The Faith of Joshua & Israel, Part 1

“By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.” Hebrews 11:30

Israel had crossed the Jordan. There was virtually no time between this act and the beginning of the campaign to possess the land of Canaan. War loomed only hours away. Behind the masses of God’s people, the flooding Jordan blocked all retreat. Before them rose the ominous ramparts of Jericho, her gates sealed tight, her men of war on the walls. Almost no one in the nation of Israel had ever even seen a fortified city, and with what we know of the recurrent pessimism of this people, we can be sure that fear was beginning to run high in the camp – despite the amazing feats God had done both for and before them.

Humanly speaking, Joshua bore all the lonely responsibility of the leadership of this fickle, frightened people. We can only imagine just how much his heart ached to have Moses there to talk to. But there was no Moses. Joshua had sole authority. He needed to get away to pray, to meditate, to plan the conquest. So Joshua stole out of the camp in the darkness to view Jericho for himself and to seek God’s guidance. According to Keil and Delitzsch, the Hebrew word that tells us Joshua was “near Jericho” [Joshua 5:13] expresses the idea of ‘immediate proximity.’ He was very close, perhaps close enough to feel the oppression of the city described as “walled up to heaven” [Deuteronomy 1:28]. There he remained in the night – brooding, meditating, patrolling, his eyes wide to the darkness – when he detected some movement on which he fixed his eyes. What he saw set his heart racing and his adrenaline pumping – for there stood a warrior in full battle-dress, his sword bare and gleaming blue in the moon’s hue.

A less courageous man might have bolted – but not Joshua. His hand was very likely upon his own sword as he strode forward, calling out to the menacing figure, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” [Joshua 5:13]. Basically he was warning this man that if he was from Jericho, it would be steel against steel. Joshua was no armchair general. There was no way Joshua could have ever anticipated the sublimity that was about to unfold. And he certainly could have never expected that the next few minutes would become such a transcendent spiritual milestone in his life.

Joshua’s ringing challenge, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” was met by an answer that put him flat on his face: “Neither, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come” [v. 14]. Most believe [along with Keil and Delitzsch] that this “commander of the army of the Lord” was, in fact, a theophany, an appearance of Jehovah in the form of an angelic messenger. Why? First, Joshua was told to take off his sandals and this very same command had been given to Moses by God from the burning bush. Thus Joshua realized, through the command to take off his sandals, that this “commander” was the same God who had spoken to Moses. Second, the “commander” who spoke to Joshua is identified as “the Lord” in Joshua 6:2: “Then the Lord said to Joshua … "

This encounter with God served to steel Joshua and arm him for the conquering of Jericho, for some very specific reasons. He saw not only that God was with him [as God had promised him to be in Joshua 1], but God’s mystic appearance – with His sword drawn from His scabbard and held ready for battle – was indelibly imprinted on Joshua’s mind and spirit. Not only was God with him, but God would also fight for him! He knew that whatever the enemy mobilized, it would be matched and exceeded by heavenly mobilization. We can take heart from this example and from Paul’s exhortation in Romans 8:31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Moreover, Joshua’s encounter with God in the lonely darkness against the towering fortress left him greatly strengthened as God fully informed him just what He wanted him to do in the taking of Jericho: “Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘See I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the Ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in’” [Joshua 6:2-5].

What was the effect of all of this upon Joshua? In a word, it produced the bedrock faith that introduces Hebrews 11 – “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” – faith’s dynamic dual certitude. He had incredible visual certitude, for he had seen the unseen. His conviction regarding the invisible would gird him in every battle. He had awesome future certitude regarding what he hoped for – namely, the fall of Jericho and the taking of the Promised Land. He had no doubt that the walls would fall. And it was this incredible, active faith that made him the great General Joshua, the son of Nun – or to give it a more 20th century ring, how about Field Marshal Joshua von Nun!?!

Joshua’s dynamic certainty enabled him to lead Israel to victory. And here we must emphasize again, as with Moses’ believing parents and as with Moses himself, one person’s faith can make all the difference for God’s people. As we will soon see, Joshua’s faith was communicated to the people and it elevated the entire nation’s faith. This is meant to be living example for us, no matter our walk in life, if we live lives of dynamic certainty regarding God’s Word, we can elevate and energize others to live as they ought. A single person’s faith can raise the faith level of their whole church or organization. I can think of several instances in life of both our kids’ Christian school as well as our church where this has proven true.

That morning, as the bright rays of the early morning sun illuminated the thousands of orderly arranged tents of his people, Joshua knew what he had to do – and in the storied days that followed, he did it. The writer of Hebrews tells us, in a simple sentence, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days” [11:30]. This is the key to the spiritual understanding of the fall of Jericho: the walls of Jericho fell because of the faith of Joshua and his people. It was at the time, the greatest corporate act of faith in Israel’s history and it remains so today.

