The Attitudes and Goal of Life for a Stranger on Earth
“All these people were still living by faith when they
died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed
them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on
earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of
their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would
have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better
country—a heavenly one.” (Hebrews 11:13-16)
God called Abraham to leave Ur
of the Chaldeans and go to the land
of Canaan. The Lord
promised to bless him, make his descendents as numerous as the stars in the sky
and receive the land
of Canaan as his
inheritance. He believed in God, and God credited it to him as his
righteousness. In his old age, Abraham had a son, and later saw the birth of
two grandsons. Until the day he died, he was still living as a stranger in Canaan. The author of the Book of Hebrews shows us the
attitudes of life and ultimate goal of Abraham. The children of God should live
by the same attitudes and goal.
1.
Different point
of view: Because their livestock and servants were becoming too numerous,
Abraham and his nephew Lot had to separate and
each find a place to settle down. According to what he thought was good, Lot
chose the whole plain of the River Jordan, and gradually moved towards the city
of Sodom. From the
point of view of expansion and habitable conditions, that might have been a
wise decision. But from God’s point of view, that place was most sinful.
Abraham was always close to the Lord, and knew the way the Lord looked at sin.
So he did not live near that place his whole life. The children of God should
have a heavenly point of view when looking at the world’s prosperity and
bounty, and not be influenced by its trends and iniquities. The basis of all of
our choices in life should be by the word of God and the guidance of the Holy
Spirit.
2.
Different
aspiration: After Abraham defeated the four kings and rescued Lot, the king of Sodom offered all of the goods
of the city to him according to the rights of the victor at the time. But he
adamantly refused to accept it, saying, “I will accept nothing belonging to
you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able
to say, 'I made Abram rich.'” This was an indication of the growth of Abraham’s
spiritual life - by giving up the benefit to what was rightfully his, and solely
looking to and relying on the providence of God, so that the glory of success
may all be returned to God. The longer we have believed in the Lord, the deeper
should be our spiritual training and knowledge of God. The decision governing
our choice of things should not be whether they benefit us, but whether God
receives the glory. Sometimes for the sake of the Lord, we are willing to give
up rights that even the world considers to be reasonable and equitable, so that
we can please God.
3.
Different goal:
The act of Abraham offering his son Isaac showed that his love for, faith of
and obedience to God had reached a pinnacle. He loved God to the point of
offering his only son to the Lord; he trusted God to the point of absolute
certainty that the Lord could raise people from the dead; he obeyed God to the
point of not negotiating with the Lord. The pinnacle of maturity of Abraham’s
spiritual life was his hope for a better country in heaven. He envied being
with God forever. All whose spiritual lives are mature have the longing to be
with God forever as their ultimate goal. What they hope for is to leave this
earth for heaven. In his old age, Moses composed a poem saying, “Lord, you have
been our dwelling place through all generations.” (Psalm 90:1), and in Psalm
23, David ended by saying, “and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.”
By: Daniel To