Foreigners and Exiles

Bible Passage: Hebrews 11:13–16

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 11

These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth. Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return. But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

We live in a world that constantly invites us to settle in — to build our identity, security, and hope around what we can see and touch right now. There are people trying to figure out how we can merge humanity with AI to live forever. There are people who are trying to “bio-hack” their bodies with nutrition and supplements in order to live longer.

But that was not how the Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - lived on this earth. They lived for the purpose of following after God. They sought to please the Lord. That does not mean that they did that perfectly. Scripture is very clear that the “greatest” people of faith in the Bible were critically flawed.

Abraham lied about being Sarah’s husband twice to save his own skin. Isaac did the same thing concerning his wife Rebekah. Isaac showed favoritism toward one of his sons. Jacob showed favoritism to one of his sons as well. Moses was a murderer. Samson continually chased women who were not Israelites. David was an adulterer and murderer.

However, each of these heroes of the faith sought the Lord’s help and guidance through their trials. God was their ultimate goal, not life on this earth.

Today, we are going to see how the Patriarchs lived as foreigners and exiles in a land they did not own, as they searched for the land that God had prepared for them.

Big Idea: Christians are to live as citizens of heaven and foreigners in this world.

I. They Died in Faith, Not in Fulfillment

Hebrews 11:13-14

These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth. Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

When we look at these first two words, “These all” we need to understand that the author is referring back to Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob (the Patriarchs he has just discussed in the preceding verses). While Abel, Enoch, and Noah are part of the broader chapter, the specific language of living as foreigners and temporary residents connects back to similar wording in verse 9 where the author says that Abraham “lived as a foreigner” and points to the Patriarchs specifically.

They believed God's promises even though they did not live to see them fulfilled. They lived in the promised land as we saw last week. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived as nomads in tents during their time in Canaan. But they never owned the land.

When God made the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, the land did not belong to Abraham. It belonged to a bunch of other nations and people groups.

Genesis 15:18–21

On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the Brook of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River: the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hethites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

Ownership of the land would not come until after the Exodus, centuries later. The patriarchs died long before the land ever belonged to their descendants.

However, they were allowed to live in the land and glimpse the promises. The author of Hebrews says they saw the promises from a distance, greeting those promises. They were able to see for themselves, what the land would provide for their descendants, greeting the promises from the distance of centuries before the Israelites would take over the land. They understood those promises stretched far beyond their own lifetimes. They greeted the future by faith.

In saying that the patriarchs confessed that they were foreigners, the author of Hebrews draws out something that may not be immediately obvious in the Genesis accounts: the Patriarchs understood that even the promised land was not their ultimate home. They were temporary residents on the earth.

When you confess that you are a foreigner here on earth, you are declaring that you are still looking for a homeland. You don't keep searching for home if you've already arrived. The Patriarchs knew Earth was not their permanent address — it was a temporary dwelling place.

The apostle Paul told his readers the same thing in Philippians 3, as he compared those who lived for their own sinful appetites, for the hear and now, and for their own truth to those whose hope was in Christ and eternity with him.

Philippians 3:18–20

For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things, Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

In our world today, you can have dual citizenship between two countries. You can be a citizen of both the United States and Canada. However, you cannot be a citizen of heaven and a citizen of this world. You belong to either one or the other. Either you have the Holy Spirit working in your heart and mind, or you do not. You have submitted your life to Christ, or you have not. There is no in between.

Many people who investigate religion do so because they have an inner longing for something more than what this world has to offer. Have you noticed that questioning and longing in your own heart and mind? That longing is not a flaw — it's a signal. It points to the same reality that led the Patriarchs to live by faith.

II. They Didn't Look Back

Hebrews 11:15

If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return.

Abraham's homeland of Ur was always accessible. If the Patriarchs had been longing for where they came from, they had every opportunity to go back. The land was still there and they could have gone back to it. But they didn't.

They refused to look backward.

Their forward orientation reveals that their hearts were set on something not only beyond what the old land could offer, but what the current land could offer as well. This was not always the case for the people of Israel. The descendants of these patriarchs had a hard time looking forward in faith.

