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Hebrews 11:17-19

(17) By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, (18) of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called," (19) concluding that God wasable to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
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Abraham concluded that God was able to resurrect Isaac. But there is no record of a resurrection up to that point. It is possible that Abraham reasoned that God would immediately resurrect Isaac. However, it is also possible that Abraham was willing to wait for the resurrection—the one that happens when Jesus Christ returns—for the promises to be fulfilled.

In John 8:56, Jesus tells the Jews, "Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad." Abraham must have had a glimpse of the Kingdom of God, which includes the resurrection. So, by faith, he concluded that God could resurrect his son. But part of that conclusion would have been that he was willing to wait the remainder of his days without his son, as well as all the millennia in the sleep of death, for God to fulfill His promises.

But that was not the extent of his waiting: "By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:9-10).

Although exceedingly rich, Abraham lived in tents without foundations—without permanence—while waiting for a city with eternal foundations. God called him out of the highly developed city of Ur, and he never lived in a city again. Content to be a pilgrim, he left Haran at age 75 and lived in tents for the next century. The whole time, he was not merely existing; he was waiting. He had seen some of God's promises fulfilled, and he was waiting for the remainder.

Notice that the city that he was waiting for is not physical Jerusalem, but the New Jerusalem, the city whose builder and maker is God. Even though Jerusalem will be Christ's abode when He returns, it is not until after the Millennium that the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven. For the last hundred years of his life, Abraham was waiting, not just for his own resurrection and Jesus' day, but he was looking a thousand years beyond that for the fulfillment of Revelation 21:2. This man understood waiting!

The heroes of faith saw God's promises afar off and were willing to wait on God and His perfect timing. God's promises stood at the forefront of their minds, but if their minds were anything like ours today, it took tremendous work to remain focused on what God said and not grow weary, give up, or try to work out God's promises on their own.

The next time we find ourselves waiting for that email that is long in coming, waiting for the phone to vibrate, or waiting for the driver who is "well-advanced in years" either to speed up or move over—or the next time you find yourself waiting for a resolution to a problem that you have taken to God because it is out of your power to bring about—remember the great "waiters" of the Bible. Waiting on God was one of their greatest works, and it is also one of the hardest works that we will ever do.

— David C. Grabbe

To learn more, see:
The Overlooked Work (Part Two)