1 Peter 3

1 Peter 3:1

Living by Faith (IV)

Hebrews 11:17. After the parenthesis of Heb 11:13-16 the writer is now going to say something about the individual patriarchs and how they believed God. The first is again Abraham. You have already paid attention to several proofs of his faith. Those are impressive proofs. But now the writer quotes an example of his faith that is unprecedented. This proof of his faith is again connected to the son he and Sarah received.

When he and Sarah were too old to beget children he persisted in believing that God was still able to give him a son. God after all promised that, didn’t He? And because God is faithful to what He promises, it is a matter of waiting for His time to give what He has promised. For Abraham, it is truly true that what is impossible with men is possible with God (Mark 10:27). But now God is asking him to offer up his son. That is a test of unprecedented gravity.

The first time he was promised a son, which he received by faith. Now God is asking him to offer up this son, though this son was the heir through whom God was going to realize His promises. This couldn’t be true, could it?! This test of his faith was much heavier than the previous one. Still Abraham offered up his son as a burnt offering when God asked him to (Genesis 22:1-10). With this offering up Abraham put all promises he had accepted on the altar. He was promised to have descendants and also a land, but he gave this all back to God in Isaac when He asked for it. He offered up “his only begotten son” (Genesis 22:2).

Hebrews 11:18. He did not do that impulsively. He pondered on the question God asked him. He must have struggled with the question how God could ask him that. It did not match with the former commitments, did it? God was going to realize His promises through Isaac and not through another son, for example Ishmael, right? No, God explicitly mentioned the name of Isaac when He said: “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.”

Hebrews 11:19. Therefore he had considered, that is: he had formed a conviction by consideration and calculation. Then there could only be one answer and that is that God would raise Isaac from the dead. Therefore he says in Genesis 22: “And I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you” (Genesis 22:5). That means that he believed in the power of God, a power that great by which He can “even” raise dead people.

Abraham’s faith is therefore that great because it is not likely that Abraham had an example of someone being raised from death. Through his consideration of what God had said about His might to carry out His word he came to this conclusion. true faith is not ‘wishful thinking’ or a visualizing things through which you ‘claim’ what you want, as long as your imagination is strong and persistent enough. True faith always clings to some statement of God in His Word. God is honored by such a faith.

When Abraham tied up his son Isaac on the wood and took the knife to slay his son he did not know that God was going to say him that he did not need to offer up Isaac (Genesis 22:11-12). To God the proof was delivered of the faith of Abraham in Him as the God of the resurrection. In a certain way Abraham received Isaac back from death. It is true that God spared Abraham a pain that He did not spare Himself. God gave His Son in death.

To the Hebrews this example of Abraham’s faith is of great encouragement. After all they also lived that long in faith that their wonderful national inheritance was a gift from God. Now they are to abandon that. They moved away out of it, but what they had abandoned was still alluring them. To really separate from it and to abandon it, it is necessary to believe in a God Who had better promises for them than everything they had abandoned.

Hebrews 11:20. Also Isaac has done things that were only possible through faith. He has blessed his sons concerning future matters. From the blessings with which he blessed each of his sons, his faith in God’s promises becomes apparent. It appears from the blessing with which he blessed Jacob that Jacob is in the line of the promises. He transfers the blessing of Abraham to Jacob: the promise to posterity and to the land.

He also blesses Esau, but with another blessing. From the blessing for Esau it appears that Isaac kept him out of the line of the promise consciously. That too testified to his faith. Although in his weakness he preferred Esau to Jacob, regarding the blessing he associated to God’s thoughts. It is important not to be guided by human weakness in your judgment on God’s promises, but by God’s thoughts. Then you will always end up well.

Hebrews 11:21. With Jacob his faith also appears from the blessing he blesses with. Jacob too blesses two sons. They were not his own sons, but they were two of his grandchildren, the sons of Joseph. And like Isaac he blesses the younger with a greater blessing than the elder. Those are the sons of Joseph, the one distinguished among his brothers (Genesis 49:26; Deuteronomy 33:16) and who was given the birthright (1 Chronicles 5:1-2). In the blessing of both his sons Jacob gave Joseph the double blessing of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 33:17). Joseph is a wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus, the Firstborn Whom God will bring into the world soon (Hebrews 1:6).

In connection with Joseph Jacob becomes a worshiper. In faith he sees how the counsel of God and His ways lead to the fulfillment of His counsel coincide in the true Joseph. It is God’s purpose that the Hebrews and we honor and worship Him for the fulfillment of His counsel and the ways He goes for that. The staff of Jacob is the symbol of his long history. He leant on it as a pilgrim and as a cripple. At the end of his life he still leans on it, not to walk anymore though, but to worship. Our life path ends with the Lord. Then we shall worship Him for all the grace with which He surrounded us to bring us into the land He promised us.

Hebrews 11:22. Jacob’s faith was connected to the person of the true Joseph, Joseph’s faith was connected to God’s people and God’s land. In faith he saw the redemption of the people from Egypt and the entrance into the land of Canaan. All the glory he had in Egypt became nothing compared to the coming glory of Israel under the government of the Messiah Whom he saw forward in faith. He wanted to be there and with that in view he commanded that his bones were to be taken from Egypt to the promised land. What a proof of his faith in the resurrection!

The Hebrews also had to learn to forsake the world (of which Egypt is a picture) and to look forward to everything they gained through their connection with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And that applies to you too. His death is your death and His resurrection is your resurrection. In His resurrection all will be made alive who are connected to Him to share in His kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).

Hebrews 11:23. The section we have had, has shown faith in action with the view to the future, which means faith as the “assurance of [things] hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1a). In the next section in Hebrews 11:23-38, the writer presents a number of examples of faith that clarify how faith operates as “conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1b). In other words: after faith that looks forward, we now have faith that looks upward.

Faith that looks upward trusts that God is present in hardships and that He gives strength to endure. Here you see the energy of faith that rests in God in the midst of circumstances. This faith overcomes the power of the devil and the attractions and difficulties of the world.

The first example is Moses. A comparison between the faith of Moses and that of Abraham makes the difference between ‘forward faith’ and ‘upward faith’ wonderfully clear. You may say that the faith of Abraham was connected to the future world and that of Moses to the present world. The faith of Abraham looked forward to the future world and the faith of Moses overcame the present world. The similarity is that neither has experienced the fulfillment of God’s promises in his life.

Before he goes into details regarding the faith of Moses, the writer refers to the faith of Moses’ parents. By their faith they defied the command of the mighty Pharaoh. Ordinarily people are to obey legal law, but this is a situation that God is to be obeyed rather than men (Acts 4:19; Acts 5:29). The faith of the parents discovered in this child something exceptional to God. “They saw he was a beautiful child”, not beautiful just like that, but beautiful in the sight of God (Acts 7:20). Therefore they did not deliver him into the hands of murderers, but they hid him at home.

That was not an easy thing to do, especially because their home was, as it seems, close to the palace of the king. Nevertheless, they counted on it that God was going to take care of him.

This is a beautiful example for all young parents who are aware of the bloodthirstiness of the world in which they live and in which their children also have to learn to find their way. Faith counts on God for protection and makes effort to protect and guide the child on its life path.

Now read Hebrews 11:17-23 again.

Reflection: Which aspects of faith confidence in God, regarding the future, are presented here? What do you learn from that for the practice of your faith life?

1 Peter 3:2

Living by Faith (IV)

Hebrews 11:17. After the parenthesis of Heb 11:13-16 the writer is now going to say something about the individual patriarchs and how they believed God. The first is again Abraham. You have already paid attention to several proofs of his faith. Those are impressive proofs. But now the writer quotes an example of his faith that is unprecedented. This proof of his faith is again connected to the son he and Sarah received.

When he and Sarah were too old to beget children he persisted in believing that God was still able to give him a son. God after all promised that, didn’t He? And because God is faithful to what He promises, it is a matter of waiting for His time to give what He has promised. For Abraham, it is truly true that what is impossible with men is possible with God (Mark 10:27). But now God is asking him to offer up his son. That is a test of unprecedented gravity.

The first time he was promised a son, which he received by faith. Now God is asking him to offer up this son, though this son was the heir through whom God was going to realize His promises. This couldn’t be true, could it?! This test of his faith was much heavier than the previous one. Still Abraham offered up his son as a burnt offering when God asked him to (Genesis 22:1-10). With this offering up Abraham put all promises he had accepted on the altar. He was promised to have descendants and also a land, but he gave this all back to God in Isaac when He asked for it. He offered up “his only begotten son” (Genesis 22:2).

Hebrews 11:18. He did not do that impulsively. He pondered on the question God asked him. He must have struggled with the question how God could ask him that. It did not match with the former commitments, did it? God was going to realize His promises through Isaac and not through another son, for example Ishmael, right? No, God explicitly mentioned the name of Isaac when He said: “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.”

Hebrews 11:19. Therefore he had considered, that is: he had formed a conviction by consideration and calculation. Then there could only be one answer and that is that God would raise Isaac from the dead. Therefore he says in Genesis 22: “And I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you” (Genesis 22:5). That means that he believed in the power of God, a power that great by which He can “even” raise dead people.

Abraham’s faith is therefore that great because it is not likely that Abraham had an example of someone being raised from death. Through his consideration of what God had said about His might to carry out His word he came to this conclusion. true faith is not ‘wishful thinking’ or a visualizing things through which you ‘claim’ what you want, as long as your imagination is strong and persistent enough. True faith always clings to some statement of God in His Word. God is honored by such a faith.

When Abraham tied up his son Isaac on the wood and took the knife to slay his son he did not know that God was going to say him that he did not need to offer up Isaac (Genesis 22:11-12). To God the proof was delivered of the faith of Abraham in Him as the God of the resurrection. In a certain way Abraham received Isaac back from death. It is true that God spared Abraham a pain that He did not spare Himself. God gave His Son in death.

To the Hebrews this example of Abraham’s faith is of great encouragement. After all they also lived that long in faith that their wonderful national inheritance was a gift from God. Now they are to abandon that. They moved away out of it, but what they had abandoned was still alluring them. To really separate from it and to abandon it, it is necessary to believe in a God Who had better promises for them than everything they had abandoned.

Hebrews 11:20. Also Isaac has done things that were only possible through faith. He has blessed his sons concerning future matters. From the blessings with which he blessed each of his sons, his faith in God’s promises becomes apparent. It appears from the blessing with which he blessed Jacob that Jacob is in the line of the promises. He transfers the blessing of Abraham to Jacob: the promise to posterity and to the land.

He also blesses Esau, but with another blessing. From the blessing for Esau it appears that Isaac kept him out of the line of the promise consciously. That too testified to his faith. Although in his weakness he preferred Esau to Jacob, regarding the blessing he associated to God’s thoughts. It is important not to be guided by human weakness in your judgment on God’s promises, but by God’s thoughts. Then you will always end up well.

Hebrews 11:21. With Jacob his faith also appears from the blessing he blesses with. Jacob too blesses two sons. They were not his own sons, but they were two of his grandchildren, the sons of Joseph. And like Isaac he blesses the younger with a greater blessing than the elder. Those are the sons of Joseph, the one distinguished among his brothers (Genesis 49:26; Deuteronomy 33:16) and who was given the birthright (1 Chronicles 5:1-2). In the blessing of both his sons Jacob gave Joseph the double blessing of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 33:17). Joseph is a wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus, the Firstborn Whom God will bring into the world soon (Hebrews 1:6).

In connection with Joseph Jacob becomes a worshiper. In faith he sees how the counsel of God and His ways lead to the fulfillment of His counsel coincide in the true Joseph. It is God’s purpose that the Hebrews and we honor and worship Him for the fulfillment of His counsel and the ways He goes for that. The staff of Jacob is the symbol of his long history. He leant on it as a pilgrim and as a cripple. At the end of his life he still leans on it, not to walk anymore though, but to worship. Our life path ends with the Lord. Then we shall worship Him for all the grace with which He surrounded us to bring us into the land He promised us.

Hebrews 11:22. Jacob’s faith was connected to the person of the true Joseph, Joseph’s faith was connected to God’s people and God’s land. In faith he saw the redemption of the people from Egypt and the entrance into the land of Canaan. All the glory he had in Egypt became nothing compared to the coming glory of Israel under the government of the Messiah Whom he saw forward in faith. He wanted to be there and with that in view he commanded that his bones were to be taken from Egypt to the promised land. What a proof of his faith in the resurrection!

The Hebrews also had to learn to forsake the world (of which Egypt is a picture) and to look forward to everything they gained through their connection with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And that applies to you too. His death is your death and His resurrection is your resurrection. In His resurrection all will be made alive who are connected to Him to share in His kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).

Hebrews 11:23. The section we have had, has shown faith in action with the view to the future, which means faith as the “assurance of [things] hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1a). In the next section in Hebrews 11:23-38, the writer presents a number of examples of faith that clarify how faith operates as “conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1b). In other words: after faith that looks forward, we now have faith that looks upward.

Faith that looks upward trusts that God is present in hardships and that He gives strength to endure. Here you see the energy of faith that rests in God in the midst of circumstances. This faith overcomes the power of the devil and the attractions and difficulties of the world.

The first example is Moses. A comparison between the faith of Moses and that of Abraham makes the difference between ‘forward faith’ and ‘upward faith’ wonderfully clear. You may say that the faith of Abraham was connected to the future world and that of Moses to the present world. The faith of Abraham looked forward to the future world and the faith of Moses overcame the present world. The similarity is that neither has experienced the fulfillment of God’s promises in his life.

Before he goes into details regarding the faith of Moses, the writer refers to the faith of Moses’ parents. By their faith they defied the command of the mighty Pharaoh. Ordinarily people are to obey legal law, but this is a situation that God is to be obeyed rather than men (Acts 4:19; Acts 5:29). The faith of the parents discovered in this child something exceptional to God. “They saw he was a beautiful child”, not beautiful just like that, but beautiful in the sight of God (Acts 7:20). Therefore they did not deliver him into the hands of murderers, but they hid him at home.

That was not an easy thing to do, especially because their home was, as it seems, close to the palace of the king. Nevertheless, they counted on it that God was going to take care of him.

This is a beautiful example for all young parents who are aware of the bloodthirstiness of the world in which they live and in which their children also have to learn to find their way. Faith counts on God for protection and makes effort to protect and guide the child on its life path.

Now read Hebrews 11:17-23 again.

Reflection: Which aspects of faith confidence in God, regarding the future, are presented here? What do you learn from that for the practice of your faith life?

1 Peter 3:3

Living by Faith (IV)

Hebrews 11:17. After the parenthesis of Heb 11:13-16 the writer is now going to say something about the individual patriarchs and how they believed God. The first is again Abraham. You have already paid attention to several proofs of his faith. Those are impressive proofs. But now the writer quotes an example of his faith that is unprecedented. This proof of his faith is again connected to the son he and Sarah received.

When he and Sarah were too old to beget children he persisted in believing that God was still able to give him a son. God after all promised that, didn’t He? And because God is faithful to what He promises, it is a matter of waiting for His time to give what He has promised. For Abraham, it is truly true that what is impossible with men is possible with God (Mark 10:27). But now God is asking him to offer up his son. That is a test of unprecedented gravity.

The first time he was promised a son, which he received by faith. Now God is asking him to offer up this son, though this son was the heir through whom God was going to realize His promises. This couldn’t be true, could it?! This test of his faith was much heavier than the previous one. Still Abraham offered up his son as a burnt offering when God asked him to (Genesis 22:1-10). With this offering up Abraham put all promises he had accepted on the altar. He was promised to have descendants and also a land, but he gave this all back to God in Isaac when He asked for it. He offered up “his only begotten son” (Genesis 22:2).

Hebrews 11:18. He did not do that impulsively. He pondered on the question God asked him. He must have struggled with the question how God could ask him that. It did not match with the former commitments, did it? God was going to realize His promises through Isaac and not through another son, for example Ishmael, right? No, God explicitly mentioned the name of Isaac when He said: “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.”

Hebrews 11:19. Therefore he had considered, that is: he had formed a conviction by consideration and calculation. Then there could only be one answer and that is that God would raise Isaac from the dead. Therefore he says in Genesis 22: “And I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you” (Genesis 22:5). That means that he believed in the power of God, a power that great by which He can “even” raise dead people.

Abraham’s faith is therefore that great because it is not likely that Abraham had an example of someone being raised from death. Through his consideration of what God had said about His might to carry out His word he came to this conclusion. true faith is not ‘wishful thinking’ or a visualizing things through which you ‘claim’ what you want, as long as your imagination is strong and persistent enough. True faith always clings to some statement of God in His Word. God is honored by such a faith.

When Abraham tied up his son Isaac on the wood and took the knife to slay his son he did not know that God was going to say him that he did not need to offer up Isaac (Genesis 22:11-12). To God the proof was delivered of the faith of Abraham in Him as the God of the resurrection. In a certain way Abraham received Isaac back from death. It is true that God spared Abraham a pain that He did not spare Himself. God gave His Son in death.

To the Hebrews this example of Abraham’s faith is of great encouragement. After all they also lived that long in faith that their wonderful national inheritance was a gift from God. Now they are to abandon that. They moved away out of it, but what they had abandoned was still alluring them. To really separate from it and to abandon it, it is necessary to believe in a God Who had better promises for them than everything they had abandoned.

Hebrews 11:20. Also Isaac has done things that were only possible through faith. He has blessed his sons concerning future matters. From the blessings with which he blessed each of his sons, his faith in God’s promises becomes apparent. It appears from the blessing with which he blessed Jacob that Jacob is in the line of the promises. He transfers the blessing of Abraham to Jacob: the promise to posterity and to the land.

He also blesses Esau, but with another blessing. From the blessing for Esau it appears that Isaac kept him out of the line of the promise consciously. That too testified to his faith. Although in his weakness he preferred Esau to Jacob, regarding the blessing he associated to God’s thoughts. It is important not to be guided by human weakness in your judgment on God’s promises, but by God’s thoughts. Then you will always end up well.

Hebrews 11:21. With Jacob his faith also appears from the blessing he blesses with. Jacob too blesses two sons. They were not his own sons, but they were two of his grandchildren, the sons of Joseph. And like Isaac he blesses the younger with a greater blessing than the elder. Those are the sons of Joseph, the one distinguished among his brothers (Genesis 49:26; Deuteronomy 33:16) and who was given the birthright (1 Chronicles 5:1-2). In the blessing of both his sons Jacob gave Joseph the double blessing of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 33:17). Joseph is a wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus, the Firstborn Whom God will bring into the world soon (Hebrews 1:6).

In connection with Joseph Jacob becomes a worshiper. In faith he sees how the counsel of God and His ways lead to the fulfillment of His counsel coincide in the true Joseph. It is God’s purpose that the Hebrews and we honor and worship Him for the fulfillment of His counsel and the ways He goes for that. The staff of Jacob is the symbol of his long history. He leant on it as a pilgrim and as a cripple. At the end of his life he still leans on it, not to walk anymore though, but to worship. Our life path ends with the Lord. Then we shall worship Him for all the grace with which He surrounded us to bring us into the land He promised us.

Hebrews 11:22. Jacob’s faith was connected to the person of the true Joseph, Joseph’s faith was connected to God’s people and God’s land. In faith he saw the redemption of the people from Egypt and the entrance into the land of Canaan. All the glory he had in Egypt became nothing compared to the coming glory of Israel under the government of the Messiah Whom he saw forward in faith. He wanted to be there and with that in view he commanded that his bones were to be taken from Egypt to the promised land. What a proof of his faith in the resurrection!

