Hebrews 11: The Gallery of Faith – to be followed

• v.1-3 Faith Basics
• v.4-7 Faith: Abel to Noah
• v.8-12 The Faith of Abraham
• v.13-16 Faith is looking for More
• v.17-22 Faith: Abraham to Joseph
• v.23-31 Faith: Moses, the Exodus and taking the Land
• v.32-40 Faith: the wider picture

[Preliminary Note: In a sense, this chapter is the ultimate exhortation, as well as encouragement, to keep on going in the faith.]

v.1-3 Faith Basics

v.1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

v.2 This is what the ancients were commended for.

v.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.

[Note: A basic definition of faith. Let’s just see it in the Old Testament, and it starts by believing in the Creation by God.]

v.4-7 Faith: Abel to Noah

v.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.

v.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.” [Gen 5:24] For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.

v.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.

v.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.

[Note: It was then seen in the way one son brought a heart-felt offering, it was later seen in an embryonic walk with God – the definition is extended as a requirement – and it was seen in Noah’s response to God.]

v.8-12 The Faith of Abraham

v.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.

v.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.

v.10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

v.11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she[b] considered him faithful who had made the promise.

v.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.

[Note: Likewise, see faith in the way Abram left home, [Gen 12] and made his home in Canaan, the way he was looking for a community, a dwelling of people with God in the midst, the way Sarah even came to the point of believing for the impossible, and the way this nation thus came into being.]

v.13-16 Faith is looking for More

v.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.

v.14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.

v.15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.

v.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.

[Note: Faith looked beyond death, looking for an eternal dwelling but it was beyond their present earthly experience, so they looked to heaven, to their God and His eternal city.]

v.17-22 Faith: Abraham to Joseph

v.17,18 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, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”

v.19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

v.20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

v.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.

v.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.

[Note: Yes, Abraham’s faith even stretched to being prepared to let Isaac go [Gen 22 & 21:12] for he trusted in a God of resurrection. Later, Isaac’s stumbling blessing of his two sons was an act of faith [Gen 27], and similarly Jacob, when prophesying over Joseph’s sons, was moving in faith [Gen 48]. By faith Joseph at the end of his life believed God would return them to Canaan [Gen 50:24,25].

v.23-31 Faith: Moses, the Exodus and taking the Land

v.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.

v.24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.

v.25,26 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 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.

v.27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

v.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.

v.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.

v.30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.

v.31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

[Note: Moses’ godly parents acted in faith by hiding him, and it was an act of faith that made Moses believe for his people and by faith he stepped out [but brought down by the enemy?] to save them. His faith was seen in obedience to God despite Pharaoh’s anger, and so by faith he and his people kept the first Passover [Ex 12] and by faith they escaped and came to an impossible place and went through on dry land. By faith Joshua obeyed God’s instructions, and by faith Rahab changed sides.]

v.32-40 Faith: the wider picture

v.32-36 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, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 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. 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. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

v.37,38 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— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

v.39,40 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.

[Note: And indeed, there were so many more who demonstrated faith, for death did not deter them. These wonderful men and women persevered even though still waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled.]

 [Additional Note: The Flow of Writing: Remember at the end of chapter 10 the writer referred to “those who have faith and are saved.” He has now been encouraging his readers by the many examples of faith throughout the Old Testament and will use these to launch into more encouragement at the start of the next chapter.]

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: