Hebrews 11:17-40

Examples of Faith

When we think of faith we tend to think of obvious victories. The think of the time the check came in the mail. The time when the doctors said, “No hope,” yet the recovery took place anyway. The time when defeat seemed unavoidable, yet it was avoided. These are the things we thing of. Let’s look at what the writer of Hebrews thinks of.

He thinks of a father who was willing to totally give God his son even though everything God had promised depended of that son. He thinks of a young prince who decided to forfeit the prerogatives of power and position and chose persecution instead. He thinks of a prostitute who believed God enough to welcome enemy spies into her home because she understood that being on God’s side was more important than national allegiance. 

These are the examples God gives us of His idea of faith. Even when talking about the incident at the Red Sea we aren’t told that Moses’ faith parted the sea. God parted the sea. By faith Moses walked between the walls of parted water. By faith the walls of Jericho fell, but that wasn’t te point of the faith. Joshua didn’t go to God and tell Him he wanted the walls to fall down. God came up with that plan. Israel’s faith was in following God’s plan. 

We need a different perspective on faith. We need to see that it is not the magic power, but rather it is the process of making daily decisions based on believing that God is there, He is real, and He will prevail even in apparent defeat.

Abraham was able to offer Isaac because he believed that God could raise the dead. God was able to offer His Son because He can raise the dead. These heroes of the faith listed in Hebrews eleven did not receive the full promise of their faith but they believed, and we can believe as well that God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.