Hebrews 11.13
Meat
August 17th 2014
Whether you are here with us here in the studio/church or out there through streaming or via the archives we welcome one and all to our verse by verse study of the Word of God.
Let’s begin with prayer, then afterward we will sing the Word of God, sit for a few minutes in silent reflection, and when we come back we’ll pick it up at Hebrews 11.10 and continue talking about Abraham.
So let’s pray.
Stacy
Music
Silence
So we left off last week, after a general rehearsal of Abraham’s life, by discussing
Verses 8-9 which say:
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
We talked about the fact that this is a general model for Christian faith – to be called to “go out” to a place (life with Christ) which we will receive as an inheritance (becoming joint heirs in the future), and that it is often a place that we pursue “NOT knowing where we are going.”
Isn’t that a great description of a what it’s like to live a life of faith?
We come out of the world, we “go out” into a life with Him, what it consists of are elements of our eternal inheritance, and yet we are never absolutely sure if where we headed in the right direction.
Of all the conversations I have with people how to walk with Christ – our direction and our mode – is at the top of the heap.
Believers young and old are frequently consumed by the seeming arbitrary nature of walking by faith.
Admittedly, it can seem like we pray and get nothing in return, like we seek but are not finding, that we long to do something FOR God, something that is in His will, but we often fail to discover what that is.
I am often asked how to solve the mystery of such apparent arbitrariness of the walk.
As I’ve mentioned before, there is a model for “waiting on the Lord” throughout scripture – but then the question becomes, “how long do we wait?”
When I was in the school of ministry there was a very popular attitude among the other students to really wait on God (and an underlying criticism for those who appeared to not wait – like me).
What is the key to walking by faith? To pursue an inheritance that is not apparent, to trust in Him but to pursue Him and His will at the same time?
A couple thoughts for whatever they are worth:
Faith almost always includes the act of stepping into the dark or the unknown.
If this is true then we can see that faith includes action because we can’t “step into the unknown” without stepping, right?
Peter stepped off the boat and into the water.
The man with the withered hand was asked to stretch forth his hand.
The woman with an issue of blood approached the Lord and touched His garment.
Abraham left his home, stepped away.
Faith, walking by faith (stepping in faith might be a better way to put it) almost always includes a believer taking action.
Kierkegaard called it a leap of faith.
Secondly, faith almost always includes a letting go of something and the embracing of something else.
Abraham let go of his former home, family, associations, and town as a means to embrace the promised land of his inheritance.
Supposedly Christians, being buried with Christ, let go of their former life, their old man, and embrace walking and living by the new man, or the spirit.
The idea might be visualized by the actions of a trapeze artist. His grip is firm upon one swinging trapeze, but in order to move, leap out, travel in that space or distance of no foundation, he must be willing to release the former in order to grip the latter.
In the gap, His is living in faith, believing that by letting go of the first handle he will travel safely through time and space and be rewarded with the arrival of the second.
In the Christian life, the trapeze example is not just a singular event of letting go of the former life and gripping the new, but in a constant letting go of the former as a means to grip the new.
This idea is often lost on believers, with the first letting go so celebrated and relived and heralded that there is the thought that they ought to never let it go.
Not true. The whole Christian experience is letting go of where we have been and being willing, over and over again, to experience that foundationless that exists between the safety of the two grips.
This is why the writer of this very book, after chastising the Jewish converts to the faith for still drinking “the milk of the word” instead of feasting on meat said in the first two verses of chapter six:
Hebrews 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
So thus far we see that the Christian walk includes taking action and those actions always include letting go of one safe position as a means to grip another.
Part of the problem or difficulty of the action of letting go lies in the fact that what we are clinging to is established, is safe, is reliable, is known.
Because of all of these factors they are revered and loved – and it really doesn’t matter what it is we are talking about – can be our material possessions, can be our pet attitudes, the personalities that have worked for us all these years, doctrines and beliefs that are hailed as orthodox, lifestyles that are comfortable – you name it – if we love it more than we love Him and the pursuit of knowing Him, it will make letting go all the more difficult.
