faith – Grace Still Amazes

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

Faith for the Impossible, the Irrational and the Immoral, part 1 (Hebrews 11:29-31)

John Gardner once wrote: “We are faced with a series of great opportunities—brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” Have you ever felt like you’re in an impossible situation, with no solution in sight? Now, that word “opportunity” is definitely not my favorite word to use to describe a challenge.

Our text over the next few lessons comes from Hebrews 11:29-31, with one verse focusing on the Exodus and the other two verses focusing on the battle of Jericho. Each of them presents a “disguised opportunity” which seemed almost impossible, yet they were opportunities to trust God and watch Him do wonderful things.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Jim Cymbala, pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle and author of several books, leads a prayer meeting with several thousand people on Tuesday nights, and he said in his book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, “I despaired at the thought that my life might slip by without seeing God show himself mightily on our behalf.”

I hope that you have that desire as well. I hope you desire to see God “show himself mightily in your behalf,” to come through in an impossible situation. For that to happen, first you have to be in an “impossible” situation and second, you have to cry out to God for help and then believe that God will help you.

Listen to our author, in Hebrews 11:29-31…

29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days. 31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

Today we’re going to look at verse 29 and the exodus from Egypt. The children of Israel here in verse 29 face an impossible situation. Here, in Exodus 14, they had the Red Sea before them and the Egyptian army pursuing them. They were truly “between a rock and a hard place,” an impossible situation.

Faith Attempts the Impossible

Although Moses is the one leading the people, the emphasis of verse 29 is that it was the faith of the people that provided the reason for God parting the Red Sea and allowing Israel to pass through on dry land.

This may seem somewhat surprising given that the author of Hebrews has consistently viewed that generation of Israelites as “evil and unbelieving” (Heb. 3:8-12) and Paul says that “God was not pleased with most of them” and most of them died in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:2, 5).

But, we’ve already seen how generous God can be in describing even the best of the patriarchs as being people of faith, even though they didn’t always act that way. Perhaps the best way to interpret this is that “by faith” refers to a believing remnant and that faith is then generalized to refer to the whole nation—that is, the faith of a few is seen as characteristic of the whole nation. There is a similar situation in the New Testament when everyone on the ship with Paul was saved because of Paul’s faith, even though they did not believe God.

Israel is in an impossible situation, caused by their exodus from Egypt. Pharoah, despite having the nation and his own household devastated by the plagues, decided he didn’t really want to lose his workforce and so he took off after the Hebrews. Israel had been on their way out of Egypt when God told Moses, ““Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon” (Exod. 14:2). This would, according to verse 3, cause Pharoah to think that Israel was just wandering around confused…ripe pickings. Not only that, but God would once again harden Pharoah’s heart. Why? So that Yahweh can “gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” (Exod. 14:4). So Pharoah mobilized his army and “pursued the Israelites and overtook them” (Exod. 14:9). The Israelites “looked up,” saw the army and “were terrified” (v. 10) and then characteristically said, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?” (Exod. 14:11).

One of the things we will notice in both verses 29 and 30 of Hebrews 11 is that faith does not exempt us from going through trials and difficulties. Even though they idealized their past, in believing that Egypt had been “so great,” in reality it had been very difficult living.

Here they harp against Moses, but it was God who had led them there. So here they were, with the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptians hotly pursuing them. It was an impossible situation and unless God intervened, they were doomed. Of course, this was God’s plan all along, to save them in such a dramatic and miraculous fashion that even the Egyptians would have to admit that Yahweh was the supreme God.

Israel needed to learn that salvation is completely from God, that salvation “salvation belongs to the Lord” (Psalm 8:3), which Jonah had to learn. He said, “What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD,’” (Jonah 3:9). There was absolutely nothing they could do to save themselves. There was no place to MacGyver the situation and make an escape. God led them into this desperate, impossible situation so that they would have to trust solely in him.

That is how God grows our faith today. Sure, we know in our heads that we need to trust Him totally, every moment, but we don’t believe it in practice until He throws us into the deep end, into situations where there is absolutely no way out unless God comes through for us.

God delights in turning our overwhelming impossibilities into exhibitions of His might. John Flavel once said, “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” During the day of extremity, there is an opportunity for God to do what He does. To deliver. To save. To bring good out of bad and order out of chaos. Trials are like the gymnastic apparatus that makes the muscles of our faith grow stronger.

Here was a situation in which Israel’s enemy thought that they had an easy victory. But God did miraculously what was impossible. With God all things are possible. He piled the waters on either side, allowing Israel to walk through on dry ground (Exodus 14:21-22), then he allowed the Egyptians to confidently pursue them.

The Red Sea is also called the Sea of Reeds, and we are not sure of the exact location where the Israelites crossed, but it clearly took place at a point where there was plenty of water. I think it is humorous how some liberal scholars will say that the place where Israel crossed was just a few inches deep. Not only is that not the way the Bible describes it, but then you have to deal with a completely different miracle. How did God drown the entire Egyptian army in just a couple inches of water? You can’t have it both ways!

Surely the Egyptians should have noticed the trap! Water piled up in towering walls alongside them ain’t normal. But John Owens observes, “There is no such blinding, hardening lust in the minds or hearts of men, as hatred of the people of God and desire for their ruin.” The Egyptians abandoned all reason and rushed to their own destruction. And thus a helpless, defenseless, disorganized band of two million slaves were delivered from a powerful, well-equipped army. Nothing is too difficult for God Almighty!

The particular lesson of faith we learn from the crossing of the Red Sea is this: When you are trapped by impossible circumstances, trust in God’s miraculous deliverance. Don Moen wrote the song “God Will Make a Way.” In it he writes:

God will make a way
Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me

Now, come back to the reason that God delivered them. Our author says that it was “by faith.” But after expressing their desire to return to Egypt (Exod. 14:12), “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Exod. 14:13-14).

Up to this point it was really Moses who, up to this point, had faith. They were full of fear. He comforts the people and then this eventuated in Moses’ preeminent display of faith when he stretched his hand out over the Red Sea, and the Lord drove back the waters with a strong east wind, and Israel passed through as on dry land (cf. Exodus 14:21, 22).

Both the book of Exodus in the Old Testament and the book of Hebrews in the New Testament stress the fact that the Israelites crossed over the Red Sea on dry ground. The Israelites did not have to swim or wade across. They didn’t even get their feet wet! God pushed the waters back, and the Israelites crossed over on dry ground. Now that is a miracle.

Meanwhile, the Egyptians followed them into the sea and immediately started experiencing problems. Their chariot wheels were jammed and they had difficulty steering their chariots. Then “Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived” (Exodus 14:27-28).

The end result is that “That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant” (Exodus 14:30-31).

One man’s faith, which led to God’s action, resulted in the people “putting their trust in [the LORD]. What a sublime fact we have here! One man’s faith can be so authentic and effectual that it can elevate a whole people and secure their deliverance! In lesser ways we have seen this in the lives of such people as Martin Luther and John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards. This truth holds great promise for us. Vibrant, authentic faith can elevate our families, churches, and communities. Because Moses believed, the Israelites believed.

Now, it’s important to understand that the way God opens up for you will still require faith on your part. Notice God did not just pick the Israelites up and deposit them safely on the other side of the Red Sea. Exodus 14:22 says, “and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

God created a passageway for them through the Red Sea, but they still had to walk through that passage believing that God would protect them. I would imagine it took tremendous faith for them to step onto the dry bed of the Red Sea with those walls of water towering above them on the right and on the left. Only God was holding those great walls of water back, and if He chose to let go at any moment, there was nothing anyone could do to stop that water from flooding back in.

When you are trapped by circumstances, God will make a way for you. But that way will still require faith on your part, again proven by obedient action. Sometimes the way God opens up for you involves making hard decisions or taking great risks in order to do that which is right. Sometimes it requires confession of sin, not only to God but to the person you sinned against. Sometimes it means letting go of some things that you hold dear in life. God never promises you an easy way, but he does promise to make a way if you will follow him in faith.

And most important of all, when you do follow God, God promises to go with you. You never walk the path of faith alone. When you go with God, God promises to walk with you every step of the way. God says this in Isaiah 43: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you” (Isa. 43:2). That is exactly what happened with these Israelites. The rest of the verse says, “When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze,” which happened to three Hebrew young men who trusted God and refused to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s idol.

Why does the LORD do this? Look at verses 3 and 4 of Isaiah 43: “For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead. Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life.”

First, I am “your God” and “your Savior.” You belong to me as my people and as your God I will save you. He specifically says here. “I give Egypt for your ransom.” That was the redeeming price for saving Israel. Second, we see God’s affections. He is loyal because we belong to Him, but He is also affectionate towards us. He saves us because we are “precious and honored” and “because I love you.” Therefore, God will deliver them from other nations throughout their history.

Notice that what God did for Israel He did not do for the Egyptians. He saved Israel and destroyed the Egyptians, even though they also went into the Reed Sea. However, the difference, beside the fact that they were not God’s people, is that they didn’t enter the Reed Sea by faith, but by presumption. They just presumed that if Israel could do it, so could they.

But it is dangerous to presume upon God and faith is not like that. Faith is based upon God’s revealed promises. The Egyptians had no promises to go on. They acted on the presumption that nothing bad would happen to them. The Egyptians had as much (or more) courage than the Israelites, but they didn’t have the promises. So let’s not be like the Egyptians, presuming upon God when He has given us no assurance through revealed promises.

A. W. Pink notes: “”There are three degrees of faith. There is a faith which receives, when as empty-handed beggars we come to Christ and accept Him as our Lord and Saviour: John 1:12. There is also a faith which reckons, which counts upon God to fulfill His promises and undertake for us: 2 Tim. 1:12. There is also a faith which risks, which dares something for the Lord.”

None of these degrees of faith are effective and beneficial to us unless they are backed by God’s promises. We can receive nothing by faith unless God has promised to give us something. We cannot reckon on something being true unless God’s Word tells us so. And we dare not take dangerous risks unless God clearly tells us to do so.

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)

So faith overcomes enormous obstacles, enduring by seeing the unseen God. “But,” you may be wondering, “what about Peter Cameron Scott and all of his fellow missionaries that died young while trying to take the gospel into Africa? Their faith did not deliver them!”

John G. Paton (1824-1907), who left his native Scotland to take the gospel to the cannibals of the New Hebrides Islands, answers that question well. As he was getting ready to leave, an elderly friend repeatedly sought to deter him. His crowning argument was always, “The Cannibals! You will be eaten by Cannibals!”

Paton finally replied, “Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is to be soon laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms. I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or worms. And in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer” (John G. Paton Autobiography [Banner of Truth], p. 56).

When Paton finally received his external call at age thirty-five and landed in the region in 1859, he was quickly “stunned by the dreadful loss” of his first wife, Mary Ann Robson, to fever (John Paton, John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides: An Autobiography, ed. Rev. James Paton (Geanies House: Christian Focus Publications, Ltd., 2009, p. 60), Their newborn son, Peter, followed three weeks later. His ministry was undergirded by this reigning thought: “This is strength; — this is peace: — to feel, in entering on every day, that all its duties and trial have been committed to the Lord Jesus, — that, come what may, He will use us for His glory and our own real good!” (Ibid, p. 101).

Let’s join Paton and Scott and Moses as people of overcoming faith, who endure by seeing the unseen God!

Faith Values the Greater Reward from God, part 3 (Hebrews 11:23-28)

We are talking about the faith of Moses, a faith that allowed him to give up a position of privilege and power, where he could have every pleasure and treasure his heart desired, opting instead for the yet unseen, but definitely real, “greater wealth” of the heavenly reward. Like the patriarchs before him, he didn’t experience the greater treasures and pleasures in this life, but in the life to come, in the heavenly city (Heb. 11:13-16).

So turn with me again to Hebrews 11:24-28…

24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

We noticed last week Mose’s negative choice of “refusing to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter.” Today we will talk about his positive choice in verse 25, “choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.”

By the way, this was a permanent decision. Warren Wiersbe tells the story about the mayor of a large American city who moved into a dangerous and decayed housing project to demonstrate the problems and needs of the minorities. But she also kept her fashionable apartment and eventually moved out of the slum. He concludes, “We commend her for her courage, but we have to admire Moses even more. He left the palace and never went back” (The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament, p. 836)

So Moses chose to be mistreated rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin.

Let’s see, pain or pleasure, which shall I choose? Few of us would willingly choose pain over pleasure, but Moses did. Moses chose the pain of mistreatment rather than the pleasures of sin.

