Dear RTB’ers,
The Hebrews writer uses fifteen of the forty verses in this chapter to talk about Abraham. No doubt, Abraham’s person/story is, in fact, a worthy statement of faith. Consider that (1) he left his home as God directed, not knowing where he was going, (2) together with his wife, Sarah, he fathered a son, Isaac, in his old age, and (3) (to me the most powerful) he was willing to offer his son as a sacrifice simply because God told him to.
Beyond the simple mention of these three faith-statements, our writer adds two interesting “editorial” sentences. First, If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. (v. 15) This verse reflects back to a statement five verses earlier: For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. (v. 10) Abraham and his family and servants were living in tents (v. 9), no doubt wondering when and where they would settle down, but continuously moving forward, never looking back to return to Ur or Haran, from where he had come.
The second “editorial” comment is related to Abraham’s willing sacrifice of Isaac, He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead… (v. 19a). The author is delving into Abraham’s mind with this statement. I personally can’t imagine that Abraham had considered a “resurrection” of Isaac’s dead body. Sorry, I don’t have any other explanation for how Abraham believed that he would be the father of nations through Isaac if he sacrificed him. But it does seem like Abraham must have been silently praying one of our favorite phrases today, “God is God and I am not.” Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac – that’s faith!
Blessings!
Fred