Week 4 Thursday — Walking with The Word
Thursday: Hebrews 11:1-2, 13-16 — Faith That Doesn’t Require an Answer
Thursday: Hebrews 11:1-2, 13-16 — Faith That Doesn’t Require an Answer
INTRODUCTION
Yesterday the psalmist asked the question that suffering always eventually produces: “When will you comfort me? How long must your servant endure?” He didn’t get an answer. What he got instead was the grace to keep holding on — to bring his honest cry to God and trust that almost is not the end.
Today the writer of Hebrews steps into that same space and gives us something remarkable. Not an answer to the “how long” question. Something better — a company of witnesses who asked the same question, never received the answer in their lifetime, and are commended by God for their faith anyway.
This is one of the most important passages in the entire New Testament for anyone in a long season of waiting. It doesn’t resolve the tension. It reframes it entirely.
SCRIPTURE
¹ Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ² For by it the people of old received their commendation.
¹³ These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. ¹⁴ For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
— Hebrews 11:1-2, 13-16 (ESV)
REFLECTION
The Substance of What We Hope For
The writer of Hebrews opens with one of the most precise definitions in all of Scripture: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Two words carry the weight here — assurance and conviction. Faith isn’t optimism. It isn’t wishful thinking dressed in religious language. It is confident trust in a God whose promises have substance because He does.
The distinction between hope as we use it culturally and hope as Scripture means it matters enormously. When we say “I hope the weather is nice tomorrow” we mean we’d like it to be but aren’t sure it will be. When the psalmist said “I hope in your word” he meant something entirely different — a settled confidence in the One making the promise, not uncertainty about the outcome. Biblical hope doesn’t cross its fingers. It anchors itself.
And then verse 2 adds a layer that stops us short: “For by it the people of old received their commendation.” Not by their achievements. Not by their flawless obedience. By their faith. God’s commendation — His “well done” across the centuries — has always been given to those who trusted Him, not to those who had it all figured out.
They Died Not Having Received
Verse 13 is where this passage becomes extraordinary: “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised.” Read that slowly. The great heroes of Hebrews 11 — Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah — did not receive the fulfillment of what God promised them during their lifetimes. They saw the promises from a distance. They greeted them from afar. And they died still waiting.
This is not a footnote. This is the point. The writer isn’t embarrassed by it — he presents it as the defining quality of their faith. They trusted God so completely that the non-arrival of the promise in their lifetime did not shake their confidence in the One who made it. They held on not because they could see the finish line but because they knew the One who had promised to bring them home.
The psalmist’s “how long?” finds its answer here — not a timetable, but a theology. Sometimes God’s promises are larger than a single lifetime. But if the promise must arrive in our lifetime for us to keep trusting — is that really faith, or is it something else?
Strangers Seeking a Better Country
What kept these heroes moving forward? Verse 13 tells us: they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. They weren’t clinging to this world as if it were their permanent home. They were oriented toward something better, something prepared for them — a heavenly country, a city that God Himself has built.
This is the reframe that changes everything. “God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” The God who allowed them to wait, to suffer, to die without seeing the fullness of the promise — that same God is not ashamed of them. He calls them His own. And He has been building something for them all along.
The psalmist cried out from his affliction: “In your steadfast love give me life, that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth.” He was oriented the right direction — toward God, toward His Word, toward a faithfulness that transcended his circumstances. He was, without knowing the language of Hebrews, a stranger and exile seeking a better country. And the God who is not ashamed to be called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not ashamed to be called his God either.
Or yours.
“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised... therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.” — This is the way.
PRAYER PROMPT
Lord, I confess that my faith is often only as strong as my last answered prayer. When the promise seems distant, when the “how long” goes unanswered, I am tempted to conclude that You have forgotten or that I misunderstood. But Your Word says that the great men and women of faith died without receiving what You promised — and You commended them for it. That reframes everything.
Help me today to be the kind of person who greets Your promises from afar — who trusts the One making them more than I need to see the outcome in my lifetime. Remind me that I am a stranger and exile here, that this world is not my permanent home, and that You have been building something for me that my circumstances cannot touch. I choose today to anchor my hope in You — not in the arrival of the answer, but in the faithfulness of the One who promised. Amen.
RESPONSE
The Substance of What We Hope For: Biblical hope is anchored confidence, not wishful thinking. Identify one promise from God’s Word that you are currently waiting on. Write it down with the Scripture reference. Put it somewhere visible this week — on your mirror, your desk, your phone — as a daily reminder that your hope has a solid foundation.
They Died Not Having Received: The heroes of Hebrews 11 trusted God without seeing the fulfillment of His promises in their lifetime. Is there a promise or prayer you’ve been waiting on so long that you’ve nearly given up on it? Write one sentence recommitting it to God today — not demanding an answer, but choosing to trust the One who made the promise.
Strangers Seeking a Better Country: The people of faith in Hebrews 11 kept moving forward because they knew this world wasn’t their permanent home. What is one way your grip on this world — its comforts, its approval, its outcomes — is making it harder to live as a stranger and exile oriented toward God? Name it honestly. Ask God to loosen that grip today. Share it with a friend you trust.