Living Words: Hebrews 11
By: Lucas Quagliata
Tags: Jesus, That Good You Need, Christianity, Religion, Sprituality

Living Words: Hebrews 11

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.

Photo by Erik Dungan on Unsplash

Living Words takes a closer look at verses in the Bible and how we can apply them.

Hebrews 11 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. It’s a brilliant combination of the old and the new. It uses stories from the past to illustrate the necessity of perseverance in faith. If you’re not familiar with the chapter, or if it has been a while, I implore you to read through it here.

Before we continue, a brief note on the author. While many believe that Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, is the author of Hebrews, there is a great deal of doubt about who wrote the book. I don’t believe we’ll solve that debate, and as a result we’ll just refer to the author as “the author.”

As with everything in the Bible, it’s important to consider the context here. The author is speaking to early Jewish Christians who are experiencing hardship and persecution. Times had become so difficult that they were considering abandoning their newfound beliefs. It is quite likely that during this time at least some of them were being killed because of those beliefs. Saying that these early Christians were going through a rough patch would be a massive understatement.

And still, the author seeks to encourage them. They spend much of the book of Hebrews laying out the evidence for Jesus, His divinity, His humanity, and the new covenant He has given to us. The author has done their research, fully comprehending the Jewish faith and Christ’s fulfillment of the law, and then working to explain how that tradition points to and supports the idea that Jesus is the Messiah.

The entire book is quite the wonder. By the time its early readers reached what we now know as Hebrews 11, they had heard masterful theological reasoning, tactic use of scripture, and historical lessons. And then they reached this chapter. And I imagine that they were whipped into a frenzy.

This chapter is the Old Testament’s Greatest Hits. It reads like a revivalist sermon being shouted from the pulpit, complete with the repetition of the empowering phrase “By faith”. That phrase permeates through the entire chapter and works like a call and answer, pushing us ever-forward. It’s electric!

We can imagine the author dictating their work, starting quietly but eventually being unable to contain their excitement and shouting at their scribe, disturbing the entire temple or village or first century library. I imagine them being overcome with The Spirit, passion flowing through their words hurriedly until they were finished. Afterward staring at the scribe in disbelief and saying, “Wow…that was…good!”

The best artists will tell you that at times they are but vessels for something that is flowing through them. We can’t ask the author of Hebrews if that’s how they felt, but the way these words leap from the page 2,000 years later certainly makes it seem that way!

The author brings us through history. After a brief introduction on the importance of faith, he moves away from theological arguments and into some very concrete object lessons. This isn’t just about what faith is or is not, this is about what faith looks like out there in the real world. When faced with turmoil and destruction, what does it mean to be faithful?

The author begins with Abel, who was faithful in his sacrifice and who testifies to us even though he was killed by his brother. Right away we see how faith extends beyond the grave and covers over seemingly hopeless situations. They speak of Enoch, whose faith pleased God so much that God decided to allow him to skip death and brought him right into Heaven. The author adds that it is impossible to please God without faith, that we must keep God in mind. We know He is real and will reward us when we seek Him, and must act in accordance with that knowledge.

The author speaks of Noah, who must have seemed insane in his day, but went ahead and did what God was telling him to do. They write of Abraham and Sarah, who moved away into a foreign land even though they knew no one there and believed God would give them children even though Sarah was far beyond her child-bearing years. The author reminds us that these people, heroes in the Jewish and Christian faiths, were considered by many in their day to be quite out of their mind. They were ridiculed!

He goes on to speak about how many of these heroes died before they saw the fruits of their labor. Abraham did not live to see his people grow. Joseph did not see his people return to the Promised Land. Even Moses did not see the Promised Land.

It’s as if the author is hammering away at everything standing between these early Christians and a full commitment to their faith. Do you feel endangered or persecuted? Do you worry that you won’t be around to see any kind of resolution? Do you feel as though you are a foreigner, or hopeless, fighting an unwinnable battle despite smaller victories? Do you feel as though for every good thing that happens there are a thousand new challenges?

Well good, because so did the giants of your tradition.

The author explains that we are foreigners subject to persecution, and that the reason we feel we have no real reward in this life is quite simple. We do not!

As the author states in the beginning, faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. We aren’t meant to feel at home or rewarded in this life. We will have brilliant moments of community and we will see God working in this world — the author details those moments as well — but at the end of the day we will continue to face challenges until we leave this world. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t press forward and attempt to grow our community, to show God’s love and to illustrate that love through our actions. Quite the opposite! But it does mean that we may never see the full fruits of our labor while we are alive.

My favorite part of Hebrews 11 is the end. Let’s take a look, beginning with verse 32.

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated — the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

This is a true flex. If you aren’t convinced by now, what more shall I say??? The author says they don’t have time to tell all the stories of the importance and consequence and power of faith! But just to push you over the edge, here’s a laundry list of everything they don’t have time to share. It’s as if they’re saying, “Perhaps if you are still doubting, you should do some of this research yourself!”

The author ends the chapter on a truly resonant note. None of these people received what had been promised, the Messiah. Now, we have received Jesus and have been made perfect. Perfect in this sense means “complete”. The faith of the ancients has been made complete. The author seems to ask, “Are we now going to let them down by turning away from Jesus, who in His life suffered more than all and for all? Are we really going to turn away from what we know to be true?”

The same is true for us. While we face our daily struggles and while sometimes it seems there is no end in sight, we can take comfort in the fact that God is there for us. God is in control. We’re playing the long game, the one that extends beyond this world and into the next life. We must keep the faith and keep acting as God would have us act, never giving up.

Hebrews concludes with 2 more chapters complete with instruction, encouragement, and warnings to stay on the right path. But I imagine that for those reading or listening to the book for the first time, the charge and content of Hebrews 11 would have been ringing through their ears for days. It would have continued inspiring them and guiding them through each choice and interaction. It would continue to drive them to make the right decisions and to grow in their faith.

I hope that today — even separated by so many years, in our own circumstances, facing our own challenges — the same can be true for us.

Special thanks to Enduring Word, which I referenced and used as a guide while writing this.