Hebrews 11 English Standard Version (ESV) Listen: https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Heb.11 By Faith 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. 5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. 13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But 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. 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. 20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. 21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. 23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. 29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. 32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets-- 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated-- 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Today we have the privilege of discussing what many have called "The Hall of Faith." In it the author to the Hebrews talks about the faith of those who have gone before us and how we have one faith with them and this should also be the kind of faith that we have. It is quite a lengthy passage, so I am going to break it up into a few separate articles, but will quote the entire text for each of the blog posts.
First we need to define what faith is. "Faith is the assurance (or certainty) of things hoped for, the conviction (or evidence) of things not seen." Remember that we just discussed our assurance of salvation in Christ and this is the context of this verse. How can be we be sure? We are certain that God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and He was faithful to all these people that we're going to talk about, and therefore we can be sure that He will be faithful to us as well. We can have a sure hope (a knowledge that something will definitely happen in the future) even though it hasn't happened yet, because we know the one who made the promise. We then move into some of the things we believe by faith (a creed of sorts). We believe that God simply spoke the world into existence and that everything we see was made out of nothing (see Genesis 1). We believe the history recorded for us in the Old Testament and that we can still learn from this history today. For instance, we understand that there are acceptable and unacceptable sacrifices from the record of Cain and Abel. We understand from Enoch the promise of a rapture where not all will die, but all will be transformed and we understand the message of coming judgement that he preached that is part of the gospel message. We understand that without faith it is impossible to please God, because we cannot be expected that God would be pleased if we don't believe He exists and we don't seek to understand Him and what He wants from us (and obey once we know)--even if our goal in doing so is to receive a reward. We believe that Noah was real and God really judged the entire world with a global flood, but he saved a remnant of Noah, his three sons and all their wives by placing them in an ark and that this pictures the coming salvation that God has provided for all people who will find refuge in Jesus--the Ark of our salvation. We realize that God's way was the only way and that wickedness and lawlessness will be punished by the wrath of God in His time, but that God is faithful to remember all His promises and save a remnant. By faith we believe that God chose Abraham by election from among the nations for His good pleasure to make a people in a way that seemed impossible--from the loins of a man that seemed to be beyond his years of childbearing and from a woman who seemed to be barren and also beyond her years. They believed God's promise that their descendants would be as innumerable as the stars of the heavens or the grains of sand on the seashore. So much so that when God asked Abraham to offer His son Isaac--the child of the promise--as a sacrifice in the very mountain where Jesus--the true Child of Promise--would be offered as a sacrifice by His Father, that Abraham believed that God would need to raise Isaac from the dead, but instead God offered a substitute--a ram caught in the thicket. It was here that Abraham called God "The LORD Provides" and it was in this place thousands of years later that we see Christ being the ultimate provision for all people. Not only did this people not exist yet, but when Abraham left everything He knew, God's instructions were simply "Go to the land which I will show you." Every step Abraham took was a step of faith. Much like the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness following the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night and stopping when it came to rest and moving on when it moved, and trusting God to meet their every need. Abraham died a sojourner in a foreign land. It would not be until many, many years later after the people were in exile that the conquest would bring the people of God back to the land they had been promised and make it their land of eternal promise...but even in this there was a greater promise--a promise of an eternal kingdom whose builder and foundations is God. We read about this city in Revelation 22. It is called the New Jerusalem and is the place where God in the flesh (Jesus) will live among His covenant people. It was not just Abraham that believe this promises, but he also passed on the blessing to his son Isaac to carry on the promise of the Abrahamic covenant and Isaac passed this blessing and birthright onto his son Jacob--who again, God chose by election before he was born, and much like us did not seem much like the kind of person that God would want to choose. Jacob was given a new name and a new identity by God. He would no longer be called Jacob which meant "deceiver" but "Israel" which means "the one who clings to God" (this seems to take on meaning of hanging onto the promises of God because you know God is faithful and you want to experience the blessings of God). Israel then had twelve sons, the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel, and he blessed each and every one of them with the blessing commanded by God and he even gave a blessing and inheritance to the children of Joseph. Even though none of these people saw this promise fulfilled in front of them they all believed that God was able and would be faithful to bring it about to completion. Joseph is the last person that I will talk about in this blog (we'll pick back up with Moses in Part 2). Very little is said about Joseph here, but I have to assume that is because he was probably well-known by the readers as Joseph is the central character of Genesis 37-50...I encourage you to read it all. With that said though there was one point this author wanted to focus in on that many people may miss in the story. Joseph gave instructions for his body to be embalmed by the Egyptians, but that when his people left Egypt (which wouldn't happen for nearly 400 years) that his bones were to go with them as he was to be buried in the Promised Land alongside his father. This was his way of telling the people that he believed that God would be faithful to his covenant and that Egypt would not be their home. We too have much to believe by faith. This earth is not our home and although we personally have not seen the risen Christ or the place that He is preparing for us, we know that He is ministering as our Great High Priest in heaven and is building a suitable home for Himself and His Bride (the Church) to dell in the Father's house for all eternity. Like Abraham we sojourn on this foreign land until God brings about this promise. We look forward to the day of our coming King when heaven and earth will be one under the authority of Jesus Christ. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
January 2025
Categories
All
|