Rebecca Writes

For the past few months, I’ve been editing and reposting a series of posts on Hebrews 11 from my old blog. This post, the eighteenth one, concludes the series. You’ll find all the other posts listed in the sidebar, or you can look here.

The writer of Hebrews has completed his list of faithful people of old, and he finishes this chapter with a summary statement.

And these all were commended for their faith, yet they did not receive what was promised. For God had provided something better for us, so that they would be made perfect together with us. (Hebrews 11:39,40; NET)

Everyone on this list, he says, was commended for their faith. The chapter starts by telling us  that the people of old received God’s commendation by faith, and now it concludes in the same way.

All the listed faithful ancients were commended for their faith, and as a result they received many blessings and had many promises fulfilled; yet, the writer tells us, there was something held back from them. There was something promised to them that they did not receive, and that they could not receive it without us. This final blessing, the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise, our being made perfect, comes to all saints together.

What is this better thing that God has provided for us? The next step in the fulfillment of God’s promises  and the centerpiece of the book of Hebrews is the saving work of Christ. The people of old anticipated it and we look back on it. Our perfection, in one sense, has already been worked through what Christ has done.

But still we wait, like they waited, for the final fulfillment of God’s promises in Christ’s return and the fullness of the kingdom. We continue to live by faith like those who’ve gone before us. We can grow tired in the difficulties of this life, just as they must have, but we have their testimonies as examples to to encourage us to stand firm in our faith. They hadn’t seen, yet they trusted; and they spur us on to keep trusting in what we’ve not seen. We can pattern our lives after them.

When I have time, I’m editing and reposting a series of posts on Hebrews 11 from the old blog. This is the next-to-last post, number seventeen. You’ll find all the posts done so far in this series listed in the sidebar, or you can look here.

In the previous post, we looked at the happier half of the summary list at the end of Hebrews 11. The people in the first part of the summary received some good things in this life because of their faith, but now the list moves on to examine some hardships endured because of faith.

But others were tortured, not accepting release, to obtain resurrection to a better life. And others experienced mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawed apart, murdered with the sword; they went about in sheepskins and goatskins; they were destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (the world was not worthy of them); they wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and openings in the earth. (Hebrews 11:35b-38 NET)

Perhaps the writer of Hebrews, anticipating that those to whom Hebrews was written would face persecution and hardship, wanted to remind them that having firm faith did not guarantee that they would escape trouble. If they didn’t understand this, they might grow discouraged if they weren’t delivered from difficulty like the faithful people of old in the previous verses.

There were those of faith, he says, who were tortured and refused to turn away from their God in order to be released. They kept their resurrection to a better life in view so that they could stay firm in their faith during torture and, for some, execution. Are you wondering exactly which people of faith are referred to here? These were probably historical Hebrew people who were tortured and killed during the Maccabean revolt. These events can be found recorded in 2 Maccabees 6 and 7. Others, we’re told, were mocked and flogged and imprisoned. Once again, the Maccabean troubles are probably in view.

Some of the faithful were stoned. Since stoning is a distinctively Jewish form of execution, this may be referring to Christians, like Stephen, for instance, who were executed that way. Some faithful ones, the writer reminds us, were sawed apart, and according to tradition, the prophet Isaiah died this way. Some were murdered with the sword. This is an interesting inclusion in light of verse 34, where it says that some, through faith, escaped the edge of the sword. The writer is careful to remind his readers that having faith  may result in deliverance from death for some, but not others.

There were also those of faith who were destitute, wandering in the open dressed in sheepskins and goatskins, continually ill-treated and afflicted. They would have been sorry sights in the eyes of those around them, yet the writer tells us “the world was not worthy of them.” The world around would not have seen them as people of value, but they were God’s own people. They were without earthly homes, and at the same time, they were those for whom God had prepared a city (verse 16).

And of course, for all of those of faith who endured hardships like the ones listed in these verses, remaining faithful was the result of  valuing the heavenly rewards God had promised. They knew that God was a rewarder of those who seek him, and because they understood this, they could remain faithful in very hard circumstances.

