But it is not as though the word of God hath come to nought. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel: neither, because they are Abraham’s seed, are they all children: but, “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.”
That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed (Romans 9:6-8).

People have a passion for family. Pride in children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren is a common denominator among all types of different people– even regardless of the conduct of those descendants. We also can appreciate our genealogy. How many have spent time in archives learning more about their ancestors! For some reason, if we are able to discover long-lost relatives who either participated in momentous historical events or just lived in a particular historical era, those past events and times become more meaningful and personal to us. That they knew nothing of us and that our knowledge of them may be little is irrelevant; they are our ancestors, we are their descendants, and there is power in that relationship.

The Jews very much felt this power. They have Abraham for a father (Luke 3:8). The genealogies of the Old Testament, far from being the “boring parts” of the story that we often gloss over today, were a source of pride, for all Jews could find somewhere in that genealogy some relatives who took part in their national story. Ultimately, they could all trace their ancestry back to Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, and that was the reason for their distinctiveness. Everyone on earth could trace back their history to Noah and Adam, but the Jews were the ones who inherited the promises. They were the ones to whom the One True God revealed Himself; He gave them the Law of God; from them would come the Deliverer of mankind (Romans 9:4-5). They could feel like they were part of God’s purposes for mankind in ways that the other nations just could not understand.

All of this was true, but it was not properly directed. Too many Jews took comfort in their genealogy. They became blind to their sin, convinced that since they were children of Abraham that their place in God’s Kingdom was already reserved (cf. John 8:33). They thought it was their status– their election– that would save them.

Jesus makes it clear that this is not the case– He speaks out candidly about how the Jews were following after their father the Devil, not Abraham (John 8:34-47), and declared how many “sons of the Kingdom” would be cast out into the outer darkness (Matthew 8:11-12). As can be imagined, the Jews did not take too kindly to this.

It is Paul who drives the point home in a way that should have truly shamed Israel into obedience. Paul points out that there were other children of Abraham (Romans 9:7)– they just were not the children of promise. History would be quite different if the Muslims were right and that Ishmael was the child of blessing!

Paul’s point is that the promise was received through faith, and that the children of the promise do not merit that promise by anything they could have done, and does it all through Genesis. By working backward we can start with Jacob. Did he deserve the promise? He was the younger, and by all rights, had no claim on anything. Esau “should have” been the child of promise since he was the eldest, and yet God had foreordained that the elder would serve the younger (Genesis 25:23, Romans 9:10-12). Neither Esau or Jacob had done anything yet, but God made His purpose known in a providential way. Where would the Jews be had God not made such a provision, and Esau became the inheritor of the promise?

What did Isaac do in order to obtain the promise that he would pass along to Jacob? Absolutely nothing. He was just born, and none of us gets to choose the circumstances of our birth. The circumstances of his birth were quite miraculous and amazing (cf. Genesis 21:1-7, Romans 4:13-25). In fact, had Abraham gotten his way, Isaac would have never needed to come into existence or to receive the promise, for Abraham desired for Ishmael to live before God as the child of promise (Genesis 17:17-18). If God had honored Abraham’s wish, where would that have left Israel and the Jews?

We then get back to Abraham himself. What did he do in order to merit the call? As far as we can tell, his family was idolatrous, and Abram would have no reason to know that it was Yahweh who would call him or that Yahweh was the One True God (Genesis 11:27-32, Joshua 24:2). What stature, therefore, did Abram have before God? None whatsoever. If God had not bothered calling Abram out of Ur, what would have been Israel’s fate?

Paul’s entire point here is that God elected Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob according to His will and His purpose, not based on any kind of past or intrinsic merit or the Law or any such thing. Therefore, the Jew has no reason to “boast” in his Judaism, as if his ethnic identity provides him merit or status in God’s sight. God could have just as easily chosen another nation, and Israel would have been entirely out of luck!

Why, then, did God choose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? The choice was based in God’s knowledge of their faith (cf. Romans 8:29-30, James 2:14-26). God knew that Abraham would go to Canaan, to believe in Him, and be willing to even sacrifice Isaac if so commanded (Genesis 12-22). God knew the type of person Esau would turn out to be, and He knew how Jacob would be the man of faith (Genesis 25-35). They received the promises because they trusted in God and obeyed His voice (Genesis 22:15-18, 26:2-5), and God was willing to be known as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (cf. Matthew 22:32).

