Abraham: Faith to Look For a City (Hebrews 11:10)

Abraham’s Saving, Present, and Future Faith

Let's begin with a word of prayer before we open God's Word together. Father, as we come to your Word, our prayer is a very simple one. We pray that you would give us eyes to see your truth, ears to hear your truth, a heart to love your truth, and a will to obey your truth, and that you would conform us to the image of Christ, inflame our hearts with a love and affection for the Lord Jesus Christ, for his soon-and-coming kingdom, and for the grace that you have bestowed upon us in him.

We pray your blessing on this time. Help us to be clear in our thinking and in how we respond to your Word, we ask in Christ's name. Amen. We turn, please, now to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, we're going to read together verses 8 through 10.

We've been looking at the three ways that Abraham's faith was demonstrated in his life. By faith, he left his old life, his culture, his religion, for a land that God had promised him. By faith, he lived in that land as a stranger, and then by faith he looked forward to a city with foundations whose maker and builder was God.

There was a leaving, a living, and a looking. Beginning of verse 8, He left, he lived, and he looked. We've been observing how each of those is analogous to some aspect of faith and how faith is lived out in our lives today.

Abraham truly is a model of the kind of faith that not only saves, but also sustains and sanctifies believers in this life. His leaving is analogous to our salvation. Abraham left a culture and a set of God's people, acquaintances, family members, a land that he was familiar with.

He turned from that, and he followed God in obedience to God. That is somewhat analogous to our salvation. We likewise leave all of those things behind and then turn and follow after the God who calls us out of darkness and into light.

Abraham's living in the land is somewhat analogous to our living our lives here as aliens and strangers. He lived in a land that he knew was not his, that God had promised it to him, and he never possessed it in his life.

But Abraham yet lived faithfully in that land, just as you and I are called, to live in this world, not as if this is going to be our ultimate home or as if this is all that we will ever possess, but we are to likewise live in this land as aliens and strangers, as pilgrims and sojourners.

There is, therefore, a past aspect to faith, the faith that saves us. There is a present element of faith, the faith in which we walk, the faith that we live out now, the faith that we have by which we walk day by day.

And then there is a future aspect of faith, and that is the forward-looking anticipation of something that is held out for us, the reward that we are promised. Faith believes that God is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

That's the faith that saves, sanctifies, and secures us. It is a faith that anticipates a reward that is to come. And so today we are looking at that future reward that we see in Abraham's life. Now, all of these aspects of faith are connected.

And before we jump into it, I don't want you to miss this. All of them are connected. Nobody truly leaves the past life to live the present life in light of promises that are yet future. Nobody does that unless he actually has a faith that looks forward and says, okay, I'm willing to leave darkness, and I'm willing to walk in light, and I'm willing to walk in light as long as I have to in order to achieve the reward and the certainty that God has promised us on the other end of that.

Nobody leaves their sin unless they expect that there is something more pleasurable, more joyous, more beneficial, more profitable, more prosperous than the sin and what sin offers. Likewise, nobody lives in this current life and is able to live faithfully in this current life if he has not first left the sin behind.

We can't serve two masters. We can't pretend as if we have two citizenships. And so the one who lives is to live faithfully in this life must turn from idols. There is nobody who holds to that sin and loves that darkness who is also able to live in this life in a faithful, God-honoring, and victorious way.

And the one who lives faithfully in this life has to and is only able to do so by looking forward to the life that is to come and expecting certain rewards and promises and blessings that are guaranteed and given to us.

And nobody who is living in light of what is future will not walk in faithfulness and not leave their idols. See, all of these are connected. They all go together. This faith that Abraham demonstrated, it is all woven together.

There is a past, a present, and a future to this, and all three of them are present. You can't have one without having the other two by necessity. So today we are looking at Abraham's future-looking, forward-looking faith.

True saving faith repents, turns from what is past, turns from what it was in, lives faithfully in this life, and will eventually hold on and be secured everlastingly to receive the reward that they are promised.

So we are looking today at verse 10. Abraham was looking for a city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Now this verse raises some interpretive questions for us that we are going to hit head-on and very thoroughly this morning.

Some interpretive issues. What is this city? Where is this city? Did Abraham ever live in this city? Did he ever see this city? Is Abraham in this city now? Is this city a physical city? Is this city on earth?

