Hebrews 11:17-40

¹⁷By 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.”  ¹⁹Abraham 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. ²¹By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. ²²By 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. ²³By 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. ²⁴By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. ²⁵He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. ²⁶He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. ²⁷By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. ²⁸By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. ²⁹By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. ³⁰By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days. ³¹By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. ³²And 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, ³³who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴quenched 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. ³⁵Women 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. ³⁶Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. ³⁷They were put to death by stoning;[be] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— ³⁸the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. ³⁹These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, ⁴⁰since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

By Faith

The ultimate honor for an athlete, musician, actor, writer, or even for a robot, is to be inducted in a Hall of Fame (and yes, there is even a Robot Hall of Fame).

When you’re included in a Hall of Fame, it means that you are a real hero in your field and that you’ve really performed above and beyond anyone else in your area. The people who decide that you’re to be included in the Hall of Fame want you to be forever remembered as an example for others.

Today’s passage is sometimes called the “Hall of Faith”. The writer of Hebrews provides a long list of heroes and shares how they were, by their faith, able to endure mistreatment, conquer enemies, follow God’s instructions, and receive strength. Although each of these people was in a different situation, and was faced with different challenges, each was transformed, saved, strengthened, or even saw people raised from the dead, by their faith in God.

What is also remarkable, and reassuring for us, is that each of the Hall of Faith inductees were flawed sinners. Yet, through their faith, they were able to face anything and with God’s help do remarkable things. No matter what past transgression, sin or character flaw, with faith in God they became Old Testament heroes in the Hall of Faith!

The writer of Hebrews, at that time, did not call them Old Testament heroes of course. There was no New Testament yet. The writer’s intention must have been to use familiar characters and stories that every Jew would recognize to make a link to faith in Jesus Christ. The Hall of Faith inductees were used as an illustration to show that faith in Jesus Christ follows naturally from the faith that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Rahab and all the others have had.

God was working in the past, and through faith in him anything was possible for the Old Testament characters, but (see vv 39 and 40), “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.” God’s amazing plan was to sacrifice his only Son for us. It is only through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ and our faith in him that we will all be able to be together with God again and have eternal life. With Jesus, God is working in a new and superior way to bring his people together.

Prayer: Dear God, today I pray to you, not as a hero, but as a sinner, thanking you for the comfort in knowing that, by faith, everything is possible in the broken world that we live in, and that, by faith in your son Jesus Christ, we will be brought together in your Kingdom for a life eternal. Amen.