In Pursuit of the Essence of Faith

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” Luke 17:5, 6

Listening to my pastor, Erik Braun, preach from Luke 17:5-19 this past Sunday, November 13, 2010, I was pierced with the revelation that the secret to the faith which Jesus referred to repeatedly throughout the gospels has more to do with its quality than its quantity. I am also struck by just how often Jesus repeatedly scorned what passed for faith in the eyes of the religious elite in his day.

The preceding five and a half chapters in Luke’s gospel reveal Jesus’ ongoing confrontation with the Pharisees regarding the hypocrisy of their “faith” which He regarded as utterly worthless, due to its dependence on man’s self-righteousness and the work of his own hands; as if, somehow, by what we do during our lives on this earth we can actually earn or merit God’s favor. This worldly logic revolves primarily around the premise that during our lives we develop a good record where our good works outweigh our bad, on some cosmic scale of our own making; we then present this record to God and He owes us! This, in short, is the secular man’s approach to theology/religion.

The truth of the gospel, however, is that God, through His Son Jesus Christ, developed a perfect record and then He gives it to us; and as a result, we owe Him!

This spiritual reality, of course, was totally lost on the Pharisees who, being so convinced of their own righteousness, were completely blinded to their absolute need for repentance, forgiveness and redemption.

But just as the disciples likely began to get comfortable in their own spirituality, especially when compared to that of the Pharisees, Jesus then turned the tables on them in chapter 17 and spoke to them about what Erik calls the “cycle of sanctification.” This cycle involves a life where we are always recognizing the seriousness of sin in our lives [“take heed to yourselves”], living in community together despite our many sins against one another, and lastly always repenting of our sin and drawing nearer to God. In v. 4, Jesus commanded his disciples to forgive their brother even seven times in the same day for committing the same sin against them. This after exhorting them not to cause another brother to sin for “it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause on of these little ones to sin.”

To this the apostles desperately cried out to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” Which, ironically, is the beginning of faith in its purest sense, as true and pure biblical faith comes only from God, and thus, it cannot be manufactured by the spirit of man. Moreover, not only is God the source of pure faith, but He is also its giver and its object. We, however, tend too often to view faith in light of its possessor rather than its giver.

In Hebrews 11:6 faith is defined as “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Erik elaborated on this by saying “faith is the instrumentation given by God to apply Himself to us.” I think that is a practical approach that appropriately recognizes both faith’s source and function.

The point I’m driving at in this piece is that for years now, I, and I’m guessing most believers, have been hindered in our pursuit of faith primarily because we have viewed it more as a matter of quantity and not so much as a matter of quality. What I am proposing now is that we shift our focus and go for quality. Like the mustard seed in the examples Jesus cites twice in the gospels both here and in Matthew 17:20 “… if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Our error, and the error of the disciples, is that we look at faith in terms of its quantity and then use carnal means to try to increase it. We measure our faith in terms of blessing as if our material blessings are proportional to the faith we have. Or perhaps we cite our accomplishments as evidence of our faith, but these measures again miss what faith is fundamentally at its core. As Erik said Sunday, “It not like Jesus just pulls out a syringe of faith and shoots us up” because we ask. But at least the disciples were acutely aware of their need for faith and cried out for it, as compared to the Pharisees who were so blinded that they thought they had it all figured out.

So it is not the quantity of our faith that seems to matter so much as its purity. Remember what the writer of Hebrews tells us in 11:6: “For without faith it is impossible to please God.” This after Paul gives us the imperative to “find out what pleases the Lord” [Ephesians 5:10]. Since this is the gospel in a sentence, what does it mean for us? What is this faith that pleases God? And how can a mustard seed worth of faith be so efficacious? What does faith of great quality look like and act like?

Consider the parable of the three men in Matthew 25:14-30 who were given five, two and one talent(s) respectively. The first two were faithful in doing their task when the master returned and the third one was not. It was more that they did do and were doing and not how much they had done when the master called them. Though the mustard seed is among the smallest of all the seeds, its faith [or determination to accomplish its task] is pure. It therefore can break through the hardest of soils and produce a bush, or what is commonly called a tree, that can grow up to ten feet high. The mustard seed has an inborn nature to do or to die doing and not just trying to do. If we leave ourselves the out that we can just try, we’ll tend to quit when faced with even mild to moderate adversity. So “as a grain of mustard seed” seems to be more a reference to the seed’s determination to do rather than a reference to its size or quantity.

Lastly, consider Paul’s admonition in Romans 12:23, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” Everything we have, including our position before God, is from grace through faith. Remember Jesus is not so much in the business of literally moving mountains as He is in changing hearts. Our prayer of faith should be like that of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3: 16-21 “I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know all this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.” This is the essence of faith!

