christianity – Page 4 – Grace Still Amazes

Run the Race Before You, part 1 (Hebrews 12:1-3)

What is your perception of the Christian life? Many people think that becoming a Christian means that their lives will be better in every way and if not every day, almost every day. Unfortunately that is sometimes communicated in the gospel presentation. “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” if not placed in a larger context can miscommunicate the reality that the Christian life is a battle, a marathon, something that requires dedication and hard work. Jesus presented it as denying ourselves and taking up our crosses.

This doesn’t mean that it is “all work and no play,” but unfortunately too many Christians have understood the Christian life to consist of a decision to trust Christ followed by a life that then focuses on ourselves and our own desires.

Our author in Hebrews has been showing us that the life that pleases God is a life of faith, a faith that believes God’s promises and therefore obeys His commands. Sometimes that does lead to miraculous deliverances, at other times suffering and death. Our author marches out example after example of faithful men and women in order to motivate his readers (and us today) that we, too, can maintain a bold and determined faith. In particular, our author did not want his readers to abandon faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ has been a primary theme in the first ten chapters, constantly showing how Christ was better than the prophets, the angels and the Aaronic priesthood. He provides a better sacrifice and enacts a better covenant. And although Jesus was not mentioned in Hebrews 11, our author gets back to Jesus in Hebrews 12. He is the greatest example of someone who not only possessed enduring faith, but possessed it to the utmost extreme.

Verses 1-3 in Hebrews 12 say…

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

“Look to Jesus,” “consider Him,” this is the primary focus of our Christian race. One of the key metaphors of the Christian life is that it is a race. The Bible uses the image of a race to describe the Christian life in several places, including Hebrews 12:1, 1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Timothy 2:5; 4:7–8, 1 Corinthians 9:24–27, and Philippians 3:13–14.

From these verses we know that we must “compete according to the rules,” exercise self-control and discipline, keep our eyes focused on the finish line, and run for heavenly rewards. Unlike normal races, we are not racing against other Christians and this race lasts for a lifetime. We cannot just meander or coast or go with the flow, but must run with focused determination toward the goal of Christ-likeness.

Race is the Greek agon, from which we get agony. A race is not a thing of passive luxury, but is demanding, sometimes grueling and agonizing, and requires our utmost in self-discipline, determination, and perseverance. (John MacArthur, Jr., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary–Hebrews, 372-3)

Sometimes the metaphor chosen to illustrate the Christian life is “walk,” but here it is the agonizing “run.” We only “run” when we are very anxious to get to a certain place, when there is some attraction stimulating us. That word “run” then presupposes the heart eagerly set upon the goal (Arthur W. Pink, An Exposition of Hebrews, 895). “It is the writer’s hope that the joy set before us is so attractive, we will give no thought to the pain or shame that goes with standing firm for Christ all the way to the end” (C.S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Hebrews, 295).

Hopefully when we come to the end of our lives we will be able to say with Paul: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). As John Piper says, “Paul knows nothing of coasting Christianity. Paul simply does not recognize a Christianity that is not running a race and fighting a fight.” Or, as A. W. Tozer so presciently warns, “complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.”

“The Christian is not called to lie down on flowery beds of ease, but to run a race, and athletics are strenuous, demanding self-sacrifice, hard training, the putting forth of every ounce of energy possessed. I am afraid that in this work-hating and pleasure-loving age, we do not keep this aspect of the truth sufficiently before us: we take things too placidly and lazily. The charge which God brought against Israel of old applies very largely to Christendom today: ‘Woe to them that are at ease in Zion’ (Amos 6:1): to be ‘at ease’ is the very opposite of ‘running the race’” (Arthur W. Pink, An Exposition of Hebrews, 894-5).

The situation seems to be that the Hebrew Christians had gotten tired. A lot of time had passed since they were first fired-up for Jesus. Now they want to relax and coast and they were in danger of losing the race. Hebrews 10:32–33 says, “Recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle…and you had compassion on the prisoners…” In 5:12 it says, “Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need some one to teach you again.” They have begun to coast and, as 2:3 says, “neglect so great a salvation.” The situation is very serious and the writer suggests that some are showing that their faith is phony and they have “tasted the powers of the age to come” in vain (6:5).

