Hebrews 12:12-17

12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,”[b] so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

 

Warning and Encouragement

14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. 16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.

 

 

Dig Deeper

I love listening to great pep-talk speeches from great athletic coaches.  There are few things in life more inspiring than watching a coach rally a team around him, especially one that has taken a bit of a beating.  They might have stumbled into the locker room at halftime after having been knocked around a bit, but the great coach can gird up his team.  He will address their wounds and prepare them for the next round of battle in a way that inspires them to give greater effort and believe that they do have a chance at victory if they will only stand strong and believe in the coach and themselves.  One of my all-time favorite speeches of that type actually comes not from the world of sports but from the classic movie “Independence Day.”  After having been nearly annihilated in the first two days of being attacked by malevolent alien forces, a rag-tag group of humans is pieced together to make a last stab effort at a counter attack.  In that speech the President of what is left of the United States urges them to “not give up without a fight,” and to not “go gently into that good night.”  This will be a glorious new independence day for the whole world, he tells them, if they will just strengthen themselves and fight.  Of course, they are all inspired and they go on to win the day.

 

There are several places throughout the Bible where God gives his people great pep talks as well, and this passage from Hebrews 12 is one of them.  Some of the great pep talks allude to other great moments in history or quote from other important moments (as the above pep talk did), and this one in Hebrews is no different.  The recipients of the letter have gone through tough times.  They have been persecuted, they have seen many falter in their faith, and some were on the verge of giving up.  But that’s the last thing they should do.  Victory is in sight.  The Lord will prevail, and his people with him.  If they only will hold strong.  In encouraging them, the author hails back to the days of Isaiah when he wrote to a people who were discouraged because of their tough situation and called them to hope and believe in the coming justice and provision of God.  In hearkening back to Isaiah 35, the promise is similar.  God will provide if they just continue to hold on and be faithful:

 

Strengthen the weak hands, steady the shaking knees!  Say to the cowardly: “Be strong; do not fear!  Here is your God; vengeance is coming.  God’s retribution is coming; He will save you.” . . . A road will be there and a way; it will be called the Holy Way.  The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for the one who walks the path.  Even the fool will not go astray. — Isaiah 35:3-8

 

Yes, they have been through tough times, says the author of Hebrews, and yes, it is the Lord disciplining and training them to make them stronger, and treating them lovingly as his sons, but they need to hold steady.  They might feel weak and not up to the task of remaining faithful but if they would but follow the Lord’s level paths of holiness, it will result in healing rather than harm.  Our Father is not a distant God who has no idea of the struggles that we go through on a regular basis.  He intimately knows what we are experiencing, but he also knows what his people need and so he gives us each a cross to bear.  We want to make sure that we don’t cut that cross down a bit to make it more manageable, only to come to a canyon that needs crossing later and find out that the cross was just the right length to put across the chasm and walk to the other side, only now it is too short.  God uses the struggles to bring healing and strength and to prepare us, not to disable us.

 

The call to be holy and avoid worldliness that dominates verses 14 to 17 then is of vital importance.  Worldliness and lack of perseverance are cancers that can seep in and destroy a family of believers before they even know what ails them.  Peace and holiness are not just nice perks or extra options to be tacked onto a Christina community that is going really well and looking to be extra mature.  They are essential elements that will help guard against complacency, worldliness, and laziness.  A body of believers, after all, is either growing spiritually or it is dying.  It is either progressing and advancing in holiness or it is rotting.

 

Thus, our author gives the believers to whom he is writing five spiritual dynamics that should be a regular part of their spiritual life as the people of God.  The first is that they must make every effort to live in peace with everyone.  This would apply to both within and without the body.  Jesus called his people to be peacemakers (Matt. 5:9) and to constantly seek to love even the most difficult people (Matt. 5:43-47).  Christians are to make every effort to live in peace and biblical love with one another (Col. 3:14 ), making sure that we keep that as a top priority over the things that usually take precedence like our own preferences, feelings, and emotions.  But we are also to love our enemies and be at peace with them, at least as much as it depends on us (Rom. 12:18).  The Christian is to love all and be at peace, but we can only control our actions and cannot force others to love us back.  It still remains true, however, that the only way that a Christian has to destroy their enemy is to love them until they are their friend.  A community that truly embraces peace will be well on its way to remaining strong.

