¹⁵ And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.

Faith involves patience—that is made clear through the book of Hebrews in many ways. Abraham proves an excellent example of believing God for something, then waiting a long time, in his case 25 years (see Gen 12:4, 21:5)! In our fast-moving, instant-communicating, video-conferencing, microwaving, two-day delivery styled lives, we often expect God to act “right now!” To wait on Him too long is almost insufferable. “OK, God, I believe, now why don’t You supernaturally take away my credit card debt.” We want others to know that we are so significant in God’s eyes that He does miraculous things for us. We want to know for ourselves as well!

Interestingly, there seems to be at the same time a rise in efforts to bolster faith by manufacturing rallies (some call them church services) offering instantaneous healings or miraculous happenings of signs and wonders. Why wait for God when you can have Him now?! God is a miracle working God!

However, the book of Hebrews provides the example of the quintessential man of faith, Abraham, who waited 25 years to begin glimpsing the first hints of the promise of God coming to fruition. Even then it was a single son! But, this was enough for our writer to say, “He obtained the promise.” Some may rationalize that this was just an ancient example of faith but that the NT breaks the idea wide open, as seen in the lives of the apostles and early church. However, we are quick note that the book of Hebrews is part of the NT! And it extolls Abraham’s faith throughout. He waited 25 years! This is NT truth.

Yes, at times, God pours out the miraculous, as in the ministry of Jesus and during the apostolic years of the church. But, clearly those diminished in time, not because of lack of faith, but because the time of great upheaval in God’s bringing in a new epoch of dealings with His people was passing. This is true of all the great outpourings of God’s miraculous works in Scripture.

In Hebrews we see a call to faith, but not a call to force God’s hand to perform miraculously. It is a call to patient faith and trust in the promises of God, even when we cannot see them. Later we find the wonderful and profound message, “Now faith is … the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). Once the goal of our faith has been obtained (seen), then faith is obviously no longer needed—we have what we believed God for. But the longer we wait for what is promised us, the greater our faith must be. Let us not get mired down in an immature faith, but move on to maturity (5:1), to the better things (5:9).

Lord, grant me patience for the things which You have promised me but that I have not yet received. I trust You that I will someday obtain what I hope for.