Hebrews 11 – Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Hebrews 11:1-3

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.

A. Find Out:

1. How does the writer define faith? v.1
2. To whom may we look for examples of faith? v.2
3. What are we to understand by faith? v.3

B. Think:

1. Read Gen 1:1 What do you think should be our response to this?
2. Read Rom 10:17 How does faith come?
3. How does this follow on from chapter 10?

C. Comment:

     The writer has just said that the righteous live by faith, so now he starts speaking about faith. Faith is THE key ingredient to the Christian life, so it’s important that we understand it.

     First, faith is “being sure”. When you have faith you are confident about something. Second, faith is to be sure of what you cannot see, of what is yet to come, of the hope that is ours. Paul’s letter to the Romans tells us that faith comes by hearing. When God speaks we hear and respond. Faith is the positive response to what God says. It may be we read what He says in Scripture, it may be that we hear His Spirit within, it may be He speaks a prophetic word. Believing Him and acting on what He says is faith.

     To see examples of faith we only have to turn to the Bible which is filled with people who responded in faith. Chapter 11 is filled with examples of people who “lived by faith”. All Christians are called to “live by faith” (see again 10:38 ).

    Even before there were people though, we were told that God created all things. Because we can’t see Him and because we weren’t there, we have to take that by faith. The Bible says it, so we believe it! But is belief the same as faith? No because faith, we said, was responding to what God says. (see also Jas 2:18). How do we respond to this truth? By praising God for what He has done in Creation, giving thanks for His provision and by seeing ourselves as stewards of His Creation, using His world remembering it is His!

D. Application:

1. Faith is acting positively in response to what God has said.
2. God says He made all things. Praise and thank Him for it.

Passage: Hebrews 11:4-7

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.

A. Find Out:

1. What did Abel do by faith? v.4a
2. How do we know this? v.4b
3. Who else are we to see as a man of faith, and why? v.5
4. What principle does the writer state? v.6
5. How did Noah show his faith? v.7a
6. What was the consequence of that? v.7b

B. Think:

1. Read Gen 4:3-5 How does that tell us Abel sacrificed by faith?
2. Read Gen 5:22-24 In what two ways does Enoch stand out?
3. Read Gen 6:9 How was Noah commended?

C. Comment:

     The writer now starts out on a long list of Old Testament saints who demonstrated faith. The first was Abel who brought an offering from his flock. How do we know he acted in faith? Well first, both he and his brother brought offerings, which indicates that they must have been told to do it by God. Second, God accepted the way Abel brought his and rejected Cain’s. Cain just brought “some of the fruits of the soil”, but Abel brought the firstborn of his flock. He responded to God by bringing the very first of the produce of his flock. This was an indication of his heart. He was responding in faith.

     The second mentioned is Enoch. Not much is written of Enoch but he’s the first man to “walk with God” which indicates his relationship of faith with God. Jude v.14,15 tells us that Enoch also prophesied which was an act of faith.

     The third example given is that of Noah. God warned Noah that he was going to flood the world and told him to prepare. Noah, who also “walked with God”, responded in faith and built the ark.

     Each of these three men responded to God – and they were each rewarded in their different ways – and were commended as men of faith. The emphasis in each case is on relationship with God. In this they heard God and responded positively to what He had said. This is faith.

D. Application:

1. Are we people who are known to “walk with God”?
2. Are we positively responding to what God has said?

Passage: Hebrews 11:8-12

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.

A. Find Out:

1. How did Abraham first express faith? v.8
2. How did he next express faith? v.9
3. What does the writer say he was looking for? v.10
4. How further did Abraham express faith? v.11
5. What was the result of all this? v.12

B. Think:

1. Read Gen 12:1,4 How does this fit the definition of faith?
2. Read Gen 12:6-8 How does that fit our definition of faith?
3. Read Gen 12:2,7, 15:4,6 How do these confirm our definition?

C. Comment:

     The writer continues to bring illustrations, from the Old Testament, of men who expressed faith. He now cites Abraham and gives three illustrations of his faith in action.

    Abraham’s first example is leaving his home to go somewhere he doesn’t know. We said faith is responding positively to what God says. In Genesis we’ve seen that God told Abraham to go, so he went. That was faith.   

    The second example was settling in the promised land. Again God told him, when he had arrived, that this was the land, so he stayed there. He wavered once (Gen 12:10 ) but he held on there. In fact at the end of his life when he is looking for a wife for Isaac, he reiterated that this was the land they were to be in (Gen 24:7).