Is this city going to come to earth? Is this city in heaven? Must I go to heaven to see this city? See, these are all the questions that are tied up with this verse. He was looking for a city which has foundations, whose architect, whose maker and builder is God.

To put it more succinctly, the question is this. Does this city and the receiving of this city, does that replace the land promises that Abraham was given back in the book of Genesis? That's the key interpretive question with verse 10.

And we will look at that in due faith. But first let's look at just the details of this city and what we are told Abraham was looking for. Abraham was looking, and that is the motivation for his living.

You can see the connection between verses 9 and 10. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise. How did he live? He lived as an alien because he was looking. So there is a looking and a living that are going together here with Abraham.

He was only able to live faithfully because he was looking forward. And he had set his heart and his mind on what God had promised him, and the ultimate receiving of that promise, and that is his motivation for living.

The word translated looking here involves more than just what you might think is the bare meaning of that verb in our language. We use the term looking and we can mean a bunch of different things by that.

This word has the idea of not just looking for something like you're searching for something, but this word has the idea of expecting something. It means to wait, to wait for, or to expect. In fact, out of the six places where this word is used in the New Testament, this, Hebrews 11, verse 10, is the only place where it is translated as looking.

Elsewhere it is translated as wait, as waiting, or as expecting. So there is an element of patience that is involved with this looking. It is a patience that is coupled with an expectation. So this is a looking for something, not in the sense that you search for something, but looking for something in the sense that you are waiting for something.

Does that make sense? There's a difference. This is not that Abraham was looking for a city like you and I look for our keys. It's lost and we're searching around for it, waiting to see maybe is it under this cushion or is it behind this door?

It's not that. It is waiting for something in the sense that you and I look for the mailman or the UPS driver when we're expecting something significant. You see somebody looking out the window, what are you looking for?

I'm looking for the UPS driver. I'm looking for the mailman to come. It has an anticipation, a waiting, and an expectation. That's what it is. It's not just searching for something. It's not like Abraham was just sort of peering over every horizon that he came to.

What if the city is down in that valley? That's not what it was. It was waiting, expecting, patiently enduring. In fact, this word is translated waiting back in Hebrews 10, verses 12 and 13, where it describes Jesus.

Jesus is waiting for something. He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting. It's the same word. Jesus is waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet.

And he will certainly make his enemies a footstool for his feet. He will certainly return. He will certainly establish that kingdom. He will certainly do everything that the Father has planned for him and purposed for him.

But until that time, he is waiting expectantly, knowing for certain that his enemies will be made a footstool for his feet. So he's waiting. So it's clear that Abraham was waiting for something. And it was for something that he did not realize in his own lifetime.

And it was not something in this world at the time that Abraham was waiting for it. You can tell from the description of the city, he was waiting for or looking for a city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

And by the way, I'm glad that the NASB translated that word as looking instead of waiting. Otherwise, my outline would have been all messed up. He left, he lived, he waited. You'd be like, what? That's not a good outline at all.

But because they translated it as looking, then it works. As long as you understand that by looking, we mean waiting. All right. We can tell from the description that it's not a city that was part of Abraham's world or life at that time.

This is a city whose architect and builder is God. The word architect and builder, they are closely related, as you might expect. The word architect suggests a high level of craftsmanship and skill and design.

It's the idea that God is the designer of this, and God has consummate craftsmanship, consummate skill in his design of this city. The idea of a builder, that word describes one who makes or works to create this.

So this city that Abraham was waiting or looking for is not a city of man. It is not a city of men. This city is both designed and created by God. When I say it's not a city of men, I don't mean that men are not there.

I mean that, or that men will not be there. I mean that it is not designed or created or anything by the hands of men. This is something that is entirely God's doing. And so this would describe something, not anything on the planet during Abraham's life at his time or since.

Because this age is destined only to see cities that rise and fall and come and go. But this city will not be so. It will never pass away. It will never rot. It will never decay. Nothing will ever corrupt it.

No impure thing will ever enter into it. So this city, in spite of all of our best efforts and skill, will never be built by man. There's no way that men will ever construct this city or design this city because this is not a city that is designed or constructed by men with their intellect or their will or their skills or their abilities.

We have no part in this at all. In this world, what one man builds falls down and crumbles, and another man either has to repair, restore, rebuild, or build on top of that. You go to ancient cities, and you will see ruins upon which current cities are now built.