 

But it cannot just be about peace for that could get one-sided and sentimental in a hurry.  We must also strive for the second dynamic of a Christian community which is to be a holy community where sin is taken seriously and we so love the body of Christ that we are not about to tolerate sin within our midst.  When mixed appropriately with peace-making and love, this becomes a powerful combination that keeps God’s people strong and pure.

 

The third dynamic is to see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God.  It is the role of the community to see to it that each member grows into complete maturity in Christ and is not taken down by sin (Col. 1:28-29).  The author has warned of this problem of falling short of what God has in store for us (Heb. 4:1; 6:4-6; 10:26-31).  God’s grace that is given to us in the life of Christ is a free gift that we can never earn but it is also demanding.  In order to accept it we must set everything else aside.  Failure to do so will result in our falling short and missing out on the life that God desires for his people.

 

The fourth dynamic is an allusion to Deuteronomy 29:18 .  While we are positively seeking peace and holiness and ensuring that none fall short of God’s grace, we need to be on extra guard against bitter roots that could pop up and poison the body of Christ.  Living together as the family of God definitely has its challenges which can put great stress on our unity.  When those tests come, and they will, we must remember that we are seeking peace and holiness.  We must remember that we can easily get irritated with one another and that Satan will constantly seek to destroy our unity.  When little shoots of dissension come up we must go after them immediately.  If not, “a little sleep, a little slumber,” a little looking the other way, and the field will be overgrown with weeds faster than we can imagine (Prov. 24:30-34).

 

The final dynamic is to see to it that worldliness, such as immorality and godlessness are not accepted within God’s family.  Esau is a perfect picture of that worldliness.  He sold his inheritance in God’s promised family for momentary pleasure.  He traded an eternal birthright for a fleeting bowl of soup.  Rejecting the inheritance that we have as members of God’s family can have dire consequences as Esau found out.  Esau sold out when things got a little difficult and discovered that there was no repentance that would reverse what he had done.  This is a stern warning for those growing weary in their faith.  Those that sell out their portion of the inheritance in God’s family will find nothing but sadness and rejection if they think that they can reject the family of the Messiah and somehow still be accepted back by the Father one day.  This is essentially the same warning the author issued in chapter 6.  There simply is no other way, no other repentance, no other acceptance into the family of God other than entering in through the life of Christ.  Rejecting that path or growing weary and giving up in it is a a supremely dangerous way to go.

 

In a Christian world today where we are so often told that we need do nothing accept raise our hands up, tilt our heads back and let God’s blessings flow into our lives, Hebrews says something very different.  Remaining faithful will require some work on our part.  It requires seeking after peace and holiness.  It demands that we remain in God’s grace.  And it expects us to be on the guard against bitter roots and worldliness.  These are the things that will help us to stand firm and stay on the level path.

 

 

 

Devotional Thought

Do you see all five elements of spiritual growth mentioned in this passage in your own Christian community?  Do you see all five elements in your own spiritual life?  In which areas do you need to grow or work extra hard to maintain?

Hebrews 12:4-11

4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

 

 

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,

    and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

    and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”[a]

 

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

 

 

Dig Deeper

I was absolutely stunned.  I was in my fourth year of college and had begun to truly take my studies seriously.  I was giving every class my best effort and really had finally gained a good perspective and my need to work hard in my classes and how that was going to relate to my success in life after college.  In response to that, I was getting excellent grades, something that I could not always say during my first two years of college, or as I have come to know them, “the lazy years.”  I had just completed a paper that I had worked quite hard on and thought it was a pretty good effort.  But when my paper came back from the professor it was marked with a “B”.  I could not believe it.  Especially when I began to see the grades that my friends around me got.  Several friends, whose papers I had read, received “A’s” for doing much less work than I had done.  And to be quite frank, at the time I didn’t think their papers were as good as mine and neither did they.  So I simply could not understand why I had been given the grade that I had. 

 

My initial reaction was to feel that obviously my professor did not like me.  She had always seemed to grade me a little lower than my peers and I had shaken it off but this felt too far.  I felt that it had become apparent now and out in the light that she just preferred others in the class over me and I became convinced that she actually did not want me to succeed.  So, being the calm and collected young fellow that I was at the time, I balled the paper up and whilst staring at her the entire time, I walked over, demonstratively threw the paper in the trash, and stormed out of the class.

