06.03. Reckoning by Faith (Heb_11:3)

Reckoning by Faith (Heb 11:3)

Having given the true definition of faith, the Apostle proceeds to give examples of it; showing how men of God in past days lived by it: i.e., how they conducted their lives according to it.

Those whom he calls "the elders,"[2] in Heb 9:1, he speaks of as the "great cloud of witnesses" in Heb 12:1.

[2] The word is used in its Hebrew sense ‏זְקֻנִים‎ ancients (zekunīm). See Isa 24:23, which thus implies the resurrection of those who are referred to, i.e., not older in age, but people who lived in olden times. The scope of the whole passage (of which this chapter forms part) is, as we have seen, an exhortation to patience in view of the great tribulations these Hebrew believers were passing through, and of the faithfulness of God to His promises which He had made to them.

God’s word was the foundation of all that they hoped for; His faithfulness was all that they had to rest upon.

He points his readers back to the great cloud of witnesses[3] who had borne such wondrous testimony to the power of a living faith in the living God: to those who had borne witness, not only in their faithful life, but in their martyr-death.

[3] The word is μάρτυς (martus), and is always used of a judicial witness, or deponent; i.e., one who witnessed with his lips and not with his eyes. Hence the word comes to be limited, today, to the greatest of all such witness, a martyr’s death. The word for eye-witness is quite different. It is ἐπόπτης (epoptēs), a looker on, spectator. The word rendered "obtained a good report," in Heb 11:2; Heb 11:39, and "witnesses," in Heb 12:1, are cognate. In the former chapter it is the verb, and in the latter it is the noun. There is no word in the original about "good."

Heb 11:2 tells us that by (or through) this faith [of theirs]; or by such a faith as this, they were made witnesses (by God), or became witnesses (for God), and could thus be called, in Heb 12:1, "a great cloud of witnesses," by faith in the promises which they had received from God, and believing what they had "heard."

They were enabled to bear such wondrous witness; and were strengthened to suffer, and conquer, and to wait patiently for the fulfillment of the promises which they saw, by this faith, "afar off."

It was this, and "by such faith as this," that their example was so necessary, and was such an encouragement for those to whom the Apostle was writing. The scope of the whole section is (as we have seen), an exhortation and warning against apostasy; and the words immediately preceding are, "We are not of those drawing back to destruction, but of faith, to the saving of the soul."

What it is to be thus, "of faith," is the subject of what follows in Heb 11:1-40. Faith has to do with that which is "not seen." The things we hope for are "not seen": as it is written: "Hope that is seen is not hope: for what any one seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for what we do not see, then do we with patience wait for it" (Rom 8:24-25). It is to this patient waiting under trial that these Hebrew believers were being exhorted.

Faith is thus the opposite of sight (2Co 5:7). This is the essence of the whole of Heb 11:1-40. It begins, in Heb 11:3, with the statement that the events which we see going on around us spring from things that do not appear, but from the fact that God rules and over-rules, and that He has prepared and ordered the ages. The word rendered "worlds" is not used of the created world, which is κόσμος (cosmos), or of the inhabited world, which is οἰκουμένη (oikoumenes); or of the ploughed and trodden earth, which is γῆ (gē), but it is αἰών (aiōn) age, which is here in the plural, and means ages, or dispensations. This is its proper rendering.[4] It is by faith we perceive (νοοῦμεν, nooumen) that the events we see happening around us do not happen by chance.

[4]This is the sense in which αἰών is used in this Epistle (as elsewhere). See Heb 1:3, where the verb ποιέω (poieō)is used in the sense of appoint, as in Heb 3:2. See also Heb 6:5, where it is used of "the age to come"; and Heb 9:26, where the first word "world" is κόσμος (cosmos) and means the created world, and the second is this word αἰών (aiōn) age.

Even worldly wisdom can see this and say that "there is a hand that shapes our destinies;" that "things are not what they seem;" and that "we cannot judge by appearances."

