God’s Better Country
Michele experienced a mixture of emotions as her father neared the end of his life. She grieved when he said, “Honey, I won’t be here to walk you down the aisle.” But she assured him of her love, clinging to the hope she found in Hebrews 11 as she said, “You’re heading for a better country, a country in heaven.” Michele believed that her dad, when he died, would be with God forever. She reflected, “Heaven will be that good!”
The letter to the Hebrews was aimed at Jewish believers in Jesus experiencing persecution by state and religious opponents. Although it was written before the destruction of the temple in ad 70, the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans may have occurred soon after. In this climate of fear, the author urged the believers to hold firm to their faith as he highlighted a great “cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1). Each “did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance” (11:13). They lived by faith, “longing for a better country—a heavenly one,” and God was pleased to be called their God, and “prepared a city for them” (v. 16).
Although Michele ached with sadness when her father died, she embraced the promises of her heavenly Father. We too can welcome these same promises “from a distance” (v. 13), trusting in God.
By: Amy Boucher Pye - Our Daily Bread Ministries
Hebrews 11:8-16
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13 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, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
