All these people were still living by faith when they died... and they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they were looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking about the country they had left they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were looking for a better country - a heavenly one.

Hebrews 11:13-16, NIV (1978)

In this passage of Hebrews, the inspired writer has been discussing the faithful men and women of the Old Testament times who had left their homelands because God had instructed them to. Aside from the Divine instruction (which of course is the main thing), they were in many ways like the early pioneers we read about from the 19th century of our own country. Though they all had varying reasons for leaving the comforts of a more civilized society, all had the common goal of making a better life for themselves and their families.

Imagine what it must have been like for our early pioneers, selling all of their property and using the proceeds to equip a wagon for a cross-country journey to their own promised land. In many ways they were looking for a fresh start with greater freedom to choose how they would live. Many were looking for land of their own to build upon, as well as to raise crops and animals. Doubtlessly, many of them were tired of the squalor of their "modern-day" life in the polluted, rapidly industrialized cities, and were simply seeking something different. Many were likely attracted by the adventure of it all, and the prospect of traveling across vast and often dangerous expanses of land would have appealed to a very special breed of men and women.

The bottom line is that they were looking for a new start to a better life, and they were willing to risk everything they possessed just for a chance at this new way of living. They were more than aware of the dangers, likely having been warned by all their families who remained behind of the risks of disease, wild Indians and unpredictable hazards. These were people with a different vision than most - they were truly a people with the pioneer spirit.

This must have been the very type of people that responded so willingly to God whenever He called them to move from one land to another. Very often, the land that these people were instructed to leave were polluted with the idol worship and sinful lifestyles of those who were more "civilized". But the people we read about in the Old Testament (as well as those we read about later in the New Testament times) were the kind of individuals who did not identify themselves by where they lived as much as they did by Who they served. They were the people who were devoted to God, so the daunting prospect of leaving their homelands did not prevent them from being obedient to God and doing that very thing.

They had the pioneering spirit because they were absolutely convinced that God was calling them to a better country - a country they could call their own!

How about us, today? Do we have that same spirit that allows us to see beyond our own little world? 

The fact is that most people do not! That is why those who are suffering in sin are so willing to continue to do so. It's not that they are unaware of their suffering, it's just that it is familiar and, therefore, more seemingly safe than the unknown. That is why the vast majority of the Israelites who were in the process of escaping slavery in Egypt were wanting to return "home" to resume their slavery, rather than risk the unknown of entering the Promised Land of Canaan at God's command. In fact, they were so controlled by their fear of the unknown that they gave up a land of milk and honey in exchange for a barren wilderness for the simple reason that they could not bring themselves to trust fully in God.

And that in a nutshell is the problem with most people today: they would rather suffer with the familiar than trust God with the unfamiliar - even when that unfamiliar circumstance came with a guarantee of God's protection. It is a fact that most people would rather return to a home of their choosing regardless of how miserable that home was, rather than trust God to bring them safely to a new home devoid of that misery. 

But, for the select few who have the pioneering spirit that has it genesis in a trust in God, there awaits a promised land! For us it is nothing less than Heaven itself, and it is available to all who are willing to risk the challenges of the unknown because they have placed their trust firmly in God.

Do you remember that at the end of the journey the Israelites who had placed their trust in God received the Promised Land? Do you remember the pristine land of unparalleled beauty that the pioneers of 19th century America received when their journey was completed? Just imagine what promised land awaits those of us today who are willing to put our faith and trust in God. Why, it will be nothing less than Heaven!