When we look back through the Old Testament at when the Lord led Israel out of Egypt, we see example after example of the people complaining to Moses. In four of these passages, the try to tell Moses that it would have been better for them to stay in Egypt:

Exodus 14:11-12 — At the Red Sea, Israel says it would have been better to serve the Egyptians than die in the wilderness.

Exodus 16:2-3 — In the wilderness, Israel says it would have been better to die in Egypt, where they had food, than starve in the desert.

Numbers 11:4-6, 18-20 — The people crave meat and remember Egypt’s food (cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic), while despising the manna.

Numbers 14:1-4 — After the spies’ report, the congregation wishes they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness and wants to return to Egypt. They even say they should vote on a new leader who will take them back to Egypt.

The Israelites in the desert kept complaining and wanting to return to slavery in Egypt because the food tasted better, they weren’t having to look for water, or they wouldn’t have to go to war with the people in Canaan. They looked back and it cost them. Their present circumstances determined what they thought was ultimate reality.

Last week I finished my sermon with a passage from 2 Corinthians 4, where Paul is encouraging his readers to stand firm in the faith, contrasting the experiences of frail humanity with the evidences of God’s power:

2 Corinthians 4:17–18

For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

The people of Israel in the wilderness did not have this type of mindset. They saw their current circumstances as all they could see. Their focus on immediate comfort distracted them from how God was providing for their needs.

God led them to water multiple times, having water flow from a rock. He provided them bread in the form of manna 6 days a week. He provided quail to eat for meat. God gave them everything they needed to survive but that was not enough.

How often we too fall into the trap of not liking our present circumstances and complaining to God that what we have is not enough.

What is the Egypt you find yourself wanting to return to?

What "Egypt" are you tempted to return to because it feels familiar or comfortable even though it enslaved your heart or mind?

Is your Egypt a secret sin that provides temporary happiness, but never brings lasting joy and fulfillment because it is slowly tearing your relationship with God apart? Is it the habit of just trying to escape all of the time? Is it a job that you know how to do, but the work environment is toxic? Is it a relationship where the person or place is predictable, but never builds you up in the Lord?

Is your Egypt a mindset of pessimism - that nothing is likely to go right, that way you can’t be disappointed? Is it a mindset of impossible optimism that denies the real trouble in your life?

Again I ask: What is the Egypt you find yourself wanting to return to?

The Patriarchs teach us that faith means pressing forward, not retreating to what's behind you.

Paul understood this as well in teaching the Philippians about his ultimate goal of knowing Christ and the power of Christ’s resurrection.

Philippians 3:13–14

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

We must keep our eyes on Jesus, forgetting about our past, forgetting our mistakes, and looking ahead to the homeland that God is preparing for his people.

III. They Desired a Heavenly Home — and God Was Not Ashamed of Them

Hebrews 11:16

But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

The internal desire of the Patriarchs was not for earthly permanence but for a heavenly home. And yet we often see people in this life who want to try and live forever. This last week, a story came out about a man named Bryan Johnson. He is famous for trying to “bio-hack” his body with diet and supplementation to make his organs, at the age of 48, genetically equivalent to an 18 year old’s. As of 2023, he was taking a supplement protocol that cost him $2 million annually, with the goal of making death optional. This past week he was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in which the cells of his stomach are eating themselves that, to this day, still has no medically approved cure.

Yuval Noah Hirari is an Israeli historian and atheist who has written a book called Homo Deus. According to Wikipedia:

“The premise outlines that during the 21st century, humanity is likely to make a significant attempt to gain happiness, immortality, and God-like powers.”

He postulates that the way humans will do this, is through the integrating of AI and humanity.

But as John Lennox told Steven Bartlett on the Diary of a CEO podcast, the problems of sorrow and death have already been solved when Christ resurrected out of that tomb 2000 years ago. We are already “God-like” in that we are created in his image, and Christians are being conformed by the Holy Spirit to the image of Christ. But the “God-like” powers only belong to God himself, our applications to become part of the Trinity will continue to be denied.

Humanity is obsessed with extending life here on earth. But the patriarchs did not desire to live forever on this planet. They desired to be with the Lord. Living as a foreigner and exile in this world has an understanding that this world cannot provide for all of the things that are truly important for our lives. They wanted something better!