The Hebrews also had to learn to forsake the world (of which Egypt is a picture) and to look forward to everything they gained through their connection with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And that applies to you too. His death is your death and His resurrection is your resurrection. In His resurrection all will be made alive who are connected to Him to share in His kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).

Hebrews 11:23. The section we have had, has shown faith in action with the view to the future, which means faith as the “assurance of [things] hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1a). In the next section in Hebrews 11:23-38, the writer presents a number of examples of faith that clarify how faith operates as “conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1b). In other words: after faith that looks forward, we now have faith that looks upward.

Faith that looks upward trusts that God is present in hardships and that He gives strength to endure. Here you see the energy of faith that rests in God in the midst of circumstances. This faith overcomes the power of the devil and the attractions and difficulties of the world.

The first example is Moses. A comparison between the faith of Moses and that of Abraham makes the difference between ‘forward faith’ and ‘upward faith’ wonderfully clear. You may say that the faith of Abraham was connected to the future world and that of Moses to the present world. The faith of Abraham looked forward to the future world and the faith of Moses overcame the present world. The similarity is that neither has experienced the fulfillment of God’s promises in his life.

Before he goes into details regarding the faith of Moses, the writer refers to the faith of Moses’ parents. By their faith they defied the command of the mighty Pharaoh. Ordinarily people are to obey legal law, but this is a situation that God is to be obeyed rather than men (Acts 4:19; Acts 5:29). The faith of the parents discovered in this child something exceptional to God. “They saw he was a beautiful child”, not beautiful just like that, but beautiful in the sight of God (Acts 7:20). Therefore they did not deliver him into the hands of murderers, but they hid him at home.

That was not an easy thing to do, especially because their home was, as it seems, close to the palace of the king. Nevertheless, they counted on it that God was going to take care of him.

This is a beautiful example for all young parents who are aware of the bloodthirstiness of the world in which they live and in which their children also have to learn to find their way. Faith counts on God for protection and makes effort to protect and guide the child on its life path.

Now read Hebrews 11:17-23 again.

Reflection: Which aspects of faith confidence in God, regarding the future, are presented here? What do you learn from that for the practice of your faith life?

1 Peter 3:4

Living by Faith (IV)

Hebrews 11:17. After the parenthesis of Heb 11:13-16 the writer is now going to say something about the individual patriarchs and how they believed God. The first is again Abraham. You have already paid attention to several proofs of his faith. Those are impressive proofs. But now the writer quotes an example of his faith that is unprecedented. This proof of his faith is again connected to the son he and Sarah received.

When he and Sarah were too old to beget children he persisted in believing that God was still able to give him a son. God after all promised that, didn’t He? And because God is faithful to what He promises, it is a matter of waiting for His time to give what He has promised. For Abraham, it is truly true that what is impossible with men is possible with God (Mark 10:27). But now God is asking him to offer up his son. That is a test of unprecedented gravity.

The first time he was promised a son, which he received by faith. Now God is asking him to offer up this son, though this son was the heir through whom God was going to realize His promises. This couldn’t be true, could it?! This test of his faith was much heavier than the previous one. Still Abraham offered up his son as a burnt offering when God asked him to (Genesis 22:1-10). With this offering up Abraham put all promises he had accepted on the altar. He was promised to have descendants and also a land, but he gave this all back to God in Isaac when He asked for it. He offered up “his only begotten son” (Genesis 22:2).

Hebrews 11:18. He did not do that impulsively. He pondered on the question God asked him. He must have struggled with the question how God could ask him that. It did not match with the former commitments, did it? God was going to realize His promises through Isaac and not through another son, for example Ishmael, right? No, God explicitly mentioned the name of Isaac when He said: “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.”

Hebrews 11:19. Therefore he had considered, that is: he had formed a conviction by consideration and calculation. Then there could only be one answer and that is that God would raise Isaac from the dead. Therefore he says in Genesis 22: “And I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you” (Genesis 22:5). That means that he believed in the power of God, a power that great by which He can “even” raise dead people.

Abraham’s faith is therefore that great because it is not likely that Abraham had an example of someone being raised from death. Through his consideration of what God had said about His might to carry out His word he came to this conclusion. true faith is not ‘wishful thinking’ or a visualizing things through which you ‘claim’ what you want, as long as your imagination is strong and persistent enough. True faith always clings to some statement of God in His Word. God is honored by such a faith.

When Abraham tied up his son Isaac on the wood and took the knife to slay his son he did not know that God was going to say him that he did not need to offer up Isaac (Genesis 22:11-12). To God the proof was delivered of the faith of Abraham in Him as the God of the resurrection. In a certain way Abraham received Isaac back from death. It is true that God spared Abraham a pain that He did not spare Himself. God gave His Son in death.

To the Hebrews this example of Abraham’s faith is of great encouragement. After all they also lived that long in faith that their wonderful national inheritance was a gift from God. Now they are to abandon that. They moved away out of it, but what they had abandoned was still alluring them. To really separate from it and to abandon it, it is necessary to believe in a God Who had better promises for them than everything they had abandoned.

Hebrews 11:20. Also Isaac has done things that were only possible through faith. He has blessed his sons concerning future matters. From the blessings with which he blessed each of his sons, his faith in God’s promises becomes apparent. It appears from the blessing with which he blessed Jacob that Jacob is in the line of the promises. He transfers the blessing of Abraham to Jacob: the promise to posterity and to the land.

He also blesses Esau, but with another blessing. From the blessing for Esau it appears that Isaac kept him out of the line of the promise consciously. That too testified to his faith. Although in his weakness he preferred Esau to Jacob, regarding the blessing he associated to God’s thoughts. It is important not to be guided by human weakness in your judgment on God’s promises, but by God’s thoughts. Then you will always end up well.

Hebrews 11:21. With Jacob his faith also appears from the blessing he blesses with. Jacob too blesses two sons. They were not his own sons, but they were two of his grandchildren, the sons of Joseph. And like Isaac he blesses the younger with a greater blessing than the elder. Those are the sons of Joseph, the one distinguished among his brothers (Genesis 49:26; Deuteronomy 33:16) and who was given the birthright (1 Chronicles 5:1-2). In the blessing of both his sons Jacob gave Joseph the double blessing of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 33:17). Joseph is a wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus, the Firstborn Whom God will bring into the world soon (Hebrews 1:6).

In connection with Joseph Jacob becomes a worshiper. In faith he sees how the counsel of God and His ways lead to the fulfillment of His counsel coincide in the true Joseph. It is God’s purpose that the Hebrews and we honor and worship Him for the fulfillment of His counsel and the ways He goes for that. The staff of Jacob is the symbol of his long history. He leant on it as a pilgrim and as a cripple. At the end of his life he still leans on it, not to walk anymore though, but to worship. Our life path ends with the Lord. Then we shall worship Him for all the grace with which He surrounded us to bring us into the land He promised us.

Hebrews 11:22. Jacob’s faith was connected to the person of the true Joseph, Joseph’s faith was connected to God’s people and God’s land. In faith he saw the redemption of the people from Egypt and the entrance into the land of Canaan. All the glory he had in Egypt became nothing compared to the coming glory of Israel under the government of the Messiah Whom he saw forward in faith. He wanted to be there and with that in view he commanded that his bones were to be taken from Egypt to the promised land. What a proof of his faith in the resurrection!

The Hebrews also had to learn to forsake the world (of which Egypt is a picture) and to look forward to everything they gained through their connection with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And that applies to you too. His death is your death and His resurrection is your resurrection. In His resurrection all will be made alive who are connected to Him to share in His kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).

Hebrews 11:23. The section we have had, has shown faith in action with the view to the future, which means faith as the “assurance of [things] hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1a). In the next section in Hebrews 11:23-38, the writer presents a number of examples of faith that clarify how faith operates as “conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1b). In other words: after faith that looks forward, we now have faith that looks upward.

Faith that looks upward trusts that God is present in hardships and that He gives strength to endure. Here you see the energy of faith that rests in God in the midst of circumstances. This faith overcomes the power of the devil and the attractions and difficulties of the world.

The first example is Moses. A comparison between the faith of Moses and that of Abraham makes the difference between ‘forward faith’ and ‘upward faith’ wonderfully clear. You may say that the faith of Abraham was connected to the future world and that of Moses to the present world. The faith of Abraham looked forward to the future world and the faith of Moses overcame the present world. The similarity is that neither has experienced the fulfillment of God’s promises in his life.

Before he goes into details regarding the faith of Moses, the writer refers to the faith of Moses’ parents. By their faith they defied the command of the mighty Pharaoh. Ordinarily people are to obey legal law, but this is a situation that God is to be obeyed rather than men (Acts 4:19; Acts 5:29). The faith of the parents discovered in this child something exceptional to God. “They saw he was a beautiful child”, not beautiful just like that, but beautiful in the sight of God (Acts 7:20). Therefore they did not deliver him into the hands of murderers, but they hid him at home.

That was not an easy thing to do, especially because their home was, as it seems, close to the palace of the king. Nevertheless, they counted on it that God was going to take care of him.

This is a beautiful example for all young parents who are aware of the bloodthirstiness of the world in which they live and in which their children also have to learn to find their way. Faith counts on God for protection and makes effort to protect and guide the child on its life path.

Now read Hebrews 11:17-23 again.

Reflection: Which aspects of faith confidence in God, regarding the future, are presented here? What do you learn from that for the practice of your faith life?

1 Peter 3:5

Living by Faith (IV)

Hebrews 11:17. After the parenthesis of Heb 11:13-16 the writer is now going to say something about the individual patriarchs and how they believed God. The first is again Abraham. You have already paid attention to several proofs of his faith. Those are impressive proofs. But now the writer quotes an example of his faith that is unprecedented. This proof of his faith is again connected to the son he and Sarah received.

When he and Sarah were too old to beget children he persisted in believing that God was still able to give him a son. God after all promised that, didn’t He? And because God is faithful to what He promises, it is a matter of waiting for His time to give what He has promised. For Abraham, it is truly true that what is impossible with men is possible with God (Mark 10:27). But now God is asking him to offer up his son. That is a test of unprecedented gravity.

The first time he was promised a son, which he received by faith. Now God is asking him to offer up this son, though this son was the heir through whom God was going to realize His promises. This couldn’t be true, could it?! This test of his faith was much heavier than the previous one. Still Abraham offered up his son as a burnt offering when God asked him to (Genesis 22:1-10). With this offering up Abraham put all promises he had accepted on the altar. He was promised to have descendants and also a land, but he gave this all back to God in Isaac when He asked for it. He offered up “his only begotten son” (Genesis 22:2).

Hebrews 11:18. He did not do that impulsively. He pondered on the question God asked him. He must have struggled with the question how God could ask him that. It did not match with the former commitments, did it? God was going to realize His promises through Isaac and not through another son, for example Ishmael, right? No, God explicitly mentioned the name of Isaac when He said: “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.”

Hebrews 11:19. Therefore he had considered, that is: he had formed a conviction by consideration and calculation. Then there could only be one answer and that is that God would raise Isaac from the dead. Therefore he says in Genesis 22: “And I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you” (Genesis 22:5). That means that he believed in the power of God, a power that great by which He can “even” raise dead people.

Abraham’s faith is therefore that great because it is not likely that Abraham had an example of someone being raised from death. Through his consideration of what God had said about His might to carry out His word he came to this conclusion. true faith is not ‘wishful thinking’ or a visualizing things through which you ‘claim’ what you want, as long as your imagination is strong and persistent enough. True faith always clings to some statement of God in His Word. God is honored by such a faith.

When Abraham tied up his son Isaac on the wood and took the knife to slay his son he did not know that God was going to say him that he did not need to offer up Isaac (Genesis 22:11-12). To God the proof was delivered of the faith of Abraham in Him as the God of the resurrection. In a certain way Abraham received Isaac back from death. It is true that God spared Abraham a pain that He did not spare Himself. God gave His Son in death.

To the Hebrews this example of Abraham’s faith is of great encouragement. After all they also lived that long in faith that their wonderful national inheritance was a gift from God. Now they are to abandon that. They moved away out of it, but what they had abandoned was still alluring them. To really separate from it and to abandon it, it is necessary to believe in a God Who had better promises for them than everything they had abandoned.

Hebrews 11:20. Also Isaac has done things that were only possible through faith. He has blessed his sons concerning future matters. From the blessings with which he blessed each of his sons, his faith in God’s promises becomes apparent. It appears from the blessing with which he blessed Jacob that Jacob is in the line of the promises. He transfers the blessing of Abraham to Jacob: the promise to posterity and to the land.

He also blesses Esau, but with another blessing. From the blessing for Esau it appears that Isaac kept him out of the line of the promise consciously. That too testified to his faith. Although in his weakness he preferred Esau to Jacob, regarding the blessing he associated to God’s thoughts. It is important not to be guided by human weakness in your judgment on God’s promises, but by God’s thoughts. Then you will always end up well.

Hebrews 11:21. With Jacob his faith also appears from the blessing he blesses with. Jacob too blesses two sons. They were not his own sons, but they were two of his grandchildren, the sons of Joseph. And like Isaac he blesses the younger with a greater blessing than the elder. Those are the sons of Joseph, the one distinguished among his brothers (Genesis 49:26; Deuteronomy 33:16) and who was given the birthright (1 Chronicles 5:1-2). In the blessing of both his sons Jacob gave Joseph the double blessing of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 33:17). Joseph is a wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus, the Firstborn Whom God will bring into the world soon (Hebrews 1:6).

In connection with Joseph Jacob becomes a worshiper. In faith he sees how the counsel of God and His ways lead to the fulfillment of His counsel coincide in the true Joseph. It is God’s purpose that the Hebrews and we honor and worship Him for the fulfillment of His counsel and the ways He goes for that. The staff of Jacob is the symbol of his long history. He leant on it as a pilgrim and as a cripple. At the end of his life he still leans on it, not to walk anymore though, but to worship. Our life path ends with the Lord. Then we shall worship Him for all the grace with which He surrounded us to bring us into the land He promised us.

Hebrews 11:22. Jacob’s faith was connected to the person of the true Joseph, Joseph’s faith was connected to God’s people and God’s land. In faith he saw the redemption of the people from Egypt and the entrance into the land of Canaan. All the glory he had in Egypt became nothing compared to the coming glory of Israel under the government of the Messiah Whom he saw forward in faith. He wanted to be there and with that in view he commanded that his bones were to be taken from Egypt to the promised land. What a proof of his faith in the resurrection!

The Hebrews also had to learn to forsake the world (of which Egypt is a picture) and to look forward to everything they gained through their connection with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And that applies to you too. His death is your death and His resurrection is your resurrection. In His resurrection all will be made alive who are connected to Him to share in His kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).

Hebrews 11:23. The section we have had, has shown faith in action with the view to the future, which means faith as the “assurance of [things] hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1a). In the next section in Hebrews 11:23-38, the writer presents a number of examples of faith that clarify how faith operates as “conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1b). In other words: after faith that looks forward, we now have faith that looks upward.

Faith that looks upward trusts that God is present in hardships and that He gives strength to endure. Here you see the energy of faith that rests in God in the midst of circumstances. This faith overcomes the power of the devil and the attractions and difficulties of the world.

The first example is Moses. A comparison between the faith of Moses and that of Abraham makes the difference between ‘forward faith’ and ‘upward faith’ wonderfully clear. You may say that the faith of Abraham was connected to the future world and that of Moses to the present world. The faith of Abraham looked forward to the future world and the faith of Moses overcame the present world. The similarity is that neither has experienced the fulfillment of God’s promises in his life.

Before he goes into details regarding the faith of Moses, the writer refers to the faith of Moses’ parents. By their faith they defied the command of the mighty Pharaoh. Ordinarily people are to obey legal law, but this is a situation that God is to be obeyed rather than men (Acts 4:19; Acts 5:29). The faith of the parents discovered in this child something exceptional to God. “They saw he was a beautiful child”, not beautiful just like that, but beautiful in the sight of God (Acts 7:20). Therefore they did not deliver him into the hands of murderers, but they hid him at home.

That was not an easy thing to do, especially because their home was, as it seems, close to the palace of the king. Nevertheless, they counted on it that God was going to take care of him.

This is a beautiful example for all young parents who are aware of the bloodthirstiness of the world in which they live and in which their children also have to learn to find their way. Faith counts on God for protection and makes effort to protect and guide the child on its life path.

Now read Hebrews 11:17-23 again.

Reflection: Which aspects of faith confidence in God, regarding the future, are presented here? What do you learn from that for the practice of your faith life?

1 Peter 3:6

Living by Faith (IV)

Hebrews 11:17. After the parenthesis of Heb 11:13-16 the writer is now going to say something about the individual patriarchs and how they believed God. The first is again Abraham. You have already paid attention to several proofs of his faith. Those are impressive proofs. But now the writer quotes an example of his faith that is unprecedented. This proof of his faith is again connected to the son he and Sarah received.

When he and Sarah were too old to beget children he persisted in believing that God was still able to give him a son. God after all promised that, didn’t He? And because God is faithful to what He promises, it is a matter of waiting for His time to give what He has promised. For Abraham, it is truly true that what is impossible with men is possible with God (Mark 10:27). But now God is asking him to offer up his son. That is a test of unprecedented gravity.

The first time he was promised a son, which he received by faith. Now God is asking him to offer up this son, though this son was the heir through whom God was going to realize His promises. This couldn’t be true, could it?! This test of his faith was much heavier than the previous one. Still Abraham offered up his son as a burnt offering when God asked him to (Genesis 22:1-10). With this offering up Abraham put all promises he had accepted on the altar. He was promised to have descendants and also a land, but he gave this all back to God in Isaac when He asked for it. He offered up “his only begotten son” (Genesis 22:2).

Hebrews 11:18. He did not do that impulsively. He pondered on the question God asked him. He must have struggled with the question how God could ask him that. It did not match with the former commitments, did it? God was going to realize His promises through Isaac and not through another son, for example Ishmael, right? No, God explicitly mentioned the name of Isaac when He said: “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.”

Hebrews 11:19. Therefore he had considered, that is: he had formed a conviction by consideration and calculation. Then there could only be one answer and that is that God would raise Isaac from the dead. Therefore he says in Genesis 22: “And I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you” (Genesis 22:5). That means that he believed in the power of God, a power that great by which He can “even” raise dead people.

Abraham’s faith is therefore that great because it is not likely that Abraham had an example of someone being raised from death. Through his consideration of what God had said about His might to carry out His word he came to this conclusion. true faith is not ‘wishful thinking’ or a visualizing things through which you ‘claim’ what you want, as long as your imagination is strong and persistent enough. True faith always clings to some statement of God in His Word. God is honored by such a faith.

When Abraham tied up his son Isaac on the wood and took the knife to slay his son he did not know that God was going to say him that he did not need to offer up Isaac (Genesis 22:11-12). To God the proof was delivered of the faith of Abraham in Him as the God of the resurrection. In a certain way Abraham received Isaac back from death. It is true that God spared Abraham a pain that He did not spare Himself. God gave His Son in death.

To the Hebrews this example of Abraham’s faith is of great encouragement. After all they also lived that long in faith that their wonderful national inheritance was a gift from God. Now they are to abandon that. They moved away out of it, but what they had abandoned was still alluring them. To really separate from it and to abandon it, it is necessary to believe in a God Who had better promises for them than everything they had abandoned.