I’m still bringing Hebrews 11 posts over from the old blog when I have time. This is the sixteenth post in a series from Hebrews 11. You’ll find all the posts done so far in this series listed here.

Our author can’t go on forever. There are just too many faithful people of old to examine them all, so he begins to sum things up for us.

And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets. Through faith they conquered kingdoms, administered justice, gained what was promised, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, put foreign armies to flight, and women received back their dead raised to life.(Hebrews 11:32-35a NET)

First we have a list of a few more people who were faithful Old Testament saints. It’s given to us without mentioning specifics details of their lives. Not all of these men are ones I’d expect to be on a list of those whose lives serve as examples of faithfulness. David and Samuel and the prophets I’d expect, but not the others. Both Gideon and Barak seemed hesitant to act. And Samson? When it came to Delilah, Samson was more than a little soft in the head. Jepthah, if you remember, made a really foolish vow and then sacrificed his own daughter to keep it. But at God’s command, they all did things that would appear, to the worldly observer, doomed from the start, so even though they had some great weaknesses, we find them here on our list of those who are commended by God for their faith.

Next the writer lists the sort of things that happened over and over to people who trusted God.

• They conquered kingdoms. Joshua, as a case in point, or Gideon and others from our list. There are those whose names are not given to us here who could be included as kingdom conquerors, as well.
• They administered justice. This could also mean “they did what was righteous”, but it probably refers more specifically to those who ruled justly, like David, for example, and the judges given on the list.
• They gained what was promised. People saw some of God’s promises fulfilled, even though the biggy remained unfulfilled until Christ. For instance, the promises to Abraham were partly fulfilled because his descendents grew in number and lived in the Promised Land as promised by God.
• They shut the mouths of lions. Right away I think of Daniel, but there were others, too: David, Samson, Benaiah.
• They quenched raging fire. Daniel’s buds, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who were thrown into the fiery furnace, are the ones I think of here.
• They escaped the edge of the sword. There’s Elijah, who Jezebel was going to kill, and the spies that Rahab hid. Can you think of others?
• They gained strength in weakness. I’ve mentioned some of the particularly obvious weaknesses above, but it’d be hard to find anyone on this list who didn’t have their foibles. God is always working within weak people to strengthen them for the tasks he asks them to perform.
• They became mighty in battle and put foreign armies to flight. There’s Gideon with his puny band, and more.
• Women received back their dead raised to life. Here I think of the two widows who sons were raised by Elijah and Elisha.

Thus ends the more pleasant part of these summary statements. These people trusted God and they had what we would see as successes as a result. However, things did not go so swimmingly for everyone who was faithful, as we’ll learn in the next installment of this series.

This is an edited old post from the old blog. The previous posts in this series are in the sidebar at the right.

Joshua Spares Rahab
Gustav Dore

After discussing the faith of the Israelites exhibited in the story of the fall of Jericho, the writer of Hebrews  points us to the faith of Rahab. Rahab, you’ll remember, had a part in the story of the fall of Jericho, too.

By faith Rahab the prostitute escaped the destruction of the disobedient, because she welcomed the spies in peace. (Hebrews 11:31 NET)

If you’re unfamiliar with her story or just a little rusty on the details, you can get up to speed by reading Joshua 2. According to this account, Rahab hid the Israelite spies on the roof of her house when the King of Jericho’s men were searching for them within the city. Aterward, she explained to the spies that she protected them because “the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below! (Joshua 2:11 NET)” She was willing to put herself in danger because of her conviction about the God of the Israelites.

