Resource Detail

Home in the Promised Land

Hebrews 11:8-10
Key Verse: 11:9a

"By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country"

1. Read verse 8. What did God call Abraham to do (Gen 12:1)?  What did God promise to Abraham (Gen 12:2-3)? 
2. How did Abraham respond to God’s calling (Heb 11:8, Gen 12:4)? Why might this not be easy (Gen 12:4-5)? How could Abraham obey God’s calling although he did not know where he was going? What can we learn from Abraham’s faith?
3. Read verse 9. What was the reality in the promised land (Gen12:6)? How did God comfort Abraham who might have been disappointed and discouraged? What does it teach us that Abraham and his children lived in tents?
4. Read verse 10. What did Abraham hope for? How is the heavenly city different from earthly cities (Rev 21:1-4)?
5. What is your home like? What does home on Earth and in Heaven mean to you?

Home in the Promised Land

Hebrews 11:8-10

Key verse: Hebrews 11:9a “By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country”

Today’s passage is about home. When you think about home, what kind of feelings do you have? Home is supposed to be a warm place to rest, relax, and refresh. Home is a place to meet and spend time together with your loving family. There are many words and expressions describing home, such as “home sweet home”, “There's no place like home”, and “Home is where the heart is”. We always want to go back home after a long day of work or after many days on a trip. About a month ago, Artemis II astronauts flew to the moon and returned to Earth. After splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, the first words that the astronauts heard was “Welcome home!”. We all share the Earth as our home planet. On our home planet, we also have our home country. Just like many missionaries here, my home country is South Korea. And you have your hometown. Finally, there is a place called home, the house where you live.

Today’s passage talks about Abraham’s faith; that he obeyed God’s command to go to a new land, lived in tents like a stranger, and hoped for the permanent home that was built by God. Look at verse 8: 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. In Genesis 12:1, God had said to Abraham, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you”. Then God gave Abraham a promise that he would make him into a great nation and that all peoples on earth would be blessed through him. Abraham used to live in the city of Ur and Harran with his family. When God called Abraham, he was already 75 years old. It must have been a difficult decision for Abraham to obey God’s calling, given that he was already old and was enjoying his stable life. However, verse 8 says that Abraham obeyed and went to a place he would later receive as his inheritance when God called him although he didn’t know where he was going. Moving is always tough, especially when it is long-distance moving. Based on the route that Abraham took, the distance between Ur and Canaan was about 1,200 miles, which would have taken 2 to 3 months. Abraham had little information about the land of Canaan, unlike today. There were no Google map, Zillow or social media, from which you could find information before moving to a new place that was thousands of miles away. However, Abraham trusted in God and obeyed him although he didn’t know where he was going. Do you know where you are going? Sometimes, we have no idea where we are heading to and feel like we are lost. However, when we trust in God fully as Abraham did, he will guide us in the right direction. Genesis 12:5 says, “He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.”