Hebrews 11:20. Also Isaac has done things that were only possible through faith. He has blessed his sons concerning future matters. From the blessings with which he blessed each of his sons, his faith in God’s promises becomes apparent. It appears from the blessing with which he blessed Jacob that Jacob is in the line of the promises. He transfers the blessing of Abraham to Jacob: the promise to posterity and to the land.

He also blesses Esau, but with another blessing. From the blessing for Esau it appears that Isaac kept him out of the line of the promise consciously. That too testified to his faith. Although in his weakness he preferred Esau to Jacob, regarding the blessing he associated to God’s thoughts. It is important not to be guided by human weakness in your judgment on God’s promises, but by God’s thoughts. Then you will always end up well.

Hebrews 11:21. With Jacob his faith also appears from the blessing he blesses with. Jacob too blesses two sons. They were not his own sons, but they were two of his grandchildren, the sons of Joseph. And like Isaac he blesses the younger with a greater blessing than the elder. Those are the sons of Joseph, the one distinguished among his brothers (Genesis 49:26; Deuteronomy 33:16) and who was given the birthright (1 Chronicles 5:1-2). In the blessing of both his sons Jacob gave Joseph the double blessing of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 33:17). Joseph is a wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus, the Firstborn Whom God will bring into the world soon (Hebrews 1:6).

In connection with Joseph Jacob becomes a worshiper. In faith he sees how the counsel of God and His ways lead to the fulfillment of His counsel coincide in the true Joseph. It is God’s purpose that the Hebrews and we honor and worship Him for the fulfillment of His counsel and the ways He goes for that. The staff of Jacob is the symbol of his long history. He leant on it as a pilgrim and as a cripple. At the end of his life he still leans on it, not to walk anymore though, but to worship. Our life path ends with the Lord. Then we shall worship Him for all the grace with which He surrounded us to bring us into the land He promised us.

Hebrews 11:22. Jacob’s faith was connected to the person of the true Joseph, Joseph’s faith was connected to God’s people and God’s land. In faith he saw the redemption of the people from Egypt and the entrance into the land of Canaan. All the glory he had in Egypt became nothing compared to the coming glory of Israel under the government of the Messiah Whom he saw forward in faith. He wanted to be there and with that in view he commanded that his bones were to be taken from Egypt to the promised land. What a proof of his faith in the resurrection!

The Hebrews also had to learn to forsake the world (of which Egypt is a picture) and to look forward to everything they gained through their connection with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And that applies to you too. His death is your death and His resurrection is your resurrection. In His resurrection all will be made alive who are connected to Him to share in His kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).

Hebrews 11:23. The section we have had, has shown faith in action with the view to the future, which means faith as the “assurance of [things] hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1a). In the next section in Hebrews 11:23-38, the writer presents a number of examples of faith that clarify how faith operates as “conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1b). In other words: after faith that looks forward, we now have faith that looks upward.

Faith that looks upward trusts that God is present in hardships and that He gives strength to endure. Here you see the energy of faith that rests in God in the midst of circumstances. This faith overcomes the power of the devil and the attractions and difficulties of the world.

The first example is Moses. A comparison between the faith of Moses and that of Abraham makes the difference between ‘forward faith’ and ‘upward faith’ wonderfully clear. You may say that the faith of Abraham was connected to the future world and that of Moses to the present world. The faith of Abraham looked forward to the future world and the faith of Moses overcame the present world. The similarity is that neither has experienced the fulfillment of God’s promises in his life.

Before he goes into details regarding the faith of Moses, the writer refers to the faith of Moses’ parents. By their faith they defied the command of the mighty Pharaoh. Ordinarily people are to obey legal law, but this is a situation that God is to be obeyed rather than men (Acts 4:19; Acts 5:29). The faith of the parents discovered in this child something exceptional to God. “They saw he was a beautiful child”, not beautiful just like that, but beautiful in the sight of God (Acts 7:20). Therefore they did not deliver him into the hands of murderers, but they hid him at home.

That was not an easy thing to do, especially because their home was, as it seems, close to the palace of the king. Nevertheless, they counted on it that God was going to take care of him.

This is a beautiful example for all young parents who are aware of the bloodthirstiness of the world in which they live and in which their children also have to learn to find their way. Faith counts on God for protection and makes effort to protect and guide the child on its life path.

Now read Hebrews 11:17-23 again.

Reflection: Which aspects of faith confidence in God, regarding the future, are presented here? What do you learn from that for the practice of your faith life?

1 Peter 3:7

Living by Faith (IV)

Hebrews 11:17. After the parenthesis of Heb 11:13-16 the writer is now going to say something about the individual patriarchs and how they believed God. The first is again Abraham. You have already paid attention to several proofs of his faith. Those are impressive proofs. But now the writer quotes an example of his faith that is unprecedented. This proof of his faith is again connected to the son he and Sarah received.

When he and Sarah were too old to beget children he persisted in believing that God was still able to give him a son. God after all promised that, didn’t He? And because God is faithful to what He promises, it is a matter of waiting for His time to give what He has promised. For Abraham, it is truly true that what is impossible with men is possible with God (Mark 10:27). But now God is asking him to offer up his son. That is a test of unprecedented gravity.

The first time he was promised a son, which he received by faith. Now God is asking him to offer up this son, though this son was the heir through whom God was going to realize His promises. This couldn’t be true, could it?! This test of his faith was much heavier than the previous one. Still Abraham offered up his son as a burnt offering when God asked him to (Genesis 22:1-10). With this offering up Abraham put all promises he had accepted on the altar. He was promised to have descendants and also a land, but he gave this all back to God in Isaac when He asked for it. He offered up “his only begotten son” (Genesis 22:2).

Hebrews 11:18. He did not do that impulsively. He pondered on the question God asked him. He must have struggled with the question how God could ask him that. It did not match with the former commitments, did it? God was going to realize His promises through Isaac and not through another son, for example Ishmael, right? No, God explicitly mentioned the name of Isaac when He said: “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.”

Hebrews 11:19. Therefore he had considered, that is: he had formed a conviction by consideration and calculation. Then there could only be one answer and that is that God would raise Isaac from the dead. Therefore he says in Genesis 22: “And I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you” (Genesis 22:5). That means that he believed in the power of God, a power that great by which He can “even” raise dead people.

Abraham’s faith is therefore that great because it is not likely that Abraham had an example of someone being raised from death. Through his consideration of what God had said about His might to carry out His word he came to this conclusion. true faith is not ‘wishful thinking’ or a visualizing things through which you ‘claim’ what you want, as long as your imagination is strong and persistent enough. True faith always clings to some statement of God in His Word. God is honored by such a faith.

When Abraham tied up his son Isaac on the wood and took the knife to slay his son he did not know that God was going to say him that he did not need to offer up Isaac (Genesis 22:11-12). To God the proof was delivered of the faith of Abraham in Him as the God of the resurrection. In a certain way Abraham received Isaac back from death. It is true that God spared Abraham a pain that He did not spare Himself. God gave His Son in death.

To the Hebrews this example of Abraham’s faith is of great encouragement. After all they also lived that long in faith that their wonderful national inheritance was a gift from God. Now they are to abandon that. They moved away out of it, but what they had abandoned was still alluring them. To really separate from it and to abandon it, it is necessary to believe in a God Who had better promises for them than everything they had abandoned.

Hebrews 11:20. Also Isaac has done things that were only possible through faith. He has blessed his sons concerning future matters. From the blessings with which he blessed each of his sons, his faith in God’s promises becomes apparent. It appears from the blessing with which he blessed Jacob that Jacob is in the line of the promises. He transfers the blessing of Abraham to Jacob: the promise to posterity and to the land.

He also blesses Esau, but with another blessing. From the blessing for Esau it appears that Isaac kept him out of the line of the promise consciously. That too testified to his faith. Although in his weakness he preferred Esau to Jacob, regarding the blessing he associated to God’s thoughts. It is important not to be guided by human weakness in your judgment on God’s promises, but by God’s thoughts. Then you will always end up well.

Hebrews 11:21. With Jacob his faith also appears from the blessing he blesses with. Jacob too blesses two sons. They were not his own sons, but they were two of his grandchildren, the sons of Joseph. And like Isaac he blesses the younger with a greater blessing than the elder. Those are the sons of Joseph, the one distinguished among his brothers (Genesis 49:26; Deuteronomy 33:16) and who was given the birthright (1 Chronicles 5:1-2). In the blessing of both his sons Jacob gave Joseph the double blessing of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 33:17). Joseph is a wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus, the Firstborn Whom God will bring into the world soon (Hebrews 1:6).

In connection with Joseph Jacob becomes a worshiper. In faith he sees how the counsel of God and His ways lead to the fulfillment of His counsel coincide in the true Joseph. It is God’s purpose that the Hebrews and we honor and worship Him for the fulfillment of His counsel and the ways He goes for that. The staff of Jacob is the symbol of his long history. He leant on it as a pilgrim and as a cripple. At the end of his life he still leans on it, not to walk anymore though, but to worship. Our life path ends with the Lord. Then we shall worship Him for all the grace with which He surrounded us to bring us into the land He promised us.

Hebrews 11:22. Jacob’s faith was connected to the person of the true Joseph, Joseph’s faith was connected to God’s people and God’s land. In faith he saw the redemption of the people from Egypt and the entrance into the land of Canaan. All the glory he had in Egypt became nothing compared to the coming glory of Israel under the government of the Messiah Whom he saw forward in faith. He wanted to be there and with that in view he commanded that his bones were to be taken from Egypt to the promised land. What a proof of his faith in the resurrection!

The Hebrews also had to learn to forsake the world (of which Egypt is a picture) and to look forward to everything they gained through their connection with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And that applies to you too. His death is your death and His resurrection is your resurrection. In His resurrection all will be made alive who are connected to Him to share in His kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).

Hebrews 11:23. The section we have had, has shown faith in action with the view to the future, which means faith as the “assurance of [things] hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1a). In the next section in Hebrews 11:23-38, the writer presents a number of examples of faith that clarify how faith operates as “conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1b). In other words: after faith that looks forward, we now have faith that looks upward.

Faith that looks upward trusts that God is present in hardships and that He gives strength to endure. Here you see the energy of faith that rests in God in the midst of circumstances. This faith overcomes the power of the devil and the attractions and difficulties of the world.

The first example is Moses. A comparison between the faith of Moses and that of Abraham makes the difference between ‘forward faith’ and ‘upward faith’ wonderfully clear. You may say that the faith of Abraham was connected to the future world and that of Moses to the present world. The faith of Abraham looked forward to the future world and the faith of Moses overcame the present world. The similarity is that neither has experienced the fulfillment of God’s promises in his life.

Before he goes into details regarding the faith of Moses, the writer refers to the faith of Moses’ parents. By their faith they defied the command of the mighty Pharaoh. Ordinarily people are to obey legal law, but this is a situation that God is to be obeyed rather than men (Acts 4:19; Acts 5:29). The faith of the parents discovered in this child something exceptional to God. “They saw he was a beautiful child”, not beautiful just like that, but beautiful in the sight of God (Acts 7:20). Therefore they did not deliver him into the hands of murderers, but they hid him at home.

That was not an easy thing to do, especially because their home was, as it seems, close to the palace of the king. Nevertheless, they counted on it that God was going to take care of him.

This is a beautiful example for all young parents who are aware of the bloodthirstiness of the world in which they live and in which their children also have to learn to find their way. Faith counts on God for protection and makes effort to protect and guide the child on its life path.

Now read Hebrews 11:17-23 again.

Reflection: Which aspects of faith confidence in God, regarding the future, are presented here? What do you learn from that for the practice of your faith life?

1 Peter 3:8

Living by Faith (V)

Hebrews 11:24. By faith the parents of Moses overcame the fear for the world. Moses grew up in a totally different environment and situation than his parents. Nevertheless you see in his life that the same faith is active that you’ve seen in his parents. Because his circumstances were that different, his faith appeared differently. His great enemy was the favor of the world and his faith overcame that enemy.

You see that the first years of his education by his God fearing parents has had profound effect on him. Consequently, “when he had grown up” – grown up indicates both his maturity and his high position in Pharaoh’s court – he refused “to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter”. This refusal is not a sign of ‘ungratefulness’ for everything he had enjoyed at the court. He was stolen and was turning back to his roots, because that was the place where God wanted to use him and not at the court.

Natural feelings or rational considerations did not keep him at the court. He did not reason that God had regulated everything so wonderfully that he ended up in such an influential position. That couldn’t have been for nothing. He could have used his influence in the court in favor of his people, couldn’t he? But Moses did not want to be a favorite of Pharaoh while his people were oppressed and killed. He wanted to be with his people, to be one of them.

It has been said: ‘The providence of God brought him at the court of Pharaoh and his faith brought him out of it.’ With the expression ‘the providence of God’ is meant that God guides events and circumstances. This is how Moses ended up at the court of Pharaoh. But the departure of Moses is not a result of the providence of God. Moses left the court of Pharaoh on the basis of a choice that is based on his faith.

Hebrews 11:25. Moses refused something, but he also chose for something. In faith he chose the path of God’s people. He was convinced that the future belonged to that people and not to Egypt. Visibly he chose for the worst he could choose: for the most despised people of the country, for unwanted strangers who were oppressed and had to do heavy slave labor. The people themselves were at their wits’ end.

Moses saw the sorrow, the shame and the suffering of Israel in the light of God’s choice. Faith chooses always what God has chosen. It always stands on the side of God, even though the choice seems to bring only losses. Faith chooses for God, because it knows God’s purposes of goodness for His people and it knows that He saves them for the day of might and glory.

Moses could have enjoyed sin, for sin is something you can enjoy. But he was conscious that sin is only temporary, passing and never gives real satisfying joy. The sins that are meant here are not what we call ‘gross sins’, but sins that are coherent to a successful life in the world. Think of enjoying respect, of having might, influence, fame and wealth.

Hebrews 11:26. You will only abandon those sins if you replace them for something different and something greater. That is what Moses did. He exchanged the treasures of Egypt for “the reproach of Christ”. To him the reproach of Christ was “greater riches than the treasures of Egypt”. What an insult for Pharaoh and what a victory for Christ! But what would you prefer? That your name is engraved on an Egyptian tombstone or that you’re noted in the book of God? It is evident what Moses has chosen. As a result, instead of a mummy, he became a famous Godman.

Moses made that choice because he fixed his eyes on nothing else than “on the reward” alone. He looked ahead to the heavenly land of promise. In that light he learnt to discern between the material treasures of Egypt and the spiritual treasures in Christ. To be with Christ on earth indeed means reproach, but in Him God made all the promises yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). Therefore when you choose for the suffering of reproach of and with Christ you’re on the right side and on the right path to the right aim. Reproach goes hand in hand with the path to the fulfillment of the promises.

Hebrews 11:27. Faith is the inner power that enables to overcome both hindrances – the wrath of the king, the Red Sea, Jericho – and the desires –the pleasures of sin, the riches of Egypt. Faith realizes the mediation of God without seeing Him and in that way it delivers from all fears for the power of man. That faith caused Moses to leave Egypt, after he killed the Egyptian man.

In the book of Exodus his departure is described as a flight. He fled out of fear for Pharaoh because he killed the Egyptian man. At the same time the killing of the Egyptian man was the public confession of Moses that he belonged to God’s people. Seen from that point of view he left the court in faith, “not fearing the wrath of the king”. The slaying of a man made him flee, the faith in God and his solidarity with the people made him leave. He openly acted as an Israelite and was therefore exposed to the same wrath of the king as the people were.

However, he did not fear the wrath of the king because he was seeing “Him who is unseen”, Who is endlessly much greater than the king of Egypt. He “endured” as seeing Him Who is Invisible all those years that he was in Midian. All this time he carried on trusting God to fulfill His promises. For you here also is the power to persevere on the path of faith, together with the other members of God’s people who also had to endure the reproach and wrath of the world.

Hebrews 11:28. As a final feat of Moses’ faith the writer mentions the celebration of the Passover. It is remarkable that the celebration of the Passover is not ascribed here to the faith of Israel but to that of Moses. Could it be that the writer wants to make clear that Israel celebrated the Passover on the basis of Moses’ faith?

The celebration of the Passover by Moses in Egypt was a unique deed. All other times that it was celebrated later on, happened outside the country, by a redeemed people and as a remembrance. That one first time happened because of the actual threat of the judgment of God. God had given this means to escape from it. It seemed despicable and useless, but in reality this was the only way that true protection could be realized against the judgment. Only he who believed God did use it.

Attached to the celebration of the Passover was “the sprinkling of the blood”. Sprinkling did not happen in Egypt; there the blood was ‘put’. The putting of the blood happened only once and later on, in the sacrificial service, it was changed to sprinkling. The meaning in both cases is to put under the value of the blood to be protected against judgment in this way. In Egypt the firstborn were protected against the judgment. As firstborn also the Hebrews and all believers, “the church of the firstborn” (Hebrews 12:23), have escaped judgment on the basis of the blood.

Hebrews 11:29. Next are two facts of faith concerning God’s people. The first fact happened at the beginning of the journey through the wilderness and the second happened at the end of it. The journey in the wilderness itself is not mentioned. In fact, that was not the result of faith, but on the contrary, of unbelief.

Faith brought them out of slavery and in the land of promise. The people did not only need the Passover lamb to be absolutely free from judgment, but they also needed to pass through the Red Sea to be definitely and absolutely liberated from Egypt. When Israel was passing through the Red Sea, it was because of faith. When the Egyptians did that, it was the arrogance of the flesh. The enemy is swallowed by the judgment exactly at the same place where the people find their redemption. The place where the judgment occurs is also the place of redemption. You see this on the cross where Christ died.

Hebrews 11:30. When redemption is accomplished and liberation is achieved it does not mean that the difficulties are conquered. But for God the difficulties have disappeared. What is a difficulty to man, to God it isn’t. Israel has experienced it when they entered the promised land. Jericho was the obstacle for Israel to occupy the land. Thus on the path of faith for the Hebrews, and for you, there are obstacles that must be overcome on the journey to the promised land. Those victories are also achieved only by faith in what God says.

When the walls of Jericho fell down, it was not just because they encircled the city for seven days. The walls fell down because they encircled the city on the basis of faith in God’s Word. After seven days the walls were still as thick and impregnable as on the first day. They only fell down after seven days because by their faith in God.

Now read Hebrews 11:24-30 again.

Reflection: What characteristics of faith do you see in this section and what can you learn from it?

1 Peter 3:9

Living by Faith (V)

Hebrews 11:24. By faith the parents of Moses overcame the fear for the world. Moses grew up in a totally different environment and situation than his parents. Nevertheless you see in his life that the same faith is active that you’ve seen in his parents. Because his circumstances were that different, his faith appeared differently. His great enemy was the favor of the world and his faith overcame that enemy.

You see that the first years of his education by his God fearing parents has had profound effect on him. Consequently, “when he had grown up” – grown up indicates both his maturity and his high position in Pharaoh’s court – he refused “to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter”. This refusal is not a sign of ‘ungratefulness’ for everything he had enjoyed at the court. He was stolen and was turning back to his roots, because that was the place where God wanted to use him and not at the court.

Natural feelings or rational considerations did not keep him at the court. He did not reason that God had regulated everything so wonderfully that he ended up in such an influential position. That couldn’t have been for nothing. He could have used his influence in the court in favor of his people, couldn’t he? But Moses did not want to be a favorite of Pharaoh while his people were oppressed and killed. He wanted to be with his people, to be one of them.