The Faith of Moses, Part 3

Next, the writer of Hebrews explains that Moses’ forty-year separation from Egypt in the land of Midian was also a result of faith: “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw Him who is invisible” [v. 27]. The paradoxical phrase “he saw Him who is invisible” does not mean he saw God with the naked eye. Faith’s eye saw what the physical eye is incapable of seeing. But there did come a time when God was so pleased with Moses’ spiritual vision that He graced him with physical vision of a part of God’s glory [Exodus 33:18-23] and spoke to him face to face [Exodus 33:9-11; Numbers 12:7, 8].

Christianity is supernatural, and is to be lived supernaturally. Elisha’s prayer is just as relevant today for the church as it was when he prayed it over his anxious servant: “And Elisha prayed, ‘O Lord, open his eyes so to he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” [2 Kings 6:17].

The last of the ten plaques that secured Israel’s exodus from Egypt was the destruction of all the male firstborn of both man and beast [Exodus 12:12]. But God provided a way of salvation for His people. They were directed through Moses to slaughter a lamb, and take some hyssop and dip it in the lamb’s blood, and dab the blood on the top and sides of the doorways of their homes. Homes so anointed would be under God’s protection, and the destroyer would not be permitted to enter [Exodus 12:21-23]. So our text reads, “By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel” [11:28]. The point is that Moses and Israel so believed God that they obeyed to the letter. The instructions were strange, the demands costly [a lamb without blemish] and the ritual unprecedented, but they did precisely as they were told. In simple faith they “kept the Passover.” They relied on the God who had spoken to them through His servant: “Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did” [Exodus 12:1-3, 28]. But what is even more remarkable is that the phrase “by faith he kept the Passover” actually means that he instituted the Passover. Moses actually instituted the Passover as a “lasting ordinance” to be done year after year [Exodus 12:14] – which means that Moses never doubted in the least that the people would be delivered from Egypt. He had nothing to go on but God’s word, but he believed it implicitly. Moses’ immense faith saved Israel!

The final “by faith” in our passage is charitable to a fault if it is read without reference to Moses: “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. 29]. The reason this is overly charitable is that Israel did not show faith but held back in craven fear as the hard-charging Egyptian armies, borne on chariots, drew near in pursuit, decrying Moses: “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” [Exodus 14:11, 12] Their faithlessness is corroborated by the fact that all of them later died in the desert precisely because of their lack of faith, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb.

Actually, it was Moses’ faith that rallied them and secured their deliverance: “Moses answered the people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still’” [Exodus 14: 13, 14]. This culminated in Moses’ preeminent display of faith when he stretched out his hand over the Red Sea, and the Lord drove back the waters with a strong east wind, and Israel passed through as on dry land [Exodus 14: 21, 22].

What a sublime example we have here! One man’s faith can be so authentic and effectual that it can elevate a whole nation and secure their deliverance! In lesser ways we have seen this in the lives of such people as Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards. This truth holds great promise for us as well. Vibrant, authentic faith can elevate our families, churches, cities and perhaps even our country. Never underestimate the power of real faith, for Moses’ peerless life shouts faith from beginning to end.

What does this mean for us? Our culture is becoming increasingly hostile to the gospel – so much so that I am convinced within the next twenty to fifty years, simple Biblical faith will become so abhorrent to popular culture that faithful Christians will be persecuted. Yes, even here in America. But I am also convinced that some, by God’s grace, will draw upon Moses’ example and will thereby gain strength to live for God. Moses prevailed because first, he believed in God’s promise of reward; and second, because he lived a ‘normal Christian life’ – he saw the unseen! He or she who has ears to hear, let them hear!

The Faith of Moses, Part 2

There is a time lapse of some forty years between verse 23 and the second “by faith,” which covers verses 24-26 in Hebrews chapter 11. Here we see how Moses identified with his people by faith. His identification began with a negative choice: “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter” [v. 24]. R. Kent Hughes notes that “Moses was known by the royal designation ‘son of Pharaoh’s daughter' – a title of self-conscious dignity that is emphasized in the Greek by the absence of definitive articles. A modern equivalent might be Duke of York.” To be such during Egypt’s Nineteenth Dynasty would have meant immense prestige and wealth. Any pleasure that the contemporary mind could conceive was his for the asking. But the object of Moses’ desire was not in the treasures or power of Egypt, and as such, he publicly refused the title – thus committing a grievous and dangerous insult to Pharaoh. Faith is courageous!