 

Later that night the professor called me to apologize, but not for the reason that I thought (despite the fact that I should have been the one apologizing).  She was not apologizing for having a grudge against me and grading me down.  She apologized for not explaining herself sooner.  She went on to tell me that she had indeed been grading my papers at a different standard from my peers but that it was because she saw great potential in me.  She wanted to help make me a better writer and researcher by grading my work at a graduate level rather than as the under-graduate student that I was.  Now, the fairness of that decision is not for me to discuss here, but the point is that what I thought was her lack of interest or affection towards me was actually the opposite.  She was trying to train me and make me stronger and better.

 

Certainly with all that the community of Christians in Rome (if our theory that Hebrews was written to the church in Rome is correct), we could easily understand if they were tempted to grow weary and start to think that perhaps God didn’t care about or love them.  Why else would he allow them to be constantly thrown into prisons, have their property confiscated, lose their positions in society, be ostracized, and see so many of their number walk away?  Surely they had been taught that the world had persecuted Jesus and it would do the same to his people, but the strength of that conviction had grown fuzzy over the years.  The realities and harshness of their life in Christ had begun to wear them down.

 

This is one of the reasons that they needed to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus.  Jesus was, of course, the perfect Son of God but he also knows what it’s like.  He can serve as an example for those that are going through trials because he has been there.  He faced up to the worst persecution that Satan and the world can offer and he remained faithful to the will of God.  He had suffered trials and persecution at the hands of sinful people just as they had.  They could draw strength and encouragement from the fact that he had endured faithfully and the outcome was positive.  Yes, Jesus suffered but there was no question that he was God’s beloved son.  Not only could they identify with Jesus’ suffering, they could also take heart in the fact that, although severe, there struggles were not on the level of what Jesus endured.  They had yet to shed their own blood and die, although the author doesn’t remove the possibility that that might take place one day.

 

In verses 5-6 the author quotes from Proverbs 3 and offers a mild rebuke for them in the process.  Had they forgotten the comforting and encouraging rebuke from the Proverbs?  Had they failed to apply that principle to their lives when they most needed it?  The Lord disciplines those he loves and considers as his children.  That was true of Jesus, whom we have already been told in 5:8, learned the fullness of being obedient to God’s will only by enduring through suffering (not in the sense of learning something that he did not know but in the sense of experiencing something that can only be fully experienced through a specific element—thus, Jesus could only discover complete obedience as a human to doing God’s will by doing so through suffering).  Their suffering was not a sign of God’s displeasure or lack of concern.  Rather they should understand that God was allowing them to be trained to bring them to full maturity (James 1:2-3).  God was treating them as any loving father would.

 

If you were to go a public place and see a child running completely amok and the adult that was accompanying them doing nothing about it, you might start to wonder if the parent was an abysmally poor parent, or perhaps he was not the child’s father at all.  This is why Proverbs 13:24 urges us to remember that the one who neglects discipline does not truly love their child in the full sense of the word.  Fathers who care about their children, their own lives, and society at large will discipline and train their children.  They will allow difficult circumstances and obstacles to come into the life of their child so that they can learn to overcome those things.

 

The proper response to hardship is not to see it as punishment or abandonment, but to see at as the loving actions of a loving Father.  The Lord does not directly discipline and train those that are not his children.  Knowing that God has a purpose in the trials that we go through are what change sheer grief into pure joy in the same way that knowing that an incredibly challenging workout is making us stronger and more fit changes the experience from a torturous one to something that we can enjoy in a strange sort of way.  It is the knowledge of the purpose of the pain that changes everything. 

 

Even human fathers that everyone respects know that they must bring or allow hardship into their children’s lives.  God is the ultimate Father and he certainly knows that.  The reality is that children who never suffer loss, hardship, or trial become incredibly lazy, spoiled, and immature.  As God’s children we might be tempted to desire that nothing but blessing and goodness come into our lives (and some have made a great deal of money and fame for themselves claiming that this is what God wants for us too), but we have to realize just how truly counter-productive and dangerous spiritually that would actually be.  If we never faced trial how would we grow?  Growth is born through adversity.  Our goal as Christians is not to “make it to heaven” and avoid the most amount of struggle that we possibly can in the process.  Our goal as a Christian is to become like Christ.  That takes growth, training, and discipline and those things can only come through trial, struggle, and persecution. 