It has been said: ‘The providence of God brought him at the court of Pharaoh and his faith brought him out of it.’ With the expression ‘the providence of God’ is meant that God guides events and circumstances. This is how Moses ended up at the court of Pharaoh. But the departure of Moses is not a result of the providence of God. Moses left the court of Pharaoh on the basis of a choice that is based on his faith.

Hebrews 11:25. Moses refused something, but he also chose for something. In faith he chose the path of God’s people. He was convinced that the future belonged to that people and not to Egypt. Visibly he chose for the worst he could choose: for the most despised people of the country, for unwanted strangers who were oppressed and had to do heavy slave labor. The people themselves were at their wits’ end.

Moses saw the sorrow, the shame and the suffering of Israel in the light of God’s choice. Faith chooses always what God has chosen. It always stands on the side of God, even though the choice seems to bring only losses. Faith chooses for God, because it knows God’s purposes of goodness for His people and it knows that He saves them for the day of might and glory.

Moses could have enjoyed sin, for sin is something you can enjoy. But he was conscious that sin is only temporary, passing and never gives real satisfying joy. The sins that are meant here are not what we call ‘gross sins’, but sins that are coherent to a successful life in the world. Think of enjoying respect, of having might, influence, fame and wealth.

Hebrews 11:26. You will only abandon those sins if you replace them for something different and something greater. That is what Moses did. He exchanged the treasures of Egypt for “the reproach of Christ”. To him the reproach of Christ was “greater riches than the treasures of Egypt”. What an insult for Pharaoh and what a victory for Christ! But what would you prefer? That your name is engraved on an Egyptian tombstone or that you’re noted in the book of God? It is evident what Moses has chosen. As a result, instead of a mummy, he became a famous Godman.

Moses made that choice because he fixed his eyes on nothing else than “on the reward” alone. He looked ahead to the heavenly land of promise. In that light he learnt to discern between the material treasures of Egypt and the spiritual treasures in Christ. To be with Christ on earth indeed means reproach, but in Him God made all the promises yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). Therefore when you choose for the suffering of reproach of and with Christ you’re on the right side and on the right path to the right aim. Reproach goes hand in hand with the path to the fulfillment of the promises.

Hebrews 11:27. Faith is the inner power that enables to overcome both hindrances – the wrath of the king, the Red Sea, Jericho – and the desires –the pleasures of sin, the riches of Egypt. Faith realizes the mediation of God without seeing Him and in that way it delivers from all fears for the power of man. That faith caused Moses to leave Egypt, after he killed the Egyptian man.

In the book of Exodus his departure is described as a flight. He fled out of fear for Pharaoh because he killed the Egyptian man. At the same time the killing of the Egyptian man was the public confession of Moses that he belonged to God’s people. Seen from that point of view he left the court in faith, “not fearing the wrath of the king”. The slaying of a man made him flee, the faith in God and his solidarity with the people made him leave. He openly acted as an Israelite and was therefore exposed to the same wrath of the king as the people were.

However, he did not fear the wrath of the king because he was seeing “Him who is unseen”, Who is endlessly much greater than the king of Egypt. He “endured” as seeing Him Who is Invisible all those years that he was in Midian. All this time he carried on trusting God to fulfill His promises. For you here also is the power to persevere on the path of faith, together with the other members of God’s people who also had to endure the reproach and wrath of the world.

Hebrews 11:28. As a final feat of Moses’ faith the writer mentions the celebration of the Passover. It is remarkable that the celebration of the Passover is not ascribed here to the faith of Israel but to that of Moses. Could it be that the writer wants to make clear that Israel celebrated the Passover on the basis of Moses’ faith?

The celebration of the Passover by Moses in Egypt was a unique deed. All other times that it was celebrated later on, happened outside the country, by a redeemed people and as a remembrance. That one first time happened because of the actual threat of the judgment of God. God had given this means to escape from it. It seemed despicable and useless, but in reality this was the only way that true protection could be realized against the judgment. Only he who believed God did use it.

Attached to the celebration of the Passover was “the sprinkling of the blood”. Sprinkling did not happen in Egypt; there the blood was ‘put’. The putting of the blood happened only once and later on, in the sacrificial service, it was changed to sprinkling. The meaning in both cases is to put under the value of the blood to be protected against judgment in this way. In Egypt the firstborn were protected against the judgment. As firstborn also the Hebrews and all believers, “the church of the firstborn” (Hebrews 12:23), have escaped judgment on the basis of the blood.

Hebrews 11:29. Next are two facts of faith concerning God’s people. The first fact happened at the beginning of the journey through the wilderness and the second happened at the end of it. The journey in the wilderness itself is not mentioned. In fact, that was not the result of faith, but on the contrary, of unbelief.

Faith brought them out of slavery and in the land of promise. The people did not only need the Passover lamb to be absolutely free from judgment, but they also needed to pass through the Red Sea to be definitely and absolutely liberated from Egypt. When Israel was passing through the Red Sea, it was because of faith. When the Egyptians did that, it was the arrogance of the flesh. The enemy is swallowed by the judgment exactly at the same place where the people find their redemption. The place where the judgment occurs is also the place of redemption. You see this on the cross where Christ died.

Hebrews 11:30. When redemption is accomplished and liberation is achieved it does not mean that the difficulties are conquered. But for God the difficulties have disappeared. What is a difficulty to man, to God it isn’t. Israel has experienced it when they entered the promised land. Jericho was the obstacle for Israel to occupy the land. Thus on the path of faith for the Hebrews, and for you, there are obstacles that must be overcome on the journey to the promised land. Those victories are also achieved only by faith in what God says.

When the walls of Jericho fell down, it was not just because they encircled the city for seven days. The walls fell down because they encircled the city on the basis of faith in God’s Word. After seven days the walls were still as thick and impregnable as on the first day. They only fell down after seven days because by their faith in God.

Now read Hebrews 11:24-30 again.

Reflection: What characteristics of faith do you see in this section and what can you learn from it?

1 Peter 3:10

Living by Faith (V)

Hebrews 11:24. By faith the parents of Moses overcame the fear for the world. Moses grew up in a totally different environment and situation than his parents. Nevertheless you see in his life that the same faith is active that you’ve seen in his parents. Because his circumstances were that different, his faith appeared differently. His great enemy was the favor of the world and his faith overcame that enemy.

You see that the first years of his education by his God fearing parents has had profound effect on him. Consequently, “when he had grown up” – grown up indicates both his maturity and his high position in Pharaoh’s court – he refused “to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter”. This refusal is not a sign of ‘ungratefulness’ for everything he had enjoyed at the court. He was stolen and was turning back to his roots, because that was the place where God wanted to use him and not at the court.

Natural feelings or rational considerations did not keep him at the court. He did not reason that God had regulated everything so wonderfully that he ended up in such an influential position. That couldn’t have been for nothing. He could have used his influence in the court in favor of his people, couldn’t he? But Moses did not want to be a favorite of Pharaoh while his people were oppressed and killed. He wanted to be with his people, to be one of them.

It has been said: ‘The providence of God brought him at the court of Pharaoh and his faith brought him out of it.’ With the expression ‘the providence of God’ is meant that God guides events and circumstances. This is how Moses ended up at the court of Pharaoh. But the departure of Moses is not a result of the providence of God. Moses left the court of Pharaoh on the basis of a choice that is based on his faith.

Hebrews 11:25. Moses refused something, but he also chose for something. In faith he chose the path of God’s people. He was convinced that the future belonged to that people and not to Egypt. Visibly he chose for the worst he could choose: for the most despised people of the country, for unwanted strangers who were oppressed and had to do heavy slave labor. The people themselves were at their wits’ end.

Moses saw the sorrow, the shame and the suffering of Israel in the light of God’s choice. Faith chooses always what God has chosen. It always stands on the side of God, even though the choice seems to bring only losses. Faith chooses for God, because it knows God’s purposes of goodness for His people and it knows that He saves them for the day of might and glory.

Moses could have enjoyed sin, for sin is something you can enjoy. But he was conscious that sin is only temporary, passing and never gives real satisfying joy. The sins that are meant here are not what we call ‘gross sins’, but sins that are coherent to a successful life in the world. Think of enjoying respect, of having might, influence, fame and wealth.

Hebrews 11:26. You will only abandon those sins if you replace them for something different and something greater. That is what Moses did. He exchanged the treasures of Egypt for “the reproach of Christ”. To him the reproach of Christ was “greater riches than the treasures of Egypt”. What an insult for Pharaoh and what a victory for Christ! But what would you prefer? That your name is engraved on an Egyptian tombstone or that you’re noted in the book of God? It is evident what Moses has chosen. As a result, instead of a mummy, he became a famous Godman.

Moses made that choice because he fixed his eyes on nothing else than “on the reward” alone. He looked ahead to the heavenly land of promise. In that light he learnt to discern between the material treasures of Egypt and the spiritual treasures in Christ. To be with Christ on earth indeed means reproach, but in Him God made all the promises yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). Therefore when you choose for the suffering of reproach of and with Christ you’re on the right side and on the right path to the right aim. Reproach goes hand in hand with the path to the fulfillment of the promises.

Hebrews 11:27. Faith is the inner power that enables to overcome both hindrances – the wrath of the king, the Red Sea, Jericho – and the desires –the pleasures of sin, the riches of Egypt. Faith realizes the mediation of God without seeing Him and in that way it delivers from all fears for the power of man. That faith caused Moses to leave Egypt, after he killed the Egyptian man.

In the book of Exodus his departure is described as a flight. He fled out of fear for Pharaoh because he killed the Egyptian man. At the same time the killing of the Egyptian man was the public confession of Moses that he belonged to God’s people. Seen from that point of view he left the court in faith, “not fearing the wrath of the king”. The slaying of a man made him flee, the faith in God and his solidarity with the people made him leave. He openly acted as an Israelite and was therefore exposed to the same wrath of the king as the people were.

However, he did not fear the wrath of the king because he was seeing “Him who is unseen”, Who is endlessly much greater than the king of Egypt. He “endured” as seeing Him Who is Invisible all those years that he was in Midian. All this time he carried on trusting God to fulfill His promises. For you here also is the power to persevere on the path of faith, together with the other members of God’s people who also had to endure the reproach and wrath of the world.

Hebrews 11:28. As a final feat of Moses’ faith the writer mentions the celebration of the Passover. It is remarkable that the celebration of the Passover is not ascribed here to the faith of Israel but to that of Moses. Could it be that the writer wants to make clear that Israel celebrated the Passover on the basis of Moses’ faith?

The celebration of the Passover by Moses in Egypt was a unique deed. All other times that it was celebrated later on, happened outside the country, by a redeemed people and as a remembrance. That one first time happened because of the actual threat of the judgment of God. God had given this means to escape from it. It seemed despicable and useless, but in reality this was the only way that true protection could be realized against the judgment. Only he who believed God did use it.

Attached to the celebration of the Passover was “the sprinkling of the blood”. Sprinkling did not happen in Egypt; there the blood was ‘put’. The putting of the blood happened only once and later on, in the sacrificial service, it was changed to sprinkling. The meaning in both cases is to put under the value of the blood to be protected against judgment in this way. In Egypt the firstborn were protected against the judgment. As firstborn also the Hebrews and all believers, “the church of the firstborn” (Hebrews 12:23), have escaped judgment on the basis of the blood.

Hebrews 11:29. Next are two facts of faith concerning God’s people. The first fact happened at the beginning of the journey through the wilderness and the second happened at the end of it. The journey in the wilderness itself is not mentioned. In fact, that was not the result of faith, but on the contrary, of unbelief.

Faith brought them out of slavery and in the land of promise. The people did not only need the Passover lamb to be absolutely free from judgment, but they also needed to pass through the Red Sea to be definitely and absolutely liberated from Egypt. When Israel was passing through the Red Sea, it was because of faith. When the Egyptians did that, it was the arrogance of the flesh. The enemy is swallowed by the judgment exactly at the same place where the people find their redemption. The place where the judgment occurs is also the place of redemption. You see this on the cross where Christ died.

Hebrews 11:30. When redemption is accomplished and liberation is achieved it does not mean that the difficulties are conquered. But for God the difficulties have disappeared. What is a difficulty to man, to God it isn’t. Israel has experienced it when they entered the promised land. Jericho was the obstacle for Israel to occupy the land. Thus on the path of faith for the Hebrews, and for you, there are obstacles that must be overcome on the journey to the promised land. Those victories are also achieved only by faith in what God says.

When the walls of Jericho fell down, it was not just because they encircled the city for seven days. The walls fell down because they encircled the city on the basis of faith in God’s Word. After seven days the walls were still as thick and impregnable as on the first day. They only fell down after seven days because by their faith in God.

Now read Hebrews 11:24-30 again.

Reflection: What characteristics of faith do you see in this section and what can you learn from it?

1 Peter 3:11

Living by Faith (V)

Hebrews 11:24. By faith the parents of Moses overcame the fear for the world. Moses grew up in a totally different environment and situation than his parents. Nevertheless you see in his life that the same faith is active that you’ve seen in his parents. Because his circumstances were that different, his faith appeared differently. His great enemy was the favor of the world and his faith overcame that enemy.

You see that the first years of his education by his God fearing parents has had profound effect on him. Consequently, “when he had grown up” – grown up indicates both his maturity and his high position in Pharaoh’s court – he refused “to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter”. This refusal is not a sign of ‘ungratefulness’ for everything he had enjoyed at the court. He was stolen and was turning back to his roots, because that was the place where God wanted to use him and not at the court.

Natural feelings or rational considerations did not keep him at the court. He did not reason that God had regulated everything so wonderfully that he ended up in such an influential position. That couldn’t have been for nothing. He could have used his influence in the court in favor of his people, couldn’t he? But Moses did not want to be a favorite of Pharaoh while his people were oppressed and killed. He wanted to be with his people, to be one of them.

It has been said: ‘The providence of God brought him at the court of Pharaoh and his faith brought him out of it.’ With the expression ‘the providence of God’ is meant that God guides events and circumstances. This is how Moses ended up at the court of Pharaoh. But the departure of Moses is not a result of the providence of God. Moses left the court of Pharaoh on the basis of a choice that is based on his faith.

Hebrews 11:25. Moses refused something, but he also chose for something. In faith he chose the path of God’s people. He was convinced that the future belonged to that people and not to Egypt. Visibly he chose for the worst he could choose: for the most despised people of the country, for unwanted strangers who were oppressed and had to do heavy slave labor. The people themselves were at their wits’ end.

Moses saw the sorrow, the shame and the suffering of Israel in the light of God’s choice. Faith chooses always what God has chosen. It always stands on the side of God, even though the choice seems to bring only losses. Faith chooses for God, because it knows God’s purposes of goodness for His people and it knows that He saves them for the day of might and glory.

Moses could have enjoyed sin, for sin is something you can enjoy. But he was conscious that sin is only temporary, passing and never gives real satisfying joy. The sins that are meant here are not what we call ‘gross sins’, but sins that are coherent to a successful life in the world. Think of enjoying respect, of having might, influence, fame and wealth.

Hebrews 11:26. You will only abandon those sins if you replace them for something different and something greater. That is what Moses did. He exchanged the treasures of Egypt for “the reproach of Christ”. To him the reproach of Christ was “greater riches than the treasures of Egypt”. What an insult for Pharaoh and what a victory for Christ! But what would you prefer? That your name is engraved on an Egyptian tombstone or that you’re noted in the book of God? It is evident what Moses has chosen. As a result, instead of a mummy, he became a famous Godman.

Moses made that choice because he fixed his eyes on nothing else than “on the reward” alone. He looked ahead to the heavenly land of promise. In that light he learnt to discern between the material treasures of Egypt and the spiritual treasures in Christ. To be with Christ on earth indeed means reproach, but in Him God made all the promises yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). Therefore when you choose for the suffering of reproach of and with Christ you’re on the right side and on the right path to the right aim. Reproach goes hand in hand with the path to the fulfillment of the promises.

Hebrews 11:27. Faith is the inner power that enables to overcome both hindrances – the wrath of the king, the Red Sea, Jericho – and the desires –the pleasures of sin, the riches of Egypt. Faith realizes the mediation of God without seeing Him and in that way it delivers from all fears for the power of man. That faith caused Moses to leave Egypt, after he killed the Egyptian man.

In the book of Exodus his departure is described as a flight. He fled out of fear for Pharaoh because he killed the Egyptian man. At the same time the killing of the Egyptian man was the public confession of Moses that he belonged to God’s people. Seen from that point of view he left the court in faith, “not fearing the wrath of the king”. The slaying of a man made him flee, the faith in God and his solidarity with the people made him leave. He openly acted as an Israelite and was therefore exposed to the same wrath of the king as the people were.

However, he did not fear the wrath of the king because he was seeing “Him who is unseen”, Who is endlessly much greater than the king of Egypt. He “endured” as seeing Him Who is Invisible all those years that he was in Midian. All this time he carried on trusting God to fulfill His promises. For you here also is the power to persevere on the path of faith, together with the other members of God’s people who also had to endure the reproach and wrath of the world.

Hebrews 11:28. As a final feat of Moses’ faith the writer mentions the celebration of the Passover. It is remarkable that the celebration of the Passover is not ascribed here to the faith of Israel but to that of Moses. Could it be that the writer wants to make clear that Israel celebrated the Passover on the basis of Moses’ faith?

The celebration of the Passover by Moses in Egypt was a unique deed. All other times that it was celebrated later on, happened outside the country, by a redeemed people and as a remembrance. That one first time happened because of the actual threat of the judgment of God. God had given this means to escape from it. It seemed despicable and useless, but in reality this was the only way that true protection could be realized against the judgment. Only he who believed God did use it.

Attached to the celebration of the Passover was “the sprinkling of the blood”. Sprinkling did not happen in Egypt; there the blood was ‘put’. The putting of the blood happened only once and later on, in the sacrificial service, it was changed to sprinkling. The meaning in both cases is to put under the value of the blood to be protected against judgment in this way. In Egypt the firstborn were protected against the judgment. As firstborn also the Hebrews and all believers, “the church of the firstborn” (Hebrews 12:23), have escaped judgment on the basis of the blood.

Hebrews 11:29. Next are two facts of faith concerning God’s people. The first fact happened at the beginning of the journey through the wilderness and the second happened at the end of it. The journey in the wilderness itself is not mentioned. In fact, that was not the result of faith, but on the contrary, of unbelief.

Faith brought them out of slavery and in the land of promise. The people did not only need the Passover lamb to be absolutely free from judgment, but they also needed to pass through the Red Sea to be definitely and absolutely liberated from Egypt. When Israel was passing through the Red Sea, it was because of faith. When the Egyptians did that, it was the arrogance of the flesh. The enemy is swallowed by the judgment exactly at the same place where the people find their redemption. The place where the judgment occurs is also the place of redemption. You see this on the cross where Christ died.

Hebrews 11:30. When redemption is accomplished and liberation is achieved it does not mean that the difficulties are conquered. But for God the difficulties have disappeared. What is a difficulty to man, to God it isn’t. Israel has experienced it when they entered the promised land. Jericho was the obstacle for Israel to occupy the land. Thus on the path of faith for the Hebrews, and for you, there are obstacles that must be overcome on the journey to the promised land. Those victories are also achieved only by faith in what God says.

