As it is written:“ I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed— the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. (niv)
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.Instead, they were longing for a better country— a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (niv)