PILGRIM HEARTS ARE BLESSED (2)

“…Assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were STRANGERS and PILGRIMS on the earth” – Hebrews 11:13b              

PILGRIM HEARTS are BLESSED and rewarded as Champions of Faith: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were STRANGERS and PILGRIMS on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland” (Heb.11:13-14). These describe Abraham’s obedient, earthly sojourn, by faith. Two notions are coupled here: Stranger and Pilgrim. A stranger is one who does not belong to the given locale. The pilgrim is one who is marching toward a given spiritual destination. Believers in Christ are meant to be both.

The writer of Hebrews highlighted many great Old Testament heroes of faith, with emphasis on the patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and along with them, Sarah, through whom Abraham’s offspring were born (vv.8-12). These champions of faith were called Pilgrims – parepidamos: someone who travels or stays in a foreign place for a while. Verses 8 to 10 emphasize the Pilgrimage theme: “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country…for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." That’s how we are to think of ourselves in this world as followers of Jesus.

Peter wrote to the persecuted Christian brethren, as “the pilgrims of the Dispersion” (1Pet:1:1). He admonished them: ““Beloved, I beg you as SOJOURNERS and PILGRIMS, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1Pet.2:11). To be a ‘Pilgrim’ in Christ is to live, walk, and work in this world as someone for whom here is not home – someone who is only passing through a strange land for a while. We’re only pilgrims! We don’t store up our treasure here. We belong to, look toward and live for a land that we’re yet to see: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil.3:20).

Today’s text unveils four Pilgrim Principles, namely:

They were assured of God’s promises from afar (v.13). Though they didn’t see the fulfilment of God’s promises with their own eyes, they nevertheless were assured of, embraced, confessed, and personalised them by faith. They cut the ties that bound them to the present world, and committed themselves to that which God promised them and their offspring in the generations to come. Our Lord Jesus reveals how very hard and costly it is to live as pilgrims in this world: in the world, but not of the world (Jh.15:18-22).

They sought a homeland not of this world (v.14). They didn’t yet possess what God was giving them. They had not yet arrived to it. But they sought it. They lived on earth as pilgrims. People who give clear evidence that their heart is not bound up to a home on this earth, can joyfully sing, “This world is not my home I’m just passing through; My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue”!

They desired a country better than this one (vv.15-16a). The chance to return to the Ur of the Chaldeans was there if they no longer wanted to live as strangers and pilgrims, but they chose God’s purpose and promises over the path of convenience. They were willing to forsake the temporal “good” for the eternal “better”! Pilgrims give up temporal pleasures for eternal riches (1Pet.1:3-9).

They have a city prepared for them by God, “whose builder and maker is God” (vv.10,16b). “God is not ashamed to be called their God”! When we have faith in His promises, including His promise of a better homeland, God is pleased to claim us as His own!

May it be said of us, regarding the promises of God in Christ, that we “having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them,” and confessed that we are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth,” in Jesus name! Amen!