Hebrews 11:15

And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

The patriarchs were volunteers! The inspired writer flatly declared that they could have gone back home if they had so desired; and this reminds one of the challenge addressed by our Lord to the apostles when he bluntly asked them, "Would ye also go away?" (John 6:67). Every Christian needs to keep this fact in focus at all times, that no one has conscripted him to serve the Lord, and that if one prefers the world and what it may offer to the eternal things of God, he is surely free to take it, along with the consequences. The wonderful promises of God are sure and certain; they are more to be desired as one's possession than any or all of the earth's fleeting joys. And, as for the world and its treasures, the scriptures warn people over and over again of the ultimate incapacity of such material things to satisfy the seeking heart of man. It is ever true that "Man shall not live by bread alone" (Matthew 4:4). Among the most bitterly frustrated people on earth are those who sought the world alone; and if they found it, or they did not, the result was negative either way. Such persons remind one of the tourist who was warned that a bridge was out on the main highway, and he was directed to take a very unattractive detour. The road ahead was straight and clear, and he went right ahead, thinking to himself, "That must be an old sign; surely the bridge is not out NOW!" Thirteen miles farther on, he came to the missing bridge, turned around and headed back to the detour; and almost at once, after turning around and heading back, he came to a well-painted sign, "It Sure Was, Wasn't It?" In spiritual things, those who take the broad and easy road, instead of the way of the Cross, shall at last know that all that God said is true.