Day 348.
For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. (HEB 11:10 ESV)
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (HEB 11:13-16 ESV)
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, (HEB 12:22, 28 ESV)
For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. (HEB 13:14 ESV)
Hebrews 11 shows us example after example of faith as it recounts the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament. These people lived as exiles in the world because they looked forward to a future city that God would establish. They saw a city that is the home for which our hearts ache, in which our treasure cannot be lost or destroyed, even when God brings judgment and “shakes down” the earth. Faith that God would build such a place kept them living in obedience and enabled them to endure present suffering. They knew that this life was not all there is. This is what it means to live by faith.
How much stronger should our faith be, since the cornerstone of this kingdom is already laid. Jesus has gone before us and secured it.