Rahab was not the only person in Jericho who understood the power of the Lord. She explained to the spies that all the inhabitants of Jericho were scared of the Israelites because they could all see the works God had done on behalf of his people:

We are absolutely terrified of you, and all who live in the land are cringing before you. For we heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you left Egypt and how you annihilated the two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og, on the other side of the Jordan. When we heard the news we lost our strength and no one could even breathe for fear of you. (Joshua 2:9-11 NET)

But while the rest in Jericho cowered in fear of the Israelites and their God, Rahab allied herself with them. She understood that the God of Israel was the one true God—“God in heaven and on earth”—and she showed her allegience to him by keeping his people from harm. Rahab acted in faith and her faith was vindicated. When Jericho fell

Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, her father’s family, and all who belonged to her. (Joshua 6:25 NET)

What’s more, Rahab lived the rest of her life in Israel and is one of the ancestors of Jesus listed in the geneology in Matthew. And here she is in the hall of faith; she has her own mention in this list of the faithful people of old.

This is an edited old post from the old blog. The previous posts in this series are in the sidebar at the right.

Next up on the list of faithful ancients in Hebrews 11 are the people of Israel. The author gives us two examples of circumstances when the people of Israel exhibited faith, one occurring right after Moses led them out of Egypt and the other when they were  conquering the promised land.

By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if on dry ground, but when the Egyptians tried it, they were swallowed up. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after the people marched around them for seven days. (Hebrews 11:29-30 NET)

I’m reading Exodus right now, and judging from the Exodus account, the Israelites were more often fickle than faithful. Over and over again, they complained about the things that were happening. But in these two instances, they acted in faith, and so here they are, in the list of the faithful in Hebrews 11.

First our text tell us that it was by faith that the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea. You’ll remember that they had just left Egypt because God had acted miraculously on their behalf. If anyone should have known that God would protect them and deliver them, it was the Iraelites. However, when the armies of the Egyptians came after them and they saw no way out, they were terrified and complained to Moses.

“Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you took us away to die in the desert? What in the world have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Was this not what we told you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?’ For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert.” (Exodus 14: 11-12 NET)

To save them, God divided the waters of the Red Sea so that the people could cross. And that crossing took faith. To walk across the sea bed as if it were dry ground meant that they had to trust God to keep on holding back the walls of water on each side of them. Their trusting obedience saved them from the Egyptians, who came after them and were swallowed in the sea as the walls of water came tumbling down again.

The second example of the faith of the people of Israel comes at the fall of the walls of the city of Jericho, recounted for us in Joshua 6. Can you imagine how silly all that marching around the city must have seemed to anyone who was not acting in faith? But the people trusted God, followed his instructions, and he acted on their behalf. On the seventh day

[t]he rams’ horns sounded and when the army heard the signal, they gave a loud battle cry. The wall collapsed and the warriors charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. (Joshua 6:20 NET)

Their faith in God had been warranted. They obeyed God in faith and are included as examples for us in this list of faithful people of old.

This is the thirteenth post in a series from Hebrews 11. You’ll find all the posts done so far in this series listed here.

After writing of the faith of Moses’ parents, the author of Hebrews turns his focus to  the faith of Moses himself. Skipping right over the rest of the story of Moses as a baby—how he was put in the basket by his mother, only to be found by Pharoah’s daughter, who raised him as her son—starts his commentary on Moses’ faith with Moses as a grown man.

By faith, when he grew up, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be ill-treated with the people of God than to enjoy sin’s fleeting pleasure. He regarded abuse suffered for Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for his eyes were fixed on the reward. By faith he left Egypt without fearing the king’s anger, for he persevered as though he could see the one who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the one who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. (Hebrews 11:24-28 NET)

When Moses was grown, he “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” As Pharoah’s daughter’s son, Moses had everything that most people want and more. Egypt was a super power, and as a member of the royal family, he would have both wealth and position guaranteed to him. But he gave it all up in order to “be ill-treated with the people of God.” Like Joseph before him, he identified himself with God’s people, and for Moses that meant giving up much.

Our text calls what he gave up “sin’s fleeting pleasure.” This doesn’t mean that Moses was particularly debauched while he was in Pharoah’s family, but rather, that had he continued to identify with the royal family instead of the people of Israel, it would have been disobedient to what God asked of him. He would have continued living a life of wealth and power, two pleasures that are temporal rather than eternal. But Moses looked beyond temporal pleasures to things of eternal value, and chose to place himself with the people of God rather than the royal family of Egypt.

