“All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country which they left, they would have had opportunity to return. 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 a city for them.”
— Hebrews 11:13–16
There is something initially troubling about the first sentence of this passage.
“All these died in faith, without receiving the promises.”
We have just spent several verses reading about people who trusted God. Abraham left his homeland because God spoke. Sarah considered God faithful and miraculously gave birth to Isaac. Yet now Hebrews tells us that they died without receiving what had been promised.
Does that mean their faith did not work?
Quite the opposite.
Hebrews is beginning to enlarge our understanding of what the promise actually was.
Abraham received Isaac. He experienced God’s provision. He saw genuine fulfillments of God’s promises during his lifetime. Yet Isaac was not the whole promise. Neither was the land Abraham walked through. God’s plan was much larger than anything Abraham could experience within the span of his earthly life.
Hebrews wants us to see the difference between receiving something God promised and seeing the complete fulfillment of everything God promised.
Abraham experienced the first.
He died waiting for the second.
“They Saw Them From a Distance”
The language in verse 13 is beautiful.
They had not received the promises in their fullness, but they had “seen them… from a distance.”
You can imagine a traveler standing on a hill and seeing his destination far away. He has not arrived, but the sight of it changes the way he continues the journey.
Something similar happened with Abraham.
He saw Isaac born. That one child was evidence that God was doing exactly what He had said. Yet God had promised descendants like the stars of heaven and the sand along the seashore. Abraham could hold Isaac in his arms, but he would never live long enough to see Israel become a nation.
There was more beyond that.
God had told Abraham:
“In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
— Genesis 12:3
Abraham certainly did not see the full realization of that promise.
Centuries would pass before Christ came.
Paul later connects the promise directly with Him:
“Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed… that is, Christ.”— Galatians 3:16
Abraham therefore lived inside a story whose conclusion extended far beyond his lifetime.
That did not make the promise less certain.
It simply made the promise larger than Abraham.
Its bigger than we think
This is an important correction to some ways Christians talk about faith.
We can easily reduce faith to receiving something from God.
Believe for the healing, for the breakthrough, for the opportunity or for the financial provision.
There is nothing wrong with trusting God concerning things we need. Hebrews itself has already shown people receiving remarkable things through faith, and later in the chapter we will read about those who “obtained promises” (Hebrews 11:33).
So Hebrews is certainly not teaching that faith never produces visible results.
The problem comes when visible results become our definition of whether faith succeeded.
Hebrews 11 will not allow that.
Abraham received Isaac, but died before seeing the nation.
Others later in the chapter will experience dramatic deliverance, while some will suffer and die without earthly deliverance.
The writer calls all of them people of faith.
Their confidence rested in a God whose faithfulness was larger than the circumstances of a single lifetime.
Why Did They Call Themselves Strangers?
Hebrews says Abraham and the patriarchs confessed that they were “strangers and exiles on the earth.”
Abraham had already described himself this way in Genesis 23:4 when he needed somewhere to bury Sarah:
“I am a stranger and a sojourner among you.”
That statement is striking because Abraham was standing in the very land God had promised him.
He was living in the promise and still describing himself as a stranger.
Hebrews sees theological significance in that.
If Canaan had been the ultimate destination, Abraham’s language would be difficult to explain. The writer concludes that Abraham was searching for something beyond the land itself.
Verse 14 says:
“Those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.”
The Greek word translated country, patris (πατρίς), can carry the sense of a homeland or native country.
Abraham had left one homeland behind, but now his heart was directed toward another.
They Could Have Gone Back
Verse 15 contains a wonderfully practical observation:
“If they had been thinking of that country which they left, they would have had opportunity to return.”
Abraham’s departure was not irreversible.
Ur still existed.
Mesopotamia had not disappeared.
If Abraham eventually decided that following God had been a terrible mistake, there was technically a road back.
He did not take it.
That becomes important in the larger argument of Hebrews because the original readers were facing their own temptation to go backward.
They had suffered.
Hebrews 10 tells us that some had endured public humiliation and the loss of property. Their confidence in Christ had become costly.
Returning to the old system would have been tempting.
Then Hebrews tells them about Abraham.