Let’s read verse 9: 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. When Abraham finally arrived at the promised land, it was not an empty land where he could freely build his new home. The land was already occupied by the Canaanites who had different culture and religions and spoke different languages. Abraham must have been disappointed or even felt deceived. Abraham and his family travelled for many months because he believed God’s promise, but when he arrived at the land, he found that the land was already inhabited by native people. “Excuse me, can I see your passport?” Was this the biggest immigration scam by God? When Abraham found out the harsh reality, what did he do? Genesis 12:6 and 7 state: At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. God appeared again to Abraham who must have been discouraged by the situation to reassure his promise that he would give the land to his offspring. Abraham restored his faith in God and his promise, so he built an altar to God. Although Abraham obeyed God and went to the land that God promised, he had to live there like a stranger in a foreign country until he died. Many of you have moved from your home coutries to this country many years ago and may still feel like a stranger in a foreign country due to language and cultural barriers as well as social and emotional challeges. Just like many of you, Abraham was a first-generation immigrant, so he had to go through many tough situations. Abraham didn’t settle down in one place but lived in tents, which were only a temporary dwelling place, and kept moving around here and there. When I lived in Korea, I used to live a common life with Christian brothers in the church, and the place was called tent. Although it wasn’t a real tent, it was a very humble residence, just like a tent. My first tent was in a wealthy man’s garage. Since the rented room was not spacious enough for about 6 or 7 brothers, two of us had to sleep on the narrow kitchen floor next to the sink. While living in Korea, I lived in 4 different tents with many UBF brothers, including M. James D. Kim. Those tents were small and crowded with many people. In one tent, about 10 brothers slept in a small room with only a tiny gap between our shoulders. I believe everyone who was living in those humble tents was looking forward to a better place. Let’s read verse 10: For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Abraham lived in the land of Canaan for 100 years, but he did not own any land, except for a small burial plot for his family. Abraham who had lived in tents was looking forward to a much better place, the city with foundations designed and built by God. There are many huge and beautiful mansions in this world, which are owned by the most powerful and the richest people in the world. However, those mansions are not even comparable to the heavenly mansions prepared by God for us. During the last supper, Jesus told his disciples in John 14:2, “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” Our heavenly father’s house is spacious, so no one needs to sleep on the kitchen floor. There are many beautiful and glorious cities bulit by humans, but no cities are permanent in this world because they rise and fall. We live in New York City or nearby and we all love New York City. There is a song called “New York New York” by Frank Sinatra that you listen to when a new year begins. It goes like this, “Start spreading the news I am leaving today I want to be a part of it New York, New York”. Yes, New York City is a dream city that millions of people want to visit and live in. But, as you know very well, New Yok City is not a perfect city. There are numerous problems such as crimes, high cost of living, and poverty, just like many other major cities around the world. Sadly, our home city will not stand forever just like many other glorious cities that rose and fell in human history. However, we will all move to the city with foundations that is designed and built by God, and this city will be eternal. Revelations 21:2 states: I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. We will all receive a green card and citizenship for the new Jersusalem through our faith in Jesus and dwell with God forever.

I moved to this country from South Korea in 2004. I counted how many different places I have lived in since 2004 and found that I have lived in 11 different apartments or houses in 4 different states in the last 22 years. I lived in three different apartments while living in Manhattan for 5 years. I lived in two different apartments while living in Madision, WI for a year and a half. I lived in three different places while living in Richland, WA. Finally, I had three different homes in Queens and New Jersey. My family moved once a year on average in my first 10 years in the US, so my children used to think that we were supposed to move to new home on a regular basis. My first home in the US was located on Claremont Ave near Columbia University. This was a small but perfect one bedroom apartment for me and my wife. We lived here for one year. Then we moved into an apartment located on Broadway, which was a two-bedroom apartment. Two shepherdesses, Lori and Taylor, lived with us in the apartment. While living in this apartment from 2005 to 2008, my two children, Julia and Chris, were born. Then we moved to another apartment in the same building, which was a little larger than the previous one. In this apartment, Bennelly stayed with us. In those years, my wife was working full time at Columbia University, so I had to babysit my children during the day until she came back home. Since I was also a Ph.D student at CUNY, I stayed up late at night for my Ph.D. thesis. While completing my Ph.D. study, I applied for jobs here and there, but I experienced numerous rejections. However, I finally got an interview opportunity for a postdoctral position at University of Wisconsin-Madison. By the grace of God, I received the job offer and we moved to Madision, WI in 2009. I was happy that I could finally support my family as the head of family. But my annual salary was less than $40K, which was much less than my wife’s salary at Columbia University. When I attended the North America staff conference in Chicago in 2010, I had a chance to have lunch with my friend from the same lab at Korea University who is currently a professor at Korea University. He asked me if my wife was still in New York City, and I thought it was a strange question because I believed a family should stay together wherever you go. However, from a worldly point of view, it was a foolish decision to give up money just to live together as a family, but I have no regrets. We lived in a humble house for postdocs located in the university campus. After joining the worship service at Milwakee UBF for several months, we started a house church ministry in Madison since there was no other UBF family there. We had Sunday worship service in our living room every Sunday and God blessed us with several regular attendants in addition to a few Bible students. I worked for 5 days a week as a postdoc researcher and then prepared the Sunday worship message every Saturday, staying up late at night. My mother-in-law who joined my house chruch at that time also served delicious lunch every Sunday. My home was a fun amusement park for my children during weekdays but turned into a church on Sunday. However, I had to find a new job because my postdoc contract was only for two years. There was no job available for me in Madison, but God opened a door to another postdoctoral position at a national laboratory in Washington state. We moved again from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest in 2011. We lived in a city called Richland that is famous for 300 days of sunshine, which means it was a desert. We were alone because there was no other UBF family there. We continued our house church minisry and had the Sunday worship service on a collge campus by studying the Bible every Sunday. There was a big American church near my apartment. One day, my wife suggested to me that we join the American church, but I refused because I was afraid of going to an American church. I was also invited to a Korean church by Korean Christian scientists who had a weekly lunch meeting with me. But I refused their invitations saying I had my own house church ministry, but it seemed that they didn’t understand it. One day, their church pastor joined a lunch meeting and persuaded me to join their Korean church, but I resisted because my family is not a Korean family although I am a Korean. I thought neither the American church nor the Korean church fit into my family’s identity, so we kept our house church ministry. We met other UBF house churches in Seattle and Vancouver, Canada and had the first and second Northwest regional summer Bible conferences in 2011 and 2012. Although we were alone in the desert town, I didn’t feel lonley because of my family. My wife and my children were my best friends. We were always together and had fun together. I still miss those days. When I arrived at Richland, Washington, the scenary looked like the land of Canaan in the Bible, so I talked to myself, “Abraham, this is the land of promise for you.” But it didn’t take too long for me to realize that it was not the promised land. I wanted to get promoted from a postdoc scientist position to a permanent scientist position to stay there, but it didn’t happen. I applied for many jobs here and there, but there were only rejections after rejections. In 2013, my advisor at Korea University invited me to give a research presentation in Korea, and he strongly encouraged me to apply for a professor position at Korea University because my publication record was good and he promised me his full support. I was excited about this opportunity because Korea University is my alma mater and the best private university in Korea. After returning to the US, I asked my wife about this, but she refused to move to Korea. I didn’t want to move to Korea without my family. I also felt guilty for giving up my missionary life for my own success. We decided to move back to New York City in 2014. We moved into my mother-in-law’s house in Elmhurst and my wife returned to her old position at Columbia University, and I became jobless. I felt like a total failure. However, God had mercy on me. Although I lost access to my email account for my old job, my personal hotmail address was included in one job application for a state university in New Jersey. I was contacted by them for a job interview and finally got a tenure track faculty position and worked there for 9 years. Although I was laid off 3 years ago due to my university’s financial crisis, God immediately provided me with another faculty position at a CUNY campus in Brooklyn. I have lived in this country like a stranger, moving to many different places often without knowing where I was going. But God was with me and my family and provided great homes wherever we went.

What is your home like? Do you like your home? What does your home mean to you? We want to build a great home for our family. Unfortunately, our home in this world will not be perfect. Many homes are broken not only physically but also emotionally. However, we have great hope for our eternal home in heaven. In the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, God himself will dwell with us, and we will be his people. God will wipe every tear from our eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain in our heavenly home. There will be no more night in the Holy City because the glory of God will be our light. Living in the broken world like a stranger, we experience many troubles and hardships everyday, but when we finally enter the heavenly city, God will open his arms wide and welcome us, “Welcome home, my son and my daughter!”. May God help each of us live by faith in this world and keep our hope for the heavenly home that God promised.