Sam Storms says:

“Some of you may wish it were otherwise; you may prefer that the Christian life be compared to a vacation at the beach or a gentle walk through grassy meadows or a holiday on a cruise ship or perhaps even a lazy, late-afternoon nap on the back porch. But no one in the NT, not the apostle Paul and certainly not the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ever speaks in such terms.”

Chuck Swindoll writes:

The book of Hebrews was written to men and women in the thick of the battle against the flesh, the world, and the devil. Most of them were trembling in their boots. Others had retreated to the trenches. Many were tempted to turn tail and run. Already the author has warned his audience of the cost of defection in the midst of the battle. Now he continues to urge them toward a life of enduring hope that responds positively to God’s hand of loving discipline with maturity. He wants them to lean on Christ, who is superior for pressing on in the faith. He doesn’t want them to be “flash in the pan” Christians (Charles R. Swindoll, Hebrews, Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Commentary (Tyndale House Publishers, 2017), 192).

Jesus talked about these “flash in the pan” people in the parable of the soils. Jesus explains that the seed that fell upon the rock was a situation in which “when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away” (Luke 8:13).

Hebrews 12:1 is like the gun that indicates that runners are at the last lap. Don’t stop now, he says. I can remember my first track meet as a sophomore in high school. At that time Mena High School did not have a track. We practiced by running around the football field and the practice field. One of the events I ran in was the 440, now called the 400 meters.

I was doing quite well, in the lead as we came around the last curve. Now, I’m sure I had seen plenty of Olympic races where the runners run through the tape to win, but having never run on a track I saw a line on the track and thinking that it was the finish line I slowed down, only to have three runners pass me to the finish line less than 10 yards away. I stopped short of the finish line.

This author does not want his readers to stop short of the finish line, but to remain faithful to Jesus Christ to the very end.

So how do we run to win?

The first thing our writer calls us to do is to remember that “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” Our author is not saying that these are people who are watching and witnessing what we do, but rather they have lived exemplary lives and we need to receive their witness. We need to follow their example.

“Perhaps we should think of something like a relay race where those who have finished their course and handed [off] their baton are watching and encouraging their successors” (Frank E. Gaebelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary–Volume 12, 133).

“They testify that it pays to trust the Lord and remain faithful to Him no matter how rough the going gets. It is their part to assure us that the race can be won” (C.S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Hebrews, 288-9), but not necessarily easily won.

He wants them to remember that others have successfully run this race in the past and that God considers those who finished the race winners. All those Hall of Famers in Hebrews 11 are saying, “I did it, and so can you. You can do it. Hang in there. Finish the race.” We need that kind of encouragement, to know that others have blazed the trail for us, finishing the race and being richly rewarded for it.

This “great cloud” of witnesses would include more than just the 18 mentioned in chapter 11. We have even more examples today of people who valued Jesus Christ and did not deny Him even when it cost them their lives.

These men and women are in the crowd encouraging us on because they successfully finished the race. As John Piper reminds us: “We look and we see examples of faith and perseverance under every imaginable circumstance: there’s David who committed adultery and murder, and he finished; there’s John the Baptist who had a weird personality, and he finished; there’s John Mark the quitter, and he finished; and Mary the prostitute, and she finished; and William Carey, plodder, and he finished; and Jonathan Edwards who got kicked out of his church, and he finished; and Job who suffered so much, and he finished; and Stephen who was hated and stoned, and he finished; and Mary Slessor and Amy Carmichael and St. Paul who served as single people all their lives, and they finished; and [there’s others you know as well.] (https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/looking-back-to-witnesses-up-to-jesus-and-forward-to-joy)

But all the encouragement in the world will do us no good if we are weighed down with unnecessary or unhelpful obstacles. Besides knowing that others have successfully run this race before us, we are then to throw off everything that hinders us from running this race. Everything!

This has reference to the radical stripping off of one’s clothing before a race, as in the Greek custom of the day. Many runners and fighters stripped naked to keep from being slowed down or having anything that could be grabbed to take one down in a wrestling match. While runners today might train with weights on their legs, they certainly take them off when running a race. Athletes today wear the most aerodynamic outfits they possibly can in both track events and swimming events, just to try to take hundredths of seconds off their time.

