Tents, Tombs, and the Tenured City Text: Hebrews 11:8-12
Introduction: The Ache of Modern Rootlessness
We live in a profoundly restless and rootless generation. We are a people who move from city to city for a better job, from house to house for a better school district, and from relationship to relationship for a better feeling. We are digital nomads and perpetual tourists in our own lives. And yet, for all our mobility, we have no real destination. We are like men who have inherited a vast estate but prefer to live in a cheap motel off the interstate. We have a deep ache for permanence, for a place to belong, but we seek it in things that are, by their very nature, shifting sand.
The modern world, and sadly, much of the modern church, has a confused relationship with place and permanence. On the one hand, we are told to make this world a better place, to build and to plant. On the other, we are told that this world is not our home, that we are just passing through. So which is it? Are we settlers or are we sojourners? The answer the Bible gives, exemplified in the life of Abraham, is a resounding yes. We are to be faithful sojourners who are, at the same time, the most determined settlers of all. But we must be very clear about what we are settling for. Abraham's faith provides the grammar for this. It teaches us how to live in temporary tents while looking for a permanent city.
The faith described here is not a vague, internal feeling. It is a rugged, robust, forward-leaning obedience. It is a faith that packs its bags, walks away from the familiar, lives in the uncomfortable present, and banks everything on a future promise made by a faithful God. This is not the faith of sentimentalism; this is the faith of a pioneer, a contractor, and a patriarch.
The Text
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. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise, for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she regarded Him faithful who had promised. Therefore there were born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many AS THE STARS OF HEAVEN IN NUMBER, AND INNUMERABLE AS THE SAND WHICH IS BY THE SEASHORE.
(Hebrews 11:8-12 LSB)
The Obedience of Unknowing (v. 8)
The first thing we learn about this kind of operative faith is that it obeys without a full itinerary.
"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." (Hebrews 11:8 LSB)
Notice the sequence: call, faith, obedience. God spoke. Abraham trusted the speaker. Therefore, Abraham went. His faith was not a leap in the dark; it was a step into the light of God's command. The darkness was in his own understanding of the geography. He did not know the destination, but he knew the one who called him. This is the absolute bedrock of Christian faith. We are not called to trust a plan; we are called to trust a Person.
Modern man wants God to be a cosmic travel agent. We want the full brochure with pictures, a guaranteed forecast, and a detailed map before we will even consider packing. We want to see the inheritance before we will take a single step of obedience. But God does not work that way. He gives the command, and the faith that He requires is the faith that obeys the command simply because He is God. The certainty is not in the destination, but in the character of the one who called.
Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, a sophisticated, pagan metropolis. He left his country, his kindred, and his father's house. He abandoned all his earthly securities. Why? Because a better security had laid claim to him. This is the nature of all true conversion. You are called out of the city of man, with its false securities and idolatrous worship, and you begin a journey toward the city of God.
The Patience of a Pilgrim (v. 9-10)
Next, we see that faith is not just a one-time decision to leave; it is a long-term commitment to sojourn.
"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise, for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God." (Hebrews 11:9-10 LSB)
Here is a stunning paradox. Abraham arrives in the very land God promised him, and what does he do? He lives like a tourist. He lives like a resident alien. He has the divine title deed to the whole country in his back pocket, but he lives in a tent. A tent is a symbol of impermanence. You can pull up the stakes and move on. He refused to settle down and build a permanent structure because he understood that this piece of real estate, as wonderful as it was, was not the ultimate inheritance. It was a down payment. It was a type and a shadow of a greater reality.
He was not alone in this. He dwelt in tents "with Isaac and Jacob." This was a multi-generational pilgrimage. The faith was passed down. This is the essence of the covenant. Each generation is to teach the next that we are not there yet. We are heirs of the same promise, which means we are also partners in the same patience. This is a direct rebuke to our culture of instant gratification. God's promises often unfold over centuries.