Ultimately Moses’ potential sin, had he chosen these “fleeting pleasures” would have been to abandon his faith in God as he became more and more immersed in the mindset of godless Egypt, much like Solomon’s heart was turned aside from God because of his pagan wives. There was constant exposure and then pressure there to engage with the world’s system and pleasures, which could have turned his heart against the God of his fathers.

Moses knew that to go God’s way meant persecution and pain “with the people of God.” It is fascinating that in the next verse our author shows that Moses thought of this as “the reproach of Christ.” Somehow he connected his own sufferings to the sufferings that Jesus Christ would experience in his humiliation. Maybe this was an unconscious connection on his part but the author shows that it is a real connection that any saint has with Jesus Christ when we suffer for his sake. It is very similar to what Paul talked about in Philippians 3 when he says, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…” (Phil. 3:10).

Paul wanted to know Christ, not just intellectually, but experientially. Because Christ was no longer alive and walking about on earth Paul didn’t have that firsthand interaction with Jesus. Nevertheless, Paul had experienced and wanted to experience more, “the power of his resurrection,” but Paul knew that to experience resurrection he had to go through death, so he longed, strangely enough to our ears, to “share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

Paul Miller discusses this fascinating idea in his book J-Curve. The J-Curve is Jesus dying and rising. Of course, positionally we die to sin and rise to God (Rom. 6) because we are united to Jesus by faith. Also, we will one day die physically and ultimately we will rise physically.

But Paul Miller also shows that we can experience the J-Curve through suffering, repentance and love. In suffering, we die to something. It can be our health, a marriage, a loss of a loved one. But if we perceive it as suffering “with Christ,” it turns what is wholly negative into something positive (an experience of deep fellowship and ultimately resurrection). So see your suffering as “with Christ,” as engaging in His sufferings, and then expect and look for mini-resurrections.

The J-Curve also happens through repentance. Here the evil is not outside us, perpetrated against us, but inside us. We acknowledge that something needs to die, some sinful desire that we have, but when we give up that sin and experience fellowship with Jesus, we will experience the resurrection of joy and holiness and love.

Love is another J-Curve. In this case we die to ourselves, our agenda, our pleasures, so that we can meet the needs of someone else. We “put to death” some desire we have for our own pleasure, so that we can meet the needs or desires of someone else. The result? That relationship gets better and better!

This is what Moses was doing. He didn’t know Jesus fully yet, but He knew God well enough to know that if he gave up the “fleeting pleasures” of sin for His sake, then something immensely more satisfying would be his in the future.

Disgrace suffered for Christ’s sake Moses valued as priceless honor. Yes, Moses knew about Christ. He himself said so in Dt 18:15 when he urged Israel to look for and listen to that greater Prophet who was coming. Jesus also said so when he told the Pharisees in Jn 5:46, “Moses wrote about me” with the eye of faith Moses saw the coming Christ and identified with him by joining his people. (Richard E. Lauersdorf, The People’s Bible: Hebrews, 143)

Notice how Moses viewed these pleasures, and it may shock us into realizing how we need to view our own worldly pleasures. First of all, they are the “pleasures of sin” that we “enjoy.” We sin because we enjoy it. We sin because it is a pleasure. So let’s not deny that sin can be a pleasure. That is the only way Satan can tempt us. If it were a pain, we would avoid it. If we got shocked every time we sinned, we would stop sinning.

But again, a shock is like Ulysses being tied to the mast. It may stop us from sinning, but we still want to, we still long to. We would just seek ways to get what we want without being shocked, like the addict who hides his addiction so that no one can see him and rebuke him.

John Piper recognizes the danger in the pleasures of sin, saying, “The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable. (John Piper, A Hunger for God: Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer, 14)

Disobeying had many attractions. Among other things, it would have been a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable in the short run. It is hard enough to stop seeking worldly things. It is even harder to give them up once we have them, and Moses had a great many of them by the time he was forty. We have no reason to believe that he was ever involved in any immoral practices, but he enjoyed the pleasures of an extremely comfortable life. He had the best food, the best living quarters, the best recreation, the best of everything that his age could provide. These were not sins in themselves. Joseph had enjoyed the same pleasures in the same place, while being perfectly obedient to God. But they would have been sin for Moses, had he decided to stay in the Egyptian court, and he forsook them for the sake of God’s call. (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 352)

Second, notice that these pleasures are “fleeting,” or some versions say “passing.” They are temporary. They don’t last. You’ve experienced that. You gave yourself to some illicit pleasure when you were all alone in the dark and it felt good…for a moment, for a brief moment. Then, if you are fortunate, you began to feel guilty. This is not the repressed conscience bequeathed to us by the Puritans, but rather is the precious gift of God.

The point is, Moses knew that these pleasures were real pleasures that could be enjoyed, but that they were also “fleeting.” God’s reward is permanent, not passing; it is forever, not fleeting.

Remember that next time you are tempted. Remind yourself: “I’ll feel good for a moment or two, but it won’t last.” Then tell yourself that God’s way offers a better, more lasting reward.

As a family member in Pharaoh’s court, Moses enjoyed whatever pleasures anyone could seek. He lived in luxury (picture the splendor of King Tut’s tomb!). He ate the best food available. He dressed in the finest clothes. He could have any Egyptian beauty his heart desired.

Yet because he believed in a better reward—pleasures and treasures that were bigger and better than anything Egypt (or the whole world) could offer—he said “no.” He chose rather to become an object of scorn and contempt along with the people of God.

Why? Because by faith he believed in a better reward awaiting him. Why would a man knowingly choose such suffering? Was he a masochist? Was he insane? No, actually he was quite shrewd. Like the man who sold everything he had to buy the pearl of great price (Matt. 13:45-46), Moses gained something better.

The “treasures of Egypt” were something that many coveted. Discoveries such as the tomb of King Tutankhamen, who lived only a hundred or so years after Moses, have shown us how vastly rich Egypt was at its peak. Moses had access to a great deal of wealth, and likely had much in his own possession. He had all the things the world holds dear. He must have been strongly tempted to hold on to them; but he did not. (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 353)

Moses shows us that men are known by their choices. We make our choices and then our choices make us. John MacArthur says, “Christian living involves making right decisions. You can note the maturity of a Christian by the decisions he makes. Holiness is making right decisions, carnality is making wrong ones. Our Christian living rises or falls in maturity and holiness on the basis of the decisions we make. When Satan tempts us, we decide either to say yes or no. When we have opportunity to witness, we either take advantage of it or we do not. We decide whether or not to take time to read the Bible and to pray. It is not a matter of having time but of taking time, and taking time requires a decision. In business we often have to choose between making more money and being honest and ethical, or between getting ahead and giving enough time to our families and to the Lord’s work. Virtually everything we do involves a decision” (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 346). He goes on to say, “Right choices are made on the basis of right faith. Often we cannot see the consequences of our choices. Satan tries to make his way seem attractive and good and God’s way seem hard and unenjoyable. When we know God’s will in a matter, we choose it by faith. We know it is the right choice because it is God’s will, even before we see the results. God’s will is the only reason we need. When we choose God’s way, we put up the shield of faith, and the temptations and allurements of Satan are deflected (Eph 6:16). . . . The opposite of choosing God’s way is always Satan’s way, and not believing God is believing Satan. Whenever we sin, we believe Satan; we believe that his way is better than God’s. We believe the father of lies above the Father of truth” (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 347)

From the worldly standpoint, he was sacrificing everything for nothing. But from the spiritual standpoint, he was sacrificing nothing for everything. (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 350). Or, as Jim Eliot said, the missionary martyred by the Waorani Indians of Ecuador in 1954, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

God has designed this Christian life so that we would be motivated by rewards. The emphasis in the Epistle to the Hebrews is: ‘Don’t live for what the world will promise you today! Live for what God has promised you in the future!

People at Grace Bible Church have heard me quote this statement from C. S. Lewis often:

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

We must not be troubled by unbelievers when they say that this promise of reward makes the Christian life a mercenary affair. There are different kinds of reward. There is the reward which has no natural connection with the things you do to earn it, and is quite foreign to the desires that ought to accompany those things. Money is not the natural reward of love; that is why we call a man mercenary if he marries a woman for the sake of her money. But marriage is the proper reward for a real lover, and he is not mercenary for desiring it. A general who fights well in order to get a peerage is mercenary; a general who fights for victory is not, victory being the proper reward of battle as marriage is the proper reward of love. The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consummation. (C. S. Lewis; THE WEIGHT OF GLORY; Preached originally as a sermon in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford ‘, on June 8, 1941)

Moses knew that all the pleasures of Egyptian nobility would last only a short season, if he became ruler of Egypt himself. But the reward of God, on the other hand, he believed to be eternal. So it was a matter of trading the temporary for the eternal. To him, the shame of being identified with the coming Messiah (Christ), was greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt.

What were some of the blessings that Moses traded the “treasures of Egypt” and the “pleasures of sin” for? Well, first of all, the company of God’s people. Moses chose “to be mistreated with the people of God.” Admittedly, they were not much to look at. At the moment they were sweaty, dirty, poor slaves. Certainly not the “in” crowd. Later, these would be the very people that would give him a lot of trouble, grumbling about the conditions that he led them into. Some would challenge his leadership. Eventually their grumbling frustrated Moses so much that he sinned by striking the rock in anger, so that the Lord kept him from entering the promised land. But in spite of all the problems he experienced with them, they were “people of God.” Moses saw it as a far greater blessing to endure ill-treatment with them than to live in the worldly, superficial society of Pharaoh’s court.

Sometimes the “people of God” are not easy to live with, but Christian community really is a blessing. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his little book Life Together, written during the early days of the Nazi regime in Germany: “It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God’s Word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the Gospel in heathen lands stand alone. They know that visible fellowship is a blessing. They remember, as the Psalmist did, how they went ‘with the multitude . . . to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday’ (Ps. 42:4). Let him, who until now has had the privilege of living in common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: it is grace, nothing but grace, that we’re allowed to live in Christian community with Christian brethren.”

Second, as we’ve already mentioned, Moses participated in “the reproach of Christ.” He was able to experience, through his reproach, the reproach of Christ; through his sufferings, the sufferings of Christ. It allowed him to rejoice in a deeper experience of Jesus Christ.

Finally, he would gain eternal reward in heaven. Like the patriarchs, Moses looked ahead, looked to eternity. The reward that he looked for was, “the better country, that is, a heavenly one” (11:16). When Moses appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration with Elijah and Jesus, it was his first time to set foot in the promised land. But I have a hunch that he was thinking, “OK, this is nice, really, but when you do think we could get back to heaven?”

And he did it all by faith. He made these choices because he believed in God’s promises of something better ahead.

Faith Values the Greater Reward from God, part 2 (Hebrews 11:23-28)

Thank you for joining me today in our study of this great epistle, or better put “sermon of exhortation,” which we call Hebrews. We started last week discussing Moses as an exemplar of faith. In particular, we looked at Hebrews 11:23 which spoke of the faith of Moses’ parents.

Today we will begin looking at Moses’ own faith in Hebrews 11:24-28.

Moses expressed faith in a greater reward, which allowed him to turn his back on the privileges of being high up in Egyptian society (“called the son of Pharoah’s daughter”) and choosing to eschew the “fleeting pleasures of sin.” Why? Because he was “looking to the reward.” Moses willingly chose mistreatment and the reproach of Christ because he wanted to, because he longed for the reward that was “greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt.”

Faith is what allowed him to do that. Faith allowed him to see something that was invisible, to long for something that was yet future (cf. Heb. 11:1). His faith in something better and more lasting caused his heart to long for that rather than the pleasures of this life.

What about you? Do you say “no” to sin because you fear the consequences, or because you feel external pressures from family or religious associations? Or do you gladly say “no” to sin because you long to be holy, because you value it as better and greater than the pleasures of sin?

Years ago, and then again just recently, I read this illustration in Sam Storms’ book Pleasures Evermore. What Sam was doing was illustrating the difference between saying “no” to sin because we have to and saying “no” to sin because we want to. Or, another way of saying it is saying “no” to sin because of external restraints and saying “no” to sin because our heart is captivated by something better, what Scottish pastor Thomas Chalmers called “the expulsive power of a new affection,” a higher and better desire.

He illustrates with two stories from Greek mythology. Don’t let that put you off, because the principle is actually quite biblical.