Our writer indicates two things that serious runners need to divest themselves from—anything that hinders, and any sin: “let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely…” This must be done before the race begins. It is preparation for running the race successfully. We cannot win in the Christian life if we allow these weights and sins to cling to us.

I think it is obvious to most of us that we must jettison the sins from our lives, so let’s look at that first. We are to “lay aside…sin which clings so closely.” The word “sin” here is hamartia, which means “to miss the mark.” Sin is pictured as an attempt to keep God’s commands, but always messing up in some way.

In moral and ethical contexts, it means to fail of one’s purpose, to go wrong, or to fail to live according to an accepted standard or ideal. Sin is the failure to be what we ought to be and could be. Paul tells us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). No one is righteous (Rom. 3:10).

One of the biggest problems with sin is that it “clings so closely.” The word is euperistaton and it is found only here in the New Testament. It has the idea of something that “ensnares,” some versions use the word “besetting,” to illustrate something that persistently comes upon a person unbidden, maybe unnoticed. The problem with sin is, we like it. We fall into it so easily. That’s what makes it so besetting, so ensnaring.

A phenomenon of nature, repeated billions of times, provides an ongoing allegory of sin’s billion-fold pathology. Perhaps you have seen it yourself while lying on the grass by a sundew plant when a fly lights on one of its leaves to taste one of the glands that grow there. [This is describing the Sun Dew plant.] Instantly three crimson-tipped, finger-like hairs bend over and touch the fly’s wings, holding it firm in a sticky grasp. The fly struggles mightily to get free, but the more it struggles, the more hopelessly it is coated with adhesive. Soon the fly relaxes, but to its fly-mind “things could be worse,” because it extends its tongue and feasts on the sundew’s sweetness while it is held even more firmly by still more sticky tentacles. When the captive is entirely at the plant’s mercy, the edges of the leaf fold inward, forming a closed fist. Two hours later the fly is an empty sucked skin, and the hungry fist unfolds its delectable mouth for another easy entanglement. Nature has given us a terrifying allegory. (R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews, Volume 2, pp. 158-159).

The specific sin is not mentioned here, and with good reason. “We each have characteristic sins that more easily entangle us than others. Some sins that tempt and degrade others hold little appeal for us—and vice versa. Sensuality may be the Achilles’ heel for many men, but not all. Another who has gained victory over such sin may regularly down jealousy’s deadly nectar, not realizing it is rotting his soul. Dishonesty may never tempt some souls, for guile simply has no appeal to them, but just cross them and you will feel Satan’s temper!” (R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews: Volume 2, p.159)

These sins are ours, our choices that we make to rebel against God’s will. As David Guzik says, “If such ensnaring sins were really the work of demonic possession or demonic influence in the Christian, this would be an ideal place for the Holy Spirit to address this. Yet we are never given reason to blame our sin on demons; the appeal is simply for us to, in the power of the Holy Spirit, ‘lay aside…the sin that clings so closely’”

What sin do you have the hardest time saying “no” to? What do you persistently struggle with? Covetousness? Envy? Criticism? Laziness? Hatred? Lust? Ingratitude? Pride? Envy? Whatever sin it is, we must ruthlessly strip it off and leave it behind.

Faith Enough to Secure a “Yes”; Faith Enough to Endure a “No,” part 2 (Hebrews 11:32-40)

We are continuing our study in the last portion of Hebrews 11 as the author is once again setting forth people who expressed faith in God and saw God often bring about spectacular results, turning things around in His people’s favor.

The first heroes of faith did receive what they asked for…

32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35a Women received back their dead by resurrection.

We pointed out last time the fact that God answered the prayers and fulfilled the desires of people who, although very flawed, exercised faith—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel, the first of the prophets. Of course, there were many more prophets down through Israel’s history.

Viewed together, this dynamic half-dozen bore remarkable similarities to one another. Each lived in a time when faith was scarce—definitely the minority position. During the days of the judges, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25), and this ethic was very much alive during the transfer to the monarchy. From Gideon to David, each battled overwhelming odds—Gideon with his three hundred against an innumerable host—young David against the giant. Each stood alone contra mundum, against the world. And most significantly, perhaps, each of these heroes had a flawed faith. John Calvin remarked:

There was none of them whose faith did not falter. Gideon was slower than he need have been to take up arms, and it was only with difficulty that he ventured to commit himself to God. Barak hesitated at the beginning so that he had almost to be compelled by the reproaches of Deborah. Samson was the victim of the enticements of his mistress and thoughtlessly betrayed the safety of himself and of all his people. Jephthah rushed headlong into making a foolish vow and was over-obstinate in performing it, and thereby marred a fine victory by the cruel death of his daughter.

