Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph: Living toward Promises

The longest patriarchal section follows people who act on promises they cannot yet fully see. Abraham leaves his homeland, lives as a stranger in the promised land, and looks for God’s city. Sarah receives strength to conceive because God is faithful. The patriarchs die without possessing every promise, confessing themselves strangers and pilgrims seeking a better, heavenly country. Abraham offers Isaac while reasoning that God can raise the dead because the promise is tied to Isaac. Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph bless and speak about a future beyond their own lifetimes. Hebrews reads Genesis as a sustained school of promise-shaped faith.