The story concerns two men. The first is Odysseus, also known as Ulysses. Ulysses was a devoted husband to his wife, Penelope, adored his son, and agonized at leaving his home of Ithaca. But he was also a Greek, and duty called.

Paris, the prince of Troy, had stolen away Helen, the woman “whose face launched a thousand ships.” She was the wife of Menelaus, the King of Greece. He, together with his brother Agamemnon, Ulysses, and a mighty Greek army undertook the daunting task of recapturing her and restoring dignity to their beloved land.

To make a long story short, hidden in the belly of a huge Trojan horse, Ulysses and his men gained access to the city, slaughtered its inhabitants, and rescued the captive Helen. But the return voyage to Ithaca, which lasted nearly a decade, would prove to be far more challenging.

People are intrigued by Ulysses’ encounter with the witch Circe and his careful navigation between the treacherous Scylla and Charybdis. And who can forget his blinding of the Cyclops Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, god of the seas?

My fascination, however, has always been with the infamous Sirens. The Sirens were, for lack of a better way of describing them, demonic cannibals who disguised themselves as beautiful women. Countless were the unwitting sailors who, on passing by their island, succumbed to the outward beauty of the Sirens and their seductively irresistible songs. Once lured close to shore, their boats crashed on the hidden rocks lurking beneath the surface of the sea. The Sirens wasted little time in savagely consuming their flesh.

Ulysses had been repeatedly warned about the Sirens and their lethal hypocrisy. Upon reaching their island, he ordered his crew to put wax in their ears lest they be lured to their ultimate demise. He commanded them to look neither to the left nor right but to row for their very lives. Ulysses had other plans for himself. He instructed his men to strap him to the mast of the ship, leaving his ears unplugged. “I want to hear their song. No matter what I say or do, don’t untie me until we are safely at a distance from the island.”

The songs of the Sirens were more than Ulysses’ otherwise strong will could resist. He was utterly seduced by their sound and mesmerized by the promise of immediate gratification. One Siren even took on the form of Penelope, Ulysses’ wife, seeking to lure him closer on the delusion that he had finally arrived home. Were it not for the ropes that held him tightly to the mast, Ulysses would have succumbed to their invitation. Although his hands were restrained, his heart was captivated by their beauty. Although his soul said “Yes”, the ropes prevented his indulgence. His “No” was not the fruit of a spontaneous revulsion but the product of an external shackle.

Ulysses’ encounter with the Sirens, together with his strategy for resisting their appeal, is all too similar to the way many Christians try to live as followers of Jesus Christ. Like him, their hearts pant for what Hebrews 11:25 refers to as “the fleeting pleasures of sin.” Their wills are no match for the magnetic power of sensual indulgence. Although they understand what is at stake, they struggle through life saying No to sin, not because their souls are ill-disposed to evil but because their hands have been shackled by the laws and rules imposed by an oppressive religious atmosphere. It is the extra-biblical taboo that comes thundering from a legalistic pulpit or a long-standing denominational prohibition that accounts for their external complicity. Their obedience is not the glad product of a transformed nature but a reluctant conformity born of fear and shame.

I have no desire to live that way. Neither do you, I suspect. So, is your “obedience” the expression of your deepest heart-felt joy? Is it the product of a passion that spontaneously and urgently springs from the depths of your being? Or are you firmly bound to the mast of religious expectations, all the while yearning for the opposite of what you actually do? What is the most effective scheme for confronting the sinful sounds of Sirens?

Jason, like Ulysses, was himself a character of ancient mythology, perhaps best known for his pursuit of the famous Golden Fleece. Again, like Ulysses, he faced the temptation posed by the seductive sounds of the Sirens. But his solution was of a different sort. Jason brought with him on the treacherous journey a man named Orpheus, the son of Oeager. Orpheus was a musician of incomparable talent, especially on the lyre and flute. When his music filled the air it had an enchanting effect on all who heard. There was not a lovelier or more melodious sound in all the ancient world.

When it came time, Jason declined to plug the ears of his crew. Neither did he strap himself to the mast to restrain his otherwise lustful yearning for whatever pleasures the Sirens might offer. But this was not the reckless decision of an arrogant heart. Jason had no illusions about the strength of his will or his capacity to be deceived. He was no less determined than Ulysses to resist the temptations of the Sirens. But he chose a different strategy.

He ordered Orpheus to play his most beautiful and alluring songs. The Sirens didn’t stand a chance! Notwithstanding their collective allure, Jason and his men paid no heed to the Sirens. They were not in the least inclined to succumb. Why? Was it that the Sirens had ceased to sing? Was it that they had lost their capacity to entice the human heart? Not at all.

Jason and his men said No because they were captivated by a transcendent sound. The music of Orpheus was of an altogether different and exalted nature. Jason and his men said No to the sounds of the Sirens because they had heard something far more sublime. They had tasted something far sweeter. They had encountered something far more noble.

Here’s my point. Ulysses may have survived the sounds of Sirens. But only Jason triumphed over them. Yes, both men “obeyed” (in a manner of speaking). Neither succumbed. Neither indulged his desires. Both men escaped the danger at hand. But only one was changed.

The vice-grip the pleasure of sin exerts on the human soul will be broken only by trusting God’s promise of superior pleasure in knowing Jesus. The only way to conquer one pleasure is with another, greater and more pleasing pleasure. Whether it’s the sound of Sirens in ancient mythology or the all-too-real appeal of contemporary society, the principle is the same. Our only hope is in maximizing our pleasure in God.

These are the options. Like Ulysses, you can continue to fight against the restrictive influence of religious ropes and the binding power of fear, reprisal, and guilt, while your heart persists in yearning for what your hand is denied, or, like Jason, you can shout a spontaneous and heartfelt “No!” to the sounds of Sirens because you’ve heard a sweeter sound! Either you devote your time and energy to demonstrate the ugliness and futility of sin and the world, hoping that such will enable your heart to say No to it as unworthy of your affection, or you demonstrate the beauty and splendor of all that God is for you in Jesus and become happily and joyfully enticed by a rival affection.

So let’s examine how Moses came to make this decision, to say “no” because he could see greater joy and happiness and satisfaction and contentment, even pleasure and treasure, in God’s will and ways, than in the treasures and pleasures of Egypt.

Between verse 23, which speaks of Moses’ birth and his parents’ faith, and verses 24-26, which presents Moses as an adult making a choice to identify with his Jewish ethnicity, forty years have elapsed.

His identification began with a negative choice: “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter” (v. 24). First, Moses said “no” to being called “the son of Pharoah’s daughter.” He had a choice and he could have said “yes” to what was a great privilege and something he had been immersed in for 40 years.

Moses was known by the royal designation “son of Pharaoh’s daughter”—a title of self-conscious dignity that is emphasized here in the Greek by the absence of definite articles. A modern equivalent might be Duke of York.

To be such during Egypt’s Nineteenth Dynasty would have meant immense prestige and wealth. Any pleasure that the oriental or occidental mind could conceive of was his for the asking. Like being a sports celebrity today, this could be intoxicating. A man could have anything, or anyone, he asked for.

Such privilege and prestige could be delusional, as Boris Pasternak observed of the Russian aristocracy in Dr. Zhivago when the doctor remarked that wealth “could itself create an illusion of genuine character and originality.”

But Moses suffered no such delusions. Fortunately, although the “son of Pharoah’s daughter,” he had been raised by a godly Jewish mother and had learned the stories about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. He had heard about their faith and the courageous decisions they had made. Now he was an adult and it was time to define himself.

So Moses publicly refused the title, which would be a grievous affront and insult to Pharoah. Kent Hughes says, “True faith will announce its discord whenever God and conscience call for it. Believers can love their culture, and there is much to love in most cultures, but they will refuse to be identified with the godless zeitgeist or spirit of the age.”

The “world,” in Scripture, is one of our three adversaries, along with our own flesh and the devil himself. Of course, we acknowledge that this world was originally created “very good,” but since the Fall creation has been infected with pride, lust, and all manner of ungodliness. The world’s fallen systems have no love for God and in many cases will be decidedly anti-God.

The apostle John told his disciples at Ephesus:

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world–the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions–is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

And James writes in his epistle, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).

John MacArthur, in his commentary on Ephesians, writes:

[The “world” is the system] which men are in basic agreement about what is right and wrong, valuable and worthless, important and unimportant. Sinful men have many different ideas and standards, but they are in total agreement that the network of things in this world is more important than the divine perspective of God. In this most basic world outlook they are of one mind. They resolutely work to fulfill the goals and values of their system, though it defies God and always self-destructs. Sinners are persistent in their rejection, and the worse their system becomes, the more they try to justify it and condemn those who speak the Word of God against it.

And pastor Randy Smith says…

The world is the system of every age, the philosophy that opposes the things of God. The world is forever brainwashing, seeking to squeeze people into their mold. If the Bible calls for something, most often the world will be against it. The world will persecute people that oppose its standard. Nobody opposes the world more than Jesus. In biblical times confessing Jesus would put you out of the synagogue. Now confessing Jesus will put you out of the good graces of politics, Hollywood, the press, academia and personal acquaintances.

This almost unconscious, inexorable pull away from God was present in Egypt’s culture as it is in ours today, and as Christ followers we have to be aware of it and fight against it. Moses showed faith when he let God chart his destiny instead of allowing the values of Egypt or raw ambition for Egypt’s values to do it.

And that choice came freely from an imagination, and then a heart, that was captured by a greater vision, a more beautiful song, a more appealing story. That motivated Moses’ heart to choose another course of action rather than going with the flow of culture and “enjoying” the pleasures and treasures of Egypt.

Moses “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter” so that he could say “yes” to something better and more satisfying. Just like Jesus told his disciples that they must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him (Matt. 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 14:27). We say “no” to ourselves so that we can say “yes” to Jesus Christ and follow Him.

Moses decision to renounce his relationship to Pharaoh’s daughter was the turning of his back on immeasurable wealth, unending pleasures, and unspeakable power and glory. Who would do that?

Only those who by faith grasp that greater treasures and pleasures, even more abundant power and glory, are available to those who choose Christ. The only way to liberate the heart from servitude to the allure of this world and the passing pleasure of sin is by cultivating a passion for the joy and delight of beholding the beauty of Jesus.

Try to imagine the kind of life that is available to the billionaires of the day and the world leaders of the day. That is what Moses gave up. He surrendered all that pleasure and treasure and power and glory only because he considered “the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward” (Heb. 11:26).

And I hope you will too.

Faith Values the Greater Reward from God, part 1 (Hebrews 11:23-28)

Stephen Davey opens our discussion of our next hero of faith, Moses, with this story:

In a recent publication I was given, I read the fascinating story of the history of the automotive industry and the personal fortunes that were won and lost in the early 1900’s.

One of the most interesting characters among them was an entrepreneur by the name of William Durant.

Billy Durant was the owner of a carriage business in the 1880’s and he built it by controlling everything that it took to put a buggy together. And that’s exactly what he did later with his engine-powered buggies – and a corporation he called General Motors.

In 1905, he rescued financially a car maker from bankruptcy by the name of David Buick.

Billy would form a partnership with Buick and together they would create an empire by buying out smaller car companies – also named after their founders; names like Ransom Olds – of the Oldsmobile; a man named Walter Chrysler.

Durant teamed up with a French auto maker named Louis Chevrolet. Then a French Canadian joined the group who’d named his company in honor of his ancestor’s last name – Cadillac; the same ancestor who founded the city of Detroit, Michigan in 1701.

At one point, Henry Ford agreed to sell his young automotive plant to Billy Durant, but Henry Ford refused stock options in General Motors and insisted on cash, instead. They finally agreed on a price, but Billy Durant missed the closing deadline and Henry Ford changed his mind – which, of course, changed the course of automotive history.

Over the next few decades, Durant and his partners made a fortune. In fact, I read that more than 70 men became millionaires by joining or supplying General Motors – and that was in the early 1990’s.

But Billy Durant would lose his fortune and regain it and then lose it again. His last attempt at car making ended in bankruptcy on the eve of the great depression (Adapted from Orrin Woodward, Resolved: 13 Resolutions for LIFE (Obstacles Press, 2011), p. 269).

In 1936, this ingenious creator of a billion dollar industry, was penniless, managing a bowling alley in Flint, Michigan. In fact, before he and his original partner, David Buick, died, they were both too poor to own one of the tens of thousands of automobiles they had actually created.

That’s what you call going from riches to rags.

Frankly, that fall from fame and riches to obscurity and rags is nothing compared to our next hero of faith.

