A list of the "Faithful" persons of Hebrews 11 and the demonstration of that faith 543 - 4 - 5

Hebrew 11:1-3, “1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good report. 3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”

The list of faithful persons in Hebrews 11 include Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sara, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David also, Samuel and the prophets. A few examples of their demonstration of faith.

Hebrew 11:4, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” Cain offered God the works of his hands as a farmer while Abel offered the blood of a lamb. Abel’s sacrifice was acceptable to God and Cain’s was not. While Leviticus has a provision for offering grains as a sacrifice, Cain’s offering was not in accordance with it.

Genesis 5:21-24, "And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." Although Enoch pleased God, few of his descendants survived the flood, only Noah his three sons.

For 120 years Noah follow the dictates of God and built the ark. One can only imagine the ridicule he and his family endured building an Ark in a dry climate that had never known rain.

God appeared to Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia and said, “Leave your country and your people, and go to the land I will show you.” Abraham settled in Harran and stayed there until after his father died and then obeyed God commend to “go to the land I will show you.”

When God told Abraham to take his only son and sacrifice him he did not hesitate. Abraham Left the next day to fulfill God’s command. This was not the moral equivalency to the sacrificing of children to pagan gods. Abraham knew that Isaac was the son of promise and through him he would be the father of nations.

Hebrew 11:11, “Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.” Although Sarah laughed at the prophecy she would have a son in an another year, she still was rewarded with the child of promise.

Hebrew 11:26, “Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.” Moses fled Egypt and discovered God in the wilderness. Through faith, he led God's people out of Egypt and to the edge of the promised land.

The Prophets, Hebrew 11:36-38, “36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 38  (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”

Paul end this chapter with a promise to us, the Holy Spirit? Hebrew 11:39, “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”

The 40 years of Wandering in the Wilderness 546 2 - 7

Jude 1:5  I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

I've stated before that either you trust in God or you don’t and do it your own way. It is very difficult for me to understand why the Israelite's kept doubting God’s Word! God had called down plague after plague on pharaoh and his people. God parted the Red Sea to allow the Israeli save passage and then closed it upon the Egyptians.

Before the Israelite's were to enter the Promised Land Moses sent in twelve spies, Caleb of the tribe of Judah, Joshua of the tribe of Ephraim and men from the other ten tribes. Upon their return Celeb and Joshua brought their good report, however, the other 10 spies were very fearful and murmured greatly. Numbers 13:32, “And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.”

Murmuring, not trusting God (disbelief) and being fearful, definitely on God’s list of no-no’s. Revelation 21:8, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Numbers 14:11-12, “And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.”

Moses connived God not to destroy the people. Rather God decreed that only those 20 years of age and younger and Celeb and Joshua would enter the Promised Land, as for the rest of the Israeli, Number 14:32, “But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.”

Later the Israeli decided to do it their way and enter the Promise Land against the advice of Moses. Numbers 14:41-42, “And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? but it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies.” And smitten they were.

The parallel between the Israelite's and today is manifested in the great falling away, the apostasy so prevalent today. In addition to every moral depravity available on cable TV, the Christian channels seem to be catering to false teachers. Rather than being taught obedience most of the tele-evangelists seem to be of the name it and claim it ilk. There also seems to be an unholy marriage today between big business and politics where the “little guy” is being squeezed to death.

The signs of the end days are all around us but most people just don’t seem to want to do more than murmur about it. What’s needed is national repentance and a worldwide revival.

 

Hebrews 3 deals with the Israelite's not being allowed to enter God's rest due to the provocation found above in Numbers:

Hebrews 3:15-18, "While it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?"

What was the provocation at Kadesh-Barnea and how did God respond? 542 - 4 - 7

Either you trust in God or you don’t. It is very difficult for me to understand why the Israeli kept doubting God’s Word! God had called down plague after plague on pharaoh and his people. God parted the Red Sea to allow the Israeli save passage and then closed it upon the Egyptians. Imagine walking between two walls of sea and then doubting God.

Before the Israeli were to enter the Promised Land Moses sent in twelve spies, Caleb of the tribe of Judah, Joshua of the tribe of Ephraim and ten men representing the other twelve tribes of Israel. 

Upon their return Celeb and Joshua brought their good report.

Numbers 13:7-9, “And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not.”

Celeb and Joshua may have coined the popular expression, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

The other ten spies disagreed.

Numbers 13:32-33, “And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”

So the Israeli turned on Moses and refused to enter the Promise Land. Clearly God was angry.

Numbers 14:11-12, “And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.”

Moses may have been slow of speech but he talked fast and connived God to downplay His wrath. God proclaimed that only those 20 years of age and younger and Celeb and Joshua would enter the Promised Land, as for the rest of the Israeli, Number 14:32, “But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.”

Pride and doing it our way can certainly be our undoing. The Israeli decided to enter the Promise Land against the advice of Moses. Numbers 14:41-42, “And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? but it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies.” And smitten they were.