Hebrews 11:15, commentary and pictures

If they had kept the country they came out of in mind, with thoughts and longing fixed on it, they would have had opportunity to go back to it. In fact they were not mindful of that earthly home, had no desire for it, and did not dwell on it or use the chance to turn back. Instead they lived as strangers and pilgrims on earth who plainly seek a better, heavenly country and the city God has prepared for them. Abraham showed this by leaving his former country and remaining a stranger without receiving the promised possession in this world, and Moses showed it by forsaking Egypt to suffer with God's people because he desired that better country. That country is a real home on the new earth, not to be spiritualized away, where after long wandering God's people find sure dwellings, quiet resting-places, and eternal life without sin and death.

Opportunity to Return

If they had kept the country they came out of in mind, with thoughts fixed on it and longing and focus set upon it, they would have had opportunity to have returned to it. Instead they lived as strangers and pilgrims on earth who seek a country, desiring a better, heavenly country and the city God has prepared and built. They died in faith without receiving the promises, having seen them afar off and being persuaded of them and embracing them, and confessing they were strangers and pilgrims.

In fact they were not mindful of the earthly country they had come out of, had no desire for it and no desire to return to the worldly associations they had left, and did not dwell on it or keep longing for it or keep their minds on it. Though they might have had opportunity to return, they did not use the opportunity to turn back to it or go back. Their choice not to return declared plainly that they sought a better country, that is a heavenly one, for which God has prepared a city and is not ashamed to be called their God. He who supremely desires salvation hungers for righteousness, is not charmed by the pleasures of this life, and handles the things of this world without becoming worldly, looking for a city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God.

Keeping the mind on former comforts and on visible and discouraging things can draw one back, so the mind must be turned from those things to the unseen heavenly hope. Remembering the country left and looking back toward it could lead to returning there, and the lesson is to keep the mind on the heavenly home rather than on earthly homes, which are temporary. Egypt figures the worldly life left behind, while heavenly Canaan figures the goal toward which influence should lead, so influence that draws toward the world points backward rather than toward that heavenly goal. Christians are pilgrims and strangers in this world seeking the city God has made, for this world is not their home or heaven, and they should prepare for their heavenly home by cultivating the soul and putting on Christ's righteousness.

Those who deliberately wander from God still have opportunity to set the face to return. Return costs much and is gained only by hard fighting inch by inch, every hour, with toil, time, perseverance, patience and sacrifice. Briars and thorns grow up in the path, and the wanderer must travel long with torn and bleeding feet to get back. The path to the better country, which is heaven, the paradise of God, is too narrow for rank, riches and ambition and too steep and rugged for ease, and entering requires toil, patience, self-sacrifice, reproach, poverty, hard work and sympathy with heaven's inhabitants.

Weary pilgrims may look at other places they could prefer and could return to, yet find the home provided for them best and stay in it as a good resting place on their journey.

Desire for Heaven

The faithful who left their former country could have returned to it if they had kept their thoughts and longing fixed upon it, but instead they lived as strangers and pilgrims on earth who plainly seek a country, desiring a better, heavenly country and the city God has prepared and built for them. They were not mindful of the earthly country they had come out of and would not use any opportunity to turn back to it, because their choice not to return showed their desire for that heavenly home for which God is not ashamed to be called their God. They died in faith without receiving the promises, having seen them afar off and being persuaded of them and embracing them, and confessing they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth who seek a country. Though they had opportunity to return to the earthly country they came from, they did not keep it in mind and did not go back, but looked for a city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God.

That same hope passed to the disciples who described and foretold it in prophecy, and Christ held out the same attraction in promising to prepare a place in His Father's house, calling all to prepare now to move to that better heavenly country. God has prepared a city for them and is not ashamed to call them brethren, and their willingness not to turn back shows their faith in God's promised home. The faith that sustained God's servants in sacred history can also work in believers now to help them trust God and go forward through trials. Those witnesses form the cloud of witnesses compassing believers, who breasted evils and difficulties in their way and in the Lord's name braced themselves successfully against opposing forces of evil, sustained and strengthened with the Lord holding them by His hand, and their example calls believers to lay aside the weights of evil habits and practices formed by following natural dispositions and to run with patience the race set before them.