And you’ll discover one of the key differences between Moses and Durant – and most everyone else – for that matter, will be the fact that Moses walked away from it all – willingly . . . in fact, he walked away, because of his faith.

What motivated Moses to do this? It was because he evaluated his options and decided to go with the rewards that God had promised, rewards which could not be seen, choosing pain over pleasure, eternal treasures over temporary gains. Moses believed that God’s reward was worth sacrificing for.

23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

Moses was considered to be Israel’s most famous prophet (Deut. 34:10-12; Numbers 12:6-8) and when he talked with God, his face shone from the glory of God. Moses was the great lawgiver—bestowing on Israel the five books of the Pentateuch. Thus, he was also Israel’s greatest historian, grounding their history in the patriarchs going all the way back to creation. He was the greatest saint. When challenged by rebellious people, God recorded for all posteriority that Moses was the most humble man on earth (Numbers 12:3).

Thus, the book of Hebrews had already said of Moses that he “was faithful in all God’s house” (Heb. 3:2) and was “was faithful in all God’s house as a servant” (Heb. 3:5). Thus, Adolf Saphir says, “Of all the great men whom God raised up in Israel, there is none whom the nation regarded with a more profound veneration than Moses” (Saphir, The Epistle to the Hebrews: An Exposition, 2:620).

Significantly, in regard to Moses’ deliverance of Israel from Egypt, his liberating work was a huge act of faith from beginning to end. And this is what the author of Hebrews focuses on in verses 23–29 in the great Hall of Faith.

Our text tells us of two choices that were made that literally changed history. The first choice was relatively routine at the time. Two slaves in ancient Egypt chose to defy the king’s edict to kill all male Hebrew babies by hiding their son. That son turned out to be Moses, the great deliverer of his people.

The second choice was that of Moses himself, and it was more difficult. He chose to give up his position of influence and wealth in the Egyptian court in order to side with the enslaved people of God. Both choices were motivated by faith and their lessons have eternal consequences for us. Both choices teach that choosing eternal blessings often involves short-term pain and loss.

Here we have the anatomy of a faith that delivers others and sets them free. This insightful teaching had special relevance to the ancient church suffering in its own inhospitable “exile” in the Roman Empire. But it also shows us today that we are likely to face times when we have to give up present pleasures and treasures in order to gain what is truly lasting and genuinely best.

First, we see in this passage that the choice of Moses’ parents to obey God by faith resulted in short-term suffering, but also in eternal blessing (11:23). The initial faith we are shown is not Moses’ faith, but the heroic faith of his parents: “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict” (v. 23).

Both parents were from the tribe of Levi (cf. Exodus 2:1), and Exodus 6:20 tells us that their names were Amram and Jochebed and that they also later had another son—Aaron, who would be high priest. They also had a daughter—Miriam, the prophetess, who was their oldest child.

Amram and Jochebed were living in a very difficult time in Israel’s history. There had arisen a new king “who did not know Joseph” (Exod. 1:6) and fearing that Israel was growing rapidly and could become an internal rebellious enemy, began to make life hard on the Israelites. They were afflicted with “heavy burdens” (Exod. 1:11) in building cities and buildings, ostensibly to make them too exhausted to engage in normal sexual relations. But instead “the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad” and so the Egyptians were filled with even more dread (Exod. 1:12). “So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service” (Exod. 1:13-14).

So the new king decided on Plan B—kill all newborn male children. So they instructed the Hebrew midwives “”When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live” (Exod. 1:16). Some believe, ironically, that Pharoah was asking these women to toss these newborn boys into the Nile to become crocodile food.

This is the difficult situation into which Moses was conceived (Exod. 2:1). Interestingly, Josephus says the pregnancy was accomplished by Amram’s obedience to a vision in which God told him he would have a son who would deliver his people. Says Josephus:

These things revealed to him in vision, Amram on awaking disclosed to Jochabel(e), his wife; and their fears were only the more intensified by the prediction in the dream. For it was not merely for a child that they were anxious, but for that high felicity for which he was destined.

Although Josephus’ writings are by no means inspired Scripture, was something like this what engendered faith in Amram and Jochebed?

However that may be, when baby Moses came, his parents’ faith was in full force: “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful.”

Does that sound odd to you, that this was the reason they believed God and acted to preserve their son’s life? Doesn’t every parent think their child is “beautiful”?

Obviously, there was something about him that was more than beautiful. Possibly there was something unique about his presence that confirmed God’s word. John Calvin wisely remarked:

It seems contrary to the nature of faith that he says that they were induced to do this by the beauty of his form. We know that Jesse was rebuked when he brought his sons to Samuel in the order of their physical excellence, and certainly God does not hold us to external appearances. I reply that the parents of Moses were not induced by his beauty to be touched with pity and save him as men are commonly affected, but there was some sort of mark of excellence to come, engraved on the boy which gave promise of something out of the ordinary for him.

Stephen (Acts 7:20) calls him “beautiful to God” (literal translation). John Calvin points out that since Scripture forbids us from making judgments based on external appearance, Moses’ parents must have seen something in this baby boy to make them hope that he would be the promised deliverer of his people (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], on Heb. 11:23, p. 292).

They saw something in the child. Maybe they could see destiny in this young child (like Mary did with Jesus), something extraordinary that sparked their faith, some indications that God had great things in store for this child.

A. W. Pink offers another alternative, since “faith comes by hearing.” He says, “Most probably the Lord made known to these parents that their child was to be the promised deliverer, and furnished them beforehand with a description of him.” Stephen seems to be saying (Acts 7:25) that Moses grew up seeing himself as Israel’s future deliverer.

By the way, notice that Amram and Jochebed regarded God’s will concerning the sanctity of life as more important than obedience to the state, when national law required disobeying God’s will (cf. Acts 4:19). God honored their faith.

So Moses was born, but the Hebrews midwives feared God and didn’t do as instructed. So chapter two opens with Jochebed, saying “The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months” (Exodus 2:2).

Now, we might ask ourselves, why did they do this if they were “not afraid of the king’s edict” (Heb. 11:23). Steve Cole reminds us “Faith is not opposed to using prudence. Trusting God does not mean taking reckless chances. While they did not fear the king’s edict in the sense that they defied it, they no doubt did fear not only for the life of their baby boy, but for all their lives. If Pharaoh’s guards had caught them, they would have executed the entire family for insubordination to the king. So their “by faith” choice to hide their son exposed the entire family to the risk of death” (https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-40-faith%E2%80%99s-choice-hebrews-1123-26)

Imagine the tension. If you saw the movie Silence, where an alien creature could hear even the slightest of sounds and find you, you know the anxieties and terrors that must have seized their heart when their boy began to cry. Who knew if state police were not out on patrol?

She cannot hide him long at home, so “she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank” (Exod. 2:3). Miriam kept watch among the bullrushes.

In God’s providence Pharoah’s daughter came down to the river and was bathing. There she spied the basket with Moses in it. She saw that it was “one of the Hebrews’ children” (Exod. 2:6) but took pity on him. Miriam offered herself and her mother to look after the baby. So Jochebed got her son back and nursed him.

The end result is found in Exodus 2:10: “When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, ‘Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.’”

So Moses was preserved by his parents’ heroic faith. But there is more, for he was also nurtured by their faith. There in the slave hut of his parents Moses was surrounded by the pure atmosphere of faith. There he became aware of his own origins. There he was taught to fear God. And there he was made conscious of his call to deliver his people. Stephen informs us in his great sermon (Acts 7:25) that when Moses made his first attempt to defend his people, “[Moses] supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand.”

So Moses’ parents obeyed God by faith, believing that preserving Moses’ life was necessary not only for their sakes, but for the sake of the nation. Moses would grow up to be the greatest leader in Israel’s history, to be their deliverer from enslavement to Egypt. He would author the first five books of the Bible, foundational books for the Jewish people. The seemingly small choice to save this one little life had huge consequences for world history! We may never know what eternal blessings will flow from our choice to obey God by faith.

R. Kent Hughes applies this to our lives today. He writes:

What encouragement there is here for any who are attempting to try to raise a godly family in today’s secular desert. Moses was preserved by his parents’ faith. Their faith, their prayers, their bravery, and their creativity saved him. And more, he became a great man of faith through their faith. His experience was exactly that of the preacher who gave his mother the tribute, “My mother practices what I preach!” Moses preached and practiced the faith he saw at home as a child. Those of us who are parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and teachers not only have great power, but also immense responsibility to the children in our lives. Israel’s deliverance began with an obscure couple believing God in the midst of darkness. Think what a faith like that could accomplish today!

Charles Spurgeon was the most phenomenal pastor of the 19^th century. Thousands packed his church each week. They measured attendance by how many were turned away! Thousands came to faith in Christ under his preaching. Hundreds of pastors were trained at his pastor’s college. Orphans were cared for at his orphanages. He has more books in print by volume than any other author in history, and God still uses them greatly. What preacher wouldn’t want to be a Charles Spurgeon?

But Charles Spurgeon was the son of John Spurgeon. Who was he? He was a faithful pastor in a small English town. If he had not been the father of a famous son, John Spurgeon would be unknown in history. There have been thousands of godly, faithful pastors like him, but only a few like his son.

So I hope you parents will take heart. You may never become famous, but perhaps your child will. Build into them a life of faith, courageously believing what God has promised and living faithfully. Do what you can to prepare them to live in a world that is alluring and dangerous, and launch them into a life of ministry where they can be “beautiful before God.”

Could You Pass the Ultimate Test? part 2 (Hebrews 11:17-19)

We are in Hebrews 11:17-19

17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

Genesis 22 tells us that “God tested Abraham.” We noted that this does not mean that God tempted Abraham to sin (James 1:13). God’s purpose in our trials is the building and perfecting of our faith (James 1:2-4).

Never forget that the one who prescribes the test works from the vantage point of omniscience and ultimate wisdom, from pure goodness and tender-heartedness. That means that each test we undergo is customized to our own individual levels of maturity.

Paul tells us…

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

We wonder how the sufferer can do it! At times our pain seems unbearable and we cannot endure it. But Abraham did obey. And He obeyed by faith, a faith that believed in God’s promises despite his circumstances shouting against that. Augustine once said: “Give me the grace to do what you command, and then command what you will.”

God knew that Abraham’s faith had grown and deepened over the decades and knew that He could trust Abraham to pass this test.

Notice also that God did not test Abraham with this ultimate sacrifice early in his life, but rather “some time later.” By this time Abraham’s faith had been tested many times and God had proven Himself faithful. Now Abraham is ready to believe the impossible.

Abraham had exercised faith in leaving Ur and marching off the map, going wherever the Lord directed. Abraham had exercised faith in believing that God would give him a son through Sarah, which God ultimately fulfilled.

Faith that remains unexercised atrophies from lack of use. Lesser trials are used in Abraham’s life and in ours to build a stronger faith until we are able to face the ultimate test. Trials are like the gymnastic apparatus that makes the muscles of our faith grow stronger.

Thus, the severity of the trial is in proportion to his faith.

But what was the nature of Abraham’s test?

On one level it was the test of allegiance. Would Abraham value God more than his one beloved, long-awaited son? You could understand if Abraham had attempted to negotiate. He would have gladly sacrificed anything else! He would have gladly sacrificed everything else!

When you have set your heart on something and it is about to be taken away from you, how do you respond? Do you fight with God? Do you bargain with God?

Some of our tests are tests of allegiance. Allegiance to God or allegiance to our families is one. Allegiance to Jesus Christ versus allegiance to our boss is another. How about allegiance to Jesus and allegiance to our girl friend? John Bunyan, in prison for preaching the gospel, grieved for his family, especially his blind daughter. He was given the option of returning home if he promised never to preach the gospel again. But instead he endured that loss out of allegiance to Jesus Christ.

Willim Cowper wrote a hymn with these words:

The dearest idol I have known,

Whatever that idol be,

Help me to tear it from Your throne,

And worship only Thee.

“Abraham, I want your one and only son.” It was a test of allegiance.

But it was also a test faith. There seemed to be an irreconcilable contraction between the command to kill Isaac and the promise that through Isaac would be all of Abraham’s future descendants.

It was one thing to call Abram to leave Ur. There Abram was sacrificing his present comforts for future rewards. But here God seems to be asking Abraham to sacrifice his future. Through Isaac his seed was supposed to be. To kill Isaac meant the death of that vision.