True faith will announce its discord whenever God and conscience call for it. Believers can love their culture, but they will refuse to be identified with the godless spirit of their age. Moses’ negation was also motivated by a positive act of his will: “He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time” [v. 25]. Moses’ sin, had he remained part of the Egyptian system, would have been apostasy – for he would have had to abandon the truth. There is no doubt that the pleasures of sin in Egypt were substantial. But like all physical pleasures, they were only pleasurable for a moment. So, rather than embracing Egypt’s ephemeral pleasures, Moses consciously “chose to be mistreated along with the people of God.” Moses believed that Israel stood in unique relationship with the living God and had a unique role to play in world history. Moses chose to take the most exciting path he could possibly take. To him, life in the brilliance of the Egyptian court was a dull, ignoble thing when compared with the society of mistreated Israel. Christians, likewise, must absorb Moses’ wisdom because the Church is the only thing that will outlive this world.

Almost everyone who reads this story wonders just how Moses could turn his back on Egyptian delights and embrace the affections of his stigmatized people? The answer reveals his faith: “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. 26]. When Moses identified with Israel, he was aligning himself with the people with whom Jesus Christ had been identified from their inception. He had always been one with His people. “In all their distress He too was distressed” [Isaiah 63:9]. Thus, according to F. F. Bruce, Moses’ identification with the disgrace of the Messianic people was an identification with Christ – he endured disgrace “for the sake of Christ.” The great truth for us is that Moses could do this “because he was looking ahead to his reward.” Here the author again takes us back to the foundational truth of v. 1: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for.” Moses was, quite simply, sure of his reward. If we ourselves truly believe in the reward, as did Moses and the saints, we will do just fine. It was none other than Paul who said, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” [Romans 8:18]. Similarly, he encouraged the Corinthians: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” [2 Corinthians 4:16-18]. These are the things we must believe!

The Faith of Moses, Part 1

“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. By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 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. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw Him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.” Hebrews 11:23-29

The book of Deuteronomy ends with Moses’ unparalleled epitaph: “Since then no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt – to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel” [34:10-12].

To all Jews, Moses was the greatest of all men. He was Israel’s greatest prophet. God communicated directly to him and testified regarding their relationship: “When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord” [Numbers 12:6-8].

This is why his face was luminous when he descended Mt. Sinai with the tablets containing the Ten Commandments. He was Israel’s greatest lawgiver. He was Israel’s greatest historian, authoring everything from Genesis to Deuteronomy. He was considered Israel’s greatest saint, for Scripture says he was “more humble than any one else on the face of the earth” [Numbers 12:3]. This is perhaps his most amazing attribute given his many accomplishments. He was also Israel’s greatest deliverer.

Significantly, regarding Moses’ deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the writer of Hebrews notes that it was a colossal act of faith from beginning to end. Here we have the anatomy of a faith that delivers others and sets them free. This insightful teaching had special relevance to the ancient church suffering in its own inhospitable ‘exile’ in the Roman Empire with a second wave of persecution welling up against it. Certainly, this section also has direct relevance for every believing soul who senses any dissonance with the unbelieving world around him.

The initial faith we are shown in this passage is not Moses’ faith, but rather, the heroic faith of his parents. Both parents were from the tribe of Levi. Exodus 2:1 and Exodus 6:20 tell us that their names were Amram and Jochebed and that they had another son – Aaron, who would become the high priest. They also had a daughter – Miriam, who was a prophetess.

The couple’s marriage came at a dark time for Israel – when the oppression of the Egyptians had become utterly diabolical. First, Pharaoh had commanded the Hebrew midwives to murder all male newborns immediately upon birth. When that plan failed, his command became even more crude and effective – all newborn baby boys were to be tossed into the Nile as food for the crocodiles [Exodus 1:15-22]. Nevertheless, Jochebed conceived and when baby Moses was delivered, his parents’ faith was in full force: “By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child” – literally, they saw that he was a “beautiful child” [RSV, NASB, NKJV]. This seems an odd reason, especially in light of our universal parental experience. All my children were “beautiful” and extraordinary – as I am sure yours were. Obviously, there was something about him that was more than beautiful. Possibly there was something unique about his presence that confirmed God’s word. John Calvin remarked “it seems contrary to the nature of faith that they were induced to do this by the beauty of his form. We know that Jesse was rebuked when he brought his sons to Samuel in order of their physical excellence, and certainly God does not hold to external appearances. … There was some sort of mark of excellence to come, engraved on the boy which gave promise of something out of the ordinary for him.”

