instructions to scattered and harassed believers is to show respect to all, to honour those to whom honour is due, to live such good lives that others may glorify God for them and their lives, and answering questions with a gentleness that authenticates the hope they profess.
Having the promises of God in all their certainty, being assured of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, isn’t licence to live carelessly and dismissively. It is, rather, a call into the deepest humility and service in our present society. And to a consistent, godly yearning for the Day of the Lord, for the final unveiling of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time, for "the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God"..
************
Forth in Thy name, O Lord, I go,
My daily labour to pursue,
Thee, only Thee, resolved to know
In all I think or speak or do.
The task Thy wisdom hath assigned
O let me cheerfully fulfil'
In all my works Thy presence find,
And prove Thy good and perfect will.
Thee may I set at my right hand,
Whose eyes my inmost substance see,
And labour on at Thy command,
And offer all my works to Thee.
Give me to bear Thy easy yoke,
And every moment watch and pray,
And still to things eternal look ,
And hasten to Thy glorious day;
For Thee delightfully employ
Whate'er Thy bounteous grace hath given
And run my course with even joy,
And closely walk with Thee to heaven.
(Charles Wesley, 1707-88)
