Hebrews 11
11:1. In 1 Cor. 13:13, Paul explains that the abiding gifts of the Spirit are faith, hope, and love. The charismatic gifts would fade from the church in time, but not these three. The greatest of these was love, because even faith and hope would no longer be needed when our hope was seen (cf. Ro. 8:24), and our faith confirmed by possession. Then love alone would remain. (Cf. 2 Cor. 4:18; 5:7; Heb. 3:6, 14; 11:7, 27). By the gift of faith we believe God’s word is certain, and his promises true, even when what we see seems to deny it.
11:2. It was by just such a faith (as defined in v.1) that the men of old had obtained a testimony (lit., margin) from God in his word. The translators’ substitution of gained approval (2, 39) for the literal reading obscures both the meaning and the connection to v.4. In fact, all these died in faith, without receiving the promises (13, 39). That is the common theme of this great review of the faithful. Were they all fools, or should we believe God’s witness about them? The conclusion is, they shall receive what they believed but never saw, a better city prepared for them in heaven (16), but not without us if we remain faithful. We know in whom we have believed (cf. 12:2), and in Christ we shall all inherit the hope of the ages together (40; 1 Thess. 4:17). So let us not shrink back (10:39), but take courage in God’s testimony about how the men of old became heirs of the righteousness that is by faith.
11:3. What any man believes about the beginning of time and the worlds is a matter of faith. We didn’t see it begin. But even materialists agree that the evidence is convincing that the worlds began. Aristotle, who died about 300 years before Christ, wrote this in his Physics: “Since everything that is in motion must be moved by something, let us suppose there is a thing in motion which was moved by something in motion, and that by something else, and so on. But this series cannot go on to infinity, so there must be some First Mover.” (Quote from Pat Buchanan). Long before Aristotle, the Scriptures began with the axiom, or self-evident truth, that the First Mover was God (Gen.1:1). Since obvious order and increasing complexity was imposed on the original creation, Paul says these things that are seen tell us enough about the invisible attributes of God to leave unbelievers without excuse, for they suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Ro. 1:18-20). For it is also an axiom that all order tends to disorder, not the other way around. As the poet Robert Frost put it, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.” Therefore, where there is order being built and maintained, it is not the result of an accident, or time plus chance. Even though God is invisible, it is not without evidence or reason that we understand by faith that the worlds were prepared by his word of power, as were we.
Thou doest not move men like stones,
but doest endue them with life,
not to enable them to move without thee,
but in submission to thee, the first mover.
(From The Valley of Vision, A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, Arthur Bennett, editor, Banner of Truth Trust, 1975.)
11:4. In what sense did Abel offer a better sacrifice than Cain? Some take it that if Cain had offered his produce with faith, his offering would have been accepted, but that misses the point. The offering itself proved he did not have faith. He had not done well (Gen. 4:7). That is, he did not do as he should have known was required of him in the matter of sacrifice, and that because he had not the faith of Abel. Cain must have reasoned, “I have overcome the curse upon the ground, and its thorns, by the sweat of my brow. I will give this gift to God. He will be pleased with my work.” In contrast, Able sacrificed an animal, just as God had done to cover the shame of his parent’s sin, and in token of their own blood. By faith it signified an atonement, and when offered in faith and obedience, became a means of grace by which God accepted Abel as righteous. In short, Able believed God, and Cain believed in his own works. And even though Able paid with his life at the hands of his jealous brother, the testimony he obtained from God still stands, and by it Able still speaks to us that salvation is by faith, and his blood (i.e., his life) still speaks to a hearing God (Gen. 4:10; Heb. 12:24; Rev. 6:9-10).
11:5-6. Those who suppose that Enoch pleased God because he was without the taint of sin understand neither the extent of the fall of man, nor the fact that salvation is by faith alone, for “without faith it is impossible to please him.” (Cf. Ro. 14:23 b.). The sign God gave the men of old by taking Enoch up alive was that God rewards those who seek him in faith, and not with a mere belief that there is a god, but that God is as he has revealed himself to be.
