The Christ Church Wednesday Bible Study Group is doing a study through the New Testament book of Hebrews. The word better is used thirteen times in the book of Hebrews as the writer shows the superiority of Christ and His salvation over the Hebrew system of religion. Jesus Christ and the Christian life He gives us are better because His blessings are eternal and they give us perfect standing before God. This study is not a diet for “spiritual babes” who want to be spoon-fed and coddled. In this letter you will find “strong meat” that demands some chewing and enjoying.
Chapter 11 which identifies Hebrew heroes of faith never mentions the mistakes that these people made. We know that they did because when we read their stories in the Old Testament they blew it sometimes and sometimes it was really bad. But they had faith and the kind of faith that they were commended for. So if you’ve messed up, if you’ve said or done something you’re ashamed of, here’s the good news: God gives second chances.
These are the notes to Session 15
Our faith in God is like spiritual glasses through which we view the world around us. Our physical eyesight may not detect His almighty hand working in the events and situations of life, but faith looks beyond the externals to the truth and promises of Scripture.
Our foundation of assurance is built upon God’s Word and our experiences of His trustworthiness. We have no cause for worry or uncertainty because the Lord of the universe is sovereign over every event under heaven, and that includes the details of our lives. Philippians 4:6-7 tells us not to be anxious; instead, we’re to bring our concerns and requests to God with thanksgiving, trusting Him to work it all out according to His will. Then His peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Abel—faith worshipping (v. 4).
Enoch—faith walking (vv. 5–6).
Noah—faith working (v. 7).
The patriarchs—faith waiting (vv. 8–22).
Moses—faith warring (vv. 23–29).
Joshua and Rahab—faith winning (vv. 30–31).
Hebrews 11:30 NIV By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.
The account of the conquest of Jericho is found in Joshua 2—6. Joshua was Moses’ successor as leader of Israel, and he succeeded because he trusted the same God that Moses had trusted.
God changes His workmen, but He does not change His principles of operation. He blesses faith and He judges unbelief. Joshua’s first act of faith was not the defeat of the city, but the crossing of the Jordan River. By faith, the nation crossed the river just as the previous generation had crossed the Red Sea.
We talked about that last week so let's move on to Rahab.
Hebrews 11:31 NIV By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
Rahab was a harlot, an unlikely person to put faith in the true God of Israel. She was saved by grace, because the other inhabitants of the city were marked out for death.
Joshua 6:17, 21-23 NIV The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord . Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.
God in His mercy and grace permitted Rahab to live. But she was saved by faith. What she knew about God is recorded in Joshua 2:8–14.
Joshua 2:8-14 NIV Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.” “Our lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.”
Verse 11 is her testimony of faith
Joshua 2:11 NIV When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
God honored that testimony. She was saved.
She protected the spies, put the cord in the window as directed (Josh. 2:15–21), apparently won her family to the true faith (Josh. 2:13; 6:25), and in every way obeyed the Lord. Not only was Rahab delivered from judgment, but she became a part of the nation of Israel. She married Salmon and gave birth to Boaz who was an ancestor of King David.
Matthew 1:4-6 NIV Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
Imagine a pagan harlot becoming a part of the ancestry of Jesus Christ! That is what faith can do! Rahab knew very little spiritual truth, but she acted on what she did know.
Various other heroes of faith (vv. 32–40)
Hebrews 11:32-40 NIV And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Faith can operate in the life of any person who will dare to listen to God’s Word and surrender to God’s will. What a variety of personalities we have here! Gideon was a frightened farmer whose faith did not grow strong right away (Judg. 6:11—7:25). Barak won a resounding victory over Sisera, but he needed Deborah the prophetess as his helper to assure him (see Judg. 4:1—5:31). Both Gideon and Barak are encouragements to us who falter in our faith.
The story of Samson is familiar (Judg. 13—16). We would not call Samson a godly man, for he yielded to his fleshly appetites. He was a Nazarite, which meant he was dedicated to God and was never to cut his hair or partake of the fruit of the vine. (A Nazarite should not be confused with a Nazarene, a resident of Nazareth.) Samson did trust God to help and deliver him and, in the end, Samson was willing to give his life to defeat the enemy.