When the walls of Jericho fell down, it was not just because they encircled the city for seven days. The walls fell down because they encircled the city on the basis of faith in God’s Word. After seven days the walls were still as thick and impregnable as on the first day. They only fell down after seven days because by their faith in God.

Now read Hebrews 11:24-30 again.

Reflection: What characteristics of faith do you see in this section and what can you learn from it?

1 Peter 3:12

Living by Faith (V)

Hebrews 11:24. By faith the parents of Moses overcame the fear for the world. Moses grew up in a totally different environment and situation than his parents. Nevertheless you see in his life that the same faith is active that you’ve seen in his parents. Because his circumstances were that different, his faith appeared differently. His great enemy was the favor of the world and his faith overcame that enemy.

You see that the first years of his education by his God fearing parents has had profound effect on him. Consequently, “when he had grown up” – grown up indicates both his maturity and his high position in Pharaoh’s court – he refused “to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter”. This refusal is not a sign of ‘ungratefulness’ for everything he had enjoyed at the court. He was stolen and was turning back to his roots, because that was the place where God wanted to use him and not at the court.

Natural feelings or rational considerations did not keep him at the court. He did not reason that God had regulated everything so wonderfully that he ended up in such an influential position. That couldn’t have been for nothing. He could have used his influence in the court in favor of his people, couldn’t he? But Moses did not want to be a favorite of Pharaoh while his people were oppressed and killed. He wanted to be with his people, to be one of them.

It has been said: ‘The providence of God brought him at the court of Pharaoh and his faith brought him out of it.’ With the expression ‘the providence of God’ is meant that God guides events and circumstances. This is how Moses ended up at the court of Pharaoh. But the departure of Moses is not a result of the providence of God. Moses left the court of Pharaoh on the basis of a choice that is based on his faith.

Hebrews 11:25. Moses refused something, but he also chose for something. In faith he chose the path of God’s people. He was convinced that the future belonged to that people and not to Egypt. Visibly he chose for the worst he could choose: for the most despised people of the country, for unwanted strangers who were oppressed and had to do heavy slave labor. The people themselves were at their wits’ end.

Moses saw the sorrow, the shame and the suffering of Israel in the light of God’s choice. Faith chooses always what God has chosen. It always stands on the side of God, even though the choice seems to bring only losses. Faith chooses for God, because it knows God’s purposes of goodness for His people and it knows that He saves them for the day of might and glory.

Moses could have enjoyed sin, for sin is something you can enjoy. But he was conscious that sin is only temporary, passing and never gives real satisfying joy. The sins that are meant here are not what we call ‘gross sins’, but sins that are coherent to a successful life in the world. Think of enjoying respect, of having might, influence, fame and wealth.

Hebrews 11:26. You will only abandon those sins if you replace them for something different and something greater. That is what Moses did. He exchanged the treasures of Egypt for “the reproach of Christ”. To him the reproach of Christ was “greater riches than the treasures of Egypt”. What an insult for Pharaoh and what a victory for Christ! But what would you prefer? That your name is engraved on an Egyptian tombstone or that you’re noted in the book of God? It is evident what Moses has chosen. As a result, instead of a mummy, he became a famous Godman.

Moses made that choice because he fixed his eyes on nothing else than “on the reward” alone. He looked ahead to the heavenly land of promise. In that light he learnt to discern between the material treasures of Egypt and the spiritual treasures in Christ. To be with Christ on earth indeed means reproach, but in Him God made all the promises yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). Therefore when you choose for the suffering of reproach of and with Christ you’re on the right side and on the right path to the right aim. Reproach goes hand in hand with the path to the fulfillment of the promises.

Hebrews 11:27. Faith is the inner power that enables to overcome both hindrances – the wrath of the king, the Red Sea, Jericho – and the desires –the pleasures of sin, the riches of Egypt. Faith realizes the mediation of God without seeing Him and in that way it delivers from all fears for the power of man. That faith caused Moses to leave Egypt, after he killed the Egyptian man.

In the book of Exodus his departure is described as a flight. He fled out of fear for Pharaoh because he killed the Egyptian man. At the same time the killing of the Egyptian man was the public confession of Moses that he belonged to God’s people. Seen from that point of view he left the court in faith, “not fearing the wrath of the king”. The slaying of a man made him flee, the faith in God and his solidarity with the people made him leave. He openly acted as an Israelite and was therefore exposed to the same wrath of the king as the people were.

However, he did not fear the wrath of the king because he was seeing “Him who is unseen”, Who is endlessly much greater than the king of Egypt. He “endured” as seeing Him Who is Invisible all those years that he was in Midian. All this time he carried on trusting God to fulfill His promises. For you here also is the power to persevere on the path of faith, together with the other members of God’s people who also had to endure the reproach and wrath of the world.

Hebrews 11:28. As a final feat of Moses’ faith the writer mentions the celebration of the Passover. It is remarkable that the celebration of the Passover is not ascribed here to the faith of Israel but to that of Moses. Could it be that the writer wants to make clear that Israel celebrated the Passover on the basis of Moses’ faith?

The celebration of the Passover by Moses in Egypt was a unique deed. All other times that it was celebrated later on, happened outside the country, by a redeemed people and as a remembrance. That one first time happened because of the actual threat of the judgment of God. God had given this means to escape from it. It seemed despicable and useless, but in reality this was the only way that true protection could be realized against the judgment. Only he who believed God did use it.

Attached to the celebration of the Passover was “the sprinkling of the blood”. Sprinkling did not happen in Egypt; there the blood was ‘put’. The putting of the blood happened only once and later on, in the sacrificial service, it was changed to sprinkling. The meaning in both cases is to put under the value of the blood to be protected against judgment in this way. In Egypt the firstborn were protected against the judgment. As firstborn also the Hebrews and all believers, “the church of the firstborn” (Hebrews 12:23), have escaped judgment on the basis of the blood.

Hebrews 11:29. Next are two facts of faith concerning God’s people. The first fact happened at the beginning of the journey through the wilderness and the second happened at the end of it. The journey in the wilderness itself is not mentioned. In fact, that was not the result of faith, but on the contrary, of unbelief.

Faith brought them out of slavery and in the land of promise. The people did not only need the Passover lamb to be absolutely free from judgment, but they also needed to pass through the Red Sea to be definitely and absolutely liberated from Egypt. When Israel was passing through the Red Sea, it was because of faith. When the Egyptians did that, it was the arrogance of the flesh. The enemy is swallowed by the judgment exactly at the same place where the people find their redemption. The place where the judgment occurs is also the place of redemption. You see this on the cross where Christ died.

Hebrews 11:30. When redemption is accomplished and liberation is achieved it does not mean that the difficulties are conquered. But for God the difficulties have disappeared. What is a difficulty to man, to God it isn’t. Israel has experienced it when they entered the promised land. Jericho was the obstacle for Israel to occupy the land. Thus on the path of faith for the Hebrews, and for you, there are obstacles that must be overcome on the journey to the promised land. Those victories are also achieved only by faith in what God says.

When the walls of Jericho fell down, it was not just because they encircled the city for seven days. The walls fell down because they encircled the city on the basis of faith in God’s Word. After seven days the walls were still as thick and impregnable as on the first day. They only fell down after seven days because by their faith in God.

Now read Hebrews 11:24-30 again.

Reflection: What characteristics of faith do you see in this section and what can you learn from it?

1 Peter 3:13

Living by Faith (V)

Hebrews 11:24. By faith the parents of Moses overcame the fear for the world. Moses grew up in a totally different environment and situation than his parents. Nevertheless you see in his life that the same faith is active that you’ve seen in his parents. Because his circumstances were that different, his faith appeared differently. His great enemy was the favor of the world and his faith overcame that enemy.

You see that the first years of his education by his God fearing parents has had profound effect on him. Consequently, “when he had grown up” – grown up indicates both his maturity and his high position in Pharaoh’s court – he refused “to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter”. This refusal is not a sign of ‘ungratefulness’ for everything he had enjoyed at the court. He was stolen and was turning back to his roots, because that was the place where God wanted to use him and not at the court.

Natural feelings or rational considerations did not keep him at the court. He did not reason that God had regulated everything so wonderfully that he ended up in such an influential position. That couldn’t have been for nothing. He could have used his influence in the court in favor of his people, couldn’t he? But Moses did not want to be a favorite of Pharaoh while his people were oppressed and killed. He wanted to be with his people, to be one of them.

It has been said: ‘The providence of God brought him at the court of Pharaoh and his faith brought him out of it.’ With the expression ‘the providence of God’ is meant that God guides events and circumstances. This is how Moses ended up at the court of Pharaoh. But the departure of Moses is not a result of the providence of God. Moses left the court of Pharaoh on the basis of a choice that is based on his faith.

Hebrews 11:25. Moses refused something, but he also chose for something. In faith he chose the path of God’s people. He was convinced that the future belonged to that people and not to Egypt. Visibly he chose for the worst he could choose: for the most despised people of the country, for unwanted strangers who were oppressed and had to do heavy slave labor. The people themselves were at their wits’ end.

Moses saw the sorrow, the shame and the suffering of Israel in the light of God’s choice. Faith chooses always what God has chosen. It always stands on the side of God, even though the choice seems to bring only losses. Faith chooses for God, because it knows God’s purposes of goodness for His people and it knows that He saves them for the day of might and glory.

Moses could have enjoyed sin, for sin is something you can enjoy. But he was conscious that sin is only temporary, passing and never gives real satisfying joy. The sins that are meant here are not what we call ‘gross sins’, but sins that are coherent to a successful life in the world. Think of enjoying respect, of having might, influence, fame and wealth.

Hebrews 11:26. You will only abandon those sins if you replace them for something different and something greater. That is what Moses did. He exchanged the treasures of Egypt for “the reproach of Christ”. To him the reproach of Christ was “greater riches than the treasures of Egypt”. What an insult for Pharaoh and what a victory for Christ! But what would you prefer? That your name is engraved on an Egyptian tombstone or that you’re noted in the book of God? It is evident what Moses has chosen. As a result, instead of a mummy, he became a famous Godman.

Moses made that choice because he fixed his eyes on nothing else than “on the reward” alone. He looked ahead to the heavenly land of promise. In that light he learnt to discern between the material treasures of Egypt and the spiritual treasures in Christ. To be with Christ on earth indeed means reproach, but in Him God made all the promises yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). Therefore when you choose for the suffering of reproach of and with Christ you’re on the right side and on the right path to the right aim. Reproach goes hand in hand with the path to the fulfillment of the promises.

Hebrews 11:27. Faith is the inner power that enables to overcome both hindrances – the wrath of the king, the Red Sea, Jericho – and the desires –the pleasures of sin, the riches of Egypt. Faith realizes the mediation of God without seeing Him and in that way it delivers from all fears for the power of man. That faith caused Moses to leave Egypt, after he killed the Egyptian man.

In the book of Exodus his departure is described as a flight. He fled out of fear for Pharaoh because he killed the Egyptian man. At the same time the killing of the Egyptian man was the public confession of Moses that he belonged to God’s people. Seen from that point of view he left the court in faith, “not fearing the wrath of the king”. The slaying of a man made him flee, the faith in God and his solidarity with the people made him leave. He openly acted as an Israelite and was therefore exposed to the same wrath of the king as the people were.

However, he did not fear the wrath of the king because he was seeing “Him who is unseen”, Who is endlessly much greater than the king of Egypt. He “endured” as seeing Him Who is Invisible all those years that he was in Midian. All this time he carried on trusting God to fulfill His promises. For you here also is the power to persevere on the path of faith, together with the other members of God’s people who also had to endure the reproach and wrath of the world.

Hebrews 11:28. As a final feat of Moses’ faith the writer mentions the celebration of the Passover. It is remarkable that the celebration of the Passover is not ascribed here to the faith of Israel but to that of Moses. Could it be that the writer wants to make clear that Israel celebrated the Passover on the basis of Moses’ faith?

The celebration of the Passover by Moses in Egypt was a unique deed. All other times that it was celebrated later on, happened outside the country, by a redeemed people and as a remembrance. That one first time happened because of the actual threat of the judgment of God. God had given this means to escape from it. It seemed despicable and useless, but in reality this was the only way that true protection could be realized against the judgment. Only he who believed God did use it.

Attached to the celebration of the Passover was “the sprinkling of the blood”. Sprinkling did not happen in Egypt; there the blood was ‘put’. The putting of the blood happened only once and later on, in the sacrificial service, it was changed to sprinkling. The meaning in both cases is to put under the value of the blood to be protected against judgment in this way. In Egypt the firstborn were protected against the judgment. As firstborn also the Hebrews and all believers, “the church of the firstborn” (Hebrews 12:23), have escaped judgment on the basis of the blood.

Hebrews 11:29. Next are two facts of faith concerning God’s people. The first fact happened at the beginning of the journey through the wilderness and the second happened at the end of it. The journey in the wilderness itself is not mentioned. In fact, that was not the result of faith, but on the contrary, of unbelief.

Faith brought them out of slavery and in the land of promise. The people did not only need the Passover lamb to be absolutely free from judgment, but they also needed to pass through the Red Sea to be definitely and absolutely liberated from Egypt. When Israel was passing through the Red Sea, it was because of faith. When the Egyptians did that, it was the arrogance of the flesh. The enemy is swallowed by the judgment exactly at the same place where the people find their redemption. The place where the judgment occurs is also the place of redemption. You see this on the cross where Christ died.

Hebrews 11:30. When redemption is accomplished and liberation is achieved it does not mean that the difficulties are conquered. But for God the difficulties have disappeared. What is a difficulty to man, to God it isn’t. Israel has experienced it when they entered the promised land. Jericho was the obstacle for Israel to occupy the land. Thus on the path of faith for the Hebrews, and for you, there are obstacles that must be overcome on the journey to the promised land. Those victories are also achieved only by faith in what God says.

When the walls of Jericho fell down, it was not just because they encircled the city for seven days. The walls fell down because they encircled the city on the basis of faith in God’s Word. After seven days the walls were still as thick and impregnable as on the first day. They only fell down after seven days because by their faith in God.

Now read Hebrews 11:24-30 again.

Reflection: What characteristics of faith do you see in this section and what can you learn from it?

1 Peter 3:14

Living by Faith (V)

Hebrews 11:24. By faith the parents of Moses overcame the fear for the world. Moses grew up in a totally different environment and situation than his parents. Nevertheless you see in his life that the same faith is active that you’ve seen in his parents. Because his circumstances were that different, his faith appeared differently. His great enemy was the favor of the world and his faith overcame that enemy.

You see that the first years of his education by his God fearing parents has had profound effect on him. Consequently, “when he had grown up” – grown up indicates both his maturity and his high position in Pharaoh’s court – he refused “to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter”. This refusal is not a sign of ‘ungratefulness’ for everything he had enjoyed at the court. He was stolen and was turning back to his roots, because that was the place where God wanted to use him and not at the court.

Natural feelings or rational considerations did not keep him at the court. He did not reason that God had regulated everything so wonderfully that he ended up in such an influential position. That couldn’t have been for nothing. He could have used his influence in the court in favor of his people, couldn’t he? But Moses did not want to be a favorite of Pharaoh while his people were oppressed and killed. He wanted to be with his people, to be one of them.

It has been said: ‘The providence of God brought him at the court of Pharaoh and his faith brought him out of it.’ With the expression ‘the providence of God’ is meant that God guides events and circumstances. This is how Moses ended up at the court of Pharaoh. But the departure of Moses is not a result of the providence of God. Moses left the court of Pharaoh on the basis of a choice that is based on his faith.

Hebrews 11:25. Moses refused something, but he also chose for something. In faith he chose the path of God’s people. He was convinced that the future belonged to that people and not to Egypt. Visibly he chose for the worst he could choose: for the most despised people of the country, for unwanted strangers who were oppressed and had to do heavy slave labor. The people themselves were at their wits’ end.

Moses saw the sorrow, the shame and the suffering of Israel in the light of God’s choice. Faith chooses always what God has chosen. It always stands on the side of God, even though the choice seems to bring only losses. Faith chooses for God, because it knows God’s purposes of goodness for His people and it knows that He saves them for the day of might and glory.

Moses could have enjoyed sin, for sin is something you can enjoy. But he was conscious that sin is only temporary, passing and never gives real satisfying joy. The sins that are meant here are not what we call ‘gross sins’, but sins that are coherent to a successful life in the world. Think of enjoying respect, of having might, influence, fame and wealth.

Hebrews 11:26. You will only abandon those sins if you replace them for something different and something greater. That is what Moses did. He exchanged the treasures of Egypt for “the reproach of Christ”. To him the reproach of Christ was “greater riches than the treasures of Egypt”. What an insult for Pharaoh and what a victory for Christ! But what would you prefer? That your name is engraved on an Egyptian tombstone or that you’re noted in the book of God? It is evident what Moses has chosen. As a result, instead of a mummy, he became a famous Godman.

Moses made that choice because he fixed his eyes on nothing else than “on the reward” alone. He looked ahead to the heavenly land of promise. In that light he learnt to discern between the material treasures of Egypt and the spiritual treasures in Christ. To be with Christ on earth indeed means reproach, but in Him God made all the promises yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). Therefore when you choose for the suffering of reproach of and with Christ you’re on the right side and on the right path to the right aim. Reproach goes hand in hand with the path to the fulfillment of the promises.

Hebrews 11:27. Faith is the inner power that enables to overcome both hindrances – the wrath of the king, the Red Sea, Jericho – and the desires –the pleasures of sin, the riches of Egypt. Faith realizes the mediation of God without seeing Him and in that way it delivers from all fears for the power of man. That faith caused Moses to leave Egypt, after he killed the Egyptian man.

In the book of Exodus his departure is described as a flight. He fled out of fear for Pharaoh because he killed the Egyptian man. At the same time the killing of the Egyptian man was the public confession of Moses that he belonged to God’s people. Seen from that point of view he left the court in faith, “not fearing the wrath of the king”. The slaying of a man made him flee, the faith in God and his solidarity with the people made him leave. He openly acted as an Israelite and was therefore exposed to the same wrath of the king as the people were.

However, he did not fear the wrath of the king because he was seeing “Him who is unseen”, Who is endlessly much greater than the king of Egypt. He “endured” as seeing Him Who is Invisible all those years that he was in Midian. All this time he carried on trusting God to fulfill His promises. For you here also is the power to persevere on the path of faith, together with the other members of God’s people who also had to endure the reproach and wrath of the world.

Hebrews 11:28. As a final feat of Moses’ faith the writer mentions the celebration of the Passover. It is remarkable that the celebration of the Passover is not ascribed here to the faith of Israel but to that of Moses. Could it be that the writer wants to make clear that Israel celebrated the Passover on the basis of Moses’ faith?

The celebration of the Passover by Moses in Egypt was a unique deed. All other times that it was celebrated later on, happened outside the country, by a redeemed people and as a remembrance. That one first time happened because of the actual threat of the judgment of God. God had given this means to escape from it. It seemed despicable and useless, but in reality this was the only way that true protection could be realized against the judgment. Only he who believed God did use it.

Attached to the celebration of the Passover was “the sprinkling of the blood”. Sprinkling did not happen in Egypt; there the blood was ‘put’. The putting of the blood happened only once and later on, in the sacrificial service, it was changed to sprinkling. The meaning in both cases is to put under the value of the blood to be protected against judgment in this way. In Egypt the firstborn were protected against the judgment. As firstborn also the Hebrews and all believers, “the church of the firstborn” (Hebrews 12:23), have escaped judgment on the basis of the blood.