That desire pleased God so much that He was willing to publicly associate Himself with them. Our passage says that God was not ashamed to be called their God. He said to Moses when appearing to him at the burning bush, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." That is a staggering statement of divine identification.

I pray that I might live a faithful life so that God would be willing to say, "I am the God of Ryan Skolrud."

Can you imagine trusting God so completely that if God spoke to your great-great-grandchildren, he was willing to identify himself as “The God of your great-great-grandparent ______”?

A life with that kind of faith is one marked by a desire for the heavenly home — not settling for this world, but living as a foreigner who is headed somewhere.

God did not just approve of this longing of the patriarchs for a better country, or city— He had already been preparing an answer to it. This connects forward to what Jesus told His disciples during the last supper:

John 14:1–3

“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.”

Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to prepare a place for them in the house of God. Jesus is giving this same promise of a better home to hsi disciples that the patriarchs were looking and believing for in the Old Testament.

We can actually get a gimpse of what this heavenly homeland is like from the Apostle John in the book of Revelation, where God gives him a windo into the ultimate realtity of this world and the world that is to come.

Revelation 21:1–7

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life. The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.”

There is nothing in this world that can compare to that description right there. When we understand how fleeting the pleasures of this life are, how temporary this world is, we will seek for something better, just as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did.

There is a fictional book that chronicles the journey of a man who realizes that this life is not all that the world makes it out to be. As this man is reading a book, he reads of sin and judgment, begins to weep, and cries out, “What shall I do?”

And as this story goes on, this man, whose name was Graceless, understands the burden he was carrying, the burden of sin, and his name is changed to Christian. He goes on a journey from the City of Destruction, to the Hill of Difficulty, to the Palace Beautiful, to the Valley of Humiliation, the Valley of the Shadow of Death, to the Godless City of Vanity Fair, and eventually making it to his final destination, the heavenly homeland of The Celestial City.

Some of you already know which book I am talking about—Pilgrim’s Progress. This book was written in the 1600s by John Bunyan while he was in prison for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ without permission from the Roman Catholic Church. Other than the Bible, it is the most published book in the English language.

I would encourage everyone here to read Pilgrim’s Progress and the way that Bunyan allegorizes the Christian life as we journey to the Celestial City. You will see your own journey with the Lord and see how God works in each and every one of us as he draws us to himself.

The Patriarchs died in faith without receiving all the promises that God gave. They saw them from a distance and greeted them. They confessed they were foreigners on the earth. They didn't look back to where they came from. They desired a heavenly home — and God was not ashamed to be called their God.

This is not about trying harder to be a foreigner. Effort does nothing for us in the Kingdom of God. Our transformation comes in understanding who we truly are, who God truly is, following in faith, and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in your heart and mind to conform you into the image of Christ.

It is about knowing where your hope is anchored. If your hope is in Christ, then this world is not your final home. He has gone to prepare a place for you. He will come back for you. And one day, the city that God has prepared will come down out of heaven, and faith will become sight.

Are you living as a foreigner?

Are you journeying through this life understanding that this world is not your home? Do you understand that this world is temporary and will fade away? Is your heart and mind forward focused to the Celestial City?

Or

Have you settled into this world?

Have you made yourself comfortable in sin? Are you okay with what the world provides for you? Do you read Scripture and say “That can’t apply to me”?

I want to challenge those who have noticed themselves feeling comfortable, feeling less convicted of sin, less motivated to pray, read the Bible, or share your faith with others:

There is a difference between being comfortable with this life, and being comfortable in this life.

We are not called to be comfortable with the things that are happening around us. We are not called to be comfortable with people distorting the Bible for popular and monetary gain. We are not to get comfortable with people claiming Christ but ignoring what Christ called us to. We are not to get comfortable with our sin saying, “God will forgive me anyway.” That is a dangerous game to play. And it is one you will lose every time.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable in this world.

Being uncomfortable with the ways this world works, the ways people mistreat each other, the ways people exploit others for personal gain, being uncomfortable with the ways we sin and rebel against God shows that we see a better path, a better home.