 

It is through the fire that we will learn Christ-like obedience.  That is why Hebrews asserts that God trains us for our own good.  It’s not because he is inattentive.  It’s quite the opposite, in fact.  God trains us in “order that we may share in his holiness.”  When we go through hardships and struggles, perhaps rather than asking “why, God,” we should ask what God is trying to teach us.  God knows what we need to go through and learn and when the storms come (the storms that we create for ourselves through sin and disobedience are another matter entirely) we can be comforted with the knowledge that God knows that the refinement that we will receive from that trial is better for us than if we went through no trial at all.

 

Now that doesn’t mean that we can simply change our mindset and suddenly everything will become rose pedals and ginger snaps.  Trials are still hard, and challenging, and painful.  They will test our faith, our resolve, and our endurance.  That’s the whole point.  It is only when we are weak and persevere that we gain strength.  These times of discipline will not be pleasant, but we can count them as joy, as James 1 says, because we know that God is at work.  The trial is not bigger than God.  The pain is not bigger than the lesson.  And nothing is bigger than God’s love for his sons and daughters.

 

 

Devotional Thought

What struggles or trials are you going through in your life right now?  Have been tempted to be angry at God for allowing them and wonder why he would do such a thing?  Or have you taken some time to contemplate what might be trying to teach you through these circumstances?

Hebrews 12:1-3

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

 

 

Dig Deeper

Running a long endurance race, like a marathon is no easy task.  In fact, the Greek word used in this passage for race is the root word from which we get our word “agony.”  No matter how well trained you are, a long distance race is going to be painful and require endurance.  Anything that helps to keep one focused on the race and motivated through the course of an event that has many emotional ups and downs is greatly appreciated and, dare I say, necessary.  This past month I decided to compete in another marathon event and even though I have completed many before, each one is difficult and there were several times throughout the race where my mind toyed with the idea of quitting.  One of the things that is encouraging and keeps the runners motivated and going throughout the race is the great crowd of spectators that line the streets all through the course of the race.  As encouraging as that can be, however, that begins to lost its motivation after a time.  What really begins to motivate me, though, as I start to tread through the last mile or two of the race are those that have finished ahead of me.  There’s usually not a lot of them yet at that point, but peppered throughout the last mile or so are those that have already finished the race.  They could go off and enjoy their accomplishment but instead they come back down the course and cheer on those that are still running.  Just seeing those that have already completed the course and knowing that, yes it can be done and soon I will be joining them, is a powerful motivator.

 

It is that type of motivation upon which Paul draws for an effective analogy of the rigors of the Christian life.  The author drew on imagery that would have been quite familiar in the Roman world to which he was writing.  These people took their athletics seriously.  Physical training was a vitally important aspect of life in the Empire of Rome.  Biblical historian, Everett Ferguson, in his work Backgrounds of Early Christianity, says that:

 

“Foot races were held in the stadium.  Several of these stadia still survive with their starting and finish lines (cf. The mark or goal in Phil. 3:14).  The Greek stadia accommodated spectators on the grassy slopes on each side of the flat running surfaces.

 

The major sports were running, boxing, the pankration (an all-out combination of boxing, wrestling, and kicking in which no holds were barred except for biting and gouging), and the pentathlon (which included running, long-jumping, throwing the discus, throwing the javelin, and wrestling.” 

 

The author of Hebrews was signaling to his audience that this was walk day in the park.  The Christian life was like one of those agonizing endurance races.  In order for them to finish they needed to prepare properly, run correctly, endure, and finish strong.  Otherwise they would grow weary and not finish the race.

 

The first thing that they would need is the proper motivation.  This could be done.  To live a life of faith without quitting and throwing in the towel had already been done.  The stadium was filled with those that had already run and completed the race.  They are there, figuratively cheering us on and motivating us to not only start our lives of faith but to finish.  This will help at those times when we start to wonder if the path is too difficult and we begin to contemplate giving up.

 

The next thing that we need is to warm-up properly.  Before a long-distance race now days runners drop all of their gear off in little bags before they even start the race.  You don’t want anything you don’t need.  I once had a friend who insisted on starting a long race with a camel-back water holder on his back.  We tried to tell him that there would be plenty of liquid stations along the way and that he should drop it off at the gear check table but he brought it anyway.  Soon, he found it to be cumbersome and heavy and wished that he had not brought it.  As Christians we are to throw off the things that hinder us.  These are often things that weigh us down like past hurts, anxieties, worry,  laziness, procrastination, and the like.    We really need to throw those things off before we start but if we haven’t then we need to emulate runners who start out a race wearing warm clothing because of chilly temperatures, only to start shedding those clothes along the route as the temperatures rise.

