March 20, 2023 | Be On Mission
Biblical Examples of Great Faith
Scripture: Hebrews 11 (NIV)
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.
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.
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; 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.
Devotional
We began this expedition into the book of Hebrews because of Stephen’s speech in the book of Acts just before he was stoned to death. Stephen spoke of the Old Testament heroes Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, and Solomon. He was connecting all of the old covenant to the new covenant in Jesus Christ.
The author of Hebrews did the same here in chapter 11, saying that the Old Testament greats acted in faith in their pursuit of the Messiah, whom they would never meet. That is why it says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for” (v. 1-2). Which of these Old Testament stories stands out to you as a powerful example of faith?
Faith is an interesting word. It implies complete trust in an invisible God, who is not trusted by others. Hebrews 11 begins with creation, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (v. 3). The battle over how the universe was formed rages on, with no letup in sight.
Even the existence of God is denied by some. Verse 6 states, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” At some point, every person must make a decision about whether God exists and decide if they are going to have complete trust in Him.
The same is true of Jesus Christ. Moses lived some 1500 years before Jesus, yet Hebrews says that he turned down the privileges of being raised as an Egyptian prince for the punishment of his Hebrew heritage because, “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. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible” (v. 26-27). Somehow, Moses “saw” and had faith in an invisible God and the future Messiah.
We live some 2000 years after Jesus. We have a choice whether to put faith in someone we cannot see. We have to decide if we are going to trust in His birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension and promised return. This chapter in Hebrews concludes with this statement about the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets, “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect” (v. 39-40).
Do you believe that? “God had planned something better for us!” The Lord uses all of Old Testament, New Testament, and Church history to offer us that “something better” which will, in the end, make us perfect in Christ. Praise be to God!
Prayer
Lord, increase my faith. Increase my trust. Increase my obedience to You. I recognize that the path before me is not always clear, but I follow the One who knows the way. Give me a heart that is willing and able to discern Your will for my life. Help me have the strength to say "Yes, Lord" when You call. Help me live a life that is honoring, pleasing and faithful in Your sight, so that when my story is told it begins, "By faith..." Where you lead Lord, I will follow.
Poem
It
Hebrews 10-13
When I did IT,
I knew IT was wrong.
IT was against everything I had been taught as a child.
IT was dangerous.
IT was seductive.
IT was a turning point in my life, a turning away.
I remember inviting IT in.
I welcomed IT into my home, my temple.
I welcomed IT—the enemy.
I committed treason.
I was the Judas.
I took the forbidden fruit and savored IT.
As the juice ran down my chin,
I felt a stain.
I understood in the depths of my soul
Eve’s frantic search for a place to hide.
O, that the jungle of the world would swallow me up.
I heard the Lord’s footsteps.
He was calling my name.
“Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7)
I hid behind the spider’s web of lies,
only to get caught in sticky situations.
I hid behind the bush of appearances,
only to get stabbed by its thorns.
I ran to the cave of guilt and sat in its darkness,
only to find the hibernating bear of shame awaking from its winter’s nap.
Anything that happened that the world saw as “hard times,”
I viewed as justified punishment and curse from my Lord and Master.
Loruhamah—I will no longer have pity on your house.
Loammi—for you are not my people and I am not your God. (Hosea 1:6-8)
What shall I do with you? (Hosea 6:4)
“Forgive me, Lord,” I prayed in silence.
Silence returned.
Many saw my struggle.
“You have asked God to forgive you.”
“It’s over; it’s done.”
“Trust God’s eternal gift in Jesus Christ.”
But IT was not over.
IT was not done.
I felt the back of God—
God’s turning away from me.
I felt like an abandoned lover,
crawling through the mud after a relationship that could never be resurrected.
That relationship was what was over.
That relationship was what was done.
When the time of confession came in weekly corporate worship,
IT always vied for central attention.
IT shook the chains and tugged at the choking slave collar.
I wanted to run to the front and expose my shame,
to have IT publicly scandalized,
to beg for mercy.
Yet I remained shackled to my pew.
One day, a different setting
Here was an invitation to come forward.
Here was and invitation to come and be prayed for.
Here was an invitation to come and confess.
Did I dare come in my dirty sodden rags?
Did I dare speak the hidden IT?
Did I dare trust the priesthood of believers?
If I confessed IT, my sin,
and gave back the thirty pieces of silver,
would they release Jesus from the cross;
or would they laugh the cynical laugh of Caiphas and say,
“What is that to us? See to it yourself.” (Matthew 27:3-5)
I had to risk truth or commit spiritual suicide.
I was close to death any way;
what did I have to lose?
I knelt.
I bawled.
I spoke IT out loud.
I told the truth.
I felt hands on my head;
hands of the incarnate Christ.
I heard the words,
“In the name of Jesus Christ,
by the power of his blood
you are forgiven and clean.”
I felt chains fall.
I saw IT bound and led away.
“Who sinned?”
I heard the accuser, Lucifer
cry out in a last stitch effort
to justly free IT.
“This one or her parents?”
“Neither this one nor her parents sinned;
she was born blind
so that God’s works might be revealed
in her,” (John 9:2-3)
I saw my Lord and Lover’s smile.
He had returned to me.
“IT is finished,” he said.
“It is finished.”
My spoken truth
joined the Truth of God
and spoke into being
a new Creation.
A new Eden.
A new Life.