Remember how important the “seed” is even to us! Remember God’s promise to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15 that it is through Eve’s seed that Satan would be crushed. Abraham’s seed was intended to be a blessing to the nations, not merely to Abraham. God had made it clear that this “seed” would come through Isaac.

This was affirmed in Genesis 17, when God appeared to Abraham and said:

4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram ; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

Because Abraham had sired a child through Hagar, the Egyptian handmaid, God clarified when Abraham inquired:

18 And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” 19 Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

Ishmael was a child of the flesh, Isaac a child of promise, according to Romans 9:8 and Galatians 4:21-31.

So now I hope you see the tremendously high stakes that were in play here. Now you see Abraham’s dilemma, which we should share with him. God, what are you doing?!? This is more than just a heart wrenching story of a father’s love.

The Messiah would come through Isaac. The entire future of God’s purposes was at stake. The sacrifice of Isaac puts all this in jeopardy. Notice Hebrews 11:18. Abraham sacrificed Isaac “even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’”

So what does Abraham do? The only thing he can do—he puts it all in God’s hands. He obeyed and headed to Mount Moriah. How? By concluding that it was God’s problem to solve, not his.

It was Abraham’s part to obey by faith, not to be able to figure it out. We don’t have to figure it out before we obey. We just have to obey. It was now God’s problem to reconcile.

“The proof of Abraham’s faith was his willingness to give back to God everything he had, including the son of promise, whom he had miraculously received because of his faith. After all the waiting and wondering, the son had been given by God. Then, before the son was grown, God asked for him back, and Abraham obeyed. Abraham knew that the covenant, which could only be fulfilled through Isaac, was unconditional. He knew, therefore, that God would do whatever was necessary, including raising Isaac from the dead” (John MacArthur, Hebrews, p. 335).

How can you and I exercise faithfulness to God when confronted with a test that calls for the most extreme kind of personal sacrifice?

First, we must recognize that God is the author of the test. It is no accident, no coincidence. The devil didn’t do it. It was God’s sovereign purpose in our lives. How did Job put it? “The Lord gives, the devil takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord”? NO! “The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Spurgeon said, “though we can’t trace his hand we can always trust his heart.” This test has come from God for our good and for His glory. We only need to trust and obey.

How can you and I exercise faithfulness to God when confronted with a test that calls for the most extreme kind of personal sacrifice?

Second, we recognize that God has omnipotence at his disposal. Look at verse 19, “Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead…”

What? Abraham believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead? Had this ever happened before? Was this something Abraham had seen before and hoped that it would happen to his son?

Notice that Abraham “reasoned” this. He hadn’t seen it in his experience; he didn’t conjure it up in his imagination. He counted up and weighed out the reasons why this could happen. It was based upon what he knew about God.

But where does Abraham get the idea that God can bring life out of death? Well, what were Abraham’s procreative possibilities at age 99? Not very good, right? Verse 12 reminds us that “he was as good as dead.” He was totally sterile and Sarah was completely barren. There was no natural ability to give birth to any child.

And yet God resurrected Abraham’s procreative powers, making it possible to have a child. God showed His power by waiting 24 years before fulfilling his promise to Abraham just to show that man’s impotence is merely the stage upon which he can reveal His omnipotence.

So Abraham knew from experience that God could produce life out of death. That is why he told the servants, “I and the boy [will] go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” After all, they were going to worship El Shaddai, God Almighty. That God has the power of resurrection and life.

He reasoned that God even was able to raise someone from the dead.

“The thought of sacrificing Isaac must have grieved Abraham terribly, but he knew that he would have his son back. He knew that God would not, in fact could not, take his son away permanently, or else He would have to go back on His own word, which is impossible” (John MacArthur, Hebrews, p. 335).

Abraham believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead even before God had revealed this as a doctrine. And Abraham “in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.” Isaac serves as an illustration of what God can do in His omnipotence. Knowing Abraham’s allegiance and faith, when Isaac was rescued from Abraham’s hand it was as though Abraham received him back from the dead.

For those of us who are well acquainted with the gospel, we can see the parallels with Jesus Christ. He is “the one and only Son.” He is “the beloved.” He is the fulfillment of the promised seed. Both sons were named by God; both were deeply loved by their fathers.

Both Jesus and Isaac were accompanied by two men—Jesus the two thieves and Isaac the two servants.

Mount Moriah is the place where Isaac was offered and Jesus was crucified.

Isaac climbs Mount Moriah with wood strapped to his back just as Jesus went up the hill with his cross.

Both asked a QUESTION of their father:

Isaac asked Abraham “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” (Gen. 22:7).

Jesus cried “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” from the cross (Matthew 27:46).

Both Isaac and Jesus were “offered up” as burnt sacrifices. Both were sacrificial lambs.

Jesus and Isaac were both completely submissive to their fathers, trusted them and were willing to die.

Both were sacrificed by their fathers. The Father, in heaven, is the executioner, willing to crush his Son. The only difference is that the angel of the Lord did not stay the hand of the Father at the cross, since he was there on the cross.

Both were also raised from the dead on the third day.

The similarities between Isaac and Jesus’ sacrifice are numerous and incredible as you can see. Isaac is a type for Jesus, because God the Father wants to reveal His Son to us through the Old Testament.

Historian Roland Bainton tells this story about Martin Luther: “Luther once read this story [Genesis 22] for family devotions. When he had finished, Katie said, ‘I do not believe it. God would not have treated his son like that.'”

“‘But, Katie,’ answered Luther, ‘he did.'” God the Father did treat His Son Jesus like this.

Jesus also shares similarities with the ram. Just as the ram was offered in place of Isaac as the sacrifice, so Jesus Christ takes our place. We should be the ones who pay for our sins. We should be the ones being judged. Instead, Jesus took our place.

Abraham was handed the cup of sacrifice, but it was Jesus Christ who drank it to the very dregs. Key passages in the Bible connect God’s wrath with the imagery of a cup. Jeremiah 25:15 tells us, “Thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: ‘Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.’” Then Isaiah 51:17 says, “O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.” In Revelation 14, an angel speaks, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger” (verses 9–10).

The cup was filled with God’s wrath upon those who had consistently sinned against him (see Ps. 75:8; Isa. 51:17; Jer. 25:15-16).

Jesus confirms this connection in Gethsemane when he prayed, the cross looming just ahead, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). He drank that cup for us.

As the sinless Son of God, Jesus naturally dreaded the horror of the cross. Thus he asked for “this cup” to be taken from him. But, in the end, he accepted the will of his Father, and chose to suffer and die for the sin of the world. He would drink the cup that was rightly yours and mine, so that we might drink the cup of salvation.

4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Jesus said, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day” (John 8:58). That is because the joy of substitution and the joy of resurrection are the greatest of all joys. That is why our worship should be characterized by so much more than somberness, because we live in light of the resurrection and the reality of substitution.

Do you know these joys? The joy and gladness of substitution—that your sins were satisfactorily punished in another, in Jesus Christ? He said from the cross, “It is finished,” it is fully paid for, there’s nothing else left to do. Do you know that joy?

What about the joy of resurrection? There is no greater joy than the joy of knowing that one day we who believe in Jesus will rise again to new life, eternal life. We will have new bodies, the mortal will put on immorality and the corruptible will put on the incorruptible.

These realities are why we can laugh again! The laughter of salvation found only in Jesus Christ.

Faith that Holds on for God’s Best, part 3 (Hebrews 11:16)

We are in Hebrews 11, verse 16. Let me read this whole passage about Abraham’s forward-looking faith.

13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

We have noticed throughout this passage that it is faith produced by grace that redirects our affections from this world to the next, from earth to heaven, from now to them.

This is basically one way we can determine whether we are practical atheists. I’m not talking about theological atheists, who argue that there is no god, but rather Christians who live like there is no god. They value man’s authority over God’s authority, they believe more in the material world than the spiritual world, and they value this life more than eternity.

Abraham wasn’t like that. He took God at His word, by faith saw the rewards of heaven, and lived his life for eternity.

And this leads us to our second point in this text. First, faith produced by grace redirects our affections. Second, faith produced by grace also arouses God’s affection for us.

Look at verse 16b, “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”

“Therefore,” on the basis of this kind of faith that focuses our hearts and minds on God’s future, heavenly rewards, “God is not ashamed to be called their God.”

This is so incredible! To think that God not ashamed to be referred to as my God. It doesn’t bother him that I claim him as my God, rather it delights him!

When I served as a hospice chaplain I would sing hymns to my hospice patients. Over the years I sang many of the hymns in The Hymnal for Worship and Celebration. I found six hymns, and I never would have expected this, that talked about God’s smiling face.

For example, the hymn Jesus, I Am Resting Resting by Jean Pigott, begins the fourth verse with “Ever lift Thy face upon me As I work and wait for Thee; Resting ‘neath Thy smile, Lord Jesus, Earth’s dark shadows flee.” Yes, when we see His smile all the pain and heartache of life begins to disappear.

Or take the hymn He Keeps Me Singing, by Luther B. Bridgers, where the third verse joyfully exclaims: “Feasting on the riches of His grace, Resting ‘neath His shelt’ring wing, Always looking on His smiling face—That is why I shout and sing.” You can shout and sing and claim the sweetest name of Jesus because you keep your eyes focused on “His smiling face.”

In the hymn O That Will Be Glory by Charles H. Gabriel, he talks about the joys of heaven: friends will be there, joy will overflow, “Yet, just a smile from my Savior, I know, Will through the ages be glory for me.” That smile will be our joy and delight throughout eternity.

Other hymns that have that concept—the smile of God—are Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts, Sunshine in My Soul and Trust and Obey. Look them up and let these songs edify your heart.

Far too many Christians feel that God’s countenance towards them is a frown, not a smile, laboring under the false supposition that God in his wrath is about to rain down lightning bolts of anger toward them. Nothing could be further from the truth as a Christian.

There’s no doubt that God’s heart must be grieved by sin and evil in our world but that is not the main headline! God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only son for us!

The image of God’s smiling face first appears in the priestly blessing of Aaron mentioned in Numbers 6:24-26: “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

The image of God’s face shining upon someone paints a picture that signifies God’s divine favor. Like warm rays from the sun, God’s favor is shining upon his people. When we read “the Lord make his face shine upon you” it shows God’s radiance warming our lives with love, grace, compassion, guidance, joy, and all other attributes that flow from him. Again, we see the abundance in which God blesses his people.

To “be gracious to you” shows that this isn’t something we deserve; rather it’s unmerited grace that God is giving us. Because God loves us, he gives us what we need and not what we deserve. That’s grace.

God was not ashamed to be called the God of Abraham, even though Abraham faltered and failed numerous times. In fact, God later proclaimed to Moses, “I am [present tense] . . . the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). The most notorious weasel of them all was Jacob, and God delighted in calling Himself Jacob’s God. And did you know that God refers to himself three times more often as the “God of Jacob” than of Abraham or Isaac?

“Not ashamed” (cf. 2:11) is a litotes implying that God is willing and happy to be called their God. Our author uses this figure of speech in the negative “not ashamed” to emphasize the more positive: God is proud to be my God. He delights in associating His name with mine.

No higher tribute could be paid to any mortal. But God proudly claims whoever trusts and obeys him, and they can humbly insert their name in the divine proclamation, “I am the God of __________!”

We all have seen or heard of family members who turn their backs on a member of the family that is erring and rebellious and who has caused them shame. Do you realize that Jesus would never, never do that of you? He would NEVER do that to you.

Jesus said to Mary, after his disciples had all abandoned him, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17).

Did you hear it? “Go to my brothers…” My brothers! Even though they had abandoned Him in His greatest time of need, he still regards them as brothers. Back in Heb. 2:11 we read that Jesus Christ was “not ashamed to call us brothers.”

It is faith, not perfect obedience, that brings pleasure to God. It is our dependence upon Him, recognizing that we are weak and needy and powerless. It is trust that does manifest itself in obedience and endurance, but it is primarily the faith that pleases God. Remember Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please [God].” So the reverse is also true: God is pleased with our faith. That is what delights his heart.

On what basis does God delight in calling himself my God, or Jesus calling himself my brother? The answer is right there in v. 16. Notice that God “has prepared for them [and for us] a city” (v. 16b). This is the New Jerusalem that will come down upon the New Earth. This is a reference to our eternal home.

And what was their response to this marvelous promise of a New and Glorified City that would be established on the New and Glorified Earth? They “desired” it! The word “therefore” in the middle of v. 16 points back to the first half of the verse. In other words, it is because these OT patriarchs “desired” a better country that God is not ashamed of them. Faith focuses the heart and the mind on those future promises of God.