    The third example of Abraham’s faith was in believing that they could have children. Sarai, his wife, was barren (Gen 11:30 ) and seemed unable to have children. For over thirty years God kept speaking to Abraham and Abraham and Sarah tried to have children. This was faith! God spoke, Abraham believed AND acted on that belief. Yes, there were times when he and Sarah wavered (Gen 15:2,3 16:2) but eventually the son was born as promised, when Sarah was well past child-bearing age! This is the faith God calls us to.

    Thus in three ways, in these verses, Abraham heard God and responded to Him positively. This is faith!

D. Application:

1. Faith is responding to what God has said.
2. Presumption is doing our own thing hoping God will bless it.

Passage: Hebrews 11:13-16

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.

A. Find Out:

1. What was the common thing about each of these people? v.13a
2. How did they view their position on earth? v.13b
3. What do such people show? v.14
4. Why weren’t they referring to the country they left? v.15
5. Instead, what were they looking for? v.16a
6. What has God prepared for them? v.16b

B. Think:

1. How did each of these people view their time on earth?
2. So what point is the writer making?
3. How does that follow on from the previous chapter?

C. Comment:

     The writer has just said that Abraham had looked forward to a new society of God’s people. Now the writer goes on to say each of these “people of faith” were the same: they each saw themselves as aliens on the earth. They each had encountered God and, as a result of that encounter, longed to be with Him in a better place than they now had. Each of them had a yearning for something better than they were experiencing once they had met God. It was as if there was an echo of heaven in them once they had a relationship with God and they wanted something more than the imperfect world in which they were living. Each of them died still wanting that, they hadn’t received their yearning on earth. If it had been a yearning for what they had left behind they could have gone back to it, but it was a yearning for something yet in the future.

    Why is the writer saying all this? Because near the end of chapter 10 he had been exhorting his readers to persevere so they would go on to receive what was promised (10:36). This whole chapter is to encourage the readers to go on, to hold on in an imperfect world so they would eventually receive the perfect as their inheritance in heaven. Our future doesn’t only include the years we have on earth, it also includes the glorious community of God in eternity. Hold on! It IS coming.

D. Application:

1. Our life on earth is only a part of our Christian inheritance.
2. We have to persevere, to hold on, to eventually receive.

Passage: Hebrews 11:17-22

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 worshipped 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.

A. Find Out:

1. How had Abraham also exercised faith? v.17
2. Why was that amazing? v.18
3. What did Abraham reason? v.19
4. How had Isaac exercised faith? v.20
5. How had Jacob exercised faith? v.21
6. How had Joseph exercised faith? v.22

B. Think:

1. Read Gen 27:27-29,39,40 What was Isaac actually doing?
2. Read Gen 48:13-20 How was Jacob ( Israel ) expressing faith?
3. Read Gen 50:24,25 How did Joseph exercise faith?

C. Comment:

     The writer moves on using the examples of the old patriarchs of Genesis next. Three times previously he cited Abraham (see two studies back) and now he adds a fourth instance, that of Abraham sacrificing Isaac. Again the key elements of our definition are there: God speaks and Abraham believes and acts. That was faith. That, in fact, was a major act of faith because all his hopes of God’s promises being fulfilled were in Isaac. But Abraham believed God – and acted. Faith!

      Next came Isaac (see Jacob’s Story in the Bible Alive series). When Isaac blesses Jacob and then Esau, it is clear that he is prophesying their future; it is as if he is hearing God for their future and declaring it on earth. He hears God and acts (speaks), i.e. faith!

     Then there was Jacob doing the same things with the two sons of Joseph. He obviously heard God by the way he acted. Yet another example from this “Family of Faith”!

     Finally there was Joseph. The Lord had spoken to his family so, in his dying moments, he ensures that they will take his bones back to the land God has promised them. God spoke, Joseph believed and acted on that belief, i.e. faith! Each of these men heard God and acted accordingly. That is faith!

D. Application:

1. Faith is us acting in response to what God says. Are we people of faith? That is what we are called to be!
2. Speaking out prophecy (blessing) is an act of faith

Passage: Hebrews 11:23-28

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 ill-treated 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.

A. Find Out:

1. How did Moses’ parents exercise faith? v.23
2. How did Moses act in faith as he grew up? v.24
3. What did he choose? v.25
4. What did he regard, how and why? v.26
5. How did he later exercise faith? v27
6. And how had he exercised faith on the way? v.28

B. Think:

1. Read Acts 7:20 & Exo 2:1,2 What must have prompted this act?
2. Read Acts 7:23-25 & Exo 2:11,12 How might this be an act of faith?
3. Read Exo 3:10 How was the exodus clearly an act of faith?