 

But we are also to throw off the sin that so easily entangles us.  These are often mind-sets like selfishness, greed, the desire to do my own will, pride, the unwillingness to give up my hyper-individualism, unchecked lust, and many, many other things.  Trying to run the race of faith without casting away those things that can pull at our hearts is like trying to run a marathon through a cavalcade of fishing nets.  One of them will eventually trip you up.  The reality of these two “warm-up instructions” is that there are certain things in life that will have to be rejected and discarded if we are to run effectively.

 

As we continue on the race, we have to have an attitude of endurance.  Let me ask an important question.  What determines when you stop running a race?  As simple as that sounds, it is vital to know and understand the answer.  Being tired does not determines when we stop running.  A little temporary pain does not determine when we stop running.  For the truly committed, even an injury does not determine when we stop running.  And certainly, growing mentally weary cannot determine when we stop running.  For the true runner, the finish line is the only thing that determines when we stop.  So it is for those that have entered into the race of a faithful life.  Obstacles cannot deter us and we cannot allow discouragements to diminish our hope.  We must have the conviction that absolutely nothing will stop us until we reach that finish line.  It is only then that we can let our feet stop moving.

 

But it takes more than just endurance.  Proper technique is vital as well.  Even great runners, will severely hurt themselves, if not completely ruin their race, without safe techniques.  Hebrews tells us that the proper technique for the faith runner is to keep our heads up and focused on Jesus.  He, after all, is not only the perfect motivator, but he is also the author and perfecter of the race.  He already ran the perfect endurance race.  He showed us how to go through the most trying of circumstances, even shameful death on a cross, and to do so because he kept focused on the joy of completing his race.  In so doing he made the life of the New Creation available to us, and then sat down at the right hand of God.  If we take our eyes off of him we will veer off course.  He is the pioneer or trailblazer of our faith (Heb. 2:10).  Not only did he finish the race and beckon us to follow him but he cut the only path that will lead us to the finish line.  Believe me, there are few things worse in a long-distance race than to realize that you have taken a wrong turn and gone off of the proper path.  We must keep our concentration and gaze fixed upon Jesus.

 

Many runners in long-distance races will put on headphones and listen to music to keep their minds off of the agony of the race.  As faith runners we are urged to set our minds on what Jesus endured for us.  In so doing, we will take our minds off of our own aches and pains and realize, in the course of events, that we have probably not endured anything even close to what Jesus endured for us.  He kept his eye on the joy of the Father and as we focus on that it will keep us focused on the joy of our Lord and Savior.

 

As you run the course marked out before us in faith, always get ready properly by throwing off all that could hinder or entangle you.  Keep running with perseverance, knowing that at some point it is going to get painful.   There’s no way around that.  It just simply is that way and knowing it and accepting it now is invaluable.  The pain will come but we can endure.  If you keep your eyes focused on Jesus and not on yourself you will finish the race.  After all, there is a stadium full of those who have already done it, and they are cheering you on.

 

 

Devotional Thought

Are you trying to run this endurance race of faith with things that hinder and entangle you?  What mindsets or unnecessary attitudes are you caring with you that you need to drop or change?  What sin have you been dragging along that you need to throw to the side?  How can you stay focused on Jesus through this race and how will that help you to finish strong?

Hebrews 11:32-39

32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

 

39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

 

 

Dig Deeper

Over the years I have really grown to love running in marathons.  It is truly my favorite physical activity these days.  Recently I completed another marathon and had a great time.  I finished with my personal best time and, although it wasn’t a perfect race, I was pretty happy with how I did.  I was pushing pretty hard most of the race and there were a few times that I felt like quitting but I kept going and finished.  At the finish line my youngest son came up to me and said, “Dad, did you win the race?”  I turned to him and in all of my confidence and wisdom I said, “well you see son, marathons like this are not the type of races that you we saw at the Olympics during the track and field.”  I continued, “Marathons are not about winning and losing and being successful based on that standard.  Marathons are about endurance, personal achievement, and finishing what you started.”  “Every person,” I reasoned, “is competing with themselves so success is very different in a marathon, rather than just looking at concepts like winning or losing or finishing first.”  I was sure that this would help him to see the transcendent nature of competing against oneself in a marathon.  But instead my son tilted his head, looked at me with a look of disdain that communicated that he had already thoroughly discredited everything about which I had just waxed so eloquent, and said, “so, you lost.”

