Wednesday, July 29, 2015

By Faith, from the Flood to the Law - Hebrews 11:8-22

We began a three part study of Hebrews 11 – “The Faith Chapter” – in the last section. In it, we considered the stories of creation, Abel, Enoch, and Noah. The stories all testified to the importance of our first key point… Faith is the reality of our hope even when it’s unseen.

In this section, we’ll study the lives of five more people. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all lived in the time period between the flood and the giving of the Law. Even more, these five heroes of the faith teach us our second key point on faith… Faith is the reality of the promise in a future promised land.

I encourage you to start by reading Hebrews 11:8-22.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B88Ivx7ssx4AVXF3RmFlcHBIbEU/view?usp=sharing
Click picture for a printable handout for this section


Faith is the Reality of the Promise (11:13-16)

I’ve often wondered about the encounter between God and Abraham that prompted Abraham to live such an outstanding life of faith. Yes, he blew it sometimes, but overall, he was faithful at an incredible level. Regarding that encounter, was it a burning bush like Moses? Or was it a dream like Joseph? Did they wrestle as God did with Jacob? We don’t know the details but something significant must have happened because Abraham’s encounters with God transformed him for life.

The reality of a future city
Regardless of how the encounters between God and Abraham played out, Abraham knew that the promised land for which he waited wasn’t of this world. I believe he could have conquered the land and established a kingdom; we studied that here and here. But, Abraham wasn’t content with a kingdom of this world. He “was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

The reality of a future homeland
A friend of mine is from Togo, Africa but he lives here in the United States. He may have a place to stay here but Togo is his homeland. Togo is his culture, his heritage, his family, and his language. Our homeland is where we come from. Remember, however, that faith sees things differently. Faith sees with spiritual eyes rather than physical ones; usually, the results are opposite of each other. For us, our homeland is where we come from. When we see with spiritual eyes of faith, however, our homeland is where we’re going. It’s the reality of a promised eternity in heaven. Our future home defines our culture, our heritage, our family, and our language. Think about that. “Those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland” (Hebrews 11:14).

The reality of a future promise
All of these people died without having seen the future promise – not just Abraham, but all of them (Hebrews 11:13). Faith faces death knowing the Promised Land which awaits is our reality. The author of Hebrews has taught us about this promise for several chapters now. We’ve learned the promise is…
  • To enter His rest. Even more, it remains open to us even after we've wandered in our desert (4:1).
  • For “those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance” (6:12).
  • Confirmed with an oath by an unchangeable God (6:17).
  • Passed down through Abraham (7:6).
  • That on which Jesus Christ founded and mediated a new covenant (8:6).
  • An eternal inheritance made possible by Jesus’ spilled blood and sacrificial death (9:15).
  • For those who persevere in doing the will of God until the end (10:36-37).
  • Passed down through Isaac and Jacob (11:9).
  • Of a city built by God, of a country in heaven (11:10, 13-16).
  • Of countless descendants through a sacrificed son (11:17).
  • Not yet received by anyone. All recipients await the future inheritance (11:39-40).

Click here to read even more about that foundational promise made to Abraham.

By Faith, from the Flood to the Law

By Faith, Abraham (11:8-10, 17-19)
We’ve already discussed Abraham so much in this section. The section I referenced in the last paragraph goes into even more detail about his faith in the promise. He is the one who “believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness” (Romans 4:3). Let’s consider a few more details here, though.

Because of faith, Abraham was able to go when God said go and wait when God said wait. God told him “Go out from your land… to the land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). Like I said, that encounter must have been pretty significant because it was enough to prompt Abraham to go. How confusing… difficult… frustrating… it might have been, then, when Abraham got there and God said “Wait.” He didn’t give the Promised Land into Abraham’s hands; he allowed Abraham to die as a foreigner in the land (Genesis 23:4).

Faith helped Abraham to find victory in the hardest test of his life – God’s call to sacrifice the son of promise, Isaac. Again, I don’t know how Abraham knew what he knew, but he had some pretty difficult concepts figured out. In this case, he knew Isaac was the son of promise but he also knew that if God asked him to take Isaac’s life, then God would make a way for the promise to still be fulfilled. He realized, by faith, God had the power to give Isaac back to him again by raising him from the dead.

By Faith, Sarah (11:11-12)
By faith, Sarah conceived and gave birth to Isaac even though she had been barren for decades and was long past the age to bear children. In their story, we see a reminder of our first key point – faith is the reality of our hope even when it is unseen. In a moment of intimacy between Abraham and Sarah – a man almost dead and a barren woman – God took what had been unseen until that moment and created something seen. He created the child of the future promise – Isaac.

By Faith, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph (11:20-22)
Joel Rosenberg is one of my favorite authors. On September 11, 2001 – as Islamic radicals attacked our nation – he was already completing his first fictional novel which included an attack on our nation by Islamic radicals who flew an airplane into a building. He wrote in his subsequent books about America’s invasion of Iraq and the death of PLO Leader Yasser Arafat; in both cases, he predicted the events before they happened. This string of events led people to call him a prophet or a modern-day Nostradamus. In actuality though, Joel’s stories weren’t due to some type of prophetic vision. He looked at the geopolitical state of affairs prophesied by Scripture and compared it to the current geopolitical situation at the turn of the millennium. By faith, Joel knew the end events would occur; all he had to do was analyze what events would be required to bring the world from it’s then current situation to the situation necessary to usher in the end times. We were in point A; what would it take to get to point B? Faith helped him connect the dots.

I tell you this story because Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph’s faith stories are a similar situation. All three of them gave blessings over their children by faith in future events. They knew the words God had spoken and the promises God had made. They lived by faith that those words would come to pass. They were all in their own respective point A and they figured out how to get to point B.

By Faith, for Us

God gave us the stories of these five people to inspire us to live a life by faith as well. Our circumstances may look different but we can still learn from them what it means to live by faith.

By faith, we can go when God says go, even if He wants us to wait once we get there. We want to believe that a call to go somewhere means that grand and glorious work awaits us. Sometimes, however, the grand and glorious outcome isn’t seen on this side of eternity.

By faith, we follow when God calls us out of the place we've been and asks us to live set apart as a stranger in a hostile world. We follow because He's transformed us; we realize our new home is an eternal one in heaven - not that from which we came.

By faith, we find victory in the most difficult of tests. We realize we are totally dependent upon God, muster all of our courage because of His work in us, and struggle through the test. In the end, we look back and realize victory came because of our faith.

By faith, we realize God will make a way to accomplish His plan even when the way seems impossible to us. We don’t have to know all the details; He doesn’t have to follow our logic and work the way we think is right. We can let go of our urge to control and trust Him for the results.

By faith, we recognize God can take what we can’t see and create what we can see. I don’t know how it works – it’s beyond me. But that’s part of living by faith, as well.

By faith, we know the future God has prophesied and discern how we should live until we get there. The Promised Land isn’t here and now; faith realizes it’s then and there. It’s a future reality that will become sight when Christ returns. We’re in our point A; faith guides us until we reach our future point B.

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