l obedience to a Divine call. Submitting to God's will,
possessed with the inspiration and courage of faith, obeying daily new
intimations, he bends his steps this way or that, not knowing whither he
goes. True, he went right into the heart of the land of promise. But,
even in his own heritage, he became a sojourner, as in a land not his
own.[260] God "gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to
set his foot on."[261] Possessor of all in promise, he purchased a
sepulchre, which was the first ground he could call his own. The cave of
Machpelah was the small beginning of the fulfilment of God's promise,
which the spirit of Abraham is even now receiving in a higher form. It
is still the same. The bright dawn of heaven often breaks upon the soul
at an open grave. But he journeyed on, and trusted. For a time he and
Sarah only; afterwards Isaac with them; at last, when Sarah had been
laid to rest, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the three together, held on
bravely, sojourning with aching hearts, but ever believing. The Apostle
brings in the names of Isaac and Jacob, not to describe their
faith--this he will do subsequently,--but to show the tenacity and
patience of "the friend of God."

His faith, thus sorely tried by God's long delay, is rewarded, not with
an external fulfilment of the promise, but with larger hopes, wider
range of vision, greater strength to endure, more vivid realisation of
the unseen. "He looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose
Architect and Maker is God."[262] In the promise not a word is said
about a city. Apparently he was still to be a nomad chief of a large and
wealthy tribe. When God deferred again and again the fulfilment of His
promise to give him "this land," His trusting servant bethought him what
the delay could mean. This was his hill of difficulty, where the two
ways part. The worldly wisdom of unbelief would argue from God's
tardiness that the reality, when it comes, will fall far short of the
promise. Faith, with higher wisdom, makes sure that the delay has a
purpose. God intends to give more and better things than He promised,
and is making room in the believer's heart for the greater blessings.
Abraham cast about to imagine the better things. He invented a blessing,
and, so to speak, inserted it for himself in the promise.

This new blessing has an earthly and a heavenly meaning. On its earthly
side it represents the transition from a nomadic life to a fixed abode.
Faith