353. City with Foundations
Hebrews 11:10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Abraham looked for a city that has foundations, a city built by God. This is God’s promise to us: a building with foundations, built by God Himself. We do not look for great and beautiful things in this world. We are looking for a wonderful mansion as a dwelling place. We are not looking for a nice new place to live in this world, a city that is prosperous and peaceful, friendly and beautiful. Any such place built by humans cannot be found, for it does not have foundations and will not last forever. Anything built by humans needs constant maintenance and will eventually crumble.
We need, and we look for, a city built by God on permanent foundations that will last forever. And we have such a promise. Look at the last two chapters of the Bible and we see the fulfillment of that promise: the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, whose walls have twelve huge foundations. This is the wonderful, beautiful city in which redeemed humanity will dwell safely and happily forever without threat of sin or death or devil, where the Lord Himself is the light.
We tend to forget, but we basically know, that nothing in this world is permanent; there is nothing, no city, no institution, no life, which does not grow old and eventually die. We yearn for such a place, such a condition, for we innately know that God created things to be endless and last forever without end. Sin destroyed that purpose of God, and we lost the permanence. But down deep eternity is still in the heart and the yearning for such an eternal utopia cannot be quenched. When we read and hear God’s Word and Promises we are overjoyed and our hope is kindled: it really is true; all our hopes will be realized because Jesus Christ has restored eternal life and paradise for all who believe in Him.
So we, like Abraham, look for anything and everything that God made and built, and we know that the unseen is eternal. God made a city for us and we shall dwell in it. The environment of the new heaven and new earth will continually be renewed and refreshed along with our resurrected bodies, all of which will never or die or deteriorate. Now that is a promise.