Hebrews 11

Abraham did not question God. Abraham knew that God had the power to raise the dead to life. It was God’s responsibility to fulfill His promises. It was Abraham’s responsibility to obey.

At the very last moment, God stopped Abraham’s hand from killing Isaac. In a way, Isaac was as good as dead; therefore, the writer says here that, figuratively speaking, Abraham received Isaac back from death (verse 19).

Then the angel of the Lord said to Abraham: “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son” (Genesis 22:12). Then the Lord said, “… because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore … through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me” (Genesis 22:16-18).

One day God will surely test each of us in a similar manner. Perhaps He will test us many times. He will test us in different ways. But always He will test us where our faith is weakest, where our obedience is shakiest. He will ask us to offer to Him that thing which we love most of all. That thing which He asks us to offer to Him could be our possessions, our skills, our time, our honor, our family, or our own life. When God calls us, as He called Abraham, let us be ready to obey whatever He says (see Mark 10:17-21,29-30).

20 The story of how Isaac blessed his two sons, Jacob and Esau, is written in Genesis 27:1-40. It was the custom among the Jews for the father to give a blessing to his sons. The oldest son always received the greatest blessing. But Isaac had become blind in his old age. His younger son Jacob deceived Isaac by pretending to be Esau, and so Jacob received the greater blessing that was meant for his brother. But when Isaac discovered that he had been deceived, he did not take back the blessing he had given to Jacob. Instead, accepting it as God’s will (Genesis 25:23), Isaac confirmed Jacob’s blessing (Genesis 27:33). Isaac had faith that, through Jacob, God would fulfill His promise to make Abraham into a great nation.

21 Isaac’s son Jacob (also called Israel in the Old Testament) had twelve sons. Jacob gave the highest blessing to his eleventh son, Joseph²² (Genesis 49:26). And Jacob (or Israel) also blessed Joseph’s two sons; but he deliberately gave the higher blessing to Joseph’s younger son, just as he himself had received the higher blessing from his father Isaac. And Jacob gave his blessing by faith, knowing that God would fulfill His promise to the descendants of Abraham (Genesis 48:11-20).

22 Joseph had been sold by his own brothers into slavery in Egypt (Genesis 37:1236). He was later given authority over the entire land of Egypt (Genesis 41:41-43). Even though Joseph spent the rest of his life in Egypt, he continued to have complete faith that God would give to his descendants the land He had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And according to that faith, Joseph instructed his sons to carry his bones to the promised land and bury them there (Genesis 50:24-26; Exodus 13:19).

23 The Jews remained in Egypt 430 years (Exodus 12:40). As they grew in numbers, the people of Egypt began to persecute them. The Jews were put into bondage and made slaves (Exodus 1:6-14). Then Pharaoh²³ ordered that all Jewish male babies were to be killed as soon as they were born (Exodus 1:22). But when Moses was born, his Jewish parents hid him (Exodus 2:1-3). By faith, the parents knew that God had somehow specially blessed Moses.

24-25 Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses, and brought him up as her own son (Exodus 2:5-10). When Moses grew up, he became a ruler of Egypt. However, he gave up all the authority and wealth of Egypt in order to suffer with his fellow Jews (Exodus 2:11-12).

26 Moses gave up the treasures of Egypt. Moses considered disgrace for the sake of Christ to be of greater value than all the wealth of Egypt (see Philippians 3:7). Moses didn’t know about Christ, but by giving up everything for God and for His people (the Jews), Moses was acting just as Christ later acted. Therefore, just as disgrace fell upon Christ and His followers, so the same kind of disgrace fell upon Moses (see Psalms 69:9; 89:50-51; Romans 15:3; 1 Peter 4:12-14). But in spite of such disgrace, Moses persisted in faith to the end, being confident that God would one day reward him.

Therefore, let these Hebrews, to whom this letter was written, follow the example of Moses. Moses, who never knew Christ, was ready to suffer disgrace for His sake. Thus these Hebrews, who knew Christ and had received His Spirit, should all the more be ready to suffer for Christ’s sake.

27 Even though Pharaoh tried to kill Moses, Moses didn’t fear him; instead, he feared God. Therefore, by faith Moses left Egypt, and for forty years lived in the land of Midian (Exodus 2:15). And he persevered there, because by faith he could see the invisible God. In this, Moses is an example and encouragement for all believers; for we too, like Moses, will be enabled to persevere as we look to the invisible God through the eyes of faith.