And then, when it became impossible to conceal his presence, they came up with a creative plan that floated him right into Pharaoh’s palace! Baby Moses, of course, melted the heart of Pharaoh’s daughter. And as she cooed over him, up sprung his big sister with the brilliant suggestion of a surrogate nurse. Result: Jochebed got paid to nurse her own baby and to raise him during his early years! So Moses was preserved by his parents’ heroic faith. But there is more, for he was also nurtured by their faith. There in his parents’ slave hut, Moses was surrounded by the pure atmosphere of faith. There he became aware of his own origins. There he was taught to fear God. And there he was made conscious of his call to deliver his people. Stephen informs us in his great sermon [Acts 7:25] that when Moses made his first attempt to defend his people, “Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them.”

This should serve as an encouragement to those of us who are trying to raise a Godly family in today’s secular desert. Moses was preserved by his parents’ faith. Their faith, their prayers, their bravery and their creativity saved him. And more, he became a great man of faith through their faith. He could have literally told the nation of Israel, “My mother practices what I preach!” Israel’s deliverance, indeed, did literally begin with an obscure couple believing God in the midst of a great darkness. Think what a faith like that could accomplish today!

The Faith of Abraham, Part 2

It was biologically impossible for Abraham, as well as Sarah, to have children at the time the promise of a son was reaffirmed to them with the giving of the covenant of circumcision [Genesis 17]. Abraham was 99 years old, and his bride was 90 [Genesis 17:1, 24]. Sarah’s personal assessment was, “I am worn out and my master is old” [Genesis 18:12]. The assertion that he was “as good as dead” in v. 12 is exactly the same in the Greek as in Romans 4:19, where Paul said that Abraham “faced the fact that his body was as good as dead – since he was about a hundred years old – and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.”

Abraham knew the situation and that it was humanly impossible, but he came to faith. Some people are under the impression that when a person has faith, he inwardly agrees to ignore the facts. They see faith and facts as mutually exclusive. But faith without reason is fideism, and reason without faith is rationalism. In practice, there must be no reduction of faith to reason. And likewise, there must be no reduction of reason to faith. Biblical faith is a composite of the two. Abraham did not take an unreasonable leap of faith. How could Abraham come to such a colossal exercise of faith? He weighed the human impossibility of becoming a father against the divine impossibility of God being able to break His word and decided that since God is God, nothing is impossible. In other words, he believed that “God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” [Hebrews 11:6].

We are not to indulge in fideism – faith without reason – or rationalism – reason without faith. We are to rationally assess all of life. We are to live reasonably. When we are aware that God’s Word says thus-and-so, we are to rationally assess it. Does God’s Word actually say that, or is it man’s fallible interpretation? And if God’s Word does indeed say it, we must then be supremely rational, weighing the human impossibility against the divine impossibility of God being able to break His word. And we must believe.

The last section of our text is introduced by the writer’s statement that Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac finished well. “All these people,” he says, “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” [v. 13a]. Death is the final test of faith, and they all passed with flying colors, living by faith right up to the last breath. The beauty of their dying was that they died in faith though never receiving the fullness of the universal blessing that had been promised. The reason they could do this was that they saw the unseen – they were certain of what they did not see. The patriarchs could see through the eye of faith the ultimate fulfillment of the promises, like sailors who become content they can see their final destination as it comes over the horizon. Land ahoy!

Along with this they recognized and accepted the dissonance of being a camper in this world – “And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on this earth” [v. 13b]. They embraced the life of a pilgrim as the only proper way for them to live. The subject of finishing by faith is rounded off by advice for living by faith – specifically setting one’s eyes on a heavenly country. “People who say such things,” he writes, “show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one” [vv.14-16a]. When Abraham and his family admitted they were aliens, they were making it clear they were not in their home country. And so it might be supposed that they longed to go back. And if, in fact, their hearts were still in the old country, they could have returned. But they did not! The reason is, they were “longing for a better country – a heavenly one.” And it is this spiritual longing which enabled them to persevere in faith.

May this example not be wasted on us. Paul tells us in Philippians that “our citizenship is in heaven” [3:20]. In Ephesians he reminds us, “You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household” [2:19]. We are supernaturalized citizens, and our citizenship is not only with one another, but is rooted in Heaven! Paul alludes to this reality when he says: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” [Colossians 3:1-4].

And what will be the result? Our text beautifully answers, “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” [v. 16b]. Because the patriarchs believed God’s word with dynamic certitude – because when God called Abram to leave Ur, he believed and obeyed – because aged Abraham believed God when He said he would be a father, “God is not ashamed to be called their God.” In fact, God later proclaimed to Moses, “I am [present tense] … the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” [Exodus 3:6]. No higher tribute could be paid to any mortal. But God proudly claims whoever trusts and obeys Him, and they can humbly insert their name in the divine proclamation, “I am the God of ____________!”