For this reason Jesus was rife with examples of how those who follow Him must be seekers of truth and cannot love the world and all that it affords more than they love Him.
The rich young ruler, when challenged to sell all he had and to FOLLOW Christ turned away – it was too much.
John tells us that there were many religious rulers in Jesus day who believed on Him and His message but
“because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”
All through scripture – men prove that they love the wiles of women more than God.
Only the individual knows what they fear losing the most, what they love most in their heart.
When it is God AND HIS WILL and WAYS truth-seekers will give all to know and to possess it.
Jesus gave a parable in Matthew 13:44 which says
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
Paradoxically, however, the idea behind such an acquisition is NOT to take the sacred treasure and stock it away in a safe out of fear of losing it but to use it to produce more and more treasure.
Obtaining the treasure, in other words, is not the goal – it’s just part of the process.
Once we have sold all (let go of everything to buy it) we are then paradoxically called to expose it to alteration which is the only means it can grow and growth is required – change is required – in order for the treasure to produce fruit – to multiply.
Too often we allow ourselves to believe that once we have the treasure we ought to do all we can to keep it protected and safe.
Such thinking goes completely against a contextual understanding of scripture and is akin to new parents doing everything in their power to keep their newborn new, instead of wanting junior to let go of the crib and reach out for the walker, to let go of the walker and reach out for the big wheel, to let go of the big wheel and reach out for the bike, and ultimately, if Christian, to let go of this world, and receive Him.
But ultimately does NOT mean finally.
In the exact same fashion healthy parents want their babes to advance by putting away childish things, the true walk of faith, the most genuine Christian walk is not one bit different.
But the process is utterly terrifying because it comes hand and hand with . . . suffering.
When we sit back and think about the modern first world and almost all of it contrivances we are met with efforts to reduce or even eliminate suffering.
We create bigger and better, we coddle, we legislate manners all as a means to keep ourselves (and our tender little babes) from discomfort and suffering.
But in the end the need for suffering in the lives of individuals is not only obvious for the strengthening of the soul, it is innate, and when the avoidance of suffering comes at all costs, the benefits and purpose and essential elements of faith are lost.
Where is the amazing feat of the trapeze if a person never has to let go?
What benefit would the Lord’s healing touch have on others if it was bestowed but the person became nothing but a puppet on strings hanging down from heaven from which he is moved without any effort or exertion of his own?
I sometime wonder, in the case of people being healed, like the man born blind, if he ever wished he had never been given sight due to the added changes, the letting go, the new trial and suffering sight gave him.
This is the model behind the narratives we are reading here in Hebrews 11.
All of these men and women, were willing in some way of another, to let go of what they were accustomed to, to trsut God at His word, and hang suspended in the foundationless space until His word was proven true.
I do not personally believe, for a second, that individual Christians are expected to remain babes in Christ – whether it be in doctrine, practice, or walk.
Institutionalized religion encourages such stability because by it they thrive – another reason I believe that genuine Christianity could never be located in an institution but MUST live in the heart of truthseekers who daily make leaps of faith – much to the chagrin of those who, out of fear, endorse tradition, dogma, and gripping to what’s safe at all costs.
Verse ten, of Hebrews 11 continues on the subject of Abraham’s faith, and says:
10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
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.
12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
.
10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
There have been a number of interpretations of this passage by scholars in the past.
Some, like Grotius, believe that the writer speaks of Jerusalem.
I suppose that is possible.
Other’s believe that he is speaking of a spiritual city – one in the clouds which would have a far more permanent foundation that any founded on terra firma.
Some, of course speak of the New Jerusalem, as mentioned in Revelation.
But in the end we don’t know and can only speculate.
However, passages like Hebrews 13:14, which says to believers that, “here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come,”
Suggest fairly clearly that Abraham was not seeking to establish an earthly city (like Jerusalem) but had his heart and mind set on a Kingdom that God would build. And in the most literal sense if God (who is spirit) built a city, the foundation would certainly be sure and we could probably suppose with all reason that it would be heavenly, spiritual, and not earthly.
In Revelation 21:2, John says that he “saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,” and proceeds in that chapter and the following to give a most beautiful description of it.