So how is it that God is not ashamed of us when we are so often ashamed of ourselves? It has to do entirely with His grace! I remember reading a few years ago about a pastor in his early 30s who was diagnosed with cancer. After many tests, the doctors gave him the worst possible news. He was dying of cancer—sooner rather than later. It turned out exactly as the doctors predicted. He lived for a few more years and then he died. But as long as he was able to preach, he spoke to his people about what he was learning. The young pastor was given an insight that he shared with his congregation. It went something like this.

Twenty seconds—and the clock is running!

When you begin your Christian life, you realize that you have a long way to go, but you think to yourself, “I’ve got a lifetime to grow in grace.” Even though you know that you’ll never reach perfection in this life, you assume that over the years, you will grow much closer to God. And while you struggle with various sins, bad habits, and a long list of negative tendencies, you think, “Someday I’m going to be a better person.” After all, when someone points out a weakness to us, what do we usually say? “I’m working on that,” which means, “Give me time and I’ll get better.”

But what if you don’t live long enough to make even the elementary progress that you planned on making? That’s the dilemma this young pastor faced, knowing that he didn’t have much longer to live. And it was precisely at this point that he gained wisdom from God.

He realized, “I’m not going to live long enough to get any better. I’m going to have to die the way I am right now.” That’s a shocking and sobering truth! Suddenly you look up at the scoreboard and where you thought you were in the middle of the second quarter, with plenty of time left in the game, to your dismay the clock shows 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter. And the clock is running!

What do you do then? It’s either the grace of God or it’s nothing at all. The young pastor shared with his congregation a fresh insight from Romans 5:8, a verse we normally use in our evangelistic efforts with the unsaved, the Romans Road: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Did you notice the word “still”? “Still sinners.” Jesus gladly gave His life for us while we were “still sinners.” That word “still” comes from a tiny Greek word—eti. Christ died for us while we were “still sinners.” You and I, we were and still are “sinners.” The dying pastor got up and said something like this: “I realize for the first time that I’m going to heaven because of that little Greek word eti. I am still a sinner, and I don’t have any time left to get better, and when I die, I’m resting my hope on the fact that Christ died for me while I was still a sinner.”

Near the end, William Jay visited his friend John Newton (the composer of Amazing Grace), who was then barely able to speak. He wanted some advice on being a pastor, a successful pastor. But Newton said: ‘My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.’”

That is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what “being saved” really means. That is our entire hope of heaven.

All of us who believe in Jesus Christ, even the very best among us, have so far to go that we’ll never live long enough to measure up on our own. Someone else has to do the work for us. And the good news is that Jesus Christ did. He lived a perfectly obedient life and then died a sacrificial death in the place of those who did not and could never live that perfectly obedient life.

That is why Paul says, in Philippians 3:4-8, that all those things he had counted on and depended upon for righteous standing before God before, he now counted “as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ [and then notice verse 9] and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith… (Phil. 3:7-9)

That is what pleases God, our faith, our total dependence upon His grace and goodness towards us. It is this kind of total dependence that brings a smile to God’s face.

And why is God smiling? What makes God proud to be called my God? He gives two reasons, one at the beginning of verse 16 and the other at the end. We’re going to look at the latter one first.

“God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared for them a city.” As John Piper says, “The first reason he gives why he is not ashamed to be called their God is that he has done something for them. He made them a city—the heavenly city “whose architect and builder is God” (verse 10). So the first reason he is not ashamed to be called their God is that he has worked for them. Not the other way around. He did not say: “I am not ashamed to be called their God, because they made for me a city.” He made something for them. That’s the starting point. The pride of God in being our God is rooted first in something he has done for us, not vice versa” (https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-unashamed-god)

We also called that “city” heaven, or the New Jerusalem. God has prepared it, but not for everyone, only for “them” who live and die in faith. All preparations have already been made, as Jesus promised His disciples, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3) It’s a “prepared” room in a “prepared” city” in a “prepared kingdom” (Matthew 25:34). It’s just like C. S. Lewis said, in The Last Battle, everything prior is but the title page. From the time of death or the rapture everything will just get better and better from this time forward.

But such is not the case for all people. For those who refuse to believe a different prepared ending occurs: “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’” (Matthew 25:41)

And that brings us back to the first reason why God delights in being called our God.

It goes like this: “They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.” “Therefore” signals that a reason has just been given for why he is not ashamed. The reason is their desire. They desire a better country—that is, a better country than the earthly one they live in, namely a heavenly one. This is the same as saying they desire heaven, or they desire the city God has made for them.

So two things make God unashamed to be called our God: he has prepared something great for us, and we desire it above all that is on the earth. So why is he proud to be the God of people who desire his city more than all the world? Because their desire calls attention to the superior worth of what God offers over what the world offers.

In other words, the reason God is proud to be our God is not because we have accomplished something so great. But because he has accomplished something great and we desire it. (John Piper, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-unashamed-god)

Heaven has been prepared for you and God delights in being your God IF you believe that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross is sufficient for your forgiveness. If you go back to trusting in yourself and your own goodness, then it is not heaven that is prepared for you and God will say, “I never knew you.” If you don’t possess this kind of faith, then cry out “Help my unbelief.”

Let me summarize four lessons from this paragraph in Hebrews 11:13-16: First, see God’s promises fulfilled in the future tense. Bank on them. Second, embrace your foreignness on this earth. Remind yourself that this is NOT YOUR HOME. Third, redirect your conscious thoughts and yearning desires toward heaven. And fourth, revel in God’s delight in you…and delight in Him.

Each example of faith that the writer has cited so far is a positive one involving a believer who kept on trusting God and His promises in spite of the temptation to stop trusting. That is what the writer was urging his readers to do throughout this epistle: Keep on trusting and do not turn back. In every case God approved and rewarded the continuing faith of the faithful.

Faith that Holds on for God’s Best, part 2 (Hebrews 11:13-16)

We’ve been talking about this faith that Abraham possessed, a faith that obeyed, endured, anticipated God’s greater reward, upheld in spite of impossibilities and hung on for God’s very best. We noted last week that Abraham realized that God’s promises were not being fulfilled in this life, in Canaan, but in the future, in heaven and instead of living in anxiety and fear, or in bitterness and resentment, he died believing that God would fulfill those promises—in an even better way. We read this in Hebrews 11:13-16.

So why did they go to their graves joyfully anticipating the fulfillment of promises they would never see fulfilled in their lifetime? Because of an all-encompassing perspective that shaped everything else: they “acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (v. 13b).

The earth is not my home. This world is not my ultimate destiny. We might sing about that, but Abraham lived that way. Abraham told the inhabitants of Hebron: “I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight” (Gen. 23:4). I am “a sojourner and foreigner.”

When Isaac blessed Jacob he said: “May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham!” (Gen. 28:4) This land, Canaan, was “the land of your sojournings.” It wasn’t home.

Then Jacob referred to the “years of my sojourning” to Pharoah in Genesis 47:9. As verse 9 had introduced to us: “By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.”

These patriarchs all continued to live by faith to the very end of their lives, and they died believing that God would eventually fulfill His promises to them. They looked forward to possessing a land that God had promised to give them. They did not turn back to what they had left, which might have encouraged them to apostatize. This is how the author of Hebrews wants to encourage his first-century readers, by showing them that, like their forefathers in the faith, they would not receive all the benefits of salvation now, and that they would not be exempt from trials, but that if they hang on, they too will experience the fulfillment of God’s promises to them.

As we’ve seen, the first readers of this epistle were tempted, under the threat of persecution, to go back to their Jewish religion. The implication of our text in its context is that to go back to Judaism would be like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob going back to settle permanently in Mesopotamia. God had promised them a new country, the land of Canaan. But, being men of faith, they looked beyond that piece of real estate to the heavenly country that God had prepared for them.

These all “died in faith.” They endured to the end even though they did not experience all that God had promised. Under the New Covenant we have been promised and receive so much more, but still not everything that God has promised. Glory awaits us. The redemption of our bodies is still future.

But they didn’t give up and neither should we. They unhesitatingly acknowledged that they were not really at home here. You say, “Of course, it is obvious that they had not yet inherited the land of promise.” It’s not that Canaan was their home and they just didn’t have all of it yet. It’s not that Canaan was their home but they weren’t running the show. Rather, it’s that the entire world system was not their home.

God is saying that they confessed themselves aliens and strangers even while living in the promised land because they realized that it wasn’t the total and best fulfillment of that promise. They “admitted themselves as aliens and strangers on the earth.” They were aliens and strangers while experiencing life as we now know it. They knew that life at its best here in this world is always shadowy and temporary and never really satisfies. Even David, as king, still referred to himself as a “stranger on the earth” (Psalm 119).

Such a declaration reveals something about these folks and the next verse tells us what that is. Hebrews 11:14 begins with the word “for,” telling us that this verse is the reason why they continued to believing in far-off promises and lived as “strangers and exiles,” and that is because “people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland” (Heb. 11:14).

They were looking for a place to call home, but it wasn’t Canaan and it wasn’t Ur.

Do you know what an ex-patriot is? An ex-patriot is someone who has left their “fatherland,” the place of their birth, either willingly or by force. And while he lives as an alien in a foreign country, he longs for his homeland. His joys and affections are set on that place. When Abraham, Isaac and Jacob confessed that they were aliens, it revealed something about their values, what they held most dear. Their affections were riveted on another country—not the one they came from, but the one they knew that were going to.

True, Abraham did send his servant back to the old country to get a bride for Isaac. But he sternly warned him not to take Isaac back there (Gen. 24:6, 8). Jacob fled to the old country for 20 years to escape from Esau’s murderous intentions. But it was never his true homeland. He told Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country” (Gen. 30:25).

Why didn’t they go back to Ur? Because the country they were really longing for was not of this world’s order. Hebrews 11:15 says, “If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.” If, in fact, their hearts had been longing for their “homeland” (Gk. patris refers to a place of one’s fathers). The “if” in this clause is contrary to the fact; that is, it was not true that they wanted to go back to their homeland (second class condition). They were not “thinking” of Ur, even though Ur had the best that this world could offer at that time in history.

The reason is, they had a “desire [for] a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:16a). And it is this spiritual longing that enabled them to persevere in faith. Faith enabled them to “see” that better place and as a result they thought about it (v. 15) and desired it (v. 16). Faith redirects our affections away from this world and sets our aspirations on a better reward.

When Abraham was just a garden variety pagan, everything in life revolved around Ur—his financial, relational and social life. Even his spiritual life. But when the Voice invaded his life he chose to abandon that life for the next 100 years. In the eyes of the world, it appears that Abram gave up everything for nothing. But from our transformed vantage point (because we “see” by faith), it’s as though we give up nothing for everything.

Why does a gifted young man like Jim Elliot turn his back on worldly success to take the gospel to the Ecuadorian Indians who would take his life? It is because he saw himself as a spiritual ex-patriot! Although he lived here, he longed for there. In his own words he said it best: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Or as Jesus said, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36). Randy Alcorn, in his book The Treasure Principle, highlights a truth that I think will bring us all up short. He says, “Many Christians dread the thought of leaving this world. Why? Because so many have stored up their treasures on earth, not in heaven. Each day brings us closer to death. If your treasures are on earth, that means each day brings you closer to losing your treasures” (Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle, p. 40).

We tend to look for and expect the “good life” here and now. As Americans, we believe it is our entitlement, our birthright to pursue and experience ultimate happiness here and now. But God hasn’t promised us “the good life” here and now. He has promised us “the best life” in the future. Are you willing to hold out for the “best life” ahead?

I’m not saying that spiritually minded people give no thought for the world, that we become as odd as we possibly can. That is not the muscular Christianity of the Bible, but the distortion of fundamentalism. We are to remain in the world, engaging and addressing the world, but we are not to allow the world’s values to direct our thinking and desiring. It is the heavenly reward that should occupy our thinking and drive our desiring. We don’t live “for” the world—it’s pleasures, advantages and preoccupations. We are “in the world but not of it.” We are not consumed with its benefits.

If you are really a child of Abraham (by faith in Jesus Christ) then listen to how the New Testament describes you:

Peter wrote: “…To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Pet. 1:1). Later he says, “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile” (1 Pet. 1:17). In 1 Peter 2:11 he says, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.”

And Paul, in Colossians 3:1-2 encourages us that our thoughts and desires should be directed to heaven.

