The Faith of Abraham

March 24th, 2026
by Lance Waldie

Hebrews 11:8-10 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; 10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

The faith of Abraham in the OT is both legendary and emblematic. He simply believed God (Gen. 15:6)—trusting what God told him was true in spite of how impossible God’s promise to him seemed. But about ten years prior to this time referenced in Genesis 15:5-6, when Abraham was 75 years old in Genesis 12:4, God spoke to him instructing him to depart from the land of Ur in Mesopotamia where he and his family were living and go to the place where God would lead him and bless him (Gen. 12:1-3), namely Canaan. Notably, Abraham (then called Abram) was not familiar with Yahweh, but like his father Terah was a worshiper of pagan gods (Josh. 24:2).

While in Mesopotamia God “appeared” (Acts 7:2) to Abraham in some form and gave him instructions to leave his homeland and his family behind (Gen. 12:1). He apparently did not need much persuasion, for he simply acted on God’s instructions. Hebrews 11:8 comments on this saying, “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.” All God told him in Genesis 12:1 was “Go forth… to the land which I will show you.” After departing, his first stop was 750 miles north along the Euphrates to the city of Haran. After his father died in Haran, he and Sarai and his nephew Lot traveled another 450 miles south into the land of Canaan—the land God promised to give Abraham and his descendants forever (Gen. 12:7; 13:14-17; 17:8).

When Abraham arrived in Canaan (modern Israel-Palestine), God appeared to him again reiterating His promise concerning the land of Canaan as his eternal inheritance (Gen. 12:7). Of course when he arrived the land was occupied by Canaanites. Commenting on this, Hebrews 11:9 says, “By faith [Abraham] lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents…” In other words, God did not lead him to Canaan to become a king or to instantaneously take over an unoccupied land. God led Abraham to a land where he “lived as an alien”—one word in Greek, paroikeō, meaning “to reside as a foreigner.” This “land of promise” where he lived as an alien, however, was pledged to him and his future offspring by God.

At the time of Abraham’s arrival in Canaan at the age of 75 (Gen. 12:4), he had no children, for his wife Sarai was barren (11:29; cf. 16:1). By the age of 86, however, with Sarai’s blessing he had a son with Sarai’s handmaid, Hagar. They named Hagar’s son Ishmael (16:16). But God’s promise to Abraham of him having numerous offspring (15:5; 22:17) would not come through Ishmael but through Isaac (17:19; 26:4) and later through Isaac’s son Jacob (25:22-26; 27:28-29; 28:13-15) whom God would rename “Israel” (32:28; 35:10). These two patriarchs, not Ishmael and not Abraham’s other sons through his later wife Keturah (25:1-4), were and continue to be Abraham’s “fellow heirs of the same promise.”

Hebrews 11:9 specifies Isaac and Jacob were Abraham’s specific “fellow heirs,” for while Abraham was an alien in Canaan, he was “dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise.” In v. 10, it is said that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived in tents in Canaan as a daily reminder that they were not yet at home in their promised homeland. Though heirs of the land, they had God’s promise without the ultimate reality. And this is precisely the point that the Hebrews author is making—to look to the promised future rather than at the inferior present.

Food For Thought
Our life of faith in Christ in this world demands that we live contrary—in dissonance, to the unbelieving world that surrounds us. R.K. Hughes, says, “A life of faith is not anti-cultural, but countercultural. Thus, a vibrant faith is always matched with a sense of dis-ease, a pervasive in-betweenness, a sense of being a camper. This does not mean, of course, that Abraham was separate from culture. To the contrary, the Genesis records reveals he was deeply involved in the politics of the land. But there was always that dissonance. He was never at home!”