Paul makes it clear, therefore, that the true children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not necessarily those who are genealogically related to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That is not the way the promise works. The promise is inherited by faith, and therefore, all who believe and trust in God through His Son Jesus Christ are reckoned as children of Abraham (Romans 4:11-13, 9:24, 30-32, Galatians 3:29). They have the same “spiritual heritage,” joined not by blood that decays but by a shared obedient faith in God that endures forever.

Thus we can see that God is not unjust by casting off those who were unfaithful in Israel and bringing in those who would obey in faith among the nations. In fact, this is precisely what should have happened, and it represents God’s persistent message throughout time. Believers should learn from Israel’s example. We cannot place our trust in things. We cannot trust in status, ethnicity, parents, children, genealogy, or any such thing. Instead, our trust must be in God Himself, and we must be His obedient servants (Romans 1:16-17, 6:1-23)!

No one deserves salvation because of their ancestry, their status, their identity, or for any such reason– no one ever has or ever will. God’s choices say more about God accomplishing His will than they do about the persons chosen, and all must obey to receive the inheritance. Let us be children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by faith, and represent the Israel of God today!

Ethan R. Longhenry

And as they went on the way, a certain man said unto him, “I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.”
And Jesus said unto him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Luke 9:57-58).

People tend to have an attachment to what is called their “home.” Many times that “home” involves the location where they were born and/or raised. “Home” may mean their current location, or the location of their immediate family. Nevertheless, the appreciation of one’s “home” transcends cultural, religious, and geographical lines. How many have been willing to give up their lives, after all, for their “homeland”? This impulse is extremely strong!

Yet God calls upon those who would believe in Jesus Christ to consider Heaven their “homeland” (Philippians 3:20-21). Christians are to recognize that while they are at “home” in the body, they are absent from the Lord, and that it will be much better when we are absent from the body and at “home” with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-9).

This is a difficult challenge. The challenge evokes the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, men whom God called to live as sojourners in a land that was not theirs (Hebrews 11:8-16). Even though they knew that God would give the land to their descendants, these men could never really feel at “home” there. The people around them had sinful customs, and there was great danger in intermarrying with them. Whenever they had disputes with the “locals,” they were always at a disadvantage. Nevertheless, they believed in God’s promise, and for their faith they obtained the heavenly country.

While God may not call us to sojourn in a different country today, He does ask that we look at our lives on this earth as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob saw their lives in Canaan (1 Peter 1:1, 17; 2:11). We should not get too comfortable, and should not really “feel at home” while in the world (Romans 12:2, Romans 8:19-23). We must recognize that many people around us have sinful customs, and must always be concerned about how their customs may influence us and our families (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). It very well might be that because we are sojourners on the earth that we are at a disadvantage against our fellow man.

Yet, in the end, if we recognize that our true citizenship is with Jesus Christ and His Kingdom, and we reflect the values of the Kingdom and not of this world, we will obtain the reward that awaits us (Hebrews 11:39-40, 1 Peter 1:3-9, Revelation 21-22). In short, if we feel “at home” in this world, we will not have the opportunity to feel “at home” with God; but if we recognize that this world is not our home, and live accordingly, we will have the opportunity to truly be “at home with the Lord” one day!

Ethan R. Longhenry

And [Abram] believed in the LORD; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6).

It is lamentable how this verse has become the focal point for the controversy regarding the roles of faith and obedience based on its quotation in both Romans 4:3 and James 2:22-23. Paul uses the incident to show how Abram’s faith here justified him without any works; James speaks of how it is fulfilled when Abram demonstrates his obedience to God by being willing to offer Isaac his son upon the altar (cf. Genesis 22). Abram’s example does not teach either that faith only saves or that works save– Abram’s example shows us that we must have faith and be obedient to God in order to obtain the blessing.

Such controversy often overshadows the great depth of faith put forward by Abram. Abram here is in his eighties; Sarai his wife is in her seventies. She has borne him no children, and he has no biological heir. God has made all of these promises regarding Abram’s offspring inheriting the land, yet Eliezer of Damascus, Abram’s servant, currently stands to inherit what remains to him (Genesis 15:2-3). Yet God promises that he will have a son, and his son will be his true heir (Genesis 15:4-5).

