11:8-10 Like Abraham we should look forward to our inheritance in the coming world and should live as strangers and pilgrims in this world (1 Pet. 1:1).360
"Abraham's faith accepted God's promises and acted on them even though there was nothing to indicate that they would be fulfilled."361
As Abraham later received the land he formerly lived in as a stranger, so we will, too. The city Abraham looked for was a city God would provide for him. A city with foundations offered a permanent, established home in contrast to the transient existence of a tent-encampment.
"To cultured men in the first century, the city was the highest form of civilized existence."362
We look for such a habitation as well, namely, the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:1, 9-27).363
11:11-12 Sarah believed God would fulfill His promise and provide something (a child) totally beyond the realm of natural possibility. God wants us, too, to believe that. God rewarded her faith far beyond what she imagined, and He will reward ours in the same way.
11:13-16 "All these"probably refers to Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob (vv. 8-9, 11) who lived as exiled strangers by faith, not all whom the writer had listed to this point.364Verses 13-16 interrupt the recital of Abraham's acts of faith. Evidently the writer decided to "preach"a little at this point, the middle of his exposition of the patriarchs' example. He emphasized the eschatological perspective that is the point of this entire unit (vv. 8-22).
These patriarchs all continued to live by faith, and they died believing God would fulfill His promises to them eventually. They looked forward to possessing a land that God promised to give them. They did not turn back to what they had left; they did not apostatize. In the same way we should not abandon our hope. God was not ashamed of them because they were not ashamed to believe Him and to remain faithful to Him. Likewise we will not shame Him if we resist the temptation to turn from Him in shame (1 Sam. 2:30; 2 Tim. 2:12). God prepared a heavenly habitation for them, and He has done so for us (John 14:1-3).
Each example of faith that the writer cited so far is a positive one involving a believer who kept on trusting God and His promises in spite of temptation to stop trusting. That is what the writer was urging his readers to do throughout this epistle. In every case God approved and rewarded the continuing faith of the faithful.
11:17-19 Here the writer began to develop the idea that he expressed in verse 3, that faith should be the way the believer looks at all of life and history. He did so to help his readers see that continuance in faith is the only logical and consistent attitude for a believer.
It is the belief that God could and would raise the dead that is the key element in these verses. From Abraham's perspective God's promise and His command seemed to conflict.
"We are apt to see this as a conflict between Abraham's love for his son and his duty to God. But for the author the problem was Abraham's difficulty in reconciling the different revelations made to him."365
Abraham was willing to continue to trust and obey God because He believed God could even raise Isaac, his unique (Gr. monogenes) son, from the dead to fulfill His promises of an heir. Similarly we need to continue to trust and obey God even though He may have to raise us from the dead to fulfill His promises to us. Isaac's restoration was a type (Gr. parabole, parable, figure, illustration) of the fact that God will give us what He has promised if we continue to trust and obey Him. When Isaac rose from the altar, it was as though he had risen from the dead.
11:20-22 Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all demonstrated confidence in God's word in the ways mentioned. They believed He would provide for them what He had promised. We should do the same. The faith of all three of these patriarchs affected their descendants. Ours should as well.
"With all three the significant thing was their firm conviction that death cannot frustrate God's purposes."366
