The Faith of Abraham, Sarah, and Those Who Died in Faith

Hebrews 11:11-19

Main Idea: Sarah and Abraham characterize true faith by believing in God’s promises in difficult circumstances and trials.

1. The Faith of Sarah in Childbearing (11:11-12)
2. The Faith of Those Who Died in Faith (11:13-16)
3. The Faith of Abraham in Child Sacrificing (11:17-19)

In the previous section the author focused on Abraham’s faith. By faith Abraham obeyed and followed God’s command to go to Canaan, even though it seemed God was calling him to nowhere. Yet this “nowhere” was the very land God would promise to give to Abraham. From that place God would bless the nations through Abraham. The letter’s attention to the man demonstrates his pivotal role in salvation history and his place in the annals of those who endured in the faith. Now the author continues to focus on Abraham’s faith but also includes that of another: Abraham’s wife, Sarah.

The Faith of Sarah in Childbearing

Hebrews 11:11-12

As we saw in the previous passage, the people of old received their commendation by faith. What is Sarah’s commendation? She “considered that the one who had promised was faithful.” These verses emphasize the power of trusting in God. By faith this woman trusted God to be faithful to his word, so she “received power to conceive offspring.”

When most of us consider the process of conception, we don’t think of a woman necessarily receiving power to conceive. As a matter of fact, most people never stop to consider the theological implications behind the reality that each and every conception of a baby is the inauguration of a new human life, a new image-bearer of God. The Bible tells us that conception is not merely an act of biology, which conveys two important implications we need to consider. First, there are no accidental births. Every human being is made in the image of God and comes to life because God says, “Let there be life.” Second, there are no naturalistic births. Scripture speaks of God opening the womb. God is ultimately sovereign, even over the conception of children.

Sarah was praying for the ability to have a son, which is referred to here as the “power to conceive offspring.” Furthermore, she was not praying for conception because she desperately wanted children. She was praying because she wanted to be in line with the promises God made to her husband. She was very much aware that Abraham was to father a great nation, implying she was to mother a great nation. To understand this, we must understand Genesis 15.

Even though God made great promises to him, Abraham lacked an immediate heir; his only heir was one of his slaves, Eliezer of Damascus. Abraham was an old man who despaired that his seed would ever receive God’s promises. Yet despite Abraham’s wavering, he is still counted among the faithful because he “believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:6). Faith, even faith that is wavering as was Abraham’s, can qualify a person as “faithful.” Abraham believed that the Lord is faithful to his promises. Sarah also believed that “the one who had promised was faithful” (Heb 11:11), and for that faith she was credited and rewarded. God reaffirmed his promise to Abraham’s family: “I will bless her; indeed, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will produce nations; kings of peoples will come from her” (Gen 17:16). In the context of Genesis, Abraham and Sarah are in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of sheep. Their little entourage doesn’t look like a nation. In response to God’s renewed promise, “Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, ‘Can a child be born to a hundred-year-old man? Can Sarah, a ninety-year-old woman, give birth?’” (Gen 17:17). In the continuing narrative, a child is born, and this child, Isaac, becomes the heir of promise. The Lord does exactly as he had promised. “The Lordcame to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised” (Gen 21:1; emphasis added).

Hebrews 11 summarizes these events in Genesis, and Sarah is commended because of her faith: “Sarah herself . . . received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age.” Sarah was ninety—not even close to the age for bearing children. But in his sovereignty, God chose a ninety-year-old woman in order to make a point about his power to fulfill his promises. “She considered that the one who had promised was faithful.” There’s the essence of the faith that saves. “Therefore from one man—in fact, from one as good as dead—came offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and as innumerable as the grains of sand along the seashore” (Heb 11:12). The writer of Hebrews wants to communicate to his readers what faith looks like. Faith looks like a one-hundred-year-old man and a ninety-year-old woman believing that God will fulfill his promises, even when the fulfillment of those promises seems impossible according to human reason.

The Faith of Those Who Died In Faith

Hebrews 11:13-16

Verse 13 takes us back as far as Abel in verse 4. Those listed in Hebrews 11—all of these Old Testament figures—died in faith. They lived trusting in God to keep his promises and died according to those promises. They saw the promises of God, but did not see them fulfilled. Abraham died before seeing the children of Israel march into the promised land. But he died in faith. It’s one thing to live in faith, but it’s an entirely different thing to be facing your own death and still trust God to fulfill his promises. This is exactly what the patriarchs listed in Hebrews 11 did. They saw God’s power and faithfulness with eyes of faith, and thus they saw what their physical eyes never saw: God’s future fulfillment of his promises. They knew God was faithful, so they never stopped believing.

The author describes their journey of faith in terms of a pilgrimage to a city. As the patriarchs got closer, they saw the city’s glow, but they knew they were not going to make it there in their lifetimes. Still, they endured in their faith having “confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.” As exiles and strangers on the earth, the patriarchs—and ultimately all who endure in the faith—were seeking a different city. This is exactly what Peter says of Christians when he calls them “those chosen, living as exiles” (1 Pet 1:1) and “strangers” (1 Pet 2:11). Paul echoes this sentiment when he tells us “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). Like the saints of old, we long for a home that is heavenly.