C. Comment:

     The writer moves on from the patriarchs to Moses. From his birth there seemed to be something special about him, his parents sensed it. Some think his father had a revelation from God about him. Whether it was specific revelation or just a general sense of this child’s destiny, these parents “heard” from God and acted accordingly. This was faith.

    When Moses grew up in the court of Pharaoh, something within him made him aware that the Hebrews were his people and he wanted to be with them. He goes to them and identifies with them. The outcome was that he had to leave the country hastily. The Bible indicates that all he sensed about his people came from God. He was acting in faith when he went to them. God spoke, so he went. After forty years in the wilderness looking after sheep God spoke again and Moses acted and the outcome was the people of Israel being delivered from Egypt .

  The culminating point was when each Hebrew family sacrificed a lamb and the destroying angel “Passed-over” them. They lived (were saved) by an act of faith. God had instructed them and they acted. That was faith.

    At each key point of Moses’ life he exercised faith. Remember, the wonder of this is that each time the first thing that happened was that God spoke. Faith is simply responding to Him.

D. Application:

1. Faith hears and sees potential. That is what prophecy is all about.
2. When God guides and we follow, that is faith.

Passage: Hebrews 11:29-32

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 round 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,

A. Find Out:

1. How had Israel first exercised faith? v.29
2. How had they later exercised faith? v.30
3. How had Rahab exercised faith? v.31
4. Who else were cited as men of faith? v.32

B. Think:

1. Read Exo 14:15,16,21,22 How was this an act of faith?
2. Read Josh 6:6:3,4,20 How was this an act of faith?
3. Read Josh 2:8-13 How was this an act of faith?

C. Comment:

     The writer relentlessly pushes on with even more examples of faith from the Old Testament. First, he cites Israel ‘s miraculous escape through the Red Sea. What happened? God spoke to Moses and told him what to do and Moses and Israel obeyed. As they went to do it, the Lord moved and the waters were parted. Note the ingredients yet again: God speaks, man believes and acts. That is faith.

     Next comes the taking of Jericho. The same ingredients are there again. The Lord spoke to Joshua telling him how to march round Jericho. Joshua believed, the people obeyed, and God performed the miracle. This was faith in operation yet again.

     Then comes the instance of Rahab who lived in Jericho. Her “hearing” was slightly different. She had heard what God had been doing and she simply believed. She knew inside herself that what she had heard was true, and therefore she acted accordingly. The result was that she was saved and not destroyed with the other inhabitants of the city when Israel came in.

     At this point it is as if the writer realises that he could go on and on for pages and pages, citing all these Old Testament saints. He simply refers to a few more names before moving on. The point is that the Bible is full of instances of people who lived by faith, people who heard God and adjusted their lives accordingly. This is vital for our understanding. That is why so many examples are given.

D. Application:

1. We have heard God. We are called to adjust our lives accordingly.
2. It is only our obedience to His voice that pleases God (11:6a).

Passage: Hebrews 11:33-40

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 sawn in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and ill-treated – 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.

A. Find Out:

1. What 8 or 9 things did these people do? v.33,34
2. What happened to some women? v.35a
3. What happened to others? v.35b-37a
4. How did many live? v.37b,38
5. What was common to all of them? v.39
6. What had God planned? v.40

B. Think:

1. How would you summarise the nature of verses 33 & 34
2. What comes over through verses 35 to 38?
3. What is the point the writer is making through these verses?

C. Comment:

     As he winds up this section of illustrations of faith, the writer summarises the sorts of lives these people led.

     The first set of descriptions follow a group of names of those who were all leaders. Therefore these ones triumphed in battle, brought order to the nation and received what God had promised, But then at the end of the names he just mentions “the prophets”, and they tended to have a more difficult life, avoiding being eaten by lions (Daniel), or being burnt in the flames or being put to death by the sword. All of these did what they did because they heard God, they knew God, they had a relationship with God, and responded to Him, i.e. they moved in faith, and for this they are commended.

     Verses 35 to 38 show us an even harder picture, of those who were rejected for their relationship with the Lord. They were mocked, tortured, even put to death for their faith. They lived as outcasts. Why? because they had heard something and knew there was a better way than the life of sin that the rest of the world was living. They held on, they persevered, they rejected the world’s lifestyle because within them they had the yearning for something better. Yet on this earth that something never came. It was to be an eternal inheritance. These were people who heard God and were never the same again. This is faith!

D. Application:

1. Are we so convinced in our faith that we reject all else?
2. Will we hang on despite ANYTHING that may come against us?