Abraham is our model. God wants to lead and guide us, as He did Abraham, into Canaan, a place full of idols and often in famine. In this place only a small parcel of land belongs to us. Here Satan is the ruler of everything, and little fruit is produced from the land. Everything in such an environment seems to speak contrary to God’s promise, and it seems unlikely that God would have brought us to such a place. Is this what we get for leaving behind our old way of life, kindred, and country? Where is the land and the seed that God has promised? What did Abraham see in that day? He saw nothing. Year after year until he died, he only begot Isaac. Of the numerous descendants promised to him, who would be as many as the stars in heaven, the sands by the sea, and the dust on the earth, he only saw Isaac! When his wife died, he did not have one plot of land in which to bury her. He had to buy a burial ground. Is this what God had promised? Yet the father of our faith did not doubt. He knew what faith was and what it was to not live by sight. He followed God. Abraham can see now and will see the complete fulfillment of God’s promises in the kingdom to come. Today is there anything that man can see and feel elated about? This is the way God leads every one of His faithful believers to take. Although we see and feel nothing today, the future will be full of spiritual land and descendants.
[Editor’s note: An article, “The Faith of Abraham,” was written by Ruth Lee and included in the same issue of the magazine.]