One day, toward the end of his stay in Midian, Moses saw the invisible God with his physical eyes! God appeared to Moses in a burning bush, and told Moses to return to Pharaoh and bring the Jews (Israelites) out of Egypt (Exodus 3:1-10).

28 By faith Moses delivered the Jews from bondage in Egypt. Through Moses God brought many plagues on Egypt, but in spite of the plagues, Pharaoh at first would not let the Jews go. Finally God sent an angel to kill all the firstborn of Egypt (Exodus 11:1; 12:29-30). By faith Moses commanded the Jews to put the blood of a sacrificed lamb on the doorframes of their houses as a sign; by this means the destroying angel, seeing the blood, would pass over their houses and spare their firstborn (Exodus 12:21-23). Thus, because of the sprinkled blood, the angel passed over the Jewish homes; and from this event the PASSOVER festival of the Jews originated (Exodus 12:24-27).

In the same way, through the blood of Christ, we too can be delivered from the judgment and condemnation of God. Christ Himself is our Passover sacrifice, our Passover lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7). He is the Lamb of God, who makes atonement for the sins of the world (John 1:29). We are saved not by our own righteousness but by the sprinkling of blood, Jesus’ blood.

29 When Pharaoh saw the firstborn of Egypt killed by the destroying angel, he de-cidedto letthe Jews (Israelites) go. But when the Jews had gone only a little way from Egypt, Pharaoh changed his mind and sent the Egyptian army to capture them (Exodus 14:5-9). When the Jews saw Pharaoh’s huge army coming after them, they were afraid and began to rebuke Moses. Ahead of them was the Red Sea; behind them was the Egyptian army. They thought they would surely perish (Exodus 14:10-12).

But by faith Moses said to the Jews: “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today” (Exodus 14:13). Then, through Moses, God separated the waters of the sea, and the Jews by faith passed through the Red Sea as on dry land. But when the pursuing Egyptians tried to cross the sea, they were drowned (Exodus 14:21-28).

30 Forty years after being delivered from Egypt, the Jews entered the promised land, Israel. But first it was necessary to conquer the people who had been living there. The first thing the Jews had to do was to overcome the city of Jericho. God told the Jewish leader Joshua how to capture the city. Jericho was surrounded by a great wall. The Jews were to march around the city for seven days blowing their trumpets. On the seventh day all the Jews were to give a great shout, and the wall would fall down. Then they would be able to enter the city and capture it. And it happened just as God had said (Joshua 6:1-5,12-16,20).

Who ever thought of capturing a big city in such a way? Joshua’s faith in God surely must have been great. But God of ten works in such unusual ways. ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty (Zechariah 4:6).

We can take Joshua’s faith as an example for ourselves. In our lives there are many “Jerichos” which must be overcome. Like Joshua, we too can overcome them through faith. Paul said: The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4).

31 Joshua had first sent spies to Jericho, and the prostitute Rahab had hidden them in her house. She had believed in the God of Israel, the God of the Jews. She knew through faith that the Jews would destroy Jericho. Therefore, she gave help to the spies sent by Joshua, and thereby saved her life (Joshua 2:1-3,6,8-14; 6:24-25).

Notice that Rahab was both a Gentile (non-Jew) and a sinner; yet she was saved by faith. Furthermore, though she was a despised prostitute, God used her to accomplish His purposes.

32-34 In these verses, the writer gives examples of some other Jewish leaders in the Old Testament, who through faith accomplished great works for God (Judges 7:1921; 15:14-16; Daniel 3:16-28; 6:16-22).

35 Thetwowomenwhosesonswereraised from the dead are mentioned in 1 Kings 17:17-24 and 2 Kings 4:32-37. Other men offaith refused to be released from death, because they didn’t desire to be “resurrected” in this world, but preferred a better resurrection in heaven.

36-38 Here we read of Old Testament heroes who suffered severely because oftheir faith. But they all remained firm to the end.

… the world was not worthy of them (verse 38). In worldly men’s eyes these heroes of faith were unworthy; but in God’s eyes they were worthy. They were fully worthy to inherit the heavenly city of God (verses 10,16).

39 None of these Old Testament heroes of faith received what had been promised. A number of them obtained some promises, but none of them received the one great promise—that is, the promise of a Savior. None ofthem saw that day when God’s Son Jesus came to earth. God’s greatest promise to mankind is the promise of salvation in Jesus Christ. But in their own lives on earth, none of these Old Testament heroes obtained that promise.

40 However, these Old Testament men of faith will one day be made perfect; that is, they will receive full salvation just as we will. When Christ comes again, these Old Testament heroes, together with us who have believed in Christ, will be resurrected and receive eternal life.