I personally believe this is spiritually in place and not a physical description of an actual city to come but one that already exists at the defeat of Satan and Jesus assuming His rightful place on the throne.
The point of this passage is that the faith of Abraham as eminently strong and he uses Abraham’s willingness to act by letting go and soaring into the unknown as evidence of it.
Consider the imagery once again:
The journey Abraham undertook was then a long and dangerous one. The distance from Haran to Palestine, by a direct route, was not less than four hundred miles, and this journey lay across a vast desert which was part of Arabia.
That journey would be treacherous today by modern standards but put yourself there four thousand years ago.
There was no knowledge of the way, no roads, no frequented paths, no knowledge of watering holes, no fast food joints, unknown animal threats, weather factors in what had to have been an utterly inhospitable environment.
Then he was going out among strangers. Couldn’t really tell you who they were but I am certain they were not all friendly.
Then, as mentioned, he was leaving the comforts of his own country, and home, and friends; the place of his birth and the graves of his fathers, with the certainty that he would see them no more.
Additionally, he had absolutely no land rights to the country which he went to receive (which God told Him he would receive). He had no power to take it, and could make no claim to it whatever, yet he went with the utmost confidence that it would be his.
We cannot help but note all the elements of walking by faith we have discussed today but we can also see that in the process Abraham didn’t try to go and purchase the land now did he?
The record does not say, “And Abraham gathered all the men of the land together and gave them a pot of gold and said, give me this land for this price.” No he stepped out, He acted as if, but He let God work the details out.
So far, we have listed several pertinent factors as they relate to walking by faith:
First, faith always manifests itself in action.
Second, the action frequently includes a letting go as a means to receive something else,
Third, that the process of letting go can be insufferable but to remain proves a love and affinity for something that can never take precedence over our desire to love and pursue Him more.
Finally, we see that once Abraham has taken all of these steps FIRST (because God had first given Him the directive and promise) that Abraham did NOT then make things turn out by His will and ways but waited on the Lord.
Here is part where waiting on the Lord comes into play.
So often I hear people say that they are waiting on the Lord to move and then they will move.
If the promise and directives and desires have been made plain we move, we step into the unknown, we let go and leave, and then we wait on Him to complete whatever it is He has promised.
Admittedly, this can be the most trying part because it is tough to know when and IF He will act.
Sometimes, all the while we are stepping out, and doing our part, He is working in an entirely different area.
Sometimes all of our best laid plans turn to dust and it’s hard to know if we were ever in his will to begin with.
I get this on a personal level like you may not believe. And while I cannot assure anyone of anything in terms of results, I can say this without reservation:
If our actions are for Him and His glory He uses everything, every offering for His ultimate good.
So where we might be spinning our wheels on something He will not allow, He will balance those wheels of ours in the process.
And while we might step out in full faith believing He is leading only to discover that we were simply deluding ourselves, He will use those delusions to bring us closer to Him.
In the end, we can’t go wrong in stepping out when the heart is sincere. He is just too good and too powerful to allow us to either hurt His purposes or to hurt ourselves.
Now verses 11-13 are related to all we are talking about but at verse 14 the writer picks the topic back up about “seeking a country” that was promised.
But let’s stop that line of thought for a minute and read 11-13 and see what insights the writer adds here to the topic of faith. In verse 11 he says:
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.
The word “herself” (as in, Through faith also Sara herself received strength),” is an interesting one because it implies that there was something remarkable in the fact that Sara would present such faith.
We might understand it to mean, “When we consider the heart of Sarah toward the promise when it was first given it is remarkable that faith would manifest itself at all in her – but it did.
Genesis 18:11-13 tells us that in the face of the promise Sarah laughed within herself and sort of said, “Really? At this age.”
But here we can see that the very fact she is mentioned in the chapter proves she came around and believed, her incredulity being overcome.
The writer doesn’t tell us where he got this insight so we have to assume it was by the Holy Spirit working upon him as he wrote neither does he explain at what point Sarah became a woman of faith.
But I think we can say that it was the presence of faith and faith alone that was present in her – which was the point – and somehow this faith allowed her to conceive, receiving the strength in her body (apparently) to do it.