 

What my little cherub failed to understand is that the standard of success in a local marathon is not finishing first.  It really does have to do with finishing.  When he can grasp that concept he will see that everyone who finished that race was successful whether it took them 2 ½ hours or 6 hours, or anything in between. 

 

As we close out the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we should have come fully to terms with the idea that God has radically shifted the idea of what success is in his kingdom.  It is a cataclysmic shift that changes everything.  We humans tend to wander through our lives constantly wondering what it’s all about it.  What is the purpose of life?  Why am I here?  What is a successful life?  When we read passages like the section today, it starts to become clear.  God is not interested in success from a worldly perspective.  Being rich, powerful, or famous means nothing to God.  He is not looking for success but for faithfulness.  Everyone who is faithful to God is a success in the only eyes that matter.

 

As we turn to the text, verse 32 is another of those moments in Hebrews where the author, like any good teacher or preacher occasionally does, hints that there is much more that he could say on the topic but will cut it in interest of time or space available.  We are left to wonder longingly at what great teaching he might have unveiled had he felt that he had the time, but are comforted by the fact that the Holy Spirit certainly inspired our author to include the necessary details. 

 

This section offers a good summary of people that faced incredible challenges and overcame them all through faith.  Some conquered the unconquerable.  Others did the impossible.  Still others saw incredible miracles, such as Daniel in the lion’s den.  Some of the people or incidents listed are named directly while others are only alluded to.  These were people, however that stood the test in faith and as a result saw their area of weakness become strength, because where we are weak and allow God to work, we become mighty beyond anything we could ever ask or imagine.  There were women like the widow of Zarephath and the woman of Shunem who received their sons back from the dead through the prophets Elijah and Elisha respectively.  But there were also many others who did not fare so well.  Some experienced great victories through their faith, but the faith of others saw them tortured, beaten, stoned, sawed in two, and killed in many horrific ways.

 

So what is the point of all that?  Why would some receive great victories through faith while others went through genuinely horrible experiences?  Does that seem to make any sense at all?  Certainly the author gives us the first answer to those questions directly.  They were all looking towards a better resurrection.  They were living according to the promises of God that were largely unseen as yet, rather than living for the temporal promises that the world tries to muster up but on which it can never seem to deliver.  Thus, the great miraculous moments as well as the times of harrowing and relentless faith in the face of persecution and death both derive their strength from the same source.  They both come from faith that God will be true to his promises.  The key that God is looking for is not brilliant “victory” at every turn.  That’s not how God judges success or what he wants.  God is looking for faithfulness.  He is looking for those that take him at his word when promised resurrection for his people.  Or as Hebrews put it in 11:6, faith is both believing that God exists and that “he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” 

 

The amazing thing is that many in this list did not even have the full revelation or all of the facts regarding what God would do one day.  Early on in the times covered by the Old Testament, resurrection is something that is only hinted at.  It was not until the time of prophets such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel that God began to flesh out his promises regarding resurrection.  Simply knowing that God promised to reward those that were faithful was enough for these great vanguards of the faith.

 

But there is more here that we are to see than just the idea that some experienced great miracles and others endured incredible persecution because they were focused on the inheritance to come (as important as that is).  What the author of Hebrews is making clear is that their willingness to live by faith was not only evidence that God would one day restore all things.  The fact that they were faithful, combined with the faithful lives of the Christians at the time that Hebrews was written (and beyond), were actually proof of that age to come.  These faith-people lived at odds with the world.  They lived lives that were out of tune with the present age.  They lived by the values of the coming resurrection age and made that their reality.  The world around them lived as though the present age was all there ever was, all there is, and all there ever will be.  But God gave them the ability and strength to live by the power and values of the future age, which proved their faith to be true.  This is not circular reasoning mind you.  The fact is that people claiming faith in a coming age and truly being able to live their lives out as samples of the power of that coming age, clearly serves as proof that the coming age is real and has begun to break into the present age even now. 

 

Therein lies the purpose for living these radical lives of faith.  They both demonstrate our belief in God’s promises of resurrection but they also serve as powerful evidence that the future age has already begun to break in.  It is all about faith in the promises of God.  Some, we are told, escaped the edge of the sword through faith while others felt the end of the sword through that same kind of faith.  The measure of their lives could not be taken in the things that the world valued.  Some were great conquerors and rulers, others were outcasts and the persecuted.  What mattered was not the results of their life or the “success” as the world would define it.  What mattered was that they remained faithful to God. 

