LONG PROMISED
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The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had promised that their descendants would become a great nation and that they would inhabit the land of Canaan.
Centuries later, the new nation of Israel stood on the edge of this land and looked across the Jordan River. After false starts, failed parenting, generations of nomadic living, and about 400 years of waiting, it hardly seemed possible.
Our human time spans are so short in the history of our world, much less in the eternity of our God. One of the key challenges of our faith is to live with an appreciation of God beyond ourselves, our times, and our horizon. We simply cannot fit all the promises and goodness of God within our human limitations. That is why an appreciation of history is so valuable and why our hopes for a future beyond our present lives are so necessary.
In its retelling of this story, Hebrews 11 points to each step of the Israelites’ experience: “By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt” (verse 22). “By faith Moses’ parents . . . were not afraid of the king’s edict” (verse 23). “By faith [Moses] left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger” (verse 27).
“By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land” (verse 29). Many times, when they were tempted to surrender to fear and discouragement, the people in this many-generational story chose faith rather than fear. It is not a perfect lineage, but it is a long story that moves forward whenever people choose faith rather than fear.
And it is directed by a God who always has a longer view than we do and whose promises we can trust.