Maybe, it was a lack of faith that lead to the amount of time it took her to conceive once the promise was made – who knows. But in the end the writer of Hebrews tells us directly it was the presence of faith within her that strengthened her body to conceive.
(verse 12)
12 Therefore (as a result) sprang there even of one (Abraham), and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
Therefore, or it seems to be saying, as a result of Sarah receiving the strength in her body by and through faith, Abraham (the “even one who was as good as dead) there sprang life.
What the writer here says is NOT that our of a man almost dead names Abraham sprang a son named Isaac but that “out of one who was as good as dead sprang an entire nation as many as the stars of the sky and the sands of the sea.”
And he seems to intimate that this was only possible once Sarah believed it possible.
I think we can make this assumption because the next verse says:
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
We know this is speaking of Sarah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob NOT seeing the promises of God fulfilled relative to Abraham becoming a great nation – that they died without seeing them come to pass.
We know this is NOT speaking of Sarah conceiving because they did see that promise fulfilled, right.
But go back with me to the line in verse 12:
12 Therefore (as a result of Sarah believing) sprang there even of one (Abraham), and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
Most people who have been Christian for any length of time are familiar with the picture presented in this passage but let’s review it.
Because it leads us to a final point in our understanding what it means to walk by faith.
In and through believers God will be glorified.
And He is glorfied in and through the weak things of the world, and the base, and the things that are as good as dead and NOT through the powerful.
This factor cannot be lost on us as we wait on the Lord.
Again, we act by letting go, stepping out. And in so doing, we suffer while we wait. Wait for what? To become as good as dead so that God may be glorified.
The principle is all through scripture with one of the best being this story of Abraham and Sarah conceiving.
Sure, they acted by stepping out and away and by letting go. Certainly they suffered with uncertainty and fear of the unknown and the loss of their creature comforts.
And certainly they waited on the Lord – in most things.
But there was a fail – in the case of Sarah conceiving. They didn’t wait until the situation was totally impossible (from their perspective). Instead they said, let’s embrace a stop-gap measure by the name of Hagar.
That wasn’t God’s promised line. His was going to come through Abraham and Sarah. And so He waited.
To the point (apparently) that both Sarah believed and Abraham appeared to be the walking dead.
No “activity” going on in the family jewels, so to speak. And it was in the fact that Abraham was as good as dead and that Isaac came forth that God was glorified.
I mean He could have chosen a virile young stud to father the Nation of Israel, right? But where’s His glory in that?
And so He waited . . .
Until the vessel Abraham and Sarah appeared to be incapable of passing life along.
Until no hope was left. Not only would such a pregnancy honor and glorify God, so would the end result – many nations.
This brings me to the final lesson we can extract from the story of Abraham and Sarah when it comes to learning about how to walk in faith – and it is a tough one – that while we are waiting on Him, while we are suffering for Him to act, we allow all the things that might prop-up our chances of survival to die . . . . and we refuse the inclination to embrace stop-gap measures.
Again we are brought to the edge of a great impasse between institutional thinking which strives to maintain and grow by the arms of the flesh and individual believers who seek the truth at all costs – even to the loss of all hope – except the hope in Him.
In almost every old and new testament illustration of God working His will to His glory we have very small and insignificant factors leading to great results.
We have the broken and lost becoming the saved, the least in the kingdom becoming the greatest, the dead being raised to new life, Galileans as apostles of the Lord, a Messiah born in a manger (and dying on a criminal’s cross outside the city gates).
We have a shepherd boy slaying a giant warrior, 300 men overcoming tens of thousands, donkeys talking, a sore-ridden bum inheriting afterlife peace and a rich man who lived sumptuously every day inheriting misery, and her a ninety year old woman and her hundred year old husband birthing not just one miracle baby but nations.
Such things are not possible when men and women refuse to step out into the dark, who cling to their comforts and past and traditions, who are afraid to suffer loss and discomfort, and who will always provide their own stop-gap measures to get “God’s will done” when He wants to let things die.
Let’s end here.
Q and A
Explain cards with map (not for wide scale distribution)
Explain moving.