 

In fact, they all died without so much as having even received the ultimate promises that God gave.  Some of them saw small manifestations of the fruit of following God but some saw nothing but hardship.  The harsh reality is that either comfort or persecution; rule or subjugation; power or complete impotence, can all pull us away from faith in God.  The important part is not whether we taste of the great power or the great persecution but in whether or not we are demonstrating faith in God’s promises.

 

So what does it mean for 21st century Christians to live by faith?  It means to live as though we really believe that God’s resurrection age is the reality by which we order our lives.  It means that we live by a time when there will be no evil and no hate so we become a people that know only the language of love and forgiveness (see passages such as Luke 6:27-39).  It means that even though the world is mired in darkness right now that we don’t accept that darkness as the reality of life, but rather we recognize that the daylight from the sun is already on the way.  We cannot yet see the resurrection age but we can begin to live by its power right now.  We can embrace it as more of a reality than what we see and what the world around us values.  We can, in short, live our lives as though spending eternity with Jesus and his people in the resurrection is all that will matter one day soon and so it is all that matters now.

 

 

Devotional Thought

Is your faith built on God’s promises of resurrection and his faithfulness to those promises?  Or does it often hinge on things going the way you would like them to?  Would you continue to have the same rock-solid faith in God if you were one of those that faced the business end of the sword?  Are you demonstrating faith in God’s promises despite your circumstances or is your faith all too connected to your circumstances?

Hebrews 11:23-31

23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

 

24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

 

29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

 

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.

 

31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

 

 

Dig Deeper

The other day I came across a scene that has become increasingly common in our world today.  I was in a store shopping and was surrounded by seemingly normal people that were quite busy going about their business and filling up their carts with the items that they needed to take home with them.  It was all rather quiet, mundane, and had a certain rhythm to it until suddenly someone started walking up behind me.  They were talking in a rather loud and animated fashion.  As they passed by on my left I realized that they seemed to be in a rather heated conversation, or at least a very emotional one.  But to my surprise, they had no phone that I could see and no one was close to them except for me.  After my initial moment of being startled I looked at them, thinking perhaps they were somehow agitated and speaking to me.  They glanced at me and continued talking but then walked past, still speaking and carrying on.  A moment later I saw them again, standing in an aisle, talking in a very animated way that involved their whole body.  I began to wonder if I wasn’t witnessing the mental breakdown of some poor individual here.  As I walked by they continued to talk but this time turned their body so I could suddenly see the side of them that had been obscured from my vision as they walked by me the first time.  That is when I noticed an extremely small bluetooth-type device in their ear.  Now it all made sense.  What I could not see or hear was that they were having a phone conversation with someone else.

 

It’s amazing how quickly people can look strange and even crazy when they can hear or see something that you cannot.  It changes their environment and context so that what they experience is entirely different than what those around them are experiencing and suddenly behavior that is quite rational when considered in full context, seems quite irrational.  That’s a bit of how it is when we live by faith.  Although we cannot see the promises and future of God with our physical eyes, we see them with our spiritual minds and we believe them.  This causes us to live in a very different reality and context than those around us.  Which, of course, makes those that truly live by faith look to the world around us like perhaps we have caught a case of the crazies.  Living by faith on the promises of God radically changes what we fear, what we value, what we go after in life, and what we desire.  It is though we see something that others cannot and it seems quite nuts from the perspective of others.  And that’s the truth of faith.  If your life doesn’t look a bit odd, bordering on the insane to those that don’t live by faith then perhaps it’s not faith by which you are living.

 

As Hebrews continues to gives examples of those that lived by radical faith in God despite appearances and the circumstances around them, he comes to the time of Moses and Joshua when those that were living by faith definitely acted in ways that seem crazy from a worldly perspective.  They were living as though they could see something that no one else could, because, in fact, they could in a sense.

 

The first example from this section is that of Moses’ parents.  It might not seem like a great act of faith to keep your child from harm but it must have been because they were apparently the only people that had the courage to even try it.  Imagine how intimidated parents must have been to not be willing to fight back or try to stop their infants from being slaughtered.  Yet, the Pharaoh of the time must have made enough threats, and been willing to carry them out, so that the parents saw the consequences of trying to keep their children alive as worse than letting them be killed.  Moses’ parents were somehow different.  We are not told how, but they knew that Moses was different.  God had plans for him and they saw that.  That caused them to be willing to risk the dire consequences of going against the mighty Pharaoh.  It led them to not be afraid of what everyone else lived in mortal fear of.