And to this we could add that David was sensuous (2 Samuel 11:1ff.), and Samuel lapsed into carelessness in domestic matters (1 Samuel 8:1ff.). Calvin concludes:

In every saint there is always to be found something reprehensible. Nevertheless although faith may be imperfect and incomplete it does not cease to be approved by God. There is no reason, therefore, why the fault from which we labour should break us or discourage us provided we go on by faith in the race of our calling. (William B. Johnston, trans., Calvin’s Commentaries: The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews and the First and Second Epistles of St. Peter (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1963), p. 182).

God’s power allows trusting people to accomplish great things for God. Faith looks at impossibilities and smiles in light of the power of God! Our writer now rehearses a litany of faith’s accomplishments: “who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35a Women received back their dead by resurrection.”

Our author lists nine empowerments grouped in three successive groups of three. The first three give the broad empowerments of authentic faith: “who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises” (v. 33a). This was not only the corporate experience of the half-dozen, but the general experience of the preceding sixteen members of the Hall of Faith.

Some of those who “conquered kingdoms” were David, Joshua, King Asa, Jehoshaphat, King Hezekiah, and King Josiah. William Barclay has an interesting comment here. He says “There are two principal ‘kingdoms’ which the Christian is called upon to ‘subdue’: one is within himself, the other without him—the ‘flesh’ and the ‘world.'” It was easier for Solomon to subdue the Philistines than his own flesh. This reminds us that success in the battle for character is more important than victories over our enemies.

Among those who “enforced justice” were David (2 Sam. 8:15), Solomon, Elijah, Elisha, and the other prophets in general; King Josiah also. Some established justice and righteous governments. Or maybe he was thinking about Daniel, who served kings of Babylon and Medo-Persia for 75 years, and walked in integrity throughout it all.

And among those who obtained promises we could include Caleb, Gideon, and Barak. Performing acts of righteousness is faith living biblically; obtaining the promises is faith waiting biblically.

The second trio lists some of the forms of personal deliverances that they experienced: “who…stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword” (vv. 33b, 34a).

The test of faith is trusting God when all we have are His promises. When the waters are piled high all around us and problems and dangers are about to overwhelm us, this is when faith is tested, and when the Lord takes special pleasure in showing us His faithfulness, His love, and His power. When we have nothing but His promise to rely on, His help is the nearest and His presence the dearest to those who believe. (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 358)

Samson, David, and Beniah all shut the mouths of lions through physical force. Samson, barehanded, took a charging lion by the jaws and ripped it apart. David grabbed a sheep-stealing lion by the beard and thrust it through. Beniah descended into a pit on a snowy day and dispatched another king of the beasts. But Daniel is the preeminent example, through his faith and prayer (Daniel 6:17–22).

When I was as teenager the Pat Terry Group had a song about Daniel. I would encourage you to listen to the whole song, but the part about Daniel and the lions goes like this…

Early in the morning when the sun came up
The king was feeling down
He went to the lions’ den, he looked in the window
And what do you think he found?
Oh, Daniel was leading all the lions in a hymn
They were clapping their big brown paws
He said an angel of the Lord done arrived last night
And he clamped them lions’ jaws
He really did now

Deliverance from the lions’ jaws came not because Daniel was stronger than the lions, but because of God’s miraculous protection and Daniel’s faith in that protection.

While you and I might not be thrown to lions don’t overlook the fact that we’re told the Devil is on the hunt – he’s even now walking around, like a roaring lion, seeking someone to discredit (I Peter 5:8). Stephen Davey reminds us: “Every time you trust God – every time you do the right thing – every time you respond biblically – every time you avoid the snare of temptation – you effectively shut the mouth of that old lion.”

The phrase about quenching the power of fire goes straight back to the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego in Daniel 3:19-28. These three young men were condemned to the fire because they refused to bow down to Nebucchadnezzar’s idol. Given a second chance by the king, with the warning “But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” (Daniel 3:15b).