Jephthah’s story is fascinating (Judg. 11:1—12:7).
I want us just to read a portion
Judges 11:30-35 NIV And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord : “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord ’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon. When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.”
It is unlikely that he sacrificed his only daughter as a burnt offering, for this was forbidden in Israel.
Leviticus 20:2-5 NIV “Say to the Israelites: ‘Any Israelite or any foreigner residing in Israel who sacrifices any of his children to Molek is to be put to death. The members of the community are to stone him. I myself will set my face against him and will cut him off from his people; for by sacrificing his children to Molek, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. If the members of the community close their eyes when that man sacrifices one of his children to Molek and if they fail to put him to death, I myself will set my face against him and his family and will cut them off from their people together with all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molek.
Probably he dedicated her to the Lord on the basis of the “law of vows”
Deuteronomy 23:21-23 NIV If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the Lord your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty. Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the Lord your God with your own mouth.
dedicating her to perpetual virginity
Judges 11:34-40 NIV When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.” “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord . Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.” “You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin. From this comes the Israelite tradition that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadit.
It is not possible for us to examine each example of faith, and even the writer of Hebrews stopped citing names after he mentioned David and Samuel, who were certainly great men of faith. There are examples in the Old Testament of men and women who won the victories referred to in Hebrews 11:33–35.
Hebrews 11:33-35 NIV who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection.
David certainly subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness. Daniel’s faith “stopped the mouths of lions” (see Dan. 6), and the three Hebrew children overcame the power of the fiery furnace (Dan. 3:23–28).
Hebrews 11:35-38 NIV Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
The women of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11:35 have their stories given in 1 Kings 17:17–24
1 Kings 17:17-24 NIV Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord , “ Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord , “ Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!” Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”
and 2 Kings 4:18–37 the story about the Shunammites' son who was restored to life by Elisha's prayer
2 Kings 4:18-20, 32-35 NIV The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. He said to his father, “My head! My head!” His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the Lord . Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm. Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
The transition in Hebrews 11:35 is important: Not all men and women of faith experienced miraculous deliverance. Some were tortured and died!
These “others” had faith, but God did not see fit to deal with them in the same way he dealt with Moses, Gideon, and David.
Many unknown men and women of faith were not delivered from difficult circumstances, yet God honored their faith. In fact, it takes more faith to endure than it does to escape. Like the three Hebrew children, we should trust God and obey Him even if He does not deliver us.
Daniel 3:16-18 NIV Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Man’s estimate of these heroes of faith was a low one, so men persecuted them, arrested them, tortured them, and in some cases, killed them. But God’s estimate is entirely different. He said that the world was not worthy of these people!
Faith enables us to turn from the approval of the world and seek only the approval of God. If God is glorified by delivering His people, He will do it. If He sees fit to be glorified by not delivering His people, then He will do that. But we must never conclude that the absence of deliverance means a lack of faith on the part of God’s children.
Faith looks to the future, for that is where the greatest rewards are found. The people named and un-named in this chapter did not receive “the promises” but they had God’s witness to their faith that one day they would be rewarded.
Hebrews 11:13-16 NIV All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
We today should give thanks for these saints of old, for they were faithful during difficult times, and yet we are the ones who have received the “better blessing.” They saw some of these blessings afar off, but we enjoy them today through Jesus Christ. If the saints of old had not trusted God and obeyed His will, Israel would have perished and the Messiah would not have been born.
“Without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (Heb. 11:6). But this kind of faith grows as we listen to His Word, and fellowship in worship and prayer.
Romans 10:17 NIV Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.
Faith is possible to all kinds of believers in all kinds of situations. It is not a luxury for a few elite saints. It is a necessity for all of God’s people.
Did you notice that here in Hebrews there is no mention of the mistakes that these people made. We know that they did because when we read their stories in the Old Testament they blew it sometimes and sometimes it was really bad. But they had faith and the kind of faith that it says in verse 2 in the NIV “This is what the ancients were commended for.” So if you’ve messed up, if you’ve said or done something you’re ashamed of, here’s the good news: God gives second chances.
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