THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER OF HEBREWS has often been referred to as the “hall of faith,” for it provides an account of the faithfulness of some of the Old Testament’s most recognized saints – Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and others. These men and women had come to the resolute conclusion that their God was not only alive, but a rewarder of those who seek him (Hebrew 11:6). In addition, the more they turned to the Lord and identified with him, the more they realized that the earth was not their true home. They were pilgrims in this life awaiting the promises of the next. Even once they had entered Canaan – the “land of promise” – it was still evident to them that their true home was elsewhere. So long as they were on this earth they would be “strangers and exiles” because their true home was a heavenly one (Hebrews 11:13). As commentator F.F. Bruce writes, “The earthly Canaan and the earthly Jerusalem were but temporary object lessons pointing to the saints’ everlasting rest, the well-founded city of God.”
You and I as followers of Christ await that same home as the Hebrew saints who went before us. We, too, are sojourners and exiles on this earth (1 Peter 2:11). However, I realize it doesn’t always feel like that. Sometimes this place can feel pretty comfortable. Maybe there’s a place in the mountains that resets your spirit and refreshes your soul. Maybe you have a memory from childhood that brings you back to a time you felt loved and protected. Maybe there is some person in whose presence you feel completely secure. Those momentary feelings of peace and joy and comfort that we receive from some place or person this side of heaven are blessed signposts of the enduring home we will have with Jesus.
And that is what we should long for – a realm of shalom that is under the gracious reign of our King, full of righteousness and love; a new Eden in which there is no sin or no suffering, with reconciliation between all nations and their God. Christ has redeemed us for such a place and we should long for it. In thinking about this kingdom to come, the Scottish poet Henry Francis Lyte penned these words:
It is not for me to be seeking my bliss
And building my hope in a region like this;
I look for a city which hands have not piled,
I pant for a country by sin undefiled.
So, while we are here awaiting that blessed country, how might we live faithfully as strangers and exiles? A few thoughts:
- Let your first identity be your Christian identity – not your ethnic, national, political, or denominational identity.
- Don’t get overly frustrated by the ways this land proves it isn’t our home (injustice, conflict, irrationality, chaos).
- “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). Don’t first seek wealth, position, power, pleasure, personal comfort, the perfect home, or the most “likes.”
- Spend more time with Jesus (prayer, Word, his people) – he is the One who truly constitutes our future “home” in the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21:1).
- Be on guard with becoming too “Corinthian.” The things we watch and listen to, and the people we spend time with, really do affect our hearts and souls.
- Lastly, sing songs about the glory to come. There’s hardly anything that causes our anticipation of our true home to grow like the words of heavenward worship songs.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, I realize that this place is not my home. However, sometimes I get overly comfortable here. I lose sight of the fact that you have prepared for me a city that is far greater than anything I could experience here. I pray you would help me to desire that “better country” where I will dwell with you. May I remember that my citizenship is elsewhere and live as a holy ambassador while I am here. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
PONDER
- For what reason was “God not ashamed to be called [Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob’s] God” (Hebrews 11:16)?
- Many of the saints mentioned in Hebrews 11 actually lived as foreigners in lands not their own. How does living in a place where one is not native help cultivate one’s identity as a spiritual exile?
- Which characteristics or practices most evidence a Christian who lives like an exile on this earth?