Hebrews 11:29. Next are two facts of faith concerning God’s people. The first fact happened at the beginning of the journey through the wilderness and the second happened at the end of it. The journey in the wilderness itself is not mentioned. In fact, that was not the result of faith, but on the contrary, of unbelief.

Faith brought them out of slavery and in the land of promise. The people did not only need the Passover lamb to be absolutely free from judgment, but they also needed to pass through the Red Sea to be definitely and absolutely liberated from Egypt. When Israel was passing through the Red Sea, it was because of faith. When the Egyptians did that, it was the arrogance of the flesh. The enemy is swallowed by the judgment exactly at the same place where the people find their redemption. The place where the judgment occurs is also the place of redemption. You see this on the cross where Christ died.

Hebrews 11:30. When redemption is accomplished and liberation is achieved it does not mean that the difficulties are conquered. But for God the difficulties have disappeared. What is a difficulty to man, to God it isn’t. Israel has experienced it when they entered the promised land. Jericho was the obstacle for Israel to occupy the land. Thus on the path of faith for the Hebrews, and for you, there are obstacles that must be overcome on the journey to the promised land. Those victories are also achieved only by faith in what God says.

When the walls of Jericho fell down, it was not just because they encircled the city for seven days. The walls fell down because they encircled the city on the basis of faith in God’s Word. After seven days the walls were still as thick and impregnable as on the first day. They only fell down after seven days because by their faith in God.

Now read Hebrews 11:24-30 again.

Reflection: What characteristics of faith do you see in this section and what can you learn from it?

1 Peter 3:15

Living by Faith (VI)

Hebrews 11:31. Not only is the faith of the people and its effect seen at Jericho. The capture of Jericho is also the cause for the manifestation of the faith of one individual from that city. The faith of Rahab shows that she chooses the people of God, while the power of her people was still completely intact and nothing of the claimed victory was yet to be seen with the people of God. But Rahab felt that God was with them. That determined her choice: a choice that was against the natural choice for her own people. In that way she is an example for the Hebrews who also had to choose for the apparently weak people of God and against their unbelieving, disobedient fellow countrymen.

What Rahab does, looks like treason, but it is a deed of faith. In that way she turns away from the world and from a life in sin to join the people of God. Her people knew from the great deeds of God, but they did not want to bow their knees to Him (Joshua 2:10). They resisted and rebelled. She disassociated herself from that. She made peace with the people of God by taking action to protect the spies. In that way she identified with them and disassociated herself from her fellow countrymen who are here called “those who were disobedient”. By accommodating the spies, she put her own life at risk. She connected her own fate to that of them. Her faith was abundantly rewarded. She even received a place in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

Hebrews 11:32. The writer could be going on like that, but he doesn’t pay attention to details anymore. Time would fail him if he did. Guided by the Spirit he mentions in general sense a number of examples. In those examples it becomes apparent how persevering their faith has been in all kinds of ways and how it has sustained believers in all kinds of suffering. One thing they all have in common: no one of them has received anything of what has been promised, as that also applied to the Hebrews to whom this letter is addressed.

Because the writer of the letter only mentions the names, I don’t want to go into detail about the history of the persons he mentions. You should read their history. Then it will often become clear to you why he mentions them. Sometimes it will also surprise you, after you have read their history, that he mentions them. But when God’s Spirit quotes names of believers from the Old Testament in the New Testament, it is – with one exception, that of Elijah (Romans 11:3-4) – always in a positive way. God sees further than what is described in outward history. He sees what is in the heart for Him, even when its practice sometimes falls short of that.

Let us take a look at the list. When the people are in the land, the time of the judges begins. Four of them are mentioned. Gideon and Barak have done their faith job in little strength. Also Samson and Jephthah have dealt in faith, but their work was obviously not flawless. In both couples the most important one is mentioned first, while chronologically the order is the other way around. Of all judges it is common that their liberations were only temporary. None of them were able to create a lasting peace.

After the time of the judges the time of the prophets and kings follows. Of the prophets Samuel is mentioned and of the kings David is mentioned. Here also the chronology is reversed. First David is mentioned, then Samuel. David was the king after God’s heart and Samuel was his forerunner.

The prophets spoke to the conscience of the people. They rather died than preaching a lie and they rather went with a good conscience to heaven than that they lived with a bad conscience on earth.

Although David was a king after God’s heart, he too didn’t manage to bring the people into the rest (Hebrews 4:7-8). The ultimate rest was for him also a matter of faith, of which the fulfillment was going to happen through Him, Who was both his Son (Matthew 1:1) and his Lord (Matthew 22:41-45).

Hebrews 11:33. After these names a number of deeds follows that were done by faith. I will try to add an example to each deed: 1. “conquered kingdoms”: judges and David; 2. “performed [acts of] righteousness”: maintaining righteousness by judges and kings; 3. “obtained promises”: this is possibly obtaining what was promised, but also to be promised something; 4. “shut the mouths of lions”: Daniel (Daniel 6:22-23), Samson, David, Benaiah; 5. Hebrews 11:34. ”quenched the power of fire”: the three friends of Daniel (Daniel 3) who indeed quenched the power of the fire, but not the fire itself, for others were consumed by it; 6. “escaped the edge of the sword”: David, Elijah (while others were killed by the sword, Hebrews 11:37); 7. “from weakness were made strong”: Gideon, Jonathan; they proved that the weakness of God is stronger than men; 8. “became mighty in war”: Asa, Jehoshaphat; 9. “put foreign armies to flight”: many judges and kings; 10. Hebrews 11:35 “Women received [back] their dead by resurrection”: the widow of Zarephath, the Shunammite.

In the just mentioned situations faith appeared to be effective in favor of the believers and sometimes even in a wonderful way. Now examples of situations follow in which faith is also effective for those who heavily suffer and are even killed. This suffering and death would be foolishness if death were indeed the end of everything.

1. They “were tortured, not accepting their release”: enduring cruel torture, while to faith an unacceptable offer to stop the torture is rejected; they believed in “a better resurrection” and were looking forward to that; 2. Hebrews 11:36. “experienced mockings and scourgings”; Jeremiah, heroes from the Maccabees; 3. “chains and imprisonment”: Jeremiah; Joseph; 4. Hebrews 11:37. “were stoned”: Stephen, Zechariah, Naboth; 5. “were sawn in two”, according to tradition: Isaiah by King Manasseh; 6. “were tempted”: were put under severe mental or physical pressure to deny their faith; were forced to compromise or to abjure something, in any case to deny their Lord; 7. “were put to death with the sword”: mass murder by the sword (Daniel 11:33b; Acts 12:1; Jeremiah 26:23, while others escaped the sword, Hebrews 11:34); 8. “went about in sheepskins, in goatskins”: Elijah, John; 9. “being destitute”: hunger and thirst; 10. “afflicted”: were ruled by strangers; 11. “ill-treated”: general torture; 12. Hebrews 11:38. “of whom the world was not worthy”: the world didn’t assign any value to people who lived this way; 13. “wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground”: these places have provided refuge to many men and women of faith without a home, while they were hunted as if they were wild beasts.

Hebrews 11:39. God has seen and noticed that all these believers persevered in faith till the end. They didn’t receive on earth what they were promised. They still don’t have, even not in paradise where they are now.

Hebrews 11:40. They shall obtain what is promised only when the Hebrews and we also will obtain it. And when will that be? When Christ comes and establishes the millennial kingdom of peace. That is “something better” what God has provided. The ‘better’ is always connected to Christ as the glorified Man in heaven. He obtained that place there from God, while He is rejected on earth.

To that Christ you are connected, while you live on earth. Abraham lived in faith on earth with a heavenly mind in his heart, while he was looking forward to a heavenly city. But he was not connected to heaven through a Christ Who is really seated there in glory and he didn’t share the rejection of Christ on earth. That is our share. Therefore the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the greatest among those who preceded (Matthew 11:11). Therefore God has waited to fulfill His promises. He didn’t want the Old Testament believers to be made perfect without us, which means to come to the wonderful place of taking part in the kingdom of Christ.

It is the privilege of all believers of all times to partake of the kingdom of Christ. But it is first of all the privilege of those who have partaken of the rejection of Christ. That are only the believers who are partakers of the church and not the believers from the time of the Old Testament or from the time after the rapture of the church.

The writer doesn’t go into detail about the special position of those believers. That is not the subject of this letter. From other letters we know that the church is connected to the Lord Jesus in a special way (e.g. Ephesians 1:10-11). In that way all who have lived in faith will be made perfect and God will fulfill His unchangeable promises to each of them.

Now read Hebrews 11:31-40 again.

Reflection: How did people manage to do such deeds of faith? How do you manage to do such deeds of faith?

1 Peter 3:16

Living by Faith (VI)

Hebrews 11:31. Not only is the faith of the people and its effect seen at Jericho. The capture of Jericho is also the cause for the manifestation of the faith of one individual from that city. The faith of Rahab shows that she chooses the people of God, while the power of her people was still completely intact and nothing of the claimed victory was yet to be seen with the people of God. But Rahab felt that God was with them. That determined her choice: a choice that was against the natural choice for her own people. In that way she is an example for the Hebrews who also had to choose for the apparently weak people of God and against their unbelieving, disobedient fellow countrymen.

What Rahab does, looks like treason, but it is a deed of faith. In that way she turns away from the world and from a life in sin to join the people of God. Her people knew from the great deeds of God, but they did not want to bow their knees to Him (Joshua 2:10). They resisted and rebelled. She disassociated herself from that. She made peace with the people of God by taking action to protect the spies. In that way she identified with them and disassociated herself from her fellow countrymen who are here called “those who were disobedient”. By accommodating the spies, she put her own life at risk. She connected her own fate to that of them. Her faith was abundantly rewarded. She even received a place in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

Hebrews 11:32. The writer could be going on like that, but he doesn’t pay attention to details anymore. Time would fail him if he did. Guided by the Spirit he mentions in general sense a number of examples. In those examples it becomes apparent how persevering their faith has been in all kinds of ways and how it has sustained believers in all kinds of suffering. One thing they all have in common: no one of them has received anything of what has been promised, as that also applied to the Hebrews to whom this letter is addressed.

Because the writer of the letter only mentions the names, I don’t want to go into detail about the history of the persons he mentions. You should read their history. Then it will often become clear to you why he mentions them. Sometimes it will also surprise you, after you have read their history, that he mentions them. But when God’s Spirit quotes names of believers from the Old Testament in the New Testament, it is – with one exception, that of Elijah (Romans 11:3-4) – always in a positive way. God sees further than what is described in outward history. He sees what is in the heart for Him, even when its practice sometimes falls short of that.

Let us take a look at the list. When the people are in the land, the time of the judges begins. Four of them are mentioned. Gideon and Barak have done their faith job in little strength. Also Samson and Jephthah have dealt in faith, but their work was obviously not flawless. In both couples the most important one is mentioned first, while chronologically the order is the other way around. Of all judges it is common that their liberations were only temporary. None of them were able to create a lasting peace.

After the time of the judges the time of the prophets and kings follows. Of the prophets Samuel is mentioned and of the kings David is mentioned. Here also the chronology is reversed. First David is mentioned, then Samuel. David was the king after God’s heart and Samuel was his forerunner.

The prophets spoke to the conscience of the people. They rather died than preaching a lie and they rather went with a good conscience to heaven than that they lived with a bad conscience on earth.

Although David was a king after God’s heart, he too didn’t manage to bring the people into the rest (Hebrews 4:7-8). The ultimate rest was for him also a matter of faith, of which the fulfillment was going to happen through Him, Who was both his Son (Matthew 1:1) and his Lord (Matthew 22:41-45).

Hebrews 11:33. After these names a number of deeds follows that were done by faith. I will try to add an example to each deed: 1. “conquered kingdoms”: judges and David; 2. “performed [acts of] righteousness”: maintaining righteousness by judges and kings; 3. “obtained promises”: this is possibly obtaining what was promised, but also to be promised something; 4. “shut the mouths of lions”: Daniel (Daniel 6:22-23), Samson, David, Benaiah; 5. Hebrews 11:34. ”quenched the power of fire”: the three friends of Daniel (Daniel 3) who indeed quenched the power of the fire, but not the fire itself, for others were consumed by it; 6. “escaped the edge of the sword”: David, Elijah (while others were killed by the sword, Hebrews 11:37); 7. “from weakness were made strong”: Gideon, Jonathan; they proved that the weakness of God is stronger than men; 8. “became mighty in war”: Asa, Jehoshaphat; 9. “put foreign armies to flight”: many judges and kings; 10. Hebrews 11:35 “Women received [back] their dead by resurrection”: the widow of Zarephath, the Shunammite.

In the just mentioned situations faith appeared to be effective in favor of the believers and sometimes even in a wonderful way. Now examples of situations follow in which faith is also effective for those who heavily suffer and are even killed. This suffering and death would be foolishness if death were indeed the end of everything.

1. They “were tortured, not accepting their release”: enduring cruel torture, while to faith an unacceptable offer to stop the torture is rejected; they believed in “a better resurrection” and were looking forward to that; 2. Hebrews 11:36. “experienced mockings and scourgings”; Jeremiah, heroes from the Maccabees; 3. “chains and imprisonment”: Jeremiah; Joseph; 4. Hebrews 11:37. “were stoned”: Stephen, Zechariah, Naboth; 5. “were sawn in two”, according to tradition: Isaiah by King Manasseh; 6. “were tempted”: were put under severe mental or physical pressure to deny their faith; were forced to compromise or to abjure something, in any case to deny their Lord; 7. “were put to death with the sword”: mass murder by the sword (Daniel 11:33b; Acts 12:1; Jeremiah 26:23, while others escaped the sword, Hebrews 11:34); 8. “went about in sheepskins, in goatskins”: Elijah, John; 9. “being destitute”: hunger and thirst; 10. “afflicted”: were ruled by strangers; 11. “ill-treated”: general torture; 12. Hebrews 11:38. “of whom the world was not worthy”: the world didn’t assign any value to people who lived this way; 13. “wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground”: these places have provided refuge to many men and women of faith without a home, while they were hunted as if they were wild beasts.

Hebrews 11:39. God has seen and noticed that all these believers persevered in faith till the end. They didn’t receive on earth what they were promised. They still don’t have, even not in paradise where they are now.

Hebrews 11:40. They shall obtain what is promised only when the Hebrews and we also will obtain it. And when will that be? When Christ comes and establishes the millennial kingdom of peace. That is “something better” what God has provided. The ‘better’ is always connected to Christ as the glorified Man in heaven. He obtained that place there from God, while He is rejected on earth.

To that Christ you are connected, while you live on earth. Abraham lived in faith on earth with a heavenly mind in his heart, while he was looking forward to a heavenly city. But he was not connected to heaven through a Christ Who is really seated there in glory and he didn’t share the rejection of Christ on earth. That is our share. Therefore the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the greatest among those who preceded (Matthew 11:11). Therefore God has waited to fulfill His promises. He didn’t want the Old Testament believers to be made perfect without us, which means to come to the wonderful place of taking part in the kingdom of Christ.

It is the privilege of all believers of all times to partake of the kingdom of Christ. But it is first of all the privilege of those who have partaken of the rejection of Christ. That are only the believers who are partakers of the church and not the believers from the time of the Old Testament or from the time after the rapture of the church.

The writer doesn’t go into detail about the special position of those believers. That is not the subject of this letter. From other letters we know that the church is connected to the Lord Jesus in a special way (e.g. Ephesians 1:10-11). In that way all who have lived in faith will be made perfect and God will fulfill His unchangeable promises to each of them.

Now read Hebrews 11:31-40 again.

Reflection: How did people manage to do such deeds of faith? How do you manage to do such deeds of faith?

1 Peter 3:17

Living by Faith (VI)

Hebrews 11:31. Not only is the faith of the people and its effect seen at Jericho. The capture of Jericho is also the cause for the manifestation of the faith of one individual from that city. The faith of Rahab shows that she chooses the people of God, while the power of her people was still completely intact and nothing of the claimed victory was yet to be seen with the people of God. But Rahab felt that God was with them. That determined her choice: a choice that was against the natural choice for her own people. In that way she is an example for the Hebrews who also had to choose for the apparently weak people of God and against their unbelieving, disobedient fellow countrymen.

What Rahab does, looks like treason, but it is a deed of faith. In that way she turns away from the world and from a life in sin to join the people of God. Her people knew from the great deeds of God, but they did not want to bow their knees to Him (Joshua 2:10). They resisted and rebelled. She disassociated herself from that. She made peace with the people of God by taking action to protect the spies. In that way she identified with them and disassociated herself from her fellow countrymen who are here called “those who were disobedient”. By accommodating the spies, she put her own life at risk. She connected her own fate to that of them. Her faith was abundantly rewarded. She even received a place in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

Hebrews 11:32. The writer could be going on like that, but he doesn’t pay attention to details anymore. Time would fail him if he did. Guided by the Spirit he mentions in general sense a number of examples. In those examples it becomes apparent how persevering their faith has been in all kinds of ways and how it has sustained believers in all kinds of suffering. One thing they all have in common: no one of them has received anything of what has been promised, as that also applied to the Hebrews to whom this letter is addressed.

Because the writer of the letter only mentions the names, I don’t want to go into detail about the history of the persons he mentions. You should read their history. Then it will often become clear to you why he mentions them. Sometimes it will also surprise you, after you have read their history, that he mentions them. But when God’s Spirit quotes names of believers from the Old Testament in the New Testament, it is – with one exception, that of Elijah (Romans 11:3-4) – always in a positive way. God sees further than what is described in outward history. He sees what is in the heart for Him, even when its practice sometimes falls short of that.

Let us take a look at the list. When the people are in the land, the time of the judges begins. Four of them are mentioned. Gideon and Barak have done their faith job in little strength. Also Samson and Jephthah have dealt in faith, but their work was obviously not flawless. In both couples the most important one is mentioned first, while chronologically the order is the other way around. Of all judges it is common that their liberations were only temporary. None of them were able to create a lasting peace.

After the time of the judges the time of the prophets and kings follows. Of the prophets Samuel is mentioned and of the kings David is mentioned. Here also the chronology is reversed. First David is mentioned, then Samuel. David was the king after God’s heart and Samuel was his forerunner.

The prophets spoke to the conscience of the people. They rather died than preaching a lie and they rather went with a good conscience to heaven than that they lived with a bad conscience on earth.

Although David was a king after God’s heart, he too didn’t manage to bring the people into the rest (Hebrews 4:7-8). The ultimate rest was for him also a matter of faith, of which the fulfillment was going to happen through Him, Who was both his Son (Matthew 1:1) and his Lord (Matthew 22:41-45).

Hebrews 11:33. After these names a number of deeds follows that were done by faith. I will try to add an example to each deed: 1. “conquered kingdoms”: judges and David; 2. “performed [acts of] righteousness”: maintaining righteousness by judges and kings; 3. “obtained promises”: this is possibly obtaining what was promised, but also to be promised something; 4. “shut the mouths of lions”: Daniel (Daniel 6:22-23), Samson, David, Benaiah; 5. Hebrews 11:34. ”quenched the power of fire”: the three friends of Daniel (Daniel 3) who indeed quenched the power of the fire, but not the fire itself, for others were consumed by it; 6. “escaped the edge of the sword”: David, Elijah (while others were killed by the sword, Hebrews 11:37); 7. “from weakness were made strong”: Gideon, Jonathan; they proved that the weakness of God is stronger than men; 8. “became mighty in war”: Asa, Jehoshaphat; 9. “put foreign armies to flight”: many judges and kings; 10. Hebrews 11:35 “Women received [back] their dead by resurrection”: the widow of Zarephath, the Shunammite.

