Following Footsteps

As we consider those who walked the way, we begin with Abraham.  Though Abraham lived before Jesus’ earthly ministry, he looked ahead and lived ahead to Christ.  As Jesus told the Pharisees, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."  Abraham looked ahead to Jesus and followed the Promise, therefore, Abraham is called our father (see Romans 4:11-16).  Therefore, we ought to look back at the footsteps of faith that our father Abraham had.  To do this, read: Hebrews 11:8-19.

Hebrews 11 reveals the faith of Abraham – a faith characterized by footsteps that followed – that walked the Way.  And so, I want us to look at Abraham in terms of discipleship and through the six areas of focus from our last series.  When we do so, we find that Abraham showed the priority of his calling, fervency in obedience, vulnerability in belief and that he was characterized by honest prayer, mission-mindedness and sacrificial living.

First of all, Abraham showed the priority of his calling. God’s calling on Abraham’s life was Abraham’s priority.  It was the purpose and pursuit of his life.  We read in our passage (v8), “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going”.  Abraham’s calling was not very specific.  When God calls a person, He rarely provides all of the details.  We’d like to have an orderly itinerary from God, but He seems to rarely work that way.  More often than not, our calling is like that of Abraham – “Go and I will show you.”  But to Abraham, the itinerary was evidently not essential.  Rather, God’s calling was the priority.  And so, Abraham obeyed and went.  He left family, friends and land; he left the familiar and the comfortable and followed the LORD, even though he did not know where he was going. The LORD was Abraham’s priority and the LORD promise was the only thing he had to hold onto.  The Lord basically said (as our Lord Jesus said), “Follow me” - not follow this or that - but follow me.  Abraham did.

Next, we see, in Abraham, a fervency in obedience.  We read in our Hebrews passage, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.  Abraham’s was not some sort of half-hearted obedience, it was all-out.  Abraham left what he had known and went where he knew nothing.  He did not obey because God’s plan sounded like a good deal or made logical sense, he obeyed because he believed – because he trusted in the LORD.  I’ve mentioned previously that when priority is diminished, fervency is diminished.  The opposite logically is true: when something or someone becomes a priority, fervency regarding that thing or person increases.  Abraham exhibited radical obedience because the LORD had exploded into his life, becoming his ultimate priority.  Is the Lord such a priority in our lives that we are likewise fervent in our obedience?  Are we willing to go past our self-appointed boundaries of comfort and safety in order to follow Jesus?  Because Abraham believed and trusted the LORD, he was fervent in obedience.

We also see, in Abraham, a vulnerability in belief.  Often we are afraid to follow because we calculate the impossibilities, but Abraham believed in spite of all of the impossibilities.  We read in Hebrews 11:11-12, “By faith Abraham, even though he was past age - and Sarah herself was barren - was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.”  In spite of Sarah’s barrenness and his own good-as-deadness, Abraham believed the promise – he considered the promise-Giver to be faithful and so trusted Him.

Paul put it this way in Romans 4:18-21, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”  Amazing!   Abraham was not naïve.  He clearly saw the barrenness, the deadness and the impossibility of it all, and yet his faith did not weaken; he did not waver through unbelief, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised!  Faith requires vulnerability – trusting that “barrenness” (as Walter Breuggemann puts it so well) “is the area of God’s life-giving action.”

Because of Abraham’s priority of calling, fervency in obedience and vulnerability in belief, he was characterized by honest prayer.  One of the first things that Abraham did in the Promised Land was to build an altar to the LORD and call on the name of the LORD.  Abraham not only worshiped formally with sacrifice, he cried out to the Lord from his need, his fear, his confusion.  Abraham prayed to the LORD about his childlessness; he pleaded for the people of Sodom; He prayed for the healing of Abimelech and his household.  Abraham was even referred to as a prophet.  Abraham had a relationship with the Lord, one maintained through prayer.  His footsteps must have also included the impression of his knees on the ground as he called out to the Lord. 

And Abraham was characterized by mission-mindedness. He was aware that God’s calling and God’s purposes for the world were his mission.  He recognized that his obedience to the Lord would affect the coming generations.   The LORD had promised Abraham, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you … and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”  Abraham was blessed in order to be a blessing.  He was told that through him all peoples on earth would be blessed.  And so, Abraham lived to carry out that mission.  He obeyed the Lord and kept His covenant.  Even when the mission appeared to be in jeopardy with the near-sacrifice of Isaac, still Abraham clung to faith in order that God’s plan for the world – His mission – would be carried out.

And finally, Abraham was characterized by sacrificial living.  Abraham was willing to sacrifice – to leave his country, his people and his father’s household to follow the LORD.  He was willing to let his nephew Lot choose what appeared to be the better part of the land in order to keep peace.  He was willing to live like an alien and stranger in the very land that God had promised to give him.  And most famously, he was willing to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac.  We read in our passage vv. 17-19, “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death”.  How did Abraham face such a difficult trial?  By faith.  He trusted the Lord and therefore he was willing to give up everything for Him.  When the Lord stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, He said, “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”  This illustrates what Jesus said:  “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”  Abraham lived that way.  He lived sacrificially.

But that’s Abraham, we might argue.  What does he have to do with us?  A lot.  Look at the final two verses in Hebrews 11: “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”  Abraham’s footsteps of faith led him to Christ, for it is only through Christ that anyone is saved, whether they be you or me or Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob or Moses.  Their faith, like ours, must rest in Jesus Christ.  And so Abraham is not separate from us, rather he is an example for us.

And so, when we reach Hebrews 12, we read: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.”  We are surrounded by those faithful followers who have gone before us and who show us, as one writer suggests, “that faith is worth it.”  And so, as the writer of Hebrews proclaims: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

As we run the race; as we walk the Way, we keep our eyes on Jesus, but also recognize the great cloud of witnesses that surround us.  With eyes fixed on Jesus, we walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had, trusting the Almighty, the LORD, the “God,” as Paul writes, “who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.”

With faith, like Abraham, we trust God’s promises; we follow in spite of the impossibilities; we run the race with perseverance, for we are fully persuaded that God has power to do what He has promised!