11:7. Noah believed God, and prepared an ark for the salvation of his household. The scoffing world rightly understood it as a condemnation. The Christian home can be such an ark. Note that the covenant relationship of the head of the family with God served to provide a place under that covenant for the salvation of all the children. This is a major point with those of us who practice infant baptism (cf. Acts 2:39; 16:15; 11:30-34; 1 Pet. 3:21). They have a place in the ark they did not build. But they must abide in the faith of their fathers, and not shrink back (cf. 10:38; 2 Pet. 2:5).
11:8-16. Here is considered the faith of Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac and his son Jacob, who were fellow heirs of the same promise. Abraham’s faith expressed itself in obedience, going out from a good and fertile land to a place unseen. They came to that promised land finding famine (Gen. 12:10), living as aliens in tents, but looking with the eyes of faith for the city of God, not men, a heavenly one that God would prepare for them (10, 16; cf. Heb. 12:22; 13:14; Rev. 21:2, 14 ff.). By faith Sarah conceived beyond the age when she had the power to lay down seed (lit., margin), and when Abraham was also as good as dead in ability to sire a child. Yet from these by faith, God brought forth an innumerable host. From the dead God calls forth his people (cf. 19; John 5:25).
And all these heirs of the promise died in faith, without receiving in this life that better country they were seeking. If they had yearned for the more comfortable country from which God called them, they would have found a way to return (15). They weren’t looking for the easy life, but by faith they trusted God and did the inexpedient thing. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, and has prepared a heavenly city for them (16).
All this is a rebuke to those Hebrews who were thinking of turning back (cf. 10:36-39).
11:17-19. By faith Abraham offered up Isaac. Of all the trials of faith in Scripture, this one is the most extreme, in the fact that it was so counter to Abraham’s own understanding of God’s revealed will, which was that Isaac was the son of promise. Or rather, it is the most extreme case of faith testing save one, the one that it signifies as a type (19, lit., in a parable, margin). For Christ is THE son of promise, whose faith was tested beyond measure as he became the Father’s sacrifice. He submitted himself to the Father’s will, and thus obtained the blessing of God beyond measure, and obtained eternal life for himself and all his people. He is the author and perfecter of faith (12:2).
11:20-22. As evidence of the kind of faith described in v. 13, these three patriarchs, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, all looked forward at the end of their lives with the eyes of faith, welcoming the promises from a distance.
11:23-29. The life of Moses also exhibited a faith that believed God, doing the inexpedient thing for the unseen reward, and thus obtained deliverance for himself and his people.
11:30. Jericho (and the whole land beyond) was not conquered by superior arms or tactics, but by the obedience of faith.
11:31. By faith the Gentile harlot Rahab was not only saved from the destruction she believed God was sending upon Jericho, but she became the wife of Salmon and the great, great, grandmother of King David (Mt. 1:5-6). Her faith led her to take in the spies, and she entered into a covenant of peace with them and their God.
She is praised for acting in faith, both here and in James 2:25. In spite of this, there are those who judge her for lying to those who asked the whereabouts of the spies whom she had concealed and promised to protect. This ignores the dilemma she was forced into by what are here called the “disobedient”. Under these conditions, was she to betray her covenantal word already given to the spies, or keep faith with them by misleading their enemies? The laws of both God and man recognize that not all killing is murder, which is forbidden by God’s absolute Law. There is such a thing as justifiable homicide to protect the life of the innocent. Not to use deadly force if necessary to stop a killer would be to share in his guilt of blood. Surely what Rahab did was equally justified, though admittedly this is playing with fire. Our sinful nature easily resorts to a lie, and then rationalizes it as justified for the greater good. But who could condemn lying to the Nazis to protect Anne Frank? or to protect one’s own family from a murderer?
By agreement with the two spies, Rahab hung the scarlet cord in her window, which for her, and her family in the house with her, served the same saving purpose as the sprinkled blood of the Passover (28). They were brought out to safety, when the city was utterly destroyed (Josh. 2; 6:15-25).
11:32-40. All the mighty works done by faith that obtained a testimony in God’s word are too numerous to mention. But miraculous deliverance was not the norm (35 ff.). Most gained God’s approval by enduring great sufferings, being faithful unto death. They died in hope without receiving the promise (39). But we have much more reason to be faithful to the end, for in Christ we were provided something much better (40). “For as many as may be the promises of God, in Him they are yes…” (1 Cor. 1:20). The faithful of both Old and New Testament dispensations are one body of believers, to be made perfect together.