And verse 10 gives us the reason for his patience. He was not looking at the dirt under his feet; he was looking for a city. And not just any city. He was looking for "the city which has foundations." Tents have stakes; cities have foundations. He was contrasting the temporary with the permanent. And the reason this city is permanent is because of who is behind it. God is its "architect and builder." The Greek words are technites and demiourgos. God is the master craftsman who designed the blueprints, and He is the public workman who is bringing it all to pass. Abraham understood that human history is not a random series of events; it is a divine construction project. And his job was to live faithfully on the construction site.
The Faith of a Dead Womb (v. 11)
The author then pivots to the other side of the promise. For Abraham to have an inheritance, he needed not only a land but also a lineage. And here, the impossibility was just as stark.
"By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she regarded Him faithful who had promised." (Hebrews 11:11 LSB)
The promise of God ran straight into the wall of biological fact. Sarah was barren, and she was post-menopausal. She was, as the text says, "beyond the proper time of life." From a human perspective, the situation was hopeless. But faith does not operate on the basis of human perspective. Faith operates on the basis of a divine promise.
Look at the reason for her faith. It was not because she suddenly felt fertile. It was not because she engaged in positive thinking. It was because "she regarded Him faithful who had promised." Her faith had an object, and that object was the character of God. She reasoned that the one who made the promise was trustworthy to keep it, regardless of the apparent obstacles. This is the logic of faith. It does not deny the problem, the deadness of the womb, but it looks past the problem to the power of the promiser.
This is a crucial lesson. The strength of your faith is not measured by its intensity, but by the reliability of its object. A man can have a very strong faith in a very weak bridge, and he will end up in the river. A man with a trembling faith in a strong bridge will make it to the other side. Sarah's faith was fixed on the unshakeable faithfulness of God Himself.
The Arithmetic of Resurrection (v. 12)
The result of this faith in a faithful God is a supernatural, exponential explosion of life.
"Therefore there were born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many AS THE STARS OF HEAVEN IN NUMBER, AND INNUMERABLE AS THE SAND WHICH IS BY THE SEASHORE." (Hebrews 11:12 LSB)
The text emphasizes the utter impossibility of it all. The life came from "one man, and him as good as dead." The Greek word is nekroo, from which we get necrosis. His body was mortified, deadened. So we have a dead womb and a dead body. This is the Bible's way of saying that this was not a work of man, but a work of God. This was a resurrection.
And what came from this death? Life. Not just a little life, but an astronomical amount of it. The fulfillment of the promise was not meager; it was glorious and overflowing. The language is pulled directly from the covenant promises God made to Abraham in Genesis. God is never stingy. When He blesses, He blesses abundantly.
This is the mathematics of the kingdom. God specializes in bringing life out of death. He takes that which is nothing and makes it into something glorious. He takes that which is dead and brings forth from it an innumerable posterity. This is the story of the gospel. From the death of the one man, Jesus Christ, on the cross, a numberless multitude from every tribe, tongue, and nation is being born into the family of God.
Conclusion: Citizens of a Coming Kingdom
So what does this mean for us? It means we are called to the same kind of faith. We are called to obey God's word, even when we do not know the final destination. We are called to live as sojourners in this world, refusing to let our hearts get entangled and settled in the passing glories of the city of man.
This does not mean we are to be passive, quietist, or disengaged. Abraham was a wealthy man, a warrior, and a leader. But he did it all while living in a tent. We are to work, build, create, marry, and raise our children with all the diligence and excellence we can muster. But we must do it all with the mentality of tent-dwellers. We must hold it all loosely, understanding that it is all scaffolding for the permanent city that God is building.
Our hope is not in a political party, an economic system, or a cultural movement. Our hope is in a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. That city is the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. He inaugurated it at His first coming, He is building it now through the proclamation of the gospel and the discipleship of the nations, and He will consummate it at His return.
Like Abraham and Sarah, we live in the face of impossibilities. We see dead wombs all around us, dead churches, dead cultures, dead hearts. But we look to the one who is faithful, who promised, and who specializes in resurrection. We trust that from our feeble efforts, done in faith, He will bring forth an inheritance as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore. So let us live by faith, not by sight, as pilgrims with a purpose and sojourners with a destination.