I love their response.

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

They knew that God could deliver them, but “if not…we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image you have set up.” Even if God chooses not to deliver us, we will not deny Him. He is the true God, not you, Nebucchadnezzar.

And God did deliver them, even though the furnace was heated “seven times more than it was usually heated” (Daniel 3:19).

24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” 25 He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” 26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire.

You might not be thrown into a fiery furnace – you might not be thrown into a den of lions, but every day you re-enter your world, whether you know it or not, you face the threat of a firefight and a cunning lion. We’ve been given the “shield of faith” to quench the fiery darts of doubts and lies that Satan projects our way. Those fiery darts dipped in temptation or impatience or unbelief or pain.

King David (against both Goliath and Saul, and others), as well as the prophets Elijah and Elisha and Jeremiah, “escaped the sword,” as did many others (1 Samuel 18:10, 11; 1 Kings 19:8–10; 2 Kings 6:31, 32; Psalm 144:10; Jeremiah 39). Moses escaped the sword of Pharaoh, and Elijah escaped the sword of Jezebel.

The third triad tells about the astounding power that came by faith: “[who] were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection” (vv. 34b, 35a).

Some of those “made strong out of weakness” were Sarah, Gideon, Abraham, Esther, and King Hezekiah. Faith requires recognizing our weakness, but at the same time, laying hold of God’s strength. As Jesus said (John 15:5), “… apart from Me you can do nothing.” Philip Hughes writes, “Faith is the response of all who are conscious of their own weakness and accordingly look to God for strength” (The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 510).

Spurgeon reminds us “Many of us may never have to brave the fiery stake, nor to bow our necks upon the block, to die as Paul did; but if we have grace enough to be out of weakness made strong, we shall not be left out of the roll of the nobles of faith, and God’s name shall not fail to be glorified in our persons.”

Paul described his own life as being weak and experiencing God’s strength in 2 Corinthians 12. Starting in verse 7 he says, “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

And in 2 Corinthians 4:7 Paul once again speaks of how our weaknesses do not disqualify us from being mightily used by God: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”

Every Christian who has accomplished great things for God has known this truth as the very foundation of what they did. Robert Morrison, a pioneer missionary to China was asked, “Do you really expect to make an impact on that great land?” He replied, “No sir, but I expect God to” (source unknown). George Muller’s biographer wrote of him, “Nothing is more marked in George Muller, to the very day of his death, than this, that he so looked to God and leaned on God that he felt himself to be nothing, and God everything” (A. T. Pierson, George Muller of Bristol [Revell], p. 112). Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to inland China, said, “All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on God being with them” (source unknown). (https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-43-faith%E2%80%99s-reward-hebrews-1132-40)

William Carey was a cobbler by trade. Most churchmen in his day believed that the Great Commission had been given only to the apostles, and thus they had no vision for “converting the heathen.” But Carey came to the revolutionary idea that foreign missions were the central responsibility of the church. He wrote a book promoting that thesis, and he spoke to a group of ministers, challenging them to the task of missions. In that talk, he made the now-famous statement, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God” (Tucker, p. 115).

What are you trusting God for right now that is beyond your comfort zone or human ability? Are you praying for God to do anything that, if He did it, there could be no human explanation for it?

Several of the Psalms express how David and his men “became mighty in war …” experiencing God’s strength to do battle against their enemies (Psalm 17, 18, 59, etc.). Allied with that phrase is the next, “put foreign armies to flight…” David did it on numerous occasions, so did the renowned Maccabeans during the 3^rd century B. C. against Antiochus Ephiphanes, the ruthless Syrian king.

Even when experiencing the greatest loss in the temporal realm–death–faith triumphs. Our author ends this list of mighty triumphs by saying, “Women received back their dead by resurrection” (Heb. 11:35a). He saves this feat until last because it is the greatest expression of God’s delivering power.

What are you trusting God for right now that seems impossible and is far beyond your comfort zone or human ability? Are you praying for God to do anything that, unless God shows up in a mighty way, you fall flat on your face?

Faith always involves the risk of putting yourself into a situation where, if God does not come through, you fail miserably. This doesn’t mean that we should be sloppy in our preparation or planning or follow through. There is nothing spiritual about sloppiness or lack of preparation or just being lazy. But it is to say that after all of our planning and preparations and conduct, we should be still praying, “God, if you don’t work, this whole thing is going to be a colossal failure!”