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

Paul tells us in Philippians that “our citizenship [politeuma] is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). In Ephesians he says, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens [sumpolitai] with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19).

It all boils down to this: One of two dominating influences expresses itself in your life—either affections for heaven or affections for this world; either we are thinking about heaven and heavenly rewards, or we are fixated on this world and its rewards.

None of us can escape this fact. One of two dominating influences drives your decisions, fashions your perspectives, determines the things that are of real importance to you—heaven or this world. How do we know? Well, when the circumstances of life bring you to a fork in the road; when your affection for the world and affection for heaven are at cross purposes—which path will you take—career? Immorality? Materialism? When Jesus and this world diverge, what do you choose? That is how you know where your allegiance and affections lie.

We see this struggle in Psalm 73, where Asaph looks around in this world and sees that the wicked are experiencing the good life. They are healthy, wealthy, influential, without a care in the world. But eventually Asaph enters the temple to worship and there he gains a heavenly, future perspective, one which shows him that the wicked will be destroyed in judgment while he will experience glory. That changes his perspective and moves him to choose God over the “good life.”

Look at the progression in Abraham’s life: First, Abraham was “looking forward” to this city. In 11:14 we find that people like Abraham continually “seek” after this. Then verb 16 becomes even stronger, they “never cease their longing for a better country.” In Hebrews 10:34 this was called “a better and lasting possession.”

This life can be good…for a little while. We experience joyful moments but those are interrupted by irritations and aggravations. We experience the “good life” of houses and cars and vacation homes but even these break down over time and we lose our joy in them.

Abraham chose something better and lasting. Qualitatively it is “better” and it lasts longer than any joys we experience now.

Remember to whom this epistle is written. It is written to Hebrews. That is why it is called the epistle to the Hebrews. These Jewish people view Israel as their home country. They are people of the land. The land is very important to them. But they need to be reminded that the country for which Abraham and the other patriarchs were waiting was no earthly country like Israel or Judea, but rather a heavenly country.

Here is the point. They were so used to the visible elements of their religion – the rituals of circumcision, the sacrifices in the temple, the ceremonies – that when they came to know the One to whom all of those visual elements pointed, they were tempted to leave Him and to go back to the earthly ceremonies. When it came time to choose between the rituals that pointed to Jesus versus choosing Jesus Himself, they were tempted to choose the rituals. If offered a heavenly kingdom versus an earthly kingdom, they were inclined to choose the earthly.

But God’s kingdom is not of this world. Jesus made that very clear when He stood before Pilate. He said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).

But what does this mean for you and me today? It means that we shouldn’t be so overly concerned about building our own little earthly kingdoms, kingdoms that will one day pass away. It means that we ought to be laying up treasures in heaven.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

Back in verse 14, our author said, “For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.” To “speak thus” must mean to verbally profess that our thoughts and desires are for heaven.

Since we come from a different country, we talk and act differently than the natives of this world do. When they observe that we are different, we should be ready to tell them why (1 Pet. 3:15). Tell them about God’s promise of heaven for all that believe in Christ, so that they can join us as pilgrims journeying toward our new country in heaven.

C. H. Spurgeon said, “The Christian is the most contented man in the world, but he is the least contented with the world. He is like a traveler in an inn, perfectly satisfied with the inn and its accommodation, considering it as an inn, but putting quite out of all consideration the idea of making it his home.”

Our biggest danger is to become comfortable with this world and to think of it as our true home, to invest all our energies into making the best life in the here and how. This is what the biblical writers call worldliness.

James tells us that we cannot be friends of God and friends of the world. They are mutually exclusive. Jesus told us we cannot have two masters. We must make a choice.

“[James 4:3-5] pictures the church as the wife of God. God has made us for Himself and has given Himself to us for our enjoyment. Therefore it is adultery when we try to be “friends” with the world. If we seek from the world the pleasures we should seek in God, we are unfaithful to our marriage vows. And, what’s worse, when we go to our Heavenly Husband and actually pray for the resources with which to commit adultery with the world, it is a very wicked thing. It is as though we should ask our husband for money to hire male prostitutes to provide the pleasure we don’t find in Him!” (John Piper, Desiring God, p.141).

The problem is that if we don’t really love God, we will default to loving the world. In other words, if we don’t “follow hard” after God (Psalm 63:8), then we will easily follow the world. John Piper says it like this: “When you become so blind that the maker of galaxies and ruler of nations and knower of all mysteries and lover of our souls becomes boring, then only one thing is left — the love of the world. For the heart is always restless. It must have its treasure: if not in heaven, then on the earth” (Sermon: Malachi 1:6-14, November 1, 1987, http://www.DesiringGod.org).

Faith that Holds on for God’s Best, part 1 (Hebrews 11:13-16)

Do you remember how C. S. Lewis brings his masterful children’s series The Chronicles of Narnia to a close in The Last Battle? After recording all the exhilarating adventures the Pevensie children with Aslan, the lion, Lewis concludes:

“But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

This was Lewis’ provocative way of drawing our attention and affections towards heaven. All the joys and all the pains of this life are but the cover and title page of our story. That story for those who have believed in Jesus Christ will never end but just keeps getting better and better. For us, after death there is destiny. Earth is but the robing room for eternity. Our lives should be shaped by our fixed attention and affection for heaven.

Matthew 6:10 tells us that we are to direct our prayers to “our Father in heaven.” If you are a Christian, your father is in heaven. Every blessing we receive comes from our Father in heaven.

Jesus is now in heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us.

Hebrews 12:23 indicates that the “spirits of righteous men made perfect” are also there in heaven. All those in Christ whom we have lost to death are there waiting for us.

Jesus said that our names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). We each have a title deed to that place. In fact, Jesus said he is preparing a place for us there (John 14:1-4).

We are strangers and aliens here, because “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). That is where our “glorious inheritance” is (1 Pet. 1:4).

In Matthew 5:10-12 Jesus tells us that our reward “in heaven” is great for those who are persecuted here on earth.

So our Father, Jesus Himself, our loved ones in Christ, and one day we will be there to hear “Well, done, good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:23)

So Paul tells us to “set your minds on things above” (Col. 3:2) and “seek the things that are above” (Col. 3:1).

And Psalm 16:11b says, “in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

This is why, for the Christian, anything short of heaven is not really home yet. All this is merely the foretaste of the joys in heaven. Everything that is really precious to us is awaiting us in that place.

Isaac Watts wrote:

There is a land of pure delight,

Where saints immortal reign,

Infinite day excludes the night,

And pleasures banish pain.

The second-century Letter to Diognetus described the Christians’ lifestyle in the following way: They live in their own countries, but only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land. . .It is true that they are “in the flesh,” but they do not live “according to the flesh.” They busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, but in their own lives they go far beyond what the laws require. They love all [people], and by all [people] are persecuted. They are unknown, and still they are condemned; they are put to death, and yet they are brought to life. They are poor, and yet they make many rich; they are completely destitute, and yet they enjoy complete abundance. They are dishonored, and in their very dishonor are glorified; they are defamed, and are vindicated. They are reviled, and yet they bless; when they are affronted, they still pay due respect. . . Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the world. (Simon Guillebaud, Choose Life, 365 Readings for Radical Disciples, 5-19)

Abraham knew this to be true and that is the perspective that our author is communicating in Hebrews 11:13-16.

From his calling at age 75 to the day of his death at age 175, Abraham knew that everything in this life—including the trials and inconveniences are merely the cover and title page of a story that will get better and better throughout the ages.

Remember, Abram had been born a pagan. He was comfortable with the polytheism of his culture until one day a Voice called out to him, made him unimaginable promises, and by grace Abram believed God.

This grace-produced faith distinguished itself through obedience, endurance, anticipation and total dependence upon the character of a promise-making, promise-keeping God. One author had defined faith: “Faith is not a fixation or obsession, but a rational commitment. It is characterized not by ecstatic intoxication but by sober reflection and critical searching.”

Abraham didn’t shut down his mind and stop assessing the facts, but rather he focused on the character of God and put his faith in that. Hebrews 11:11 said that Abraham and Sarah “considered him faithful who had promised.”

Despite the obstacles of advanced age and persistent barrenness, they weighed this against the divine impossibility that God would not keep His promise. Since “God cannot lie” then the only option open is that the laws of normal reproduction must be overturned. Faith produced by grace also redirects and arouses our affections.

First, faith produced by grace redirects our affections.

How often are our affections directed towards the things of this earth! “I’m but a stranger here, Heav’n is my home,” we love to sing, but in life’s reality it’s often so different. Eyes that should be raised heavenward are riveted on earth. Feet that should be tramping toward Canaan’s shores are mired in earth’s swamps. Hands that should be reaching for eternal treasures are wrapped around gaudy marbles. Backs that should be straining in kingdom effort are bent over in valueless pursuit. (Richard E. Lauersdorf, The People’s Bible: Hebrews, 137)

John Piper reminds us: “Jesus is not against investment. He is against bad investment—namely, setting your heart on the comforts and securities that money can afford in this world. Money is to be invested for eternal yields in heaven— “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven!” (John Piper; Desiring God, 165)

In our day, our emphasis is far too much on the good life here and now, and not enough on the promised joys of heaven. Thus, many that profess Christ as Savior live with their minds on the things on earth, rather than setting their minds on the things above (Col. 3:1-4). They are motivated more by collecting treasures on earth than by storing up treasures in heaven. Our focus is on what Christ can do for us here and now. Heaven is a nice extra, but it does not govern how we live day to day. (https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-37-desiring-better-country-hebrews-1113-16)

It is a dangerous thing when a Christian begins to feel permanently settled in this world. (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Hebrews, vol. 2, 98)

But for Abraham it was different. Watch how this unfolds in Hebrews 11.

In Hebrews 11:13 we have already been told that Abraham and Sarah finished well. He says “These all,” he says, “died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar” (v. 13a).

“All these people” include all those who have been discussed so far and all those who will follow. All of these people lived by faith in the promises of God yet it always involved something that they never fully realized.

And this prefigures you and me. We also have been given glorious promises, some of which are yet unfulfilled. Our faith should imitate theirs.

All these “died in faith.” I hope all of us want to “die in faith,” to go on believing both now and until our final breath, to hang on to God’s promises to the very end. But those who “died in faith” also lived in faith. Faith was the dominant characteristic of their lives, right up to the moment of death.

Many years ago, a ship known as Empress of Ireland went down with 130 Salvation Army officers on board, along with many other passengers. Only 21 of the Salvation Army people survived. Of the 109 that drowned, not one had a life preserver. Many of the survivors told how these brave people, seeing that there were not enough life preservers, took off their own and gave them to others, saying, “I know Jesus, so I can die better than you can!” NOW THAT IS DYING IN FAITH TO THE VERY LAST BREATH!

The Greek text here is somewhat difficult: “in accordance with faith” or “in accordance with the principle of faith” they all died. Vine comments that the idea is that they died “in keeping with their life of faith.” Death is the final test of faith, and they all passed with flying colors, living by faith right up to the last breath. The beauty of their dying was that they died in faith though never receiving the fullness of the universal blessing that had been promised. Their experience of death did not undercut their conviction that those promises would come to pass.

This is so difficult. It requires not only great faith, but patient endurance as well. Their faith “in death” was just as vibrant as it was throughout the totality of their lives. In fact, isn’t in in death that many times the quality of our faith is made most evident?

One commentator puts it this way: “It is in death that hope in things which are future and invisible shines most brightly.” The reason that they hung on to their belief in God’s promises is because they saw the unseen, they were certain of what they never could lay their eyes upon. But they could see through the eyes of faith the ultimate fulfillment of those promises, “like sailors who become content they can see their final destination on the horizon. Land ahoy!” (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Hebrews, Volume 2, p. 100).

Now watch how the author builds his case. He says, “having seen them and greeted them from afar.” Faith had supplied them with a kind of seeing that transcends physical eyesight, giving them a certitude that allowed them to gladly “welcome” them. “From afar” or “from a distance” signifies a long stretch of time.

Do you remember the final scene in the life of Moses? Forbidden to enter the land because of his sin, God told him to climb to Mt. Nebo where God showed him the whole land. God said, “This is the land I promised…you will not cross over into it.”

In Moses’ case, God physically showed him the land He had promised to give to Abraham’s descendants. He didn’t get to experience it, but got to see it. In the case of these “hall of faith” people in Hebrews 11, they so took God at His word that they could spiritually see the fulfillment of promises.