He also had somewhere to return to.
But his eyes had become fixed on something better.
This is not merely an interesting fact about Abraham’s biography. It speaks directly to the struggling Christians reading Hebrews.
The message is essentially: You are not the first people who have discovered that faith can make the old life look attractive again. Abraham had a road back too.
He kept going because he had seen something better ahead.
“They Desire a Better Country”
The word better should immediately catch our attention because Hebrews has been using it throughout the letter.
Jesus brings a better hope (Hebrews 7:19).
He is the mediator of a better covenant (Hebrews 8:6).
His sacrifice is better than the old sacrifices.
Believers possess a better possession (Hebrews 10:34).
Now Abraham and the patriarchs desire a better country.
Hebrews is not accidentally repeating this idea. The Christian story is not about repairing the old system. Christ has brought something genuinely greater.
Verse 16 tells us plainly what this better country is:
“a heavenly one.”
The promise of land to Abraham was real, but Hebrews sees it pointing beyond itself toward God’s ultimate dwelling with His people.
That is why Abraham could live in tents while looking for a city.
“God Is Not Ashamed to Be Called Their God”
Then comes one of the most tender statements in the chapter:
“Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.”
Think about the people being described.
Abraham’s life was not flawless. He lied about Sarah. He became afraid. He tried to bring about God’s promise through Hagar. Sarah laughed when she heard that she would have a child.
Genesis does not sanitize these people.
Yet God willingly identifies Himself with them.
When God later spoke to Moses, He said:
“I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
— Exodus 3:6
He attached His name to theirs.
Hebrews does not say that God was willing to be called their God because they achieved flawless spiritual performance. The chapter has been emphasizing their confidence in Him.
They trusted the God who had called them.
They trusted His promise even when they could only see part of its fulfillment.
And remarkably, God says in effect, I am their God.
From a finished-work perspective, we can see something even greater.
Our relationship with God is no longer grounded in our ability to maintain a sufficiently impressive life of faith. Christ has brought us into the new covenant. Through Him we have been reconciled, made righteous, and brought near.
God is not reluctantly tolerating those who are in Christ.
We belong to Him.
“He Has Prepared a City for Them”
Notice where the passage ends.
It does not end with what Abraham prepared for God.
It ends with what God prepared for Abraham.
“He has prepared a city for them.”
That connects directly with verse 10, where Abraham was looking for:
“the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
Abraham lived in tents because his ultimate hope rested in something he was not responsible for constructing.
God was preparing it.
This is where the passage fits beautifully with the larger message of Hebrews. Earlier chapters have repeatedly directed our attention toward what Christ has accomplished for us. Our access to God rests on His priesthood and His sacrifice. The Christian life begins with receiving what God has done rather than trying to produce something that will make us acceptable to Him.
Even the final destination follows that pattern.
God prepares the city.
We receive the inheritance.
Some Promises Are Larger Than Our Lifetime
Perhaps this is the great contribution Hebrews 11:13–16 makes to the chapter.
Faith cannot be judged only by what happens before we die.
Abraham saw enough to know that God was faithful, but not enough to see where the entire story was going. He never saw Israel become a nation. He never saw David’s kingdom. He never saw Christ born in Bethlehem. He never saw the gospel spread among the nations.
Yet all of those things belonged to the promise he had received.
We stand much further along in the story than Abraham did. We can look backward at Christ’s death and resurrection and see realities Abraham could only greet from a distance.
Even so, we are still waiting.
Creation has not yet been fully restored. Our mortal bodies have not yet been raised. We do not yet see everything subjected to Christ, as Hebrews 2 itself acknowledges. The heavenly city has not yet appeared in its final visible fullness.
Our position is therefore strangely similar to Abraham’s.
We have received enough to know where the story is going.
More importantly, in Christ we have received enough to know who is bringing it there.
Hebrews does not ask us to manufacture confidence about an uncertain future. It directs our confidence toward the God who has already acted decisively in Christ.
Abraham saw the promise from a distance and welcomed it.
We have seen the cross and the empty tomb.
And because of what has already been finished, we can trust God with everything that still remains to be fulfilled.
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