Like Peter stepping out of the boat into the water, we should be very much aware that if He doesn’t hold us up, we’re going to drown! So pray with me that God would accomplish things through our lives and churches that can only be explained because God did it.

But even before we decide to go out and do miracles and conquer kingdoms, let’s focus on a more personal and practical level. Let’s first remember that private victories precede public victories.

How are you doing on taming your temper…or your sharp tongue?
How about conquering that bitter, unforgiving spirit?
How about loving your spouse with unconditional love, giving 100% of your time, energy and effort to doing what is best for them?
How about reconciling with an enemy?

Believe me, those are miracles too!

Faith for the Impossible, the Irrational, and the Immoral, part 2 (Hebrews 11:29-31)

Last week we noted that faith attempts the impossible, as Israel did when they walked through the Reed Sea on dry ground because God had promised to make that possible, while the Egyptians were buried under the waves because they had no promise. Israel faced a dangerous and impossible situation. They were about to be annihilated or captured by the Egyptians, who were pursuing them, while in front of them was a body of water they could not cross. But God made a way where there seemed to be no way.

Today, we want to look at Hebrews 11:30, which shows us that faith sometimes accepts the irrational. There was approximately forty years between the faith exhibited by Israel in v. 29 and the faith exhibited in v. 30. In between was a lot of unbelief.

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.

At this point Israel had wandered around in the desert for a total of 40 years, during which the older generation (the one that murmured so often and ultimately didn’t believe, (cf. Heb. 3:7-19) died off and a new generation had arisen. God had instructed them again in the law through the book of Deuteronomy and now they are at the edge of the land. Now remember, God had promised them this land. This is what Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had all been waiting for.

So Israel was now camped on the Plains of Moab on the eastern side of the Jordan river. Their first obstacle to entering the land and conquering it was the city of Jericho. The problem is that Jericho was a well-fortified city. Israel had a largely untrained army and no siege weapons. How could they possibly overcome it?

Jericho was the gateway city to Canaan that the Israelites came to when they entered the Promised Land. The city of Jericho was surrounded by walls so that no one was able to get in, and the walls served as solid protection against attacks. The gates could be locked to keep the Israelites out (see Joshua 6:1).

Humanly speaking, Joshua bore all the lonely responsibility of the leadership of his fickle, frightened people. How he would have liked to have Moses there to talk to. But there was no Moses. Joshua now has sole responsibility. He needed to get away to pray, to meditate, to plan the conquest.

Joshua had sent spies to scout out the city, Israel had crossed the Jordan and sanctified themselves, celebrated Passover, and then something strange happened. As Joshua was out strategizing how to take on this walled city, the LORD appeared to Joshua in human form as the “captain of the Lord’s army” (so obviously an important person) and this man told Joshua God’s plan for victory (Joshua 5:13-6:5).

When we come to it straight from God’s presence, no task can ever defeat us. Our failure and our fear are so often due to the fact that we try to do things alone. The secret of victorious living is to face God before we face men. (William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible Series, Hebrews, 159)

I believe (along with Calvin and Keil and Delitzsch) that this “commander of the army of the LORD” was a theophany, an appearance of Jehovah in the form of an angelic messenger.

Joshua asked “Are you for us or for our enemies?” It was Joshua’s responsibility, as the shepherd-leader of Israel, to determine whether this warrior was a friend or an enemy. The man replied, “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come” (Joshua 5:14) This reminds me of Abraham Lincoln’s remark during the Civil War, when asked if God was on his side, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side,” said the President, “my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”

So Joshua, are you on God’s side? That could only be proven by faith and obedience. “Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, ‘What message does my Lord have for his servant?’” (Joshua 5:14b)

The commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:15). This command obviously reminded Joshua of Moses calling at the burning bush. He was taking this man seriously.

This encounter with God served to steel Joshua and arm him for the conquering of Jericho, for very specific reasons. He saw not only that God was with him, but God’s mystic appearance—with his sword pulled from his scabbard and held ready for battle—was indelibly printed on Joshua’s consciousness. God would fight for him! He knew that whatever the enemy mobilized, it would be matched and exceeded by heavenly mobilization. It was this same awareness that galvanized Philipp Melanchthon, the primary theologian of the Reformation, for the immense battles he fought, for his favorite verse was Romans 8:31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Melanchthon is said to have referenced this verse many times in his writings—and on his death bed. It was his repeated (victorious!) refrain.