In the early years of the 20th century, pioneer missionary Henry C. Morrison was returning to New York after forty years in Africa. That same boat also bore home the wildly popular President Theodore Roosevelt. As they entered New York harbor, the President was greeted with a huge fanfare and Morrison felt rather dejected. After all, he had spent four decades in the Lord’s service. But then a small voice came to Morrison, saying, “Henry … you’re not home yet.” And was the voice ever right, for God had “prepared a city” far greater than the Big Apple for Henry Morrison. God says, “I am the God of Henry C. Morrison. And here, Henry, are the keys to the city!”

With faith, it IS possible to please God!

The Faith of Abraham, Part 1

“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. 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. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith Abraham, even though he was past age – and Sarah herself was barren – was enabled to become a father because he considered Him faithful who had made the promise. 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. 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. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 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.” – Hebrews 11:8-16

Without any doubt, Abraham is the greatest example of faith in the Bible. Of course, others such as Enoch, Noah and even Moses lived extraordinary lives of faith, but none are so closely chronicled as that of Abraham. Throughout the entirety of the Old Testament and even into the New Testament he is held up as the great example of faith and the father of all who truly believe: “Consider Abraham: ‘He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham” [Galatians 3:6, 7; Hebrews 2:16]. James adds that because of Abraham’s faith, Abraham was called “God’s friend” [2:23]. Abraham is thus the undisputed paragon of faith.

Our knowledge of Abraham extends back to the nineteenth century B.C. Scripture indicates he was a citizen of the city of Ur, located on the Euphrates River in what is now southern Iraq. Ur was already an ancient city in Abraham’s time and boasted an elaborate system of writing, sophisticated mathematical calculations, educational facilities, and extensive business and religious records. The city was dominated by a massive three-staged Ziggurat built by Ur-Nammu during the beginning of the second millennium B.C. Each stage was colored distinctively, with the top level bearing the silver roomed shrine of Nammu, the moon-god. The royal cemetery reveals that ritual burials were sealed with the horrors of human sacrifice. So Ur, advanced as it was, was nevertheless in the bonds of darkest paganism. And Abraham as an idolator [see Joshua 24:2], was a part of its conventional social and religious structure. We also know from Stephen’s speech before the Sanhedrin that there in Ur of the Chaldeans, “The God of glory appeared” to Abraham, and that the Lord delivered this singular message: “Leave your country and your people … and go to the land I will show you” [Acts 7:2, 3]. We know, too, what happened inside Abraham, because the universal pattern of faith, was activated in his heart. He believed God’s word with a certainty so powerful that he regarded the future promise as virtually present. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for.” He became so certain that God had called him and would lead him to a land where he would establish a great people that future promise was transposed to the present.

It is important to note that Abraham’s believing life began with an immediate act of obedience. Faith and obedience being inseparable in man’s relation to God, Abraham would never have obeyed God’s call if he had not truly taken God at His word. Abraham’s obedience was thus an outward evidence of his inward faith. His obedience was so prompt that the Greek text presents Abraham as setting out on his journey while the word of God was still ringing in his ears. What is more, the text adds that he “obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” It was not until later that his destination was revealed to be the land of Canaan. There was a glorious abandonment in Abraham’s faith. And it cost. Faith spawns reflexive steps of obedience. It steps out. We must not imagine that we have faith if we do not obey.

Having shown that it was by faith that Abraham obeyed, setting out for the Promised Land, the writer of Hebrews adds that is was also by faith that he was able to be a sojourner in the Promised Land: “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. 9]. God had promised the land of Canaan to Abraham, but during his life [and the lives of his sons, Isaac and Jacob] God “gave him no inheritance … not even a foot of ground” [Acts 7:5]. The only land Abraham ever owned was Sarah’s tomb, a cave in a field in Machpelah near Hebron, which he bought from Ephron the Hittite [Genesis 23].

The word for Abraham’s existence was dissonance – he never fit in. His religion was different and far above that of the land. He was a monotheist, and his neighbors were polytheistic pagans. His standards of morality were rooted in the character of God, while theirs came from the gods they themselves had created. His worldview invited repeated collisions with that of the inhabitants. He was always living in conscious dissonance. What a lesson for us! The life of faith demands that we live in dissonance with the unbelieving world. A life of faith is not anti-cultural, but countercultural. Thus, a vibrant faith is always matched with a sense of dis-ease, a pervasive in-betweenness, a sense of being a camper. This does not mean, of course, that Abraham was separate from culture. To the contrary, the Genesis records reveals he was deeply involved in the politics of the land, even being considered a “mighty prince” among the Hittites. But there was always that dissonance. He was never at home!

The parallels between Abraham’s experience and that of the Christian are easy to see, because the Christian has the promise of an ultimate land as well. In fact, every believer is called to step out in faithful obedience and to follow Christ as He leads on to that land. All of us are, by faith, to obey and go as God directs, though we do not know where the path will take us. All of us are, by faith, to become willing sojourners, living in constant dissonance with the world as we await our final inheritance. It is a dangerous thing when a Christian begins to feel permanently settled in this world.