We see Babylon replacing Israel, Medo-Persia rising up in the place of Babylon; Greece succeeding Persia; Rome succeeding Greece. To the human eye, all these things are seen merely as historical events, but faith can see beneath the surface. It can perceive what the human eye cannot see. It can see the things that are invisible. It can see the "things not seen." How? By "hearing," i.e., "by the word of God." And here, note that the word rendered "word" is not Logos (as in Psa 33:6, Sept. 32:6), but Rhēma; i.e., not the creative Word, but the revealed words. By believing the prophetic words we grasp the fact that these ages were all foreknown to God, and all perfectly ordered by Him. This is the force of the word rendered "framed," as may be seen by studying all its occurrences."[5] It will be at once observed that in no other place is it rendered "framed," while all the other renderings taken together show that the best meaning to give the word in Heb 11:3 would be prepared, as in the previous chapter (Heb 10:5). So that the sense of the verse would be, that while the events which we see with our eyes taking place around us do not happen by chance, as judging by appearances, or from the outward phenomena, they seem to do; but are prepared, ruled or over-ruled by God, who has, in His own ordering, "the dispensation of the fullness of times" (Eph 1:10); and orders all "according to the purpose of the ages which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Eph 3:11, compare R.V.).

[5] καταρτίξω (katartizō) occurs in the following passages, and is rendered mend in Mat 4:21. Mark 1:19. Perfect (perfected, made perfect, be perfect, &c), in Mat 21:16. Luk 6:40. 2Co 13:11. 1Th 3:10. Heb 13:21. 1Pe 5:10; fitted, Rom 9:22; restore, Gal 6:1; framed, Heb 11:3; and perfectly joined together, in 1Co 1:10; prepared, Heb 10:5.

It is by faith in what God has revealed in the "faithful sayings" of the prophetic word that we perceive and "understand" this great fact which, to the outward eye of mortal man, is neither seen, nor understood, nor even acknowledged. The rendering of the third verse, according to this, would be as follows:—

"By faith we perceive (by the word of God) that the ages were prepared, so that, the things we see, come to pass not from things that appear." That is, as we said above, as we walk by faith and not by sight, we understand that we cannot and must not judge by the outward appearances, because in one of His weighty "words" God has told us that He "seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart" (1Sa 16:7).

It was by such a faith as this that these elders knew that things were not what they seemed, and therefore did not judge by sight of the outward eye.

Though the Flood appeared to be delayed, and the unbelief of others seemed to be encouraged by it, Noah did not judge by those appearances, but believed the words of God as to "things not seen as yet."

It was by such faith as this that Abraham and Sarah, though at first staggered by the words of the angel, yet as soon as they "understood" that they were "the words of God" they considered not the outward appearances of their natural physical condition, but waxed "strong in faith," and believed God as to what they could not see.

It was by "such a faith as this" that Joseph did not consider the circumstances as they appeared to him in Egypt, but believed God as to their going up thence at the set time that He had prepared, even to the very year.

It was by "such a faith as this" that Moses was not deceived by the outward splendor of his royal surroundings in the Court of Egypt, but voluntarily surrendered all; refusing the treasures; choosing the sufferings; and esteeming reproach for Christ as better than all. For he judged and "endured as seeing Him who is invisible" (Heb 11:27). But we must not anticipate. The whole chapter and all its parts must be studied in the light of this third verse.

It does not carry us back to Creation, and divert our thoughts into such a totally different channel; but, it lays the foundation in no uncertain way for all that is to follow. This foundation has been hidden from the readers of the Word

It will be seen that Heb 11:3 is not written to teach that there are "more worlds than one;" or that they were created out of nothing; but it is written to give us, at the outset, the secret of the elders’ wondrous witness, which consisted in this; that they walked "by faith and not by sight"; and that, therefore, they did not look on the outward appearance or judge by outward phenomena; but, understanding that the ages and dispensations were all prepared by God, they rested on the prophetic Word, and believed that He was overruling all for the accomplishment of His own counsels in them and through them.