Moses considered “abuse suffered for Christ” to be of more value than “the treasures of Egypt”. There are a couple of explanations for what it might mean that Moses suffered abuse for Christ. Christ had not been born yet, so in what way could Moses have suffered abuse for him? Some people think it simply means that Moses suffered the same sort of abuse that Christ suffered. Others point out that Moses suffered for God’s people, and any suffering for God’s people is suffering for Christ, who has always been united with God’s people. One of the purposes of book of Hebrews is to call believers to remain standing with Christ and with God’s people in the face of suffering and persecution, and Moses, then, would serve as an example of someone who has persevered in that.

Moses knew what the treasures of Egypt were, because they had been his, but he gave them up for the reward from God that goes to his people. Literally, the text says that “he was looking away to” the reward. He understood the true value of God’s reward, so he understood that it was worth more than any material wealth or any status in the earthly realm, and this reward from God was what he focused on instead of the things he’d had in Egypt.

Then the text tells us that “by faith he left Egypt.” Some may disagree, but I would take this leaving Egypt to be Moses’s first exit when he went to stay in Midian, since the writer seems to put this leaving chronologically before the Passover. There ia a small problem in that the text says that Moses left Egypt “without fearing the king’s anger,” while we are told in the Exodus account of Moses’ life that “Moses was afraid (Exodus 2:14).” This fear, however, was not the motivating factor behind his leaving Egypt according our author. Rather, Moses “persevered as though he could see the one who is invisible.” His stay in Midian, then, was one of faithful waiting for God’s intervention on behalf of his own people.

Next, the text moves to the Passover as an example of Moses’s faith. Thus far, none of the plagues had worked to cause Pharoah to let the Israelites go, but Moses remained faithful. He urged the people to keep the Passover, and sprinkle blood on their doorposts so that their firstborn sons would be spared this last plague. And his perseverance in faith was not in vain, for this time Pharoah let the Israelite people leave Egypt.

Moses was one of the people of old who was sure of the invisible. He trusted in the invisible workings of an invisible God, so he was commended by God, and the author of Hebrews includes him in his list of people of faith.

This is the eleventh post in a series from Hebrews 11. You’ll find all the posts done so far in this series listed here.

After he shows us the faith of the patriarchs, the author of Hebrews moves on to Moses, beginning with the faith of Moses’ parents.

This is the tenth post in a series from Hebrews 11. You’ll find all the posts done so far in this series listed here.

Next up in our Hebrews 11 list of the Old Testament faithful is Jacob. Here’s what we read:

By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped as he leaned on his staff. (Hebrews 11:21 NET)

You’ll find the story of Jacob’s blessing of Joseph’s sons in Genesis 48. If you read through the chapter you’ll see a couple of odd things. First of all, Jacob blessed Joseph’s sons, who were really his grandsons, as if they were his own sons.

Now, as for your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, they will be mine. Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine just as Reuben and Simeon are. Any children that you father after them will be yours; they will be listed under the names of their brothers in their inheritance. (Genesis 48:5,6 NET)

And then he purposefully gives the youngest son the firstborn blessing, crossing his hands as he put them on their heads, so that Ephriam, the youngest, has Jacob’s right hand, and Manasseh, the oldest, his left. When Joseph tries to correct things, Jacob insists on doing things this way because he knows that the “younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude of nations (Genesis 48: 19).”

This blessing by Jacob, with it’s unexpected features, shows Jacob’s acknowledgment that God fulfills his promises and works his purposes in his own way, and not necessarily according to what people think it ought to be done. And like Abraham and Isaac before him, here at the end of his life Jacob remains confident in the future fulfillment of the promises of God to him.