Abraham went out, and Abraham camped out. But in his obedience and sojourn he was overall a patient “happy camper.” Why? Because of his ultimate faith-perspective – “For he was looking forward to a the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” [v. 10]. According to R. Kent Hughes, the Greek literally reads, “For he was looking for the city which had the foundations” – the idea being that he was looking for the only city with enduring foundations. There was simply no other! This city was, and is, totally designed by God. “Builder,” demiourgos, signifies the one who does the actual work. The city was designed in God’s mind and built with His hands. Signficantly, it was a city, a place that is intrinsically social. There he would not only see God, but he would dwell with believers in harmony rather than dissonance [Hebrews 12:22-24]. No more camping! No more dis-ease. No more alienation. No more pilgrim life. How much more our faith would be strengthened to step out and sojourn if we, like Abraham, would continue “looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

Faith is Essential to Acceptable Worship: Cain v. Abel

“By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.” – Hebrews 11:4

First read without prior explanation, the story of Cain and Abel is mysterious and enigmatic. Adam and Eve had two sons – Cain, who went into agriculture – and Abel, who took up herding or animal husbandry. Both were religious men, and when it came time to worship each brought an offering appropriate to his profession – Abel from his flock, and Cain from his fields. But curiously, God favored Abel’s sacrifice and rejected Cain’s.

Cain, in turn, became angry. God warned him, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it” [Genesis 4:7]. But Cain nursed his rage and murdered Abel, whose blood cried out to God from the ground. The story ends in tragic closure: “So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden” [Genesis 4:16].

What do we make of this strange story? According to St. Augustine, “Cain was the first-born, and he belonged to the city of men; and after him was born Abel, who belonged to the city of God.” Augustine correctly saw that each was representative of radically different approaches to religion and to God. There was the way of Cain – a way of unbelief and of self-righteous, man-made religion. Jude 11 warns, “Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain.” In contrast to the way of Abel – a way of faith. So the theme of this first example of faith in Hebrews 11 is a contrast of two cities, two streams – the two ways of faith and unbelief.

The authentic nature of Abel’s worship is explicitly attributed to his faith in the opening sentence of this verse: “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice [i.e. better worship] than Cain did.” To do a thing “by faith,” we must do it in response to and according to a word from God. We hear God’s word indicating His will, and “by faith” we respond in obedience. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” [Romans 10:17]. From this we must understand that God evidently had given explicit instructions to Cain and Abel indicating that only animal sacrifices were acceptable. Very likely they learned this from their parents, Adam and Eve [see Genesis 3:21, which gives an implicit inference that animal blood was spilled in direct response to their sin]. And by this time, Cain and Abel had been conforming to this practice for over 100 years as Cain was 129 years old. To this may be added the thought that Cain and Abel both understood the substitutionary atoning nature of blood sacrifice because when God provided the skins to clothe their parents, He established the principle of covering sin through the shedding of blood. Abel’s faith was an expression of his conscious need for atonement.

But not so with Cain! He came his own way – “the way of Cain.” By refusing to bring the prescribed offering, and instead presenting his garden produce, he was saying that one’s own good works and character is enough. Cain may have reasoned, “What I am presenting is far more beautiful than a bloody animal. I myself would prefer the lovely fruits of a harvest any day. And I worked far harder than Abel to raise my offering. Enough of this animal sacrifice business, God. My way is far better!” Cain’s offering was a monument to pride and self-righteousness – “the way of Cain.” Abel, on the other hand, believed and obeyed God. He brought God what God wanted. This was acceptable worship.

The other reason Abel’s offering was accepted was his heart’s attitude. Cain’s attitude puts it all in stark perspective. The Scriptures indicate that when God rejected Cain’s offering, Cain became "very angry, and his face was downcast” [Genesis 4:5], thus revealing just how shallow his devotion was. And when God pleaded with Cain to desist and do what was right, warning him with powerful metaphorical language that sin was crouching like a monster at his door desiring to have him [Genesis 4:6, 7], God’s plea was met with ominous silence. Whereas Cain’s mother had been talked into sin, Cain would not be talked out of it.

And it seems that Cain was determined to stay angry. He liked being mad. And so it has been with Cain’s children. Cain seemed to draw strength from his rage. The release of venom was his elixir. He would rather kill than turn to God’s gentle pleadings and repent. So he directed his hatred for God at his brother Abel and killed him.