True education trains children and youth for that same country and its heavenly inheritance, for the life that now is and for that which is to come. Like those ancients, believers now receive the promises by faith and must not only know the truth but practice it with greatly increased faith in these last days. They must watch and wait and pray for the Lord's appearing, holding the promises doubly dear and never doubting God's goodness. They must watch and wait and work while pleading the sacrifice of the cross to save perishing souls, having human nature changed and transformed by grace in preparation for garments of heaviness to be exchanged for the wedding garment to witness the coronation of the King.

Examples of Faithfulness

Abraham could have gone back to the land he had left if he had kept longing for it, but he truly left it and was not mindful to return because he did not regard this world as home. God had called him away from his idolatrous countrymen with the promise of Canaan as an everlasting possession, yet neither he nor his son nor his son's son received it. He had no possession in the earth, not so much as to set foot on, and when he needed a burial place for his dead he had to buy it from the Canaanites, so that his only possession in the promised land was the rock-hewn tomb in the cave of Machpelah, because the heritage promised to God's people is not in this world. He remained a stranger, died in faith without receiving the promised possessions, and trusted the promise despite owning no land, with his hope fixed on God's future home and reward rather than on earthly possessions or prosperity. The hardships he faced gave reason to question or distrust God's leading, yet his faith stayed fixed on the promises rather than on returning to his former life or gaining possessions here, and believers likewise live as pilgrims and strangers looking toward God's city and immortal life as their lasting home and reward.

Moses stands among those who confessed themselves strangers and pilgrims on earth and were not mindful of the earthly country they came out of so as to return to it, though opportunity to return might have been theirs. He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, and by faith forsook Egypt without fearing the wrath of the king. He endured as seeing Him who is invisible, because he had respect to the recompense of the reward and desired a better, heavenly country for which God has prepared a city and is not ashamed to be called their God.

True pilgrims do not keep their minds on the earthly country they left and do not take hardship as an opportunity to return, as the Puritan exiles showed after fleeing persecution at the opening of the seventeenth century. They left houses, goods, livelihood and means of support in England to become strangers in Holland among people of different language and customs. Forced to leave farming to learn new and untried mechanical occupations and trades, they were often pinched with poverty. Yet they cheerfully accepted their situation without idleness or repining, did not spend time dwelling on what they had lost or seek opportunity to go back, and looked not much on earthly things. They thanked God for blessings still granted, found joy in unmolested spiritual communion, and lifted their eyes to heaven as their dearest country to quiet their spirits there.

Those seeking a heavenly country could have returned to the country they left if they had kept longing for it, and their choice not to return shows their desire for a better, heavenly country. Daniel Wessels is one who desired that country where God has prepared a city for him. The record of the ancient faithful in general shows firm principles that made them examples for holding an onward course without turning back to a former country.

God's people are a pilgrim band come out from their former country who do not keep it in mind to return, but stand as on Jordan's stormy banks with wishful eye toward Canaan's fair and happy land where their true possessions lie. They are a lonely band on earth, weary and worn and sad and homeless, who have heard from the bright holy land and are glad, knowing the goodly land is fair and pilgrims have a dwelling there and shall be homeless no more. There life's pure river runs and green unfading fields never blight and deserts bloom, with the fair city with pearly gates radiant with light, the palms and robes and crowns, the silvery band in white, and angels and saints with harps of gold. There stands the mount with the fruitful tree of life whose leaves bring healing, and the fair King who is the joy and light of the place, in whose beauty they shall behold Him and bask in His smiling face. They will be there in a little while to join the pure and blest, to have the palm and robe and crown and forever be at rest in a fair, lasting home where life and joy remain and weariness ends.

Nature of Inheritance

The inheritance of the saved is called a country, meaning a real home on the new earth and not a truth to be spiritualized away, where God's people after being so long pilgrims and wanderers shall find a home. It is sought as a heavenly country, with sure dwellings and quiet resting-places and mansions prepared for the disciples. There the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock to fountains of living waters, beside ever-flowing streams clear as crystal and peaceful plains beside living streams.