By both their words and their actions the patriarchs demonstrated that they were foreigners and resident aliens on this earth. This is what verses 14-15 make clear. The author suggests that if the patriarchs had kept looking backward, they would not have maintained their faith until death. Nothing prevented Abraham from going back to Haran—nothing except faith in God’s promise. The people of God don’t look backward. They look forward because they are absolutely convinced God’s promises are true.

As we have seen multiple times throughout this letter, the word better is vital to the argument of the author, and in verse 16 he uses this word again. The patriarchs looked for a better city. They looked for a better country. Following the writer’s logic, everything is infinitely better in Christ. Grounding themselves in the faithfulness of God and in the certainty of his promises, the patriarchs didn’t just long for earthly fulfillment; they longed for a heavenly reality of these promises.

As a result of the enduring faith of our forefathers, God was not ashamed to be called their God. The implication of this is that God is ashamed of some people—namely, those who did not die in faith. God was ashamed of those who did not demonstrate belief that he could do what he promised. But for those of whom he is not ashamed, he has prepared a city. God promises a heavenly city—a heavenly kingdom—to those who endure in faith, even unto death. We are guaranteed this city in Christ.

The Faith of Abraham in Child Sacrificing

Hebrews 11:17-19

In Genesis 21 God told Abraham that the covenant promises would continue through Isaac, not Ishmael. In Genesis 22, when Isaac was probably around the age of twelve or thirteen, Abraham faced an excruciating test:

God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he answered.

“Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about. (Gen 22:1-2)

Genesis 22 is one of the most important and also one of the most infamous passages in all of Scripture. God tells Abraham to take Isaac—the son he loves and the son who will continue the line of promise—up to the land of Moriah and to sacrifice him there as a burnt offering. We know what a burnt offering is. A burnt offering happens when an animal is slain, its blood is drained, and its carcass is burned. Any father told to do this to his son would be tested beyond anything he could possibly imagine, and this is how Abraham was tested.

Remarkably, the text tells us Abraham obeyed the Lord:

So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. (Gen 22:3-4)

Though the Lord’s instructions seemed to run counter to his promise to Abraham, the man did as God commanded.

Yet in the end we see that God’s command did not run counter to his promise. Abraham believed God was able to raise Isaac from the dead if he was sacrificed. This is the commentary the author provides in verse 19. Abraham’s own words in Genesis 22:5 show that he believed Isaac would return alive: “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” Therefore, because Abraham responded in faith to God’s command, God reiterated his promise to Abraham: “I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the city gates of their enemies” (Gen 22:17).

In a sense, Isaac did die. This is what the second half of Hebrews 11:19 points out. He didn’t die physically, but he did die in a figurative sense. He was taken right up to the point of death and then brought back to life. So in a sense we can say that Isaac died and was resurrected. In this way, this story and Isaac’s role in particular anticipate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our great high priest.

Abraham passed God’s test because he was committed to God’s promises. He showed faith in God through his willingness to obey God’s command and sacrifice his son. He trusted God to deliver Isaac, and he may have even perceived that doing so would be the greatest display of God’s glory. That’s the story of the gospel. God has determined to save sinners and has done so in a way that brings him the greatest glory possible. This explains why God, who loves his Son to an even greater degree than Abraham loved Isaac, sent his Son to die for us. God’s word is true and his promises always come to pass, even when we can’t envision how he will do what he has promised. Nevertheless, we are called to obey him and follow him—by faith.

Reflect and Discuss

1. How did Sarah demonstrate her faith? Why is this considered faith? What makes the promises of God—no matter how absurd they may sound or seem to us—so worthy of our trust and obedience?
2. How is Sarah’s prayer for the “power to conceive offspring” tied to the promises God made to Abraham? What is the author using the example of Sarah and Abraham to communicate to his readers?
3. What does God’s promise to Sarah teach us about the process of conception? How does this differ from what today’s culture is telling us about birth and childbearing?
4. Who are the “all” in Hebrews 11:13? How did they die “in faith”? What didn’t they see? Why is the author describing their journey in terms of a “city”? How is this important?
5. How was Abraham a foreigner and a temporary resident? What does this language communicate to you? Why are these appropriate words for describing Christians? What can we learn and apply to our own lives from Abraham and the other patriarchs living as resident aliens?
6. Why is Abraham’s testing significant? Explain how God’s command to Abraham did not run counter to his promise to Abraham. What did Abraham believe God would do through the sacrifice, and how does the author use Genesis 22:5 to display this in Hebrews 11:19?
7. In what sense did Isaac die in the land of Moriah? How do Isaac’s role in Genesis 22 and the author’s commentary in the second part of verse 19 anticipate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
8. See Genesis 22:10-14. What did God provide in place of Isaac? How does God’s provision of a substitute sacrifice point to Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice? How do the story of Isaac’s sacrifice and the story of the gospel bring God the greatest glory possible?
9. Why do you think the author of Hebrews holds up Abraham and Sarah in particular as examples of faith in this passage? How is Isaac an example of faith?