Oh, how often, as C.S. Lewis observes, does our God find our desires not too strong but too weak. He is honored both by our desiring Him and by His fulfilling and exceeding those desires.

As it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:16)

I know of nowhere else in Scripture that speaks so explicitly about God not being ashamed.

Hebrews 2:11 says that Jesus “is not ashamed to call [his people] brothers,” which is a similar thought. But I can’t find another text that talks about God not being ashamed.

It is a striking thought to entertain. What could Hebrews mean (even hypothetically) by the idea of God not being ashamed?

For one, God is holy, and never does anything shameful. He himself is the final standard for what in his creatures is shameful or not. In principle, as the one true God, he cannot be rightfully shamed. He is not subject to the frailties and weaknesses and sins of his creatures. God could never actually be put to shame.

So, what is Hebrews communicating by negating such an impossible possibility? Why does he claim that God is not ashamed to be called our God if we have the kind of persevering faith in him that Hebrews 11 celebrates?

History of Faith

The letter to the Hebrews is a written sermon. The writer, who plainly possesses the abilities of a skilled preacher, humbly calls his epistle a “word of exhortation” (Hebrews 13:22). And if it is sermon-like, we might expect to find its rhetorical climax about three-fourths of the way through — which is precisely what we find in Hebrews 11.

Here at the height of his message, he takes up the sermonic refrain “By faith . . . By faith . . . By faith” and walks us from creation to flood to high points in Israel’s long and dynamic history, drawing lessons about the life of persevering faith from one beloved forefather after another.

As the rhetorical climax, Hebrews 11 is the most memorable part of the sermon, leading us up to the highest point in 12:1–2, where Jesus is the climactic man of faith, the author and perfecter of ours.

While narrating this great history of faith, Hebrews makes four editorial comments (in verses 6, 13–16, 32, and 38). By far, the one in verses 13–16 is the longest and most significant. Here, in his longest aside, he pulls back the curtain to reveal the very heart of the chapter and what he wants his hearers to get from this stirring rehearsal of biblical history.

Verse 16 is his last flourish in this longest aside. Those with saving, persevering faith are not those who reminisce about the past and soon go back to where they came from, but they look forward to the future. They desire something better, that is, something of heaven. Then comes the arresting statement:

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