But Abel had come to God with a completely different spirit – a submissive, devoted heart. Abel brought “portions from some of the firstborn of his flock” [Genesis 4:4] – his best. God saw Abel’s heart and was pleased with his motives, for “God loves a cheerful giver” [2 Corinthians 9:7]. How God desires devoted hearts in his worshippers! Jesus said that the time “has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth” [John 4:23, 24]. God longs for those who worship Him with the complete devotion of their human spirits. So it is likely very significant that this great chapter on faith begins with a worshipper – because worship is fundamental to everything else we do in life. So there we have it. The opening sentence tells us that faith is essential to acceptable worship. And that is still true today if we would come to God, we must come not with our own works, but rather with and through the sacrifice of Christ – the way of Christ, not “the way of Cain.”

Faith Is ...

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. 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.” – Hebrews 11:1-3

If one factors God out of life’s equation and adopts the view that we are little more than cosmic accidents, life, with its inevitable hardships and suffering, becomes hard to defend. In fact, suicide has been considered intellectually consistent, even fashionable, by some existential intellectuals in recent years. But for the Christian, there is substantial reason for hope in this life and in the life to come because of the promises of God’s Word. In fact, 1 Peter 1:3 tells us that we have been “born again to a living hope.” The degree of our experience of hope is proportionate to the degree of our faith. The more profound our faith, the more profound our hope.

This was important to the writer of Hebrews because of the rising storm of persecution that was about to fall on the church. He knew that the key to survival was a solid faith and an attendant hope. That is why he in Hebrews 10:38 quoted Habakkuk 2:4, “But my righteous one will live by faith.” There is a spiritual axiom implicit here: faith produces hope, and hope produces perseverance. Without faith one will inevitably shrink back.

The character of faith is spelled out with great care in the famous lines of verse 1: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Faith’s character is, in a word, certitude – a dynamic certainty about what God has promised. It is not a feeling. It is not optimism or bootstrap positive thinking either. It is not a hunch. It is not sentimentality. An old song says, “You gotta have faith” – the sentiment being that if you somehow have faith in faith, you will be okay. And faith is not brainless.

The first half of the verse expresses the future certitude that faith brings: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for.” R. Kent Hughes describes the words, “being sure” as a translation of a single Greek noun – hupostasis, which literally means, “That which stands under” or “foundation” and hence “substance.” He goes on to say that this word has appeared twice earlier in Hebrews where it was translated objectively [“being”] in 1:3 and subjectively [“confidence”] in 3:14. The KJV here uses the objective translation: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for.” Likewise the NEB says, “Faith gives substance to our hopes” – the idea being that faith grabs hold of what is hoped for, as something real and substantial. Most other translations render the word subjectively – “the assurance” [RSV, ASV, NASB, NAB] or “the guarantee” [JB] or “being sure” [NIV]. Hughes concludes by saying, “Actually, the objective and subjective tenses of the word are not at odds because genuine faith does bring an assurance of what we hope for that is both solid and substantive.”

The second half of verse 1 joins faith’s future certitude to the parallel visual certitude that comes through faith, because faith means being “certain of what we do not see.” The KJV translates this, “the evidence of things not seen,” and the RSV says, “the conviction of things not seen.” These translations augment each other because the evidence by which a thing is proved brings conviction and certainty to the mind. Our faith is the organ by which we are enabled to see the invisible order – and to see it with certainty, just as our eyes behold the physical world around us. What do we see? We see the future because it is made present to us through our faith. But we also see more – namely, the spiritual kingdom around us. Genesis 28 records how Jacob, on that miserable night he fled from Esau into the wilderness, forlorn and alone, laid his weary head on a rock to sleep and “had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it” [v. 12]. In a flash he saw what had been around him all the time. He saw the unseen spiritual order, and that is what we see by faith. The more we understand this, the more we can unleash the power of God’s Spirit to change not only our lives but lives of those around us as well.

Having given us faith’s character in verse 1, the writer now calls to mind faith’s activism in verse 2: “This is what the ancients were commended for.” All the ancients in Israel who received divine commendation received it because of the character of their faith. This certitude produced a dynamic activism. Think of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego [alluded to in 11:34]. They had nothing but God’s word to rest on. They had no visible evidence that they would be delivered in this life. But they knew they would ultimately be delivered – they knew it so well that it was a present reality [see Daniel 3:16-18]. There is no evidence that any of them had ever seen the invisible world at work around them, but they did see it by faith and were certain of it. Graciously, God did let them see it with their physical eyes when He delivered them. Remember Nebuchadnezzar’s astonished words as he watched the trio in the flaming furnace: “Look, I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks a like a son of the gods.” [Daniel 3:25]. And so it goes for every example in the great Hall of Faith of Hebrews 11 – from Abel to Samuel to the unnamed heroes of the faith. And so it goes for us. By certain faith we will endure in blessed activism. And by certain faith we will receive God’s commendation.