Waving trees shade the paths prepared for the ransomed, and widespread plains swell into hills of beauty while the mountains of God rear their lofty summits. The tree of life yields its fruit every month, and its leaves are for the service of the nations and bring healing. At last earthly wanderings are forever past and the Israel of God enter the goodly land, which is the earth freed from the curse and lovelier than the land of promise, where there is no sin and death cannot enter and the nations of the saved find their eternal home.

There the lonely pilgrim band, weary and worn and sad and homeless no more, know the goodly land is fair and pilgrims have a dwelling there and lasting rest with the King. Life's pure river runs there, green fields never blight, deserts bloom, and the fair city with pearly gates radiant with light holds palms and robes and crowns. The silvery band in white, angels and saints with harps of gold, gather about the mount with the fruitful tree of life, where the fair King is the joy and light of the place, in whose beauty they shall behold Him and bask in His smiling face, to be there in a little while to join the pure and blest and have the palm, the robe, the crown and forever be at rest.

Their hope looks to Christ's coming, when the righteous dead will be raised and the righteous living translated to heaven, to the city whose builder and maker is God. After more than eighteen hundred years of waiting they are almost home and very near the eternal world, homeward bound with the time of tarrying almost ended. So they must not grow weary or lose hold on faith or say the city is far off, but press homeward a little longer until in His own time God fulfills His word. Then Christ comes to gather His redeemed to Himself, they see the King in His beauty, have all tears wiped away, and are presented faultless before God's glory with exceeding joy.

As pilgrims and strangers with no certain abiding place here, they travel on by faith, trusting God at every step as He carries their burdens, openly confessing that identity and holding houses as temporary rented dwellings. They use means to God's glory to build churches and help the needy rather than spending on needless earthly things, refusing to turn back to the country they left.

Life as Pilgrims

This world is not the Christian's home, but Christians are only temporary residents here, pilgrims and strangers traveling on by foot toward a better, heavenly country, the paradise of God, a heavenly land of joy, peace and happiness, with no certain abiding place here and citizenship in heaven, trusting God at every step as He carries their burdens. They have left the world and will not return to it, and if they had kept their former country in mind they could have returned to it, but instead their lives show they seek the heavenly country. Their hope in heaven draws their hearts from earthly things and makes heaven their chief consolation and joy.

This pilgrim identity must be shown by lives that honor God and by pure and holy conduct and conversation proving they are born from above, with hearts flowing out in love and gratitude for the wondrous love of the Son of God for poor sinners, alive and awake to honor, glorify and adore the High and Lofty One, and not stupid and careless while everything that can be done for salvation is being done to keep them right and all heaven is interested for them. Their works must make it plain to others, showing in life and character the sanctification of the gospel, fear and trembling for what is coming in the future, and faith in Christ's soon coming in power and great glory and in the signs of His second coming, refusing to spend God's treasure to glorify self with stylish and costly buildings. Showing this requires becoming partakers of the divine nature through sanctification by the truth, with softened spirit and humble, kindly feelings, so the Spirit bears witness that they are co-workers with Christ and His commissioned messengers revealing the imprint of the heavenly.

They live in the world but are not of it, come out from the world and stand separate as God's peculiar people, each person fully given to God to be molded and fashioned until bearing the superscription of Christ. Though living in this world and acting their part in humanity, they do not keep the eye fastened on its deformity and curse, are not conformed to it, and its standards are no rule for them and the world is not to be their instructor. As children of the heavenly King, members of the royal family and representatives of Christ called out of darkness into His marvelous light, chosen out of the world, they reveal their heavenly extraction in manner and words and character, keeping the Lord's way exalted in righteousness and doing no injustice to God's subjects purchased by His blood, and never apologize for being Christians and daring to be right. They turn from worldly political involvement and amusement in childish things, and look for the city built by God whose citizenship is in heaven.

