Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Living for the Eternal King
As citizens of both an earthly nation and a heavenly home, believers think and live in ways that are markedly different from those with only an earthly citizenship. In the previous post we started that contrast by recalling our heavenly King’s Prime Directive, the “Great Commission” (Mt 28.19-20). Our life focus, our overriding mission, is to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. It’s been my pleasure to do that on several continents, but it’s worth noting that Jesus’ command was to start where we live (Ac 1.8).
As we do that, other distinctives reveal themselves. There are many examples in Scripture, in both Testaments, of people who carried God’s Word to their families and neighbors. The classic summary of these efforts appears in Hebrews 11, the so-called “Hall of Faith.” Here we meet several believers from the Old Testament—some of whom we’re surprised to find here—with a description of their attitudes. It’s worth looking through those descriptions for attitudes that we should adopt these centuries later.
The writer begins by talking about faith, the characteristic he’s going to choose as key for his list. In the larger context of Hebrews, he’s writing to what we might call New Testament Jewish believers, urging them not to return to Judaism. So it’s pretty clear that he intends this list of Old Testament examples to be examples for us, living as Christians in the New Testament economy. The writer confirms that in verse 4, when he says, “he being dead yet speaketh.” These long-dead saints are speaking to us.
What are they saying?
The first example is Abel, who “offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain” (He 11.4). We’re not told why it was more excellent; I was taught as a youngster that Abel offered the blood sacrifice that God required. But there’s no indication in the Genesis account that God had given any instruction about blood sacrifice; some note that God made Adam and Eve “coats of skins” after their sin, and it’s reasonable to conclude that the animals who donated those skins died, but their death is not called a sacrifice, and in any case, God offered it rather than commanding Adam and Eve to offer it. We certainly can’t hold Abel—or Cain—to the Abrahamic or Mosaic requirements centuries before they were given. All we know is that Abel’s sacrificed pleased God, while Cain’s didn’t. Cain’s response—murderous rage and then arguing with God (Ge 4.5-15)—indicates that the difference between the two men was in their attitude toward God. Our Hebrews passage will develop more details about that.
The second example is Enoch, who is said simply to have “pleased God” (He 11.5); the OT account says that he “walked with God” (Ge 5.22).
What do Abel and Enoch have in common? Their focus was on what God wanted, not merely their own earthly concerns. They wanted to please God.
And our author next tells us that there’s only one way to please God, and that’s to trust him. In the original languages, “trust” and “faith” are the same word, both as nouns and as verbs. “To have faith” simply means to trust.
We find this principle repeated in the next examples. Noah trusted God that rain was coming, even though it had never rained before, and he proved his trust by spending a century building a really big boat. Abraham trusted God’s call and proved it by uprooting his sizable business and moving to a place he’d never been. Sarah had some doubts about the pregnancy, of course—she was 90 years old, and the whole concept made her laugh (Ge 18.10-12)—but once she was pregnant, she believed that God would give her strength to deliver, and Abraham named her son Isaac—“laughter”—in a delightful double entendre, a nod to Sarah’s faithlessness and God’s faithfulness.
There’s much more to consider in this passage. Next time.
Photo by Global Residence Index on Unsplash
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