Heb. 11:17-38, The Hall of Faith (2)

Let us continue through this encouraging chapter of Hebrews.

·       11:17-19: God told Abraham to take his only beloved son and offer him as a sacrifice.  Abraham knew if he killed Isaac that God would raise up Isaac from the dead.  Why was he so sure?  Because God had promised Abraham that Isaac was to be the son through whom the nation and Savior would come.

·       11:20: Isaac knew he could bless his sons concerning the future because he believed the promise God gave to Abraham.

·       11:21: Because Jacob believed the promise God gave to Abraham, he blessed the two sons of Joseph when he was about to die.

·       11:22: Joseph believed the promise to Abraham and demonstrated his faith by giving instructions to the family, that when they left Egypt to return to the land, they were to take his bones and bury them there.

·       11:23: God had also told Abraham that his descendants would spend 400 years in another land (Gen. 15:13).  In Egypt, as the time drew near, Moses’ parents protected him when they saw that he might be the one God would use.

·       11:24-29: Even with all his upbringing in Pharaoh’s house, Moses knew God’s promise from his earliest days.  He demonstrated his faith by rejecting the privileged position as a son of Pharaoh, even though this decision brought him great trial.  Notice how the Spirit ties this to Christ.  Moses believed the promise of the Savior, and counted the Savior more valuable than Pharaoh.  By faith he left Egypt.  He kept the Passover, a primary OT picture of the coming Savior.  Note the important verbs of faith for Moses: he refused, chose and esteemed.  Our faith is known by what we refuse, choose and esteem.

·       11:30-31: Outside of Jericho, God told Joshua to march around the city.  Though this might have sounded strange, both Joshua and the nation showed their faith by doing what God said.  Inside the city, Rahab showed her faith in God, having heard what the people on the outside were all about (Josh. 2:9-11).  She too was looking for the Savior, and believed she had found Him in the God of Israel.

·       11:32-38: The author concludes he has made his point.  He refers to a few others by name, and then speaks of various stories.  Some of the stories sound familiar while others may come from Jewish tradition familiar to the writer and readers.  The bottom-line truth is that these people who finished their race faithfully were people of whom “the world was not worthy.”

Are we not greatly encouraged by this chapter?  We would do well to go back to the OT and read the full stories.  We would see the struggles of faith these people encountered, and would see how they came to embrace the word of God.  We need this so that we, like Abraham and Sarah, will be assured of God’s word, will embrace it as our lifestyle, and will confess that we too are pilgrims on this earth.