That was great. The problem is that the plan was absurd. Listen to it.

Then the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in” (Joshua 6:2-5)

Does that sound like a sensible battle plan to you? No one else in history has tried this. No military commander has sent his men into battle with this strategy. It’s just absurd.

But in Joshua it produced the bedrock faith that introduces Hebrews 11—“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”—faith’s dynamic dual certitude. He had incredible visual certitude, for he had seen the unseen. His conviction regarding the invisible would gird him in every battle. He had awesome future certitude regarding what he hoped for—namely, the fall of Jericho and the taking of the Promised Land. He was confident those walls would fall!

But from this historical account we can learn five lessons.

First, salvation brings us into conflict with powerful enemies. We’ve already seen this when Israel faced the Egyptian armies at the Reed Sea. Being God’s people doesn’t insulate us from encountering significant problems. Rather, it often is the catalyst for conflict, conflicts that wouldn’t have happened had we not been chosen by God.

You see, before you and I were saved, selfishness, pride, ego, greed, lust and many, many other sins didn’t trouble us. In fact, sometimes we even thought of them as virtues! But when we got saved and realized that these “fortified cities” (the New Testament calls them “strongholds”) would forever cause us problems unless we conquered them. The problem is, they become deeply entrenched in our hearts and we have difficulty conquering them.

Not only do we now face enemies within, but salvation also brings us into conflict with people.

Family members don’t like your newfound faith, because it now threatens their own favorite vices.
Bosses don’t like the fact that you won’t cheat or lie for them anymore.
Former friends malign you because you won’t join them in their parties and corrupt practices (cf. 1 Peter 4:3-4).

A second lesson we can learn here is that God’s way of victory usually accentuates His power and our weakness.

Marching around a walled city for seven days while blowing trumpets is not a sensible battle plan. It must have seemed silly to many in Israel and certainly to everyone inside Jericho. “This is the mighty army of Israel? This is what we were afraid of?”

If Joshua had held strategy meetings with his top commanders, none of them would have suggested this plan. One might have argued for direct assault, with siege ramps and battering rams to overpower the city. Another may have suggested waiting it out until the city was starved into submission. But no one would have dreamed of this plan.

Yet God chose this strange approach to teach them that victory over powerful enemies comes not when we trust in ourselves and our best strategies, but when we trust totally in our God. Often, our problem is not that we are too weak, but that we think we are strong in ourselves. Because we are so prone to pride, if God granted us victory in such situations, we would take at least some of the credit for ourselves. Therefore, God’s plan for victory often humbles our pride by accentuating God’s power and our weakness.

We see this in the way that God reduced the army of Gideon from 32,000 men to just 300 men, all to take on the Midianite army of 135,000. It wasn’t until Gideon was weak in number, weak enough to know that his only hope was in God, that God would grant them victory and they would give Him the glory.

Likewise, Paul spoke of the thorn in the flesh as something that humbled him. He testified that “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10) because God’s strength was being manifest in his weakness. In 2 Corinthians 4:7 Paul says, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay [our weak, earthly bodies…why?] to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

Hudson Taylor said that when God wanted to open inland China to the gospel, He looked around for a man weak enough for the task. One of the things Hudson Taylor would be marked by was a sense of humility; and a deep sense of joy – almost a sense of surprise – that God had chosen to use him for His glory. He would write, “I often think that God must have been looking for someone small enough and weak enough for Him to use . . . and He found me” (R. Kent Hughes, 1001 Great Stories and Quotes, (Tyndale House, 1998), p. 213).

So, God’s path to victory always involves faith, sometimes faith in something that is totally irrational, so that our weakness is revealed and God’s strength alone is recognized as the power behind the victory.

Thirdly, faith must obey God implicitly.

Genuine faith always obeys. If fact, we cannot really say that we believe unless we do obey God. But faith for the impossible obeys God’s completely. The LORD had given explicit instructions to Joshua that demanded implicit obedience from the Israelites (cf. Joshua 6:2–5; 6–10).

