Hebrews 11:8-19

8By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, and he went out without understanding where he was going.

9By faith he lived as a foreigner in the promised land as though it were a foreign country, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were fellow heirs of the same promise.

10For he was looking forward to the city with firm foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

11By faith, even though Sarah herself was barren and he was too old, he received the ability to procreate, because he regarded the one who had given the promise to be trustworthy.

12So in fact children were fathered by one man – and this one as good as dead – like the number of stars in the sky and like the innumerable grains of sand on the seashore.

13These all died in faith without receiving the things promised, but they saw them in the distance and welcomed them and acknowledged that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth.

14For those who speak in such a way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

15In fact, if they had been thinking of the land that they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.

16But as it is, they aspire to a better land, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

17By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He had received the promises, yet he was ready to offer up his only son.

18God had told him, “Through Isaac descendants will carry on your name,”

19and he reasoned that God could even raise him from the dead, and in a sense he received him back from there.