Noah, by faith, overcame the pollution of this world. He lived in a pornographic society in which "every imagination of men's hearts was only evil con­tinually."Noah, by contrast, was counted righteous by God — something that happens only when the righteousness of the Son of God is imputed to one. More‑over, he built an ark "to the saving of his house."

By faith Abraham overcame the prospects of this world. And brilliant they were. Abraham was a wealthy citizen of an up‑and‑coming city. He caught the vision of another world, however, and set out to find a heavenly city. Not surpris­ingly, he met Melchizedek, sat at the Lord's table with the bread and wine before him, symbols of the broken body and poured‑out blood of the Son of God, and was able to turn down with utter contempt the clumsy offer of the king of Sodom to make him rich. Moreover, he was obedient to the heavenly vision to the point of taking his only begotten son to the place called Mount Moriah. He was willing there to offer him up as a burnt offering, even though all the promises of God for the coming into the world of His Son were centered in Isaac. He even caught a glimpse, not only of Calvary but also of the resurrection of Christ.

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By faith Sarah overcame the paralysis of this world. Although ninety years of age and although her womb was dead, she received strength to conceive. Thus, she brought Isaac into the world, one who would, himself, be a direct ancestor of the Son of God.

Isaac, too, became one who overcomes. He overcame the passions of this world. He almost missed it, however, in his lust for Esau's savory meat. For a dish of venison he was almost persuaded to give the patriarchal blessing to favored Esau, a man wholly unspiritual and unfit for any such blessing. Circumstances inter­vened, however, and he unwittingly gave the blessing to Jacob, to whom it right‑fully belonged. And with that blessing went the right to be a human progenitor of the Son of God. Isaac, in a sudden upsurge of spiritual perception and power, trod his passions beneath his feet and, now very much alive to the fact that God had overruled, spoke out with the voice of faith, "Yea, and he [Jacob] shall be blessed." Nor could Esau's exceeding great and bitter cry make Isaac change his mind.

Jacob overcame the perspective of this world. It took a long time to bring the perspective of the world to nothing in Jacob's life and to replace it with the pros­pect of glory. Right from the start, however, we see a man hungry for the believer's birthright and for the blessing of God. The focus became sharper at Bethel when he saw the ladder that reached to heaven — a symbolic vision of the Son of God (John 1:47‑51). Things came further still into focus when he wrestled at the Jabbok with One who was none other than the Son of God. The focus was per­fected on his deathbed when he blessed his boys, bringing the Son of God before them in one utterance after another.