In the just mentioned situations faith appeared to be effective in favor of the believers and sometimes even in a wonderful way. Now examples of situations follow in which faith is also effective for those who heavily suffer and are even killed. This suffering and death would be foolishness if death were indeed the end of everything.

1. They “were tortured, not accepting their release”: enduring cruel torture, while to faith an unacceptable offer to stop the torture is rejected; they believed in “a better resurrection” and were looking forward to that; 2. Hebrews 11:36. “experienced mockings and scourgings”; Jeremiah, heroes from the Maccabees; 3. “chains and imprisonment”: Jeremiah; Joseph; 4. Hebrews 11:37. “were stoned”: Stephen, Zechariah, Naboth; 5. “were sawn in two”, according to tradition: Isaiah by King Manasseh; 6. “were tempted”: were put under severe mental or physical pressure to deny their faith; were forced to compromise or to abjure something, in any case to deny their Lord; 7. “were put to death with the sword”: mass murder by the sword (Daniel 11:33b; Acts 12:1; Jeremiah 26:23, while others escaped the sword, Hebrews 11:34); 8. “went about in sheepskins, in goatskins”: Elijah, John; 9. “being destitute”: hunger and thirst; 10. “afflicted”: were ruled by strangers; 11. “ill-treated”: general torture; 12. Hebrews 11:38. “of whom the world was not worthy”: the world didn’t assign any value to people who lived this way; 13. “wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground”: these places have provided refuge to many men and women of faith without a home, while they were hunted as if they were wild beasts.

Hebrews 11:39. God has seen and noticed that all these believers persevered in faith till the end. They didn’t receive on earth what they were promised. They still don’t have, even not in paradise where they are now.

Hebrews 11:40. They shall obtain what is promised only when the Hebrews and we also will obtain it. And when will that be? When Christ comes and establishes the millennial kingdom of peace. That is “something better” what God has provided. The ‘better’ is always connected to Christ as the glorified Man in heaven. He obtained that place there from God, while He is rejected on earth.

To that Christ you are connected, while you live on earth. Abraham lived in faith on earth with a heavenly mind in his heart, while he was looking forward to a heavenly city. But he was not connected to heaven through a Christ Who is really seated there in glory and he didn’t share the rejection of Christ on earth. That is our share. Therefore the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the greatest among those who preceded (Matthew 11:11). Therefore God has waited to fulfill His promises. He didn’t want the Old Testament believers to be made perfect without us, which means to come to the wonderful place of taking part in the kingdom of Christ.

It is the privilege of all believers of all times to partake of the kingdom of Christ. But it is first of all the privilege of those who have partaken of the rejection of Christ. That are only the believers who are partakers of the church and not the believers from the time of the Old Testament or from the time after the rapture of the church.

The writer doesn’t go into detail about the special position of those believers. That is not the subject of this letter. From other letters we know that the church is connected to the Lord Jesus in a special way (e.g. Ephesians 1:10-11). In that way all who have lived in faith will be made perfect and God will fulfill His unchangeable promises to each of them.

Now read Hebrews 11:31-40 again.

Reflection: How did people manage to do such deeds of faith? How do you manage to do such deeds of faith?

1 Peter 3:18

Living by Faith (VI)

Hebrews 11:31. Not only is the faith of the people and its effect seen at Jericho. The capture of Jericho is also the cause for the manifestation of the faith of one individual from that city. The faith of Rahab shows that she chooses the people of God, while the power of her people was still completely intact and nothing of the claimed victory was yet to be seen with the people of God. But Rahab felt that God was with them. That determined her choice: a choice that was against the natural choice for her own people. In that way she is an example for the Hebrews who also had to choose for the apparently weak people of God and against their unbelieving, disobedient fellow countrymen.

What Rahab does, looks like treason, but it is a deed of faith. In that way she turns away from the world and from a life in sin to join the people of God. Her people knew from the great deeds of God, but they did not want to bow their knees to Him (Joshua 2:10). They resisted and rebelled. She disassociated herself from that. She made peace with the people of God by taking action to protect the spies. In that way she identified with them and disassociated herself from her fellow countrymen who are here called “those who were disobedient”. By accommodating the spies, she put her own life at risk. She connected her own fate to that of them. Her faith was abundantly rewarded. She even received a place in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

Hebrews 11:32. The writer could be going on like that, but he doesn’t pay attention to details anymore. Time would fail him if he did. Guided by the Spirit he mentions in general sense a number of examples. In those examples it becomes apparent how persevering their faith has been in all kinds of ways and how it has sustained believers in all kinds of suffering. One thing they all have in common: no one of them has received anything of what has been promised, as that also applied to the Hebrews to whom this letter is addressed.

Because the writer of the letter only mentions the names, I don’t want to go into detail about the history of the persons he mentions. You should read their history. Then it will often become clear to you why he mentions them. Sometimes it will also surprise you, after you have read their history, that he mentions them. But when God’s Spirit quotes names of believers from the Old Testament in the New Testament, it is – with one exception, that of Elijah (Romans 11:3-4) – always in a positive way. God sees further than what is described in outward history. He sees what is in the heart for Him, even when its practice sometimes falls short of that.

Let us take a look at the list. When the people are in the land, the time of the judges begins. Four of them are mentioned. Gideon and Barak have done their faith job in little strength. Also Samson and Jephthah have dealt in faith, but their work was obviously not flawless. In both couples the most important one is mentioned first, while chronologically the order is the other way around. Of all judges it is common that their liberations were only temporary. None of them were able to create a lasting peace.

After the time of the judges the time of the prophets and kings follows. Of the prophets Samuel is mentioned and of the kings David is mentioned. Here also the chronology is reversed. First David is mentioned, then Samuel. David was the king after God’s heart and Samuel was his forerunner.

The prophets spoke to the conscience of the people. They rather died than preaching a lie and they rather went with a good conscience to heaven than that they lived with a bad conscience on earth.

Although David was a king after God’s heart, he too didn’t manage to bring the people into the rest (Hebrews 4:7-8). The ultimate rest was for him also a matter of faith, of which the fulfillment was going to happen through Him, Who was both his Son (Matthew 1:1) and his Lord (Matthew 22:41-45).

Hebrews 11:33. After these names a number of deeds follows that were done by faith. I will try to add an example to each deed: 1. “conquered kingdoms”: judges and David; 2. “performed [acts of] righteousness”: maintaining righteousness by judges and kings; 3. “obtained promises”: this is possibly obtaining what was promised, but also to be promised something; 4. “shut the mouths of lions”: Daniel (Daniel 6:22-23), Samson, David, Benaiah; 5. Hebrews 11:34. ”quenched the power of fire”: the three friends of Daniel (Daniel 3) who indeed quenched the power of the fire, but not the fire itself, for others were consumed by it; 6. “escaped the edge of the sword”: David, Elijah (while others were killed by the sword, Hebrews 11:37); 7. “from weakness were made strong”: Gideon, Jonathan; they proved that the weakness of God is stronger than men; 8. “became mighty in war”: Asa, Jehoshaphat; 9. “put foreign armies to flight”: many judges and kings; 10. Hebrews 11:35 “Women received [back] their dead by resurrection”: the widow of Zarephath, the Shunammite.

In the just mentioned situations faith appeared to be effective in favor of the believers and sometimes even in a wonderful way. Now examples of situations follow in which faith is also effective for those who heavily suffer and are even killed. This suffering and death would be foolishness if death were indeed the end of everything.

1. They “were tortured, not accepting their release”: enduring cruel torture, while to faith an unacceptable offer to stop the torture is rejected; they believed in “a better resurrection” and were looking forward to that; 2. Hebrews 11:36. “experienced mockings and scourgings”; Jeremiah, heroes from the Maccabees; 3. “chains and imprisonment”: Jeremiah; Joseph; 4. Hebrews 11:37. “were stoned”: Stephen, Zechariah, Naboth; 5. “were sawn in two”, according to tradition: Isaiah by King Manasseh; 6. “were tempted”: were put under severe mental or physical pressure to deny their faith; were forced to compromise or to abjure something, in any case to deny their Lord; 7. “were put to death with the sword”: mass murder by the sword (Daniel 11:33b; Acts 12:1; Jeremiah 26:23, while others escaped the sword, Hebrews 11:34); 8. “went about in sheepskins, in goatskins”: Elijah, John; 9. “being destitute”: hunger and thirst; 10. “afflicted”: were ruled by strangers; 11. “ill-treated”: general torture; 12. Hebrews 11:38. “of whom the world was not worthy”: the world didn’t assign any value to people who lived this way; 13. “wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground”: these places have provided refuge to many men and women of faith without a home, while they were hunted as if they were wild beasts.

Hebrews 11:39. God has seen and noticed that all these believers persevered in faith till the end. They didn’t receive on earth what they were promised. They still don’t have, even not in paradise where they are now.

Hebrews 11:40. They shall obtain what is promised only when the Hebrews and we also will obtain it. And when will that be? When Christ comes and establishes the millennial kingdom of peace. That is “something better” what God has provided. The ‘better’ is always connected to Christ as the glorified Man in heaven. He obtained that place there from God, while He is rejected on earth.

To that Christ you are connected, while you live on earth. Abraham lived in faith on earth with a heavenly mind in his heart, while he was looking forward to a heavenly city. But he was not connected to heaven through a Christ Who is really seated there in glory and he didn’t share the rejection of Christ on earth. That is our share. Therefore the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the greatest among those who preceded (Matthew 11:11). Therefore God has waited to fulfill His promises. He didn’t want the Old Testament believers to be made perfect without us, which means to come to the wonderful place of taking part in the kingdom of Christ.

It is the privilege of all believers of all times to partake of the kingdom of Christ. But it is first of all the privilege of those who have partaken of the rejection of Christ. That are only the believers who are partakers of the church and not the believers from the time of the Old Testament or from the time after the rapture of the church.

The writer doesn’t go into detail about the special position of those believers. That is not the subject of this letter. From other letters we know that the church is connected to the Lord Jesus in a special way (e.g. Ephesians 1:10-11). In that way all who have lived in faith will be made perfect and God will fulfill His unchangeable promises to each of them.

Now read Hebrews 11:31-40 again.

Reflection: How did people manage to do such deeds of faith? How do you manage to do such deeds of faith?

1 Peter 3:19

Living by Faith (VI)

Hebrews 11:31. Not only is the faith of the people and its effect seen at Jericho. The capture of Jericho is also the cause for the manifestation of the faith of one individual from that city. The faith of Rahab shows that she chooses the people of God, while the power of her people was still completely intact and nothing of the claimed victory was yet to be seen with the people of God. But Rahab felt that God was with them. That determined her choice: a choice that was against the natural choice for her own people. In that way she is an example for the Hebrews who also had to choose for the apparently weak people of God and against their unbelieving, disobedient fellow countrymen.

What Rahab does, looks like treason, but it is a deed of faith. In that way she turns away from the world and from a life in sin to join the people of God. Her people knew from the great deeds of God, but they did not want to bow their knees to Him (Joshua 2:10). They resisted and rebelled. She disassociated herself from that. She made peace with the people of God by taking action to protect the spies. In that way she identified with them and disassociated herself from her fellow countrymen who are here called “those who were disobedient”. By accommodating the spies, she put her own life at risk. She connected her own fate to that of them. Her faith was abundantly rewarded. She even received a place in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

Hebrews 11:32. The writer could be going on like that, but he doesn’t pay attention to details anymore. Time would fail him if he did. Guided by the Spirit he mentions in general sense a number of examples. In those examples it becomes apparent how persevering their faith has been in all kinds of ways and how it has sustained believers in all kinds of suffering. One thing they all have in common: no one of them has received anything of what has been promised, as that also applied to the Hebrews to whom this letter is addressed.

Because the writer of the letter only mentions the names, I don’t want to go into detail about the history of the persons he mentions. You should read their history. Then it will often become clear to you why he mentions them. Sometimes it will also surprise you, after you have read their history, that he mentions them. But when God’s Spirit quotes names of believers from the Old Testament in the New Testament, it is – with one exception, that of Elijah (Romans 11:3-4) – always in a positive way. God sees further than what is described in outward history. He sees what is in the heart for Him, even when its practice sometimes falls short of that.

Let us take a look at the list. When the people are in the land, the time of the judges begins. Four of them are mentioned. Gideon and Barak have done their faith job in little strength. Also Samson and Jephthah have dealt in faith, but their work was obviously not flawless. In both couples the most important one is mentioned first, while chronologically the order is the other way around. Of all judges it is common that their liberations were only temporary. None of them were able to create a lasting peace.

After the time of the judges the time of the prophets and kings follows. Of the prophets Samuel is mentioned and of the kings David is mentioned. Here also the chronology is reversed. First David is mentioned, then Samuel. David was the king after God’s heart and Samuel was his forerunner.

The prophets spoke to the conscience of the people. They rather died than preaching a lie and they rather went with a good conscience to heaven than that they lived with a bad conscience on earth.

Although David was a king after God’s heart, he too didn’t manage to bring the people into the rest (Hebrews 4:7-8). The ultimate rest was for him also a matter of faith, of which the fulfillment was going to happen through Him, Who was both his Son (Matthew 1:1) and his Lord (Matthew 22:41-45).

Hebrews 11:33. After these names a number of deeds follows that were done by faith. I will try to add an example to each deed: 1. “conquered kingdoms”: judges and David; 2. “performed [acts of] righteousness”: maintaining righteousness by judges and kings; 3. “obtained promises”: this is possibly obtaining what was promised, but also to be promised something; 4. “shut the mouths of lions”: Daniel (Daniel 6:22-23), Samson, David, Benaiah; 5. Hebrews 11:34. ”quenched the power of fire”: the three friends of Daniel (Daniel 3) who indeed quenched the power of the fire, but not the fire itself, for others were consumed by it; 6. “escaped the edge of the sword”: David, Elijah (while others were killed by the sword, Hebrews 11:37); 7. “from weakness were made strong”: Gideon, Jonathan; they proved that the weakness of God is stronger than men; 8. “became mighty in war”: Asa, Jehoshaphat; 9. “put foreign armies to flight”: many judges and kings; 10. Hebrews 11:35 “Women received [back] their dead by resurrection”: the widow of Zarephath, the Shunammite.

In the just mentioned situations faith appeared to be effective in favor of the believers and sometimes even in a wonderful way. Now examples of situations follow in which faith is also effective for those who heavily suffer and are even killed. This suffering and death would be foolishness if death were indeed the end of everything.

1. They “were tortured, not accepting their release”: enduring cruel torture, while to faith an unacceptable offer to stop the torture is rejected; they believed in “a better resurrection” and were looking forward to that; 2. Hebrews 11:36. “experienced mockings and scourgings”; Jeremiah, heroes from the Maccabees; 3. “chains and imprisonment”: Jeremiah; Joseph; 4. Hebrews 11:37. “were stoned”: Stephen, Zechariah, Naboth; 5. “were sawn in two”, according to tradition: Isaiah by King Manasseh; 6. “were tempted”: were put under severe mental or physical pressure to deny their faith; were forced to compromise or to abjure something, in any case to deny their Lord; 7. “were put to death with the sword”: mass murder by the sword (Daniel 11:33b; Acts 12:1; Jeremiah 26:23, while others escaped the sword, Hebrews 11:34); 8. “went about in sheepskins, in goatskins”: Elijah, John; 9. “being destitute”: hunger and thirst; 10. “afflicted”: were ruled by strangers; 11. “ill-treated”: general torture; 12. Hebrews 11:38. “of whom the world was not worthy”: the world didn’t assign any value to people who lived this way; 13. “wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground”: these places have provided refuge to many men and women of faith without a home, while they were hunted as if they were wild beasts.

Hebrews 11:39. God has seen and noticed that all these believers persevered in faith till the end. They didn’t receive on earth what they were promised. They still don’t have, even not in paradise where they are now.

Hebrews 11:40. They shall obtain what is promised only when the Hebrews and we also will obtain it. And when will that be? When Christ comes and establishes the millennial kingdom of peace. That is “something better” what God has provided. The ‘better’ is always connected to Christ as the glorified Man in heaven. He obtained that place there from God, while He is rejected on earth.

To that Christ you are connected, while you live on earth. Abraham lived in faith on earth with a heavenly mind in his heart, while he was looking forward to a heavenly city. But he was not connected to heaven through a Christ Who is really seated there in glory and he didn’t share the rejection of Christ on earth. That is our share. Therefore the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the greatest among those who preceded (Matthew 11:11). Therefore God has waited to fulfill His promises. He didn’t want the Old Testament believers to be made perfect without us, which means to come to the wonderful place of taking part in the kingdom of Christ.

It is the privilege of all believers of all times to partake of the kingdom of Christ. But it is first of all the privilege of those who have partaken of the rejection of Christ. That are only the believers who are partakers of the church and not the believers from the time of the Old Testament or from the time after the rapture of the church.

The writer doesn’t go into detail about the special position of those believers. That is not the subject of this letter. From other letters we know that the church is connected to the Lord Jesus in a special way (e.g. Ephesians 1:10-11). In that way all who have lived in faith will be made perfect and God will fulfill His unchangeable promises to each of them.

Now read Hebrews 11:31-40 again.

Reflection: How did people manage to do such deeds of faith? How do you manage to do such deeds of faith?

1 Peter 3:20

Living by Faith (VI)

Hebrews 11:31. Not only is the faith of the people and its effect seen at Jericho. The capture of Jericho is also the cause for the manifestation of the faith of one individual from that city. The faith of Rahab shows that she chooses the people of God, while the power of her people was still completely intact and nothing of the claimed victory was yet to be seen with the people of God. But Rahab felt that God was with them. That determined her choice: a choice that was against the natural choice for her own people. In that way she is an example for the Hebrews who also had to choose for the apparently weak people of God and against their unbelieving, disobedient fellow countrymen.

What Rahab does, looks like treason, but it is a deed of faith. In that way she turns away from the world and from a life in sin to join the people of God. Her people knew from the great deeds of God, but they did not want to bow their knees to Him (Joshua 2:10). They resisted and rebelled. She disassociated herself from that. She made peace with the people of God by taking action to protect the spies. In that way she identified with them and disassociated herself from her fellow countrymen who are here called “those who were disobedient”. By accommodating the spies, she put her own life at risk. She connected her own fate to that of them. Her faith was abundantly rewarded. She even received a place in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

Hebrews 11:32. The writer could be going on like that, but he doesn’t pay attention to details anymore. Time would fail him if he did. Guided by the Spirit he mentions in general sense a number of examples. In those examples it becomes apparent how persevering their faith has been in all kinds of ways and how it has sustained believers in all kinds of suffering. One thing they all have in common: no one of them has received anything of what has been promised, as that also applied to the Hebrews to whom this letter is addressed.

Because the writer of the letter only mentions the names, I don’t want to go into detail about the history of the persons he mentions. You should read their history. Then it will often become clear to you why he mentions them. Sometimes it will also surprise you, after you have read their history, that he mentions them. But when God’s Spirit quotes names of believers from the Old Testament in the New Testament, it is – with one exception, that of Elijah (Romans 11:3-4) – always in a positive way. God sees further than what is described in outward history. He sees what is in the heart for Him, even when its practice sometimes falls short of that.