The writer gives us one more example of Jacob’s faith. At the end of his life, he “worshiped as he leaned on his staff.” If you go back to Genesis looking for the account of this act of worship, you might have trouble finding it. It’s there, right at the end of Genesis 47, but your translation probably says something like this: “…Israel bowed down at the head of his bed.” The quote found here in Hebrews follows the text of the Septuagint, which at this point is different than the Masoretic Hebrew text we use for our Old Testament. Remember that ancient Hebrew was written with no vowels, and those who translated it into the Greek of the Septuagint supplied a set of vowels to come up with the Hebrew word for “staff”, while the text our Old Testament is based on uses a different set of vowels to make the same set of letters read “bed”.  Either way, the point is the same: Jacob worshiped God at the end of his life, right after he asked Joseph to make sure that his body was buried back in Canaan with his fathers. And that act of worship was evidence of Jacob’s faith.

This is the ninth post in a series from Hebrews 11. You’ll find all the posts on this series listed here.

Next on the list of faithful ancients in Hebrews 11 is Isaac.

By faith also Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning the future. (Hebrews 11:20 NET)

When Isaac was an old man, he blessed his two sons, Jacob and Esau. You’ll find Isaac’s blessing of Jacob in Genesis 27:27-29 and his blessing of Esau in Genesis 27:39-40. Both blessings contain predictions of things that God would do long after Isaac’s death. Isaac would not see these future events, but in faith, he understood  the certainty of them.

That Isaac was fooled into blessing Jacob when he thought he was blessing Esau is not important to the point the author is making about Isaac’s faith. What is important is that Isaac spoke in faith concerning a future he could not see.

This is the eighth post in a series from Hebrews 11. You’ll find all the posts done so far in this series here.

After the summary statement in verses 13-16 of this chapter, the author of Hebrews returns to his examination of Abraham’s faith. He’s already explained that it was by faith that Abraham obeyed God and left his homeland, and it was by faith that Abraham conceived his son Isaac. Now the author tells us that it was by faith that Abraham offered up Isaac.

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He had received the promises, yet he was ready to offer up his only son. God had told him, “Through Isaac descendants will carry on your name,” and he reasoned that God could even raise him from the dead, and in a sense he received him back from there. (Hebrews 11:17-19 NET)

You know the story, right? God speaks to Abraham:

Take your son—your only son, whom you love, Isaac—and go to the land of Moriah! Offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will indicate to you. (Genesis 22:22)

This was, of course, a test of Abraham’s love for God: Did he love God enough to give up his son? This text in Hebrews, however, points us to something else that was tested—Abraham’s willingness to keep on believing and obeying God  when faced with what appeared to be contradictory revelations from him. God had told Abraham that Isaac’s descendants would carry on Abraham’s name, and Abraham had already received partial fulfillment of that promise in the birth of Isaac. Now God was telling Abraham to offer his son as a burnt offering, an act that would seem to ensure that Isaac would have no descendents at all. At the very least, it would have been confusing.

How did Abraham square God’s command with his promise? He denied neither, but trusted instead in God’s ability to raise the dead. God, Abraham concluded, would be able to fulfill this promise even if Isaac died, because God had the power to raise him to life again. So Abraham determined to obey God’s command.

He was already in the process of offering up Isaac when God intervened in a way he had not anticipated.

But the Lord’s angel called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am!” he answered. “Do not harm the boy!” the angel said. “Do not do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.” (Genesis 22: 11,12 NET)

God provided a ram for Abraham to sacrifice in place of his son Isaac, giving Abraham and all the rest of us a picture of the provision God would make for us by the sacrifice of his own Son.

The phrase “only Son” used to describe Isaac should be understood to mean “unique son,” since Abraham had other sons besides Isaac (Genesis 25:1-2). None of them, however, were conceived in the unlikely way that Isaac was, and only Isaac received the covenant promises.

And even though God stopped Abraham from following through on his plan to offer Isaac, in a sense, says our text, Abraham did receive Isaac back from the dead. In his mind, Abraham had already given Isaac up for dead, expecting him back only through a miraculous work of God. The way God chose to intervene was different than what Abraham expected, but, in keeping with his trustworthy nature, God did act so that his promise to Abraham would be fulfilled.