by Erik Jones

After God reinforced His promise to give Abraham many descendants, Abraham was told that he would die “in peace” before his descendants would become a nation. Genesis 25:8 records his death.

This is another example of Abraham demonstrating great faith and seeing past the “here and now.” Despite knowing he wouldn’t physically see the fulfillment of these promises, he continued to have faith in God and obey Him.

Hebrews 11 (commonly called the Faith Chapter) provides us more insight into the core motivation that drove Abraham to continue being faithful to God: “For he [Abraham] waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (verse 10).

Abraham’s focus was not just on the fulfillment of the physical promise of founding a nation, but ultimately on the greater promise of the Kingdom of God! Abraham, and the other faithful personalities of the Bible, “embraced” this vision and saw it “afar off” (Hebrews 11:13).

Christians through the centuries have realized that they would likely die before receiving the promise (Hebrews 9:27), but remained faithful to the vision of the Kingdom of God by continuing to live their lives “in holy conduct and godliness” (2 Peter 3:11).

To learn more about Abraham’s example of faithfulness, read “The Faith of Abraham.” 

Tomorrow on the Daily Bible Verse Blog: “Sarah’s Faithless Solution.”