Let us take a look at the list. When the people are in the land, the time of the judges begins. Four of them are mentioned. Gideon and Barak have done their faith job in little strength. Also Samson and Jephthah have dealt in faith, but their work was obviously not flawless. In both couples the most important one is mentioned first, while chronologically the order is the other way around. Of all judges it is common that their liberations were only temporary. None of them were able to create a lasting peace.

After the time of the judges the time of the prophets and kings follows. Of the prophets Samuel is mentioned and of the kings David is mentioned. Here also the chronology is reversed. First David is mentioned, then Samuel. David was the king after God’s heart and Samuel was his forerunner.

The prophets spoke to the conscience of the people. They rather died than preaching a lie and they rather went with a good conscience to heaven than that they lived with a bad conscience on earth.

Although David was a king after God’s heart, he too didn’t manage to bring the people into the rest (Hebrews 4:7-8). The ultimate rest was for him also a matter of faith, of which the fulfillment was going to happen through Him, Who was both his Son (Matthew 1:1) and his Lord (Matthew 22:41-45).

Hebrews 11:33. After these names a number of deeds follows that were done by faith. I will try to add an example to each deed: 1. “conquered kingdoms”: judges and David; 2. “performed [acts of] righteousness”: maintaining righteousness by judges and kings; 3. “obtained promises”: this is possibly obtaining what was promised, but also to be promised something; 4. “shut the mouths of lions”: Daniel (Daniel 6:22-23), Samson, David, Benaiah; 5. Hebrews 11:34. ”quenched the power of fire”: the three friends of Daniel (Daniel 3) who indeed quenched the power of the fire, but not the fire itself, for others were consumed by it; 6. “escaped the edge of the sword”: David, Elijah (while others were killed by the sword, Hebrews 11:37); 7. “from weakness were made strong”: Gideon, Jonathan; they proved that the weakness of God is stronger than men; 8. “became mighty in war”: Asa, Jehoshaphat; 9. “put foreign armies to flight”: many judges and kings; 10. Hebrews 11:35 “Women received [back] their dead by resurrection”: the widow of Zarephath, the Shunammite.

In the just mentioned situations faith appeared to be effective in favor of the believers and sometimes even in a wonderful way. Now examples of situations follow in which faith is also effective for those who heavily suffer and are even killed. This suffering and death would be foolishness if death were indeed the end of everything.

1. They “were tortured, not accepting their release”: enduring cruel torture, while to faith an unacceptable offer to stop the torture is rejected; they believed in “a better resurrection” and were looking forward to that; 2. Hebrews 11:36. “experienced mockings and scourgings”; Jeremiah, heroes from the Maccabees; 3. “chains and imprisonment”: Jeremiah; Joseph; 4. Hebrews 11:37. “were stoned”: Stephen, Zechariah, Naboth; 5. “were sawn in two”, according to tradition: Isaiah by King Manasseh; 6. “were tempted”: were put under severe mental or physical pressure to deny their faith; were forced to compromise or to abjure something, in any case to deny their Lord; 7. “were put to death with the sword”: mass murder by the sword (Daniel 11:33b; Acts 12:1; Jeremiah 26:23, while others escaped the sword, Hebrews 11:34); 8. “went about in sheepskins, in goatskins”: Elijah, John; 9. “being destitute”: hunger and thirst; 10. “afflicted”: were ruled by strangers; 11. “ill-treated”: general torture; 12. Hebrews 11:38. “of whom the world was not worthy”: the world didn’t assign any value to people who lived this way; 13. “wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground”: these places have provided refuge to many men and women of faith without a home, while they were hunted as if they were wild beasts.

Hebrews 11:39. God has seen and noticed that all these believers persevered in faith till the end. They didn’t receive on earth what they were promised. They still don’t have, even not in paradise where they are now.

Hebrews 11:40. They shall obtain what is promised only when the Hebrews and we also will obtain it. And when will that be? When Christ comes and establishes the millennial kingdom of peace. That is “something better” what God has provided. The ‘better’ is always connected to Christ as the glorified Man in heaven. He obtained that place there from God, while He is rejected on earth.

To that Christ you are connected, while you live on earth. Abraham lived in faith on earth with a heavenly mind in his heart, while he was looking forward to a heavenly city. But he was not connected to heaven through a Christ Who is really seated there in glory and he didn’t share the rejection of Christ on earth. That is our share. Therefore the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the greatest among those who preceded (Matthew 11:11). Therefore God has waited to fulfill His promises. He didn’t want the Old Testament believers to be made perfect without us, which means to come to the wonderful place of taking part in the kingdom of Christ.

It is the privilege of all believers of all times to partake of the kingdom of Christ. But it is first of all the privilege of those who have partaken of the rejection of Christ. That are only the believers who are partakers of the church and not the believers from the time of the Old Testament or from the time after the rapture of the church.

The writer doesn’t go into detail about the special position of those believers. That is not the subject of this letter. From other letters we know that the church is connected to the Lord Jesus in a special way (e.g. Ephesians 1:10-11). In that way all who have lived in faith will be made perfect and God will fulfill His unchangeable promises to each of them.

Now read Hebrews 11:31-40 again.

Reflection: How did people manage to do such deeds of faith? How do you manage to do such deeds of faith?

1 Peter 3:21

Living by Faith (VI)

Hebrews 11:31. Not only is the faith of the people and its effect seen at Jericho. The capture of Jericho is also the cause for the manifestation of the faith of one individual from that city. The faith of Rahab shows that she chooses the people of God, while the power of her people was still completely intact and nothing of the claimed victory was yet to be seen with the people of God. But Rahab felt that God was with them. That determined her choice: a choice that was against the natural choice for her own people. In that way she is an example for the Hebrews who also had to choose for the apparently weak people of God and against their unbelieving, disobedient fellow countrymen.

What Rahab does, looks like treason, but it is a deed of faith. In that way she turns away from the world and from a life in sin to join the people of God. Her people knew from the great deeds of God, but they did not want to bow their knees to Him (Joshua 2:10). They resisted and rebelled. She disassociated herself from that. She made peace with the people of God by taking action to protect the spies. In that way she identified with them and disassociated herself from her fellow countrymen who are here called “those who were disobedient”. By accommodating the spies, she put her own life at risk. She connected her own fate to that of them. Her faith was abundantly rewarded. She even received a place in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

Hebrews 11:32. The writer could be going on like that, but he doesn’t pay attention to details anymore. Time would fail him if he did. Guided by the Spirit he mentions in general sense a number of examples. In those examples it becomes apparent how persevering their faith has been in all kinds of ways and how it has sustained believers in all kinds of suffering. One thing they all have in common: no one of them has received anything of what has been promised, as that also applied to the Hebrews to whom this letter is addressed.

Because the writer of the letter only mentions the names, I don’t want to go into detail about the history of the persons he mentions. You should read their history. Then it will often become clear to you why he mentions them. Sometimes it will also surprise you, after you have read their history, that he mentions them. But when God’s Spirit quotes names of believers from the Old Testament in the New Testament, it is – with one exception, that of Elijah (Romans 11:3-4) – always in a positive way. God sees further than what is described in outward history. He sees what is in the heart for Him, even when its practice sometimes falls short of that.

Let us take a look at the list. When the people are in the land, the time of the judges begins. Four of them are mentioned. Gideon and Barak have done their faith job in little strength. Also Samson and Jephthah have dealt in faith, but their work was obviously not flawless. In both couples the most important one is mentioned first, while chronologically the order is the other way around. Of all judges it is common that their liberations were only temporary. None of them were able to create a lasting peace.

After the time of the judges the time of the prophets and kings follows. Of the prophets Samuel is mentioned and of the kings David is mentioned. Here also the chronology is reversed. First David is mentioned, then Samuel. David was the king after God’s heart and Samuel was his forerunner.

The prophets spoke to the conscience of the people. They rather died than preaching a lie and they rather went with a good conscience to heaven than that they lived with a bad conscience on earth.

Although David was a king after God’s heart, he too didn’t manage to bring the people into the rest (Hebrews 4:7-8). The ultimate rest was for him also a matter of faith, of which the fulfillment was going to happen through Him, Who was both his Son (Matthew 1:1) and his Lord (Matthew 22:41-45).

Hebrews 11:33. After these names a number of deeds follows that were done by faith. I will try to add an example to each deed: 1. “conquered kingdoms”: judges and David; 2. “performed [acts of] righteousness”: maintaining righteousness by judges and kings; 3. “obtained promises”: this is possibly obtaining what was promised, but also to be promised something; 4. “shut the mouths of lions”: Daniel (Daniel 6:22-23), Samson, David, Benaiah; 5. Hebrews 11:34. ”quenched the power of fire”: the three friends of Daniel (Daniel 3) who indeed quenched the power of the fire, but not the fire itself, for others were consumed by it; 6. “escaped the edge of the sword”: David, Elijah (while others were killed by the sword, Hebrews 11:37); 7. “from weakness were made strong”: Gideon, Jonathan; they proved that the weakness of God is stronger than men; 8. “became mighty in war”: Asa, Jehoshaphat; 9. “put foreign armies to flight”: many judges and kings; 10. Hebrews 11:35 “Women received [back] their dead by resurrection”: the widow of Zarephath, the Shunammite.

In the just mentioned situations faith appeared to be effective in favor of the believers and sometimes even in a wonderful way. Now examples of situations follow in which faith is also effective for those who heavily suffer and are even killed. This suffering and death would be foolishness if death were indeed the end of everything.

1. They “were tortured, not accepting their release”: enduring cruel torture, while to faith an unacceptable offer to stop the torture is rejected; they believed in “a better resurrection” and were looking forward to that; 2. Hebrews 11:36. “experienced mockings and scourgings”; Jeremiah, heroes from the Maccabees; 3. “chains and imprisonment”: Jeremiah; Joseph; 4. Hebrews 11:37. “were stoned”: Stephen, Zechariah, Naboth; 5. “were sawn in two”, according to tradition: Isaiah by King Manasseh; 6. “were tempted”: were put under severe mental or physical pressure to deny their faith; were forced to compromise or to abjure something, in any case to deny their Lord; 7. “were put to death with the sword”: mass murder by the sword (Daniel 11:33b; Acts 12:1; Jeremiah 26:23, while others escaped the sword, Hebrews 11:34); 8. “went about in sheepskins, in goatskins”: Elijah, John; 9. “being destitute”: hunger and thirst; 10. “afflicted”: were ruled by strangers; 11. “ill-treated”: general torture; 12. Hebrews 11:38. “of whom the world was not worthy”: the world didn’t assign any value to people who lived this way; 13. “wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground”: these places have provided refuge to many men and women of faith without a home, while they were hunted as if they were wild beasts.

Hebrews 11:39. God has seen and noticed that all these believers persevered in faith till the end. They didn’t receive on earth what they were promised. They still don’t have, even not in paradise where they are now.

Hebrews 11:40. They shall obtain what is promised only when the Hebrews and we also will obtain it. And when will that be? When Christ comes and establishes the millennial kingdom of peace. That is “something better” what God has provided. The ‘better’ is always connected to Christ as the glorified Man in heaven. He obtained that place there from God, while He is rejected on earth.

To that Christ you are connected, while you live on earth. Abraham lived in faith on earth with a heavenly mind in his heart, while he was looking forward to a heavenly city. But he was not connected to heaven through a Christ Who is really seated there in glory and he didn’t share the rejection of Christ on earth. That is our share. Therefore the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the greatest among those who preceded (Matthew 11:11). Therefore God has waited to fulfill His promises. He didn’t want the Old Testament believers to be made perfect without us, which means to come to the wonderful place of taking part in the kingdom of Christ.

It is the privilege of all believers of all times to partake of the kingdom of Christ. But it is first of all the privilege of those who have partaken of the rejection of Christ. That are only the believers who are partakers of the church and not the believers from the time of the Old Testament or from the time after the rapture of the church.

The writer doesn’t go into detail about the special position of those believers. That is not the subject of this letter. From other letters we know that the church is connected to the Lord Jesus in a special way (e.g. Ephesians 1:10-11). In that way all who have lived in faith will be made perfect and God will fulfill His unchangeable promises to each of them.

Now read Hebrews 11:31-40 again.

Reflection: How did people manage to do such deeds of faith? How do you manage to do such deeds of faith?

1 Peter 3:22

Living by Faith (VI)

Hebrews 11:31. Not only is the faith of the people and its effect seen at Jericho. The capture of Jericho is also the cause for the manifestation of the faith of one individual from that city. The faith of Rahab shows that she chooses the people of God, while the power of her people was still completely intact and nothing of the claimed victory was yet to be seen with the people of God. But Rahab felt that God was with them. That determined her choice: a choice that was against the natural choice for her own people. In that way she is an example for the Hebrews who also had to choose for the apparently weak people of God and against their unbelieving, disobedient fellow countrymen.

What Rahab does, looks like treason, but it is a deed of faith. In that way she turns away from the world and from a life in sin to join the people of God. Her people knew from the great deeds of God, but they did not want to bow their knees to Him (Joshua 2:10). They resisted and rebelled. She disassociated herself from that. She made peace with the people of God by taking action to protect the spies. In that way she identified with them and disassociated herself from her fellow countrymen who are here called “those who were disobedient”. By accommodating the spies, she put her own life at risk. She connected her own fate to that of them. Her faith was abundantly rewarded. She even received a place in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

Hebrews 11:32. The writer could be going on like that, but he doesn’t pay attention to details anymore. Time would fail him if he did. Guided by the Spirit he mentions in general sense a number of examples. In those examples it becomes apparent how persevering their faith has been in all kinds of ways and how it has sustained believers in all kinds of suffering. One thing they all have in common: no one of them has received anything of what has been promised, as that also applied to the Hebrews to whom this letter is addressed.

Because the writer of the letter only mentions the names, I don’t want to go into detail about the history of the persons he mentions. You should read their history. Then it will often become clear to you why he mentions them. Sometimes it will also surprise you, after you have read their history, that he mentions them. But when God’s Spirit quotes names of believers from the Old Testament in the New Testament, it is – with one exception, that of Elijah (Romans 11:3-4) – always in a positive way. God sees further than what is described in outward history. He sees what is in the heart for Him, even when its practice sometimes falls short of that.

Let us take a look at the list. When the people are in the land, the time of the judges begins. Four of them are mentioned. Gideon and Barak have done their faith job in little strength. Also Samson and Jephthah have dealt in faith, but their work was obviously not flawless. In both couples the most important one is mentioned first, while chronologically the order is the other way around. Of all judges it is common that their liberations were only temporary. None of them were able to create a lasting peace.

After the time of the judges the time of the prophets and kings follows. Of the prophets Samuel is mentioned and of the kings David is mentioned. Here also the chronology is reversed. First David is mentioned, then Samuel. David was the king after God’s heart and Samuel was his forerunner.

The prophets spoke to the conscience of the people. They rather died than preaching a lie and they rather went with a good conscience to heaven than that they lived with a bad conscience on earth.

Although David was a king after God’s heart, he too didn’t manage to bring the people into the rest (Hebrews 4:7-8). The ultimate rest was for him also a matter of faith, of which the fulfillment was going to happen through Him, Who was both his Son (Matthew 1:1) and his Lord (Matthew 22:41-45).

Hebrews 11:33. After these names a number of deeds follows that were done by faith. I will try to add an example to each deed: 1. “conquered kingdoms”: judges and David; 2. “performed [acts of] righteousness”: maintaining righteousness by judges and kings; 3. “obtained promises”: this is possibly obtaining what was promised, but also to be promised something; 4. “shut the mouths of lions”: Daniel (Daniel 6:22-23), Samson, David, Benaiah; 5. Hebrews 11:34. ”quenched the power of fire”: the three friends of Daniel (Daniel 3) who indeed quenched the power of the fire, but not the fire itself, for others were consumed by it; 6. “escaped the edge of the sword”: David, Elijah (while others were killed by the sword, Hebrews 11:37); 7. “from weakness were made strong”: Gideon, Jonathan; they proved that the weakness of God is stronger than men; 8. “became mighty in war”: Asa, Jehoshaphat; 9. “put foreign armies to flight”: many judges and kings; 10. Hebrews 11:35 “Women received [back] their dead by resurrection”: the widow of Zarephath, the Shunammite.

In the just mentioned situations faith appeared to be effective in favor of the believers and sometimes even in a wonderful way. Now examples of situations follow in which faith is also effective for those who heavily suffer and are even killed. This suffering and death would be foolishness if death were indeed the end of everything.

1. They “were tortured, not accepting their release”: enduring cruel torture, while to faith an unacceptable offer to stop the torture is rejected; they believed in “a better resurrection” and were looking forward to that; 2. Hebrews 11:36. “experienced mockings and scourgings”; Jeremiah, heroes from the Maccabees; 3. “chains and imprisonment”: Jeremiah; Joseph; 4. Hebrews 11:37. “were stoned”: Stephen, Zechariah, Naboth; 5. “were sawn in two”, according to tradition: Isaiah by King Manasseh; 6. “were tempted”: were put under severe mental or physical pressure to deny their faith; were forced to compromise or to abjure something, in any case to deny their Lord; 7. “were put to death with the sword”: mass murder by the sword (Daniel 11:33b; Acts 12:1; Jeremiah 26:23, while others escaped the sword, Hebrews 11:34); 8. “went about in sheepskins, in goatskins”: Elijah, John; 9. “being destitute”: hunger and thirst; 10. “afflicted”: were ruled by strangers; 11. “ill-treated”: general torture; 12. Hebrews 11:38. “of whom the world was not worthy”: the world didn’t assign any value to people who lived this way; 13. “wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground”: these places have provided refuge to many men and women of faith without a home, while they were hunted as if they were wild beasts.

Hebrews 11:39. God has seen and noticed that all these believers persevered in faith till the end. They didn’t receive on earth what they were promised. They still don’t have, even not in paradise where they are now.

Hebrews 11:40. They shall obtain what is promised only when the Hebrews and we also will obtain it. And when will that be? When Christ comes and establishes the millennial kingdom of peace. That is “something better” what God has provided. The ‘better’ is always connected to Christ as the glorified Man in heaven. He obtained that place there from God, while He is rejected on earth.

To that Christ you are connected, while you live on earth. Abraham lived in faith on earth with a heavenly mind in his heart, while he was looking forward to a heavenly city. But he was not connected to heaven through a Christ Who is really seated there in glory and he didn’t share the rejection of Christ on earth. That is our share. Therefore the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the greatest among those who preceded (Matthew 11:11). Therefore God has waited to fulfill His promises. He didn’t want the Old Testament believers to be made perfect without us, which means to come to the wonderful place of taking part in the kingdom of Christ.

It is the privilege of all believers of all times to partake of the kingdom of Christ. But it is first of all the privilege of those who have partaken of the rejection of Christ. That are only the believers who are partakers of the church and not the believers from the time of the Old Testament or from the time after the rapture of the church.

The writer doesn’t go into detail about the special position of those believers. That is not the subject of this letter. From other letters we know that the church is connected to the Lord Jesus in a special way (e.g. Ephesians 1:10-11). In that way all who have lived in faith will be made perfect and God will fulfill His unchangeable promises to each of them.

Now read Hebrews 11:31-40 again.

Reflection: How did people manage to do such deeds of faith? How do you manage to do such deeds of faith?