Genesis 15:1-6, Psalm 33:12-22, and Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
A year ago, I had no idea I would be coming to Red Deer. Five years ago, I wasn’t sure I could minister in an English-speaking church. Ten years ago, I was doing pastoral work in Seoul. At that time, a senior recommended that I go to Canada for ministry. But I didn’t study English at all at that time. Twenty years ago, I graduated from seminary and had to join the military. I hadn’t made any concrete plans for my ministry. The reason I say this is that sometimes we can’t see what will happen one year, five years, or even decades from now. It’s difficult to even make plans two or three months ahead. However, even though we cannot see this future, God does. And even without these abilities, the Creator gives us amazing grace. So, Paul tells us that today.
He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” (5) God tells Abraham that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, even though he is nearly 100 years old and has no sons. At this point, the average person would think this is a joke. But God makes all these things possible. We cannot see the future; we cannot know it. Even so, we can become the parents of faith like Abraham and Sarah. By believing in Jehovah God. What is faith? The Apostle Paul explained faith well in Hebrews verses 1 and 2. “1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.” Faith is confidence and assurance. Faith is the confidence you have when you cannot see the future. It is a strong dependence and confidence that goes beyond simple psychological trust. We saw this through Abraham. Because he believed, he was able to become the ancestor of countless descendants. By his faith, God saw him as righteous.
He stepped forward in faith, and God made him the father of faith. He went forward in faith and experienced the miracle of having a son at an old age. He stepped forward in faith, and he gained a land he never imagined possible. Hebrews 8-10 shows us this today. A specific explanation of this statement is found in Genesis 12:5-7. “5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. 6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So, he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.” Abraham believed God’s word. So, he went where God told him to go. He acquired land and wealth. On the one hand, it is a very reckless action and decision. Moving to a place you don’t know is risky, both then and now. He had to take not only his family, but also his relatives, and livestock. It is common for health to be damaged and life to be lost along the way. But Abraham had a firm belief in God, and his faith became the foundation. So even his son Isaac and grandson Jacob were able to enjoy God’s blessings. This family was granted an abundance of blessings that go beyond reckless challenges and reckless faith.
The miracle that happened to Sarah was even more dramatic. She was already past childbearing age. But in Paul’s estimation, she believed in God’s faithfulness. She thought that, although she could not do it, God could. By God’s power, she could have a child. God’s power is entirely accomplished through God’s choice in grace. But through Sarah, we can see that power and miracles sometimes work according to our faith. Therefore, those who live by faith can experience miracles, just as Abraham and Sarah did.
As we all know, she didn’t believe this from the beginning. When God promised to give her Isaac, she laughed. But later she had faith. She experienced the tremendous power of God. She grew to the point where she trusted in the power of Almighty God.
But like Abraham and Sarah, we can see that while it is essential to live by faith, it is also vital to die by faith. In verses 13-16, the author describes the exemplary faith of the patriarchs who lived as strangers on this land, longing for their heavenly homeland. So, it briefly but uniquely expresses how the heroes of faith lived and died. They all lived ‘by faith’ and died ‘according to faith.’ Not only their lives, but even their deaths are all connected to faith.
Their status was simply that of strangers, foreigners. The Greek word for this, ‘ksenoi’, means ‘stranger’ or ‘enemy’. In ancient societies, strangers were enemies to the established group because they were not close to the group. So, they did not receive the due protection of the law. In Sparta, Greece, they were treated like barbarians and were shown to different seats in restaurants. In this way, they were not fully guaranteed the freedoms and rights enjoyed by citizens. But as the Rocky Mountains and the Red Deer River around us know, we are only passing through this land for a moment. We will have a fruitful pilgrimage here and go to our eternal home. Let us move forward together toward the final destination of faith. And its beginning is faith, and its destination is God’s eternal embrace. I hope that this week, too, we will advance one step at a time toward the city of God in heaven. Amen.