And underneath that is just layer after layer of all of the cities and buildings and structures that have existed in that place over time. Sometimes walking through the land of Israel, you'll be walking through a place, and they'll say, well, you're standing right now on the place where Paul did such and such.

I walked right down the Damascus Road in Israel. Well, not right down the Damascus Road. I walked on top of about 30 feet of dirt that is on top of the ancient Damascus Road. It's the closest you can get.

The cities, the streets, the roads, the buildings, the architecture of this age is all destined to rot and crumble, and men will build on top of it. But this is a city. This city which has foundations is a city whose entire existence owes itself to one being, and that is God.

No man will ever rebuild it. No man will ever need to repair it because it is an eternal city. Now, here's the key question. What is this city? We can rule out the possibility that the city existed in Abraham's day.

As I said, it's not he was searching in the valleys and the nooks and the crannies and behind mountains to see if the city existed in his day. We can rule out the possibility that this city is a city in our day.

We know it's not Seattle, Portland, or San Francisco. We know it's not Boston or Miami and certainly not Washington, D .C. on the other coast. We know that this is not a city in our day anywhere. It's not present-day Jerusalem.

It's not ancient Jerusalem. It's not Jerusalem in Abraham's day. It didn't exist in Abraham's day in this world. It does not exist in our world in this day. So it is not a city of men. Now, before we answer the question of what the city is, I want you to see three more places where this city is mentioned in the book of Hebrews because this is a theme that the author reminds us of through the rest of the book.

So notice it. Look down at Hebrews 11. As it is, they desired a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Now this is important because it is in the context of Abraham, of the discussion about Abraham leaving his land and not going back to his former land but staying in the land of promise.

And it says that he was desiring a heavenly country and a city which God has prepared for them. So he desired a better country, namely a heavenly one. Abraham desired a country with heavenly characteristics, a country with the things that characterize heaven itself.

That is what Abraham was looking for. Turn over to chapter 12, verse 22. And here we have a contrast between two mountains that are being described. First there is Mount Sinai where the law was given, where people were terrified and people could not approach or touch.

They were sinful and unwelcomed in that state, so they dared not come nigh unto Sinai. And Sinai is contrasted with Zion or Jerusalem on Mount Zion. And by God's grace, you and I are not under the thunderings of the Old Testament law, but instead we are under the grace offered in Jesus Christ.

And that is the contrast here in Hebrews chapter 12. Look at verse 22. But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels. Now that is the same city mentioned back in chapter 11, verse 16.

It is the same city that is mentioned here in our text in Hebrews 11, verse 10. So it is called a heavenly country, a city that God has prepared. In Hebrews 12, 22, it's called the heavenly Jerusalem.

So now we have some idea of what its name is going to be. And this describes ultimately, chapter 12, describes ultimately our citizenship. Again, you and I are not under the Old Testament concept of citizenship where we thundered at Sinai.

Instead we have been welcomed with grace into the salvation which is in Jesus Christ, which is signified by Mount Zion. So rather than being under the Old Testament condemnation, we are under grace, by the grace of Christ.

Finally, Hebrews 13, verse 14, go over to chapter 13. For here in his concluding thoughts, the author says, we do not have a lasting city here. Sorry, for here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.

So those are all the references to it in the book of Hebrews. So there is this city that is to come, and it is not here, the author says, it is part of this heavenly country. It is the possession of those who have trusted Christ for salvation, whose sins have been forgiven, those who by the grace of God in Christ have been delivered from the condemnation signified by Mount Sinai and have, by God's grace, been welcomed into the grace and salvation signified by Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem.

The City Abraham Waited For

Now here is where we get to the crux of the interpretive issue. So I have laid out for you what the text seems to indicate, how the Hebrews uses this idea of the city all the way through here. So here is the key interpretive issues, and with this we are going to occupy the rest of our time, and I'm going to have to speed it up.

We have a few questions we have to answer. And by the way, I'm going to pause for a second, even though I know I have to speed it up, I'm going to pause for a second. From this point forward, I need you to really engage your mind and to stay alert with me, because I'm going to deal with the interpretive issue as thoroughly, as systematically, and exegetically from this passage as I possibly can so that I can get that out of the way.