Israel could have said, “That’s a really fascinating plan, Joshua, and we do believe that God could do it that way. But we’ve got a more sensible approach.” That would have been rebellion. It might look like good sense but it’s not.

Obeying God in this situation, unlike Israel at the Reed Sea, involved wearying effort. Every time around that wall would involve 30-60 minutes of walking, and on the seventh day it would involve 3 ½ hours.

You know, I would have been grumbling even before the seventh day, saying, “We’ve been walking for five, six, seven days, and NOTHIN’ has happened!” Maybe somebody said that; we don’t know.

What we do know is that on the seventh day, just like God had instructed, and Joshua 6:20 records, “When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city.”

Only a fool would have attempted such a courageous approach to battle apart from God’s direction and power. From the perspective of faith, only a fool would not attempt such a thing when he has God’s direction and power. (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 364-5)

The writer of Hebrews tells us, in a simple sentence, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days” (v. 30). This is the key to the spiritual understanding of the fall of Jericho: the walls of Jericho fell because of the faith of Joshua and his people. It was the greatest corporate act of faith in Israel’s history, one never to be exceeded.

And Calvin is right when he says, “It is evident, that the walls did not fall through the shout of men, or the sound of trumpets; but because the people believed that the Lord would do what he had promised” (John Calvin, Commentaries: Hebrews, 300).

Obedience like that is always based on God’s revealed Word. In this case Joshua had heard directly from God. There was really no confusion about what God had said. They were not ignorant of God’s command. For us we have the Scriptures. And while they don’t speak to all the particulars of life, they give enough general commands to provide us with sure guidance.

The question is whether we will obey it, especially when it seems so against human reason. Like Mark Twain said, “It’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts I do understand.” Those parts we must obey.

A fourth lesson we learn here is that faith must often wait upon God.

God could have said, “March around Jericho once, blow the trumpet and shout! The walls will fall down.” Every day that victory or those answers to pray are delayed, it tests our faith. We don’t like to wait. Waiting is one of the hardest things we have to do.

And the intensity of the problem likely increased day to day. Every day they likely heard jeers from the people on the wall. When the Canaanites got a good look at the procession, they undoubtedly exploded in incredulous laughter and then hoots and catcalls. They could not believe their eyes. What fools these Israelites were—clowns! And secretly some of the Hebrews agreed.

Every day they wondered whether Jericho’s defenses were being strengthened and improved. But God didn’t allow them to defeat Jericho in a day.

They had to wait for God’s timing. And that’s never easy. Next to suffering, waiting is the hardest thing we have to do as believers. Abraham had to wait, Isaac and Jacob did too. Moses had to wait. Every believer will have to wait. It’s not that God is slow. He just realizes how much good soul work can be done while we are waiting. It is during these slow times that we have time to look up to God, to remind ourselves of His past faithfulness and to feed our hope on His promises.

What do we do while we are waiting for the culmination of God’s promise? “Just do the next thing,” Elisabeth Elliot often said, quoting a poem. Until God reveals our next steps, we have much to keep us busy while we wait.

Finally, faith waits with expectancy.

Israel believed that God would act if they obeyed. It didn’t happen quickly, but they believed He would act in their behalf. When he told them to shout, they did so, with expectation that in that moment God would bring the walls down.

Several years ago, I learned as I was preaching on John the Baptist and how he was in prison struggling with whether his cousin Jesus really was the Messiah, that there is an important difference between expectation and expectancy. Expectation has a definite picture in mind of what you want to see happen, while expectancy is an attitude that is open to whatever God might want to do.

While we don’t always know how God will answer our prayers or desires, we can face the future with the expectancy that He will do something for our good. It might not be the “good” we have in mind, in fact it might even be better! And that’s the way that God is: we don’t want to put Him into a box by having definite expectations of what God will do or how God will answer our prayers. We don’t demand that God do it the way we expect. Instead, we should carry an attitude of expectancy that “Yes, God is going to act, He’s going to work. He may surprise us in the exact ways that He accomplishes His purposes and fulfills His promises in our lives.”

The video, “Jericho Unearthed,” effectively demonstrates that the Bible and Jericho’s archaeology do indeed match. You can pick up the DVD or watch it online through Amazon instant video.

https://www.holylandsite.com/jericho-tell-es-sultan