Those who move west must not move to get rich, to gain honor, to lay up treasure on earth, or to become engrossed in the care and perplexity of farms and worldly cares, but to hold up and exalt the standard of truth, to win souls, and to do an exalted work in giving the last message of mercy to the world. They are to be like men waiting for their Lord, a living example as God's peculiar people, showing by works that this world is not home and that treasure is laid up in heaven, breaking entanglement with earth, weaning affections from earth to dwell on heavenly things, looking upward to God, glory and Heaven, and safely contemplating Abraham's farm as heirs of the immortal inheritance. Works that show home and treasure are here deny the faith that seeks heaven and awaits Christ's return, and becoming absorbed in worldly concerns as at Round Grove contradicted that faith. Believers displaced by opposition and persecution are likewise pilgrims seeking a better, heavenly country, and their hope calls them to welcome homeless fellow believers and strangers rather than cling selfishly to earthly homes.

Seeking the better country means not coveting earthly possessions or pursuing happiness through worldly plans, but devoting what is had to God's kingdom so God can entrust His truth to be made known through them. It calls for self-denial, economy and sacrifice in giving to support the ministry and save souls, with devoted service to God in working for the salvation of others and sharing experiences of that work. It governs housing and money, holding houses as temporary rented dwellings and using means to God's glory to build churches and help the needy rather than spending on needless earthly things, money or self-gratification. Living simply and avoiding costly possessions belongs to it because earthly residence is temporary, and rich houses, fine buildings and attractive earthly surroundings will all pass away and are not home. Therefore building is to be plain, neat and tasteful tabernacles rather than cathedrals, without needless adornment or debt.

Because they share one heavenly destination and one Center, Christ who gave Himself for them, all earthly distinctions between rich and poor, white or black, high or low are removed in their worship of God. All prejudice is melted away, heart is bound to heart in truth, and all stand in one brotherhood as members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King, lifted to the same rank and of equal value. Their journey as fellow pilgrims who have left their former country ends in God's approval only if they do not cherish a spirit that tries to crowd out or supplant others. Those who bear the fruits of malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

On the way they meet trials and disappointments, but they are not to turn back; by looking to Jesus and fighting the fight of faith they can endure and turn apparent defeats into victories. A pilgrim and stranger remains willing to follow God's will, endure present labor and self-denial, and wait for His salvation and final reward rather than return to former desires or comforts. God has not left them without help to keep them from turning back, but brightens the journey with blessings scattered all along the path to lead hearts to love and praise Him, gives precious promises that lighten every burden like fair flowers blossoming with rich fragrance on the borders of the way, and refreshes hearts from the well of salvation so hope is strengthened and darkness is turned to light. Thus they can sing the songs of Zion and cheer their own hearts and the hearts of others, forgetting annoyances and fretting cares, breathing the atmosphere of that better, even the heavenly, country, soothed and comforted and joyful in God through the riches of the grace of Christ so abundantly provided.

They are strangers on earth and are nearly home, and should be watching for the King and preparing to meet Him, keeping minds on the better country for only a little longer and holding the pilgrim profession and preparing for the finishing touch of immortality. This world is not their home or heaven, and they should prepare for their heavenly home by cultivating the soul and putting on Christ's righteousness, not expecting full reward in earthly possessions or prosperity but looking for immortal life and an eternal weight of glory. The path there is too narrow for rank, riches and ambition and too steep and rugged for ease, and entering requires toil, patience, self-sacrifice, reproach, poverty, hard work, and a heart to sympathize with heaven's inhabitants.

Their speech should likewise show that they are seeking the unseen heavenly country, looking for the bright things of God and the joy set before them, beholding the provisions made for them and the mansions Jesus has gone to prepare and talking of the blessed home. They travel toward the city of God guided by the star of holiness and heavenly brightness, the true light now shining to light up every soul opened heavenward. Artificial lights claiming to come from heaven will appear to take the place of the true and will deceive many souls for a time, and they must not let them eclipse heaven's bright beams, take the place of the true, and deceive them.

They should not be bound to any earthly place, but be ready to move when God directs them, obeying however inconvenient and inconsistent such a command may seem. This required leaving Battle Creek to carry on the publishing work near Washington, and moving away from Washington if the Lord afterward says to move. The thought of returning to the place left must not turn them from that journey and from steadfastness in the work God has given to the end rather than deserting it. Living by faith with the heavenly Canaan in view they press toward it rather than returning to the world, and being strangers on earth makes the promised rest and home with God more precious.