On what basis should Abram believe God? After all, he is well over the age most people have children, and women do not often have children in their seventies! According to the human, earthly perspective, there is no reason to believe God. On a physical level alone, Abram is doomed to have no descendants if he is waiting on Sarai.

But Abram knows that what is impossible with men is possible with God (cf. Matthew 19:26). He and 318 men just defeated four Mesopotamian kings whom the five kings of the valley could not best (Genesis 14). God had brought him from the land of Ur and Haran and had blessed him so far (Genesis 12:1-4). Abram was willing to trust God, and God counted it as righteousness.

Abram’s faith teaches us what faith should be. Faith is trust and confidence, even if there is no good earthly or physical basis on which to base that trust or confidence! The Hebrew author speaks of faith as “assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen,” (Hebrews 11:1), and this was certainly true in relation to Abram and his children. Abram had every reason not to trust in God’s promise, and he trusted anyway.

God proved faithful to Abram even when Abram was not as faithful to God. The very next chapter shows what happens when Abram and Sarai attempt to meddle in God’s purposes– Abram fathers Ishmael through Hagar, but he is not the chosen one (cf. Genesis 16). Instead, God waits another 15 years, and Sarah bears to Abraham a son, Isaac, in his old age, she at 90, he at 100 (Genesis 21, Romans 4:18-22)! What is impossible with man is possible with God.

Are there good earthly, physical reasons to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, crucified for our sin, and raised on the third day in power? Upon what basis should we accept that God will raise us also from the dead and provide glory and eternal life if we are found faithful? Why should we think that God loves us and is willing to give us all things, especially when things do not look so good for us? According to an earthly, human perspective, there are no good reasons. That’s why faith is so critical– no mere intellectual assent to a proposition, but a willingness to trust and cling to God no matter how implausible or impossible His promises may seem.

If God is able to create the universe as we know it and allowed a woman of 90 years to give birth, He is certainly able to redeem us from sin and gather us to Him for all eternity. Will we be willing to believe what is impossible according to men? Can we trust in things hoped for and show conviction despite not seeing? And are we willing to obey and serve, even if it costs us everything? If so, we will have a faith that God will count for righteousness, and we can share in all those “impossible” promises!

Ethan R. Longhenry

Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen. For therein the elders had witness borne to them (Hebrews 11:1-2).

Hebrews 11 enshrines the men of faith from the old covenant.  Yet consider these men:

Noah (Hebrews 11:7): got drunk, exposed himself in a tent (Genesis 9:20-21).

Abraham (Hebrews 11:8-10, 17-19): deceived rulers, took an additional wife without God’s consent (Genesis 12:10-20, 16, 20).

Sarah (Hebrews 11:11-12): laughed at God’s promise, lied about it (Genesis 18:9-15).

Jacob (Hebrews 11:21): cheated his brother, deceived his own father (Genesis 25, 27).

Moses (Hebrews 11:23-30): attempted to reject God’s call, at times did not give God the glory (Exodus 3-4, Numbers 20:1-13).

Rahab (Hebrews 11:31): lied to cover for spies (Joshua 2:3-6).

Gideon (Hebrews 11:32): made an ephod, caused family to go astray (Judges 8:24-27).

Samson (Hebrews 11:32): visited a prostitute (Judges 16:1-3).

David (Hebrews 11:32): committed adultery with a faithful servant’s wife, schemed to have that servant killed (2 Samuel 11).

These are the men whom God commends for their faith?  How can this be?

We must recognize that God is not commending these men and women for being perfect, because no one is perfect save Jesus Christ (Romans 3:23, 1 John 1:8).  God is not commending them for their sins and character faults.

They receive commendation for their faith– their trust in God at difficult moments, their willingness to do what God tells them to do even if they did not entirely understand or if the situation looked hopeless.

Being a man or woman of God does not mean that we are perfect.  It means that we place our trust in God and strive to follow His will in all things, even if we do not understand or if our situation looks hopeless.  Yes, it also means that we must confess our sins and repent of them (1 John 1:9), but let us not be deceived into thinking that God can only use perfect people.  The “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) is full of imperfect people who trusted in a perfect and holy God.  Let us strive to be as them, and run the race set before us!

And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him (Hebrews 11:6).

Ethan R. Longhenry