And if those of you who might disagree with my interpretation of it still disagree, that's fine, but I've had my day to present my case in full. So you're going to have to engage your mind, really listen, and stay awake.

Last week I kept you awake with a clever song, a politically incorrect joke about somebody's questionable citizenship, and I'm not doing that at all today. So today this is just exegesis of the passage.

Oh, and I know that last week I promised you interpretive dance, but Amazon did not deliver my headdress and my ribbons in time, so I promise you this. Next time I preach through the book of Hebrews, and we are in Hebrews 11 at this point, I will give you an interpretive dance.

So here is the interpretive issue. Is this city an actual city, or is the word city simply a picture of bigger spiritual realities? Does this inheritance that Abraham was looking for, does it involve an actual city of a heavenly nature, or is the idea of city here merely an analogy, a symbol, a metaphor, a substitute, as you will, for spiritual realities?

Heaven now, or heaven in the future, or some sort of spiritual inheritance? Has Abraham possessed this city yet? We'd all agree that Abraham has died and he has gone to heaven. So then if he has entered into heaven, has he then received his promised inheritance?

If he has received that promised inheritance in the form of being welcomed into the city which is in heaven, if that is the fulfillment of that, then it would stand to reason, it would stand, we could conclude then, that there is no more physical land for Abraham to receive as a promise from God.

If God has fulfilled his word to Abraham by walking him into a heavenly inheritance, because the land is only a symbol of that heavenly inheritance, then God has no more physical boundaries, physical land or physical promises to give to national Israel.

Does that make sense? This is the key interpretive issue. So it is believed by some that the reference to a city in this verse and in other verses in Hebrews refers to either the present heaven or the future heaven.

They would say that the reference to Abraham looking for that city is a reference to Abraham coming to understand that the inheritance that he was promised was not something in the land at all, but was really something that the promise of the land was something that Abraham would need to look through, to look forward, beyond the promise of physical land to that thing which the physical land represented.

So even if God does never give him the physical land with the boundaries, the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates, if God never gives him that, he has fulfilled at least the spirit of that promise by giving to Abraham a heavenly inheritance, which sort of replaces or supersedes or at least kind of lays over top of the promise of physical land and physical blessings.

So they would say that the promise of the physical land really just represented the spiritual heavenly inheritance and that Abraham had to get over the promise of the physical land and look beyond it to the reality, the fulfillment, of the spiritual gift that he was given.

Palmer Robertson says this, and I'm going to quote two people so you can hear them describe this in their own words.

Quote,.

Just as the tabernacle was never intended to be a settled item in the plan of redemption but was to point to Christ, tabernacling among his people, and just as the sacrificial system could never atone for sins but could only foreshadow the offering of the Son of God, so in a similar manner, Abraham received the promise of the land but never experienced the blessing of its full possession.

In this way, the patriarch looked forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. Now here's key, listen. If the promised land of the old covenant becomes the blessed object to be achieved, then its tremendous fulfillment in the new covenant could be missed.

To claim this city with foundations whose architect and builder is God, Abraham had to look beyond the shadowy form of the promise, which he never possessed, to the realities that could be perceived only by faith.

Close quote.

Now let me break that down to you. His argument is this. Just as the tabernacle was a symbol of something fulfilled in Christ, a spiritual reality that was greater than tabernacle, just as the sacrifices of the old covenant were fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ, a heightened and better fulfillment of that, so it is that the land promise was only a symbol of a greater spiritual reality, namely heavenly realities, things that can only be perceived with the eyes of faith.

So he says Abraham had to look beyond the shadowy, how does he say it, the shadowy form of the promise, which he never possessed, to the realities that could be perceived only by faith. In other words, Abraham had to learn, as all the patriarchs did, that it never was really about physical land.

He was just supposed to look forward beyond the physical land to spiritual heavenly realities later on that the land signified or represented. Likewise, Peter Walker writes this, quote, in Hebrews 11, positive descriptions of the physical land are then immediately eclipsed by his, that is the author of Hebrews, by his insistence, oh, let me try it again.

In Hebrews 11, positive descriptions of the physical land are then immediately eclipsed by his insistence that the real focus of the promise to which Abraham looked forward was the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

So, he says, the patriarchs were looking forward not so much to the day when their descendants would inherit the physical land, but rather to the day when they would inherit the heavenly country or city which the physical land signified.