God opens our eyes to see. This happens to us in salvation. Because we are Adam’s seed, we are born dead in sin (Eph. 2:1), blind to the glory of God (2 Cor. 4:4-6), with ears deaf to the gospel (1 Cor. 2:9) and our wills are bound by Satan (2 Tim 2:26). In 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 Paul says,

4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The difference between us in the New Covenant and those under the Old Covenant, God opens our eyes to see spiritual promises that are currently being fulfilled for us (although there are still some future promises yet to be fulfilled). For Abraham, physical promises such as his land and his son, he could not see except by faith for a long time.

But it was so real to these Old Testament exemplars of faith that they joyfully welcomed them, anticipating the pleasure of the fulfillment of these promises. Their faith so concretized these promises that they “saw” them and “welcomed” them with joy, they saluted them from a distance.

Paul uses similar language when speaking of the conversion of the Thessalonian believers. He says, “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, (1 Thess. 1:4-6)

You “welcomed” the gospel with joy. Why, because God had opened the eyes of their heart to see the sufficiency and the supremacy of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” He “saw” it through the eyes of faith. Likewise, Moses, in Hebrews 11:27 “endured as seeing him who is invisible.” The prophets searched the Old Testament for that day (1 Pe 1:10-12).

Yet, these men and women of faith did not receive the things promised, but they were still trusting God to fulfill those promises until the day they died.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I would have likely been filled with resentment. If God had made a promise to me and I lived in anticipation of that promise month after month, year after year, decade after decade and then died without ever having experienced the fulfillment of that promise, I think I would have been a little bitter. At first, into the vacuum of uncertainty all kinds of fears and anxieties would rush in, but that would ultimately be followed by bitterness and resentment because I would have convinced myself that God really didn’t care about me or else He wasn’t powerful enough to fulfill his promises.

Abraham teaches us that when God’s promises are not fulfilled, when life gets worse rather than better, when the pain keeps on hurting, that instead of giving up on God or giving in to the temptation to doubt or fear or become bitter, we should hold on to those promises, even if we never see them fulfilled in this lifetime. Why? Because even more so than Abraham, we can foresee even better rewards in heaven.

Do don’t give up. Keep on believing.

Faith for the Impossible, part 2 (Hebrews 11:11-12)

We were discussing Abram’s faith last week: a faith that obeyed, endured, looked to the future and believed the impossible. God’s promises to Abram included land, that was never fulfilled in his lifetime, and a son, that Abram had to wait 25 years for God to provide. It is obvious that God was trying to build faith in Abram.

Iain Duguid entitles his biographical study of Abraham Living in the Gap Between Promise and Reality. And that is what all of us do. There is a gap between promise and reality. God fulfills His promises, but we often have to wait. God reveals Himself to us, and we respond to Him trustingly, taking Him at His Word.

Now two things were working against Abram: his age and Sarah’s barrenness. Both made it biologically impossible for Abram to sire a son.

But God had made a promise to Abram and Abram had learned to trust those promises. He was becoming a friend of God who knew God by experience.

Like men such as Abram and David, our theology needs to become biography. We need to know God on an experiential level, one that comes only through implicitly obeying His commands and trusting His promises. Often, trusting His promises results in having to act in obedience.

I don’t mean that our theology should come from our experiences. That is dangerous ground. Rather, I mean that our theology, what we believe, must become lived out in obedience. That is when we really know God, we live with God.

When David said, “The Lord is my shepherd” that is different from saying, “The Lord is a shepherd.” The latter is a theological statement, the first a lived-out reality. David had experienced God being his shepherd and taking care of all of his needs.

R. Paul Stephens notes: “A careful study of the book of Job reveals that the only authentic theologian in the book was Job himself. The reason is sublimely simple: while the friends talked about God, Job talked to God” (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/living-theologically-toward-a-theology-of-christian-practice/ )

Scott Hafemann writes: “Those who know God know that He is bound by his own promises and integrity, not by our wishes. Moreover, unlike us, God never finds himself in the uncomfortable situation of having made a promise He no longer wants to or is able to keep. God is never caught by surprise. God’s promises are made in his infinite wisdom as part of His eternal plan and are backed by His matchless power. What God says, He does. God, because He is God, is a promise keeper” (The God of Promise and the Life of Faith, p. 94).

Abram therefore used this experience of waiting without receiving God’s promises to pray and worship and to get to know God better.

In Genesis 15:5 God told Abram:

5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

And notice Abram’s response: “And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).

[We can find] that it was one thing to “believe God and have it credited to [us] as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6) but quite another to move that belief from [our] head into [our] heart and trust God completely in the everyday decisions of life, to move our theology into biography.

Our passage is Hebrews 11:11-12.

11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

Although the ESV and some versions have Sarah as the subject of this sentence, most commentators believe Abram holds that spot and a better translation might be the NIV, “By faith, Abraham, even though he was past age – and Sarah herself was barren – was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.”

Regardless, it was obviously a team effort. In order to have a son God would have to do a miracle in both of their bodies. And eventually both of them expressed faith.

Thus, he became certain that God would do what he said—dynamic certitude! He had visual certitude as he saw that promised baby boy in his mind’s eye and future certitude as he saw it as present. Genuine biblical faith doesn’t focus on my impossibilities, but on God’s power to keep His promises.

When God told Sarah he would give her a child within a year, he asked the question, “is anything too hard for the Lord?” It is a rhetorical question: Of course, nothing is too hard for God. And that is what Abram hung onto, God’s ability. Not his inability, but God’s ability. Not his impotence, but God’s power.

Genuine faith doesn’t need to know “how,” just like Mary submitted to God even though she had no idea how she would bear her Messiah. Martin Luther says, “If you would trust God, you must learn to crucify the question, ‘How?’”

When God makes a promise, the real issue is never HOW, but WHOM. Faith is confidence in God’s character, His faithfulness and power. God backs every promise with an unfailing character.

Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic due to a diving accident as a teenager, has learned to live with her disabilities and disappointments. Many times she has wondered, ”Why?” But she says, “Real satisfaction comes not in understanding God’s motives, but in understanding His character, in trusting in His promises, and in leaning on Him and resting in Him as the Sovereign who knows what He is doing and does all things well” (Is God Really in Control? p. 9).

Chuck Swindoll tells about a couple of nuns who worked as nurses in a hospital. They ran out of gas while driving to work one morning. A service station was nearby but had no container into which to put the needed gasoline. One of the women remembered that she had a bedpan in the trunk of the car. The gas was put in the pan and they carried it very carefully back to the car. As the nuns were pouring the gasoline from the bedpan into the gas tank, two men were driving by. They stared in disbelief. Finally, one of them said to the other, “Now Fred, that is what I call faith.”

It reminds me of that metaphor “You can’t get blood from a turnip.”

Faith, however, never involves turning off our minds or checking them in at the door. Kent Hughes says it like this: “Some people are under the impression that when a person has faith, he inwardly agrees to ignore the facts. They see faith and facts as mutually exclusive. But faith without reason is fideism, and reason without faith is rationalism. In practice, there must be no reduction of faith to reason. And likewise, there must be no reduction of reason to faith. Biblical faith is a composite of the two. Abraham did not take an unreasonable leap of faith….We are to rationally assess all of life. We are to live reasonably. When we are aware that God’s Word says thus-and-so, we are to rationally assess it. Does God’s Word actually say that, or is it man’s fallible interpretation? And if God’s Word does indeed say it, we must then be supremely rational, weighing the human impossibility against the divine impossibility of God being able to break his word. And we must believe.

It is very rational to believe God’s Word, even when what is promised is humanly impossible. Of course, this is the essence of faith. God’s character is the central issue. Hughes writes, “If God’s Word does indeed say it, we must then be supremely rational, weighing the human impossibility against the divine impossibility of God being able to break his word. And we must believe.”

Admittedly, the facts screamed “impossible” as they stacked up one on top of another. “Past the age” and “as good as dead” seem to tip the scales against faith. But Abram did a little theology. Doctrine intersected with life, as it should, and Abram believe that God could still do what he had promised.

Romans 4:18-21 expresses it this way:

18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

There was “no hope” as he faced the facts, but he was “fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” As Spurgeon says, “Your extremity is God’s opportunity. The difficulty all along has been to get to the end of you; for when a man gets to the end of himself, he has reached the beginning of God’s working.”

Abram’s confidence was in God’s power to keep His promise. It wasn’t the strength of his faith, because at times it did waver (as we read in the Genesis account); it was the object of Abram’s faith that guaranteed its fulfillment.

After fathering Isaac, Abraham fathered six more. Why? Just to show the reliability of God’s faithfulness to His promises and His power to keep them.

This is not blind faith, devoid of intellectual substance. Later in biblical history we find these expressions of God’s faithfulness:

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, (Deut. 7:9)

O LORD God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O LORD, with your faithfulness all around you? (Psa. 89:8)

The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful–for he cannot deny himself. (2 Timothy 2:11-13)

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. (Heb. 10:23)

This is what faith is—not intellectual abandonment or frenzied optimism, but clear-headed dependence upon the character of the God who made the promise. This is the kind of faith that obeys, endures, anticipates future rewards and relies upon the character of God.

To emphasize God’s faithfulness and His power to keep His promise, the author emphasizes the powerful contrast between the one solitary man to whom the promise was made, and the innumerable host of descendants:

Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. (Hb. 11:12)

The word rendered “as good as dead” is the same perfect passive participle as Paul uses in reference to the same subject when he says that Abraham, on receiving the promise of God, weighed up all the adverse circumstances and “did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body now as good as dead (he being about a hundred years old), or the deadness of Sarah’s womb” (Rom. 4:19), but concluded that the certainty of God’s word far outweighed them all. (F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews Rev., p. 297).

Both “stars” and “sand” are proverbial for numbers too great to count. There is “no math” that can count it all. It is beyond imagination. And ten times in the Old Testament this promise is reiterated as being literally fulfilled in history. Truly God is faithful to keep His promises, His power guarantees it.

Philip Hughes reminds us of the “further and ultimate fulfillment which is manifested in the spiritual lineage of Abraham; and it is in this respect that the deepest truth of the promise is to be discerned. As Paul teaches, the focus of the promise is precisely Christ, who is the seed of Abraham in whom and through whom all nations are blessed, and the seed of Abraham in its multiple sense is composed of those who are united to Christ the Seed (Gal. 3:7-9, 16, 29). These it is who, within the eternal perspective, constitute the innumerable multitude of the redeemed, “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues,” who “have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev.; 7:9, 14).

Whenever Abram looked out at the night sky diamond-studded with stars or at the grains of sand in the desert stretches, his heart must have thrilled at the hope of a multitude of descendants. What about you? Do you long for multitudes of people come to know Christ as Savior? Then look up at the stars in the sky at night and by faith continue to claim this promise. Because remember, God continues to fulfill his promise to Abraham even today.

George Muller of Bristol exemplified the nitty-gritty of a life of faith. After being a wild youth, he was converted in his early twenties. He obeyed God’s call by living a life of faith and obedience. He lived in a manner that the world could not fathom. He and his wife sold all of their earthly possessions, founded an orphanage, and lived by faith alone, making their needs and those of the orphans known only to God in prayer. They often faced insurmountable problems that were overcome by faith in God’s power.

In 1877, Muller was on board a ship that was stalled off the coast of Newfoundland in dense fog. The captain had been on the bridge for 24 hours when Muller came to see him. Muller told him that he had to be in Quebec by Saturday afternoon. The captain replied, “It is impossible.”

“Very well,” said Muller, “if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way—I have never broken an engagement for 52 years. Let’s go down to the chart room and pray.” The captain wondered what lunatic asylum Muller had escaped from.

“Mr. Muller,” he said, “do you know how dense this fog is?”

“No, my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God, Who controls every circumstance of my life.”

Muller knelt down and prayed simply. When he had finished, the captain was about to pray, but Muller put his hand on his shoulder, and told him not to: “First, you do not believe He will; and second, I believe He has, and there is no need whatever for you to pray about it.” The captain looked at Muller in amazement.

“Captain,” he continued, “I have known my Lord for 52 years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up, captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone.” The captain walked across to the door and opened it. The fog had lifted. (From, Roger Steer, George Muller: Delighted in God [Harold Shaw Publishers], p. 243.)

I wish I could tell you stories like that from my own experience, but I cannot. But George Muller and Abraham should challenge us to grow in the life of faith in the God who is faithful. Obey God’s call to salvation by faith. Live as an alien in this world by faith. Ask God by His power to overcome any insurmountable problems you face by faith.