 

Their faith passed on to their son even though he grew up in the Pharaoh’s household.  He was trained up in the best of Egyptian schools and had a life of ease and comfort ahead of him.  It is likely that he was already a fairly well known royal and may have even been somewhat of an Egyptian military hero.  Not many people in their right mind would pass up the fame, fortune, power, and ease that was available to the son of Pharaoh’s daughter in the most powerful and wealthy country in the world at the time.  He could have had everything and yet he walked away.  Why would he do such a seemingly crazy thing?  Due to his faith in God he could see things that those around him could not.  It surely made Moses look crazy, but was he?

 

Because of his faith, Moses made three incredible decisions that are outlined here in chapter 11.  By faith, Moses decided to turn down the trappings of the world.  He had a choice between being known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, a respected member of the royal “great house,” or to be numbered among the lowly Hebrew slaves and servants that were looked down upon by the Egyptian society.  Who would choose the reviled and humbled rather than the high and mighty?  Someone with faith in God’s promises.  Although Moses was raised and educated in Pharaoh’s house, God had also worked so that his birth mother was his nanny.  She obviously taught him of the great and mighty promises of God for his people and the world and Moses chose to demonstrate faith in those promises over and against the best that the world had to offer.  He could have argued that he could do much more for his people by staying in Pharaoh’s house, but Moses chose raw faith over sugared reasoning.  Living by faith will always call us to give up the pomp and pride of the world.

 

By faith, Moses left the familiar.  He was certainly afraid of being discovered after killing an Egyptian while defending a fellow Hebrew, but Moses could have stayed.  He could have stayed in Egypt and started a slaves’ revolt against Pharaoh.  But, by faith, he realized that it was not yet God’s timing.  So he left Egypt.  That must have been a difficult decision with a man who had such a passion for defending his people.  Trusting in God’s promises often means a great deal of patience and Moses learned that.

 

By faith, Moses was willing to do strange things.  We can easily read of him smearing blood on the doorposts at the time of the Passover and not think much of it.  But this would have been an exceedingly strange thing to do.  You have a highly educated Egyptian who grew up in the height of luxury willing to trust God and get his hands dirty, smearing blood on a doorpost, believing that it would save people through obedience to God.  How strange this must have seemed to him, to the Egyptians, and to even his fellow Israelites.  Not to mention, that Egyptians reviled sheep and shepherds and saw them as an uncouth and dirty animal.  Yet here was Moses willing to go elbow-deep in blood because God had made promises and Moses was ready to put his life and reputation on the line for those promises.  Having faith will often call us to the strange and unusual; to things that seem downright stupid from the perspective of the world.

 

When we are willing to live by faith, however, we will tend to find that God acts on our behalf.  It won’t always be in the types of miraculous ways that are described in verses 29-31, but it will happen nonetheless. What we can learn from these examples, though, is that if they had not remained faithful to God’s promises, they would have missed out on the incredible things that God did in their lives.  The Israelites walked through the Red Sea, but they would have never been there if they hadn’t stepped out on faith and believed God’s promises that he would protect them as part of his plan for the world.  Joshua’s army saw the walls of Jericho fall after doing nothing more than march around them but they would never have experienced the earth-shattering roar of the falling walls if they had not acted in obedience on God’s word and started walking in faith, regardless of how crazy it seemed.  Imagine Rahab’s surprise when all of the walls of the city fell around her, except for her house which was situated at the top of the city walls.  She would not have witnessed that if she had not decided to act in faith that God’s promises were not just for the Jews but all that would live in trust of him.

 

What we discover is that living by faith takes extreme trust in God and his word, but it demands much of us.  To truly live by faith we have to refuse what the world has to offer and let faith overcome our feelings.  We have to be willing to leave the comfortable and familiar and let faith overcome our desire for security.  We have to have the courage to do the unusual and let faith overcome our fear.

 

 

Devotional Thought

At the heart of living by faith is trust in God.  A life of faith is the evidence of our trust in God.  What evidence is there in your life of your trust in God?  If we were to lay out the balance of your life for display, would we see more evidence of trust in God or a lack of trust in him?