In a sense, they saw through the promise of the land, looking beyond it to a deeper spiritual reality, close quote. So, what both of these men are saying is that if you suggest that the fulfillment of those old covenant land promises, if that is a literal issue, then you're going to miss the greater spiritual reality that the new covenant promises.

Abraham and the patriarchs, he says, they were looking forward not so much to the day when their descendants would inherit the physical land, but rather to the day when they would inherit the heavenly kingdom.

So, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, those men were not really looking at the land itself and saying, this is the land that's promised to me, I'm going to inherit this in any kind of physical or carnal sense.

Instead, those men were looking through that promise to the spiritual promises. So, if these men, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, if they have inherited some sort of a heavenly country, then God has fulfilled the promise to Abraham, and therefore, there is no more land promise to give to Abraham and to his descendants.

Canaan, they would say, is just a symbol of heaven. Now, listen, I understand that it is not possible. I understand that you may think at points that I'm painting with a broad brush here. I have to paint with a broad brush.

There's absolutely no way that I can represent and answer every shade of every color of every eschatological interpretation of every eschatological passage, of every eschatological position under the sun.

I can't do that. But I don't feel that I need to do that because the issue is, does this passage tell us that the land promises have been set aside or in some way fulfilled by spiritual realities? That's the crux of the issue.

Let me give you some answers to this. Here's the question. Are we justified in thinking that the author intends to substitute heaven for the land promises, or are we justified in believing that the author intends to substitute spiritual realities for physical ones?

And I'm going to be very thorough in these next seven arguments that I'm going to give you as to why that is not being described here. Seven arguments. I see some of you reaching for a pen. Do not even bother.

I promise you, you're going to have to go back and listen to this.

Just listen.

You can write down a recipe if you want, a design for an outfit, whatever you've got in your mind, you can go ahead and do that. But don't even try and keep notes because you will be frustrated.

Before we get done.

I'm going to be thorough for this reason. I never, ever wanted to be said of me that I came to a passage of Scripture that was a crux of a theological issue, that I did not just give it my all. Some pastors will do this.

They'll come to a difficult text and then they'll say, look, we don't have time to deal with this today. At some point in the future, we will deal with that. And you know what that means? It means I was too lazy this last week to do the work that was necessary to deal with this today, and so I'm giving you some generic, benign, banal, empty-vein promise that we will deal with this at some point in the future, and that's supposed to satisfy your curiosity.

I don't want anybody who might disagree with my interpretation to ever get to the point of saying, Jim came to that passage and he just kind of skipped it over, really didn't answer my position or really lay out his position.

So I'm going to do that today as absolutely thoroughly, consistently, graciously, but passionately as I possibly can. Number one, here are my seven arguments. Number one, how would a Jew have understood these references in Hebrews?

How would a Jew have understood this? I'm asking you to set aside your Gentile perspective on this as one who has never lived in the land, never lived under the Old Covenant, and I'm asking you to ask yourself, how would a Jew have understood these references in Hebrews?

Fundamentally, that is the central position that we all have to answer whenever we're interpreting a biblical text, because it doesn't matter what it means to me, what it means to you, it doesn't matter what it means from a woman's perspective, a black person's perspective, an Asian person's perspective, none of that matters.

The only thing that matters is how did the original audience, how would they have understood these references? How would they have understood the reference to a heavenly country or a heavenly Jerusalem or an eternal city or a heavenly city?

How would a Jew have understood those? This is a Jewish book, Hebrews, written by a Jewish man to a Jewish audience, expositing Jewish scriptures. So it seems that we should ask this question, how would a Jew have understood references to this kind of a city and this kind of a country?

So I want you to take in your mind your average first century Jew who has been steeped in the Old Testament, they lived their lives under the Old Covenant, they have come out of that, and they would have in their mind hundreds if not thousands of passages bouncing around that would describe to them a messianic kingdom.

The Old Testament prophets had promised the Jews that they would be gathered into the land, that they would possess all of the land that was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob from the river Euphrates to the river in Egypt.

They were promised that the barren and arid regions of the desert and the uninhabited cities would become an Edenic paradise. All of that rock and sand between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea, that was all going to be like Eden.

Water everywhere, abundant, fertile, fruit, cities inhabited, abundant prosperity, that's what they were promised. They were promised that that Arabian peninsula would be terraformed into the most lush, green garden that the world had ever seen.

And at the center of that regenerated, rejuvenated, and renewed land would be a capital city over which David's greater son, the Messiah from heaven, would rule and reign all of the nations forever. And that that city would be the center of world commerce and religion and prosperity and commercialism and culture and everything.

It would be a Jewish-centered, Zion-centered, holy Jerusalem-centered kingdom. That's what every Jew would have expected. They would have expected a Messianic kingdom that would bring heaven to earth, that heaven would come and rule in this world.

That was their expectation. And in doing that, God would fulfill His promise to Israel, to David, and to the descendants of Abraham. They believed, because they were promised under the Old Covenant, particularly the New Covenant promises in the book of Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, that this Israel that would dwell in that land would be a renewed, regenerated, and saved Israel.

That they would worship and serve their Messiah in that kingdom, that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit, that they would know Scripture and be empowered to walk in God's statutes. That's what the Jews expected.

That Jerusalem, Mount Zion, would be the center of the world, and that the Jews would live in safety and security in that land, never to be threatened by their enemies, never to be mocked again, and that this kingdom would be a kingdom of such peace, security, prosperity, justice, holiness, and righteousness that it could only be described as a heavenly kingdom.

That's how the Jews would have understood it. That such a city, where that heaven-sent Messiah would come and rule, you could only describe that as a heavenly city. It would be Jerusalem, but it would be a heavenly Jerusalem.

So now I ask you, how did the Jews understand the reference to heavenly city, heavenly country, heavenly Jerusalem, eternal city, everlasting city, however you want to phrase it? How would a Jew have understood those references?

We have a Jewish man in a Jewish book expounding Old Testament Jewish Scripture speaking to a Jewish audience. We ought to ask the question, how would a Jew have understood that? This Jewish man would not have had to explain anything that I just explained to you to his Jewish audience.

It all would have been assumed. And further, I could assume that if this Jewish man writing to that Jewish audience meant something different than the already established Jewish expectation of the day concerning the Millennial Kingdom, he would have said something to them to make that clear.

So these phrases, city with foundations, heavenly country, heavenly Jerusalem, lasting city, would have been understood by them as references to their Messianic Kingdom, their Davidic Kingdom, a Millennial Kingdom.

We call it the Millennial Kingdom because Revelation tells us that the length of it is going to be 1 ,000 years on this planet, and then it is going to continue everlastingly into eternity after this planet is consumed in a conflagration of flames, and then God recreates a new heavens and a new earth.

So in short, a Jewish Christian would not have understood that they would have to go to heaven to experience the land promises. They would have expected that the land promises would be fulfilled when heaven came to earth.

That's it. A Jewish Christian would never have thought that they had to go to heaven to experience the land promises. They would have expected that the land promises would be experienced by them when heaven came to earth in the form of that kingdom that was promised to David.

So when someone says that these references to heavenly city, heavenly Jerusalem, city with foundations, is a reference to us going to heaven, to a city or a heavenly kind of country where we exist, that is imposing a Gentile mindset onto a Jewish text, and that is what we call eisegesis.

We can't read this as a Gentile would read this. We have to read this as a Jew would read this. And for Abraham, resurrection is the key. That is why both Romans 4 and Hebrews 11 emphasize that Abraham's faith was in a God who raises the dead.

It was not that Abraham expected to go to heaven and receive these promises. Rather, it is that Abraham expected to be resurrected in this world and receive those promises. That's what he was looking for.

He wasn't looking to go somewhere else and experience these blessings. He was looking to experience these blessings here in his land that God had promised to him. That's why God reiterated the promise of the land to Abraham on multiple occasions.

He was looking forward to bodily resurrection. It was no problem at all for Abraham to expect that he would dwell in the land, that the land would be all that God had promised him to be, land flowing with milk and with honey.

You could describe the Arabian Desert as a thousand things, but never land flowing with milk and honey. But once you understand that it's going to be lush and green and glorious and fertile and filled with people, once you understand that, and that there's going to be a capital city at the center of that land, and the greater son of David ruling and reigning on a throne, David's throne in that land, then you can understand this is going to be a land filled with milk and honey.

This is going to be a land of plenty and prosperity. Abraham would have been looking forward to that. Abraham could die in faith, never receiving that promise. Why? Because Abraham believed God raises the dead.