Hebrews 13:15-17 - A sacrifice of praise

13:15, 16

Rather than offering Levitical sacrifices, the Hebrews should offer a sacrifice of praise. Jesus has already offered Himself as the perfect once for all sacrifice. Instead of the repeated offering of sacrifices that could never truly clear our guilt, we continually offer praise to God for the one fully effective sacrifice. Praise should be the fruit of our lips.

But our praise, or offerings, are not to be words only, but also good deeds, and sharing with others. “With such sacrifices God is pleased”. The Hebrews were wondering if they needed to offer Levitical sacrifices in order to please God. They did not. Praise and good deeds are what truly pleases God.

We should note that wrong actions can sometimes be the result of good motives. The Hebrews were concerned about sin and wanted to please God, yet they were being tempted to go about this in the wrong way. Knowledge and understanding are important. Truth matters.

13:17

It would seem that their leaders were pointing them in the right direction, so the writer urges them to have confidence in their leaders. They are also to submit to them. The leaders too are people under authority, they would have to give an account to the head of the church, Jesus Christ. The writer encourages them to do this in order to make their leaders’ work a joy, not a burden. Anyone in leadership is all too familiar with the reality of people who cause trouble. It is wearing, and makes it more difficult to do things well. We should seek to make the job of leaders easier rather than harder.

Hebrews 13:10-14 - Outside the camp

13:10

The food laws and all the other stuff in the Law gave priests certain rights, but they have no value whatsoever in giving someone the right to “feed” from the altar of Christ, the cross. It is only by faith that one partakes in the heavenly sacrifice. The “religious” types sometimes look down on others, considering themselves better or superior, but such people actually have no right to partake of Christ’s sacrifice. Only a repentant and believing heart is required.

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13:11,12

Again we get a picture of how the Law contained a shadow of what was to come. The body of the sacrifice had to be carried outside the camp (Lev 4:12). Jesus’ body also was sacrificed outside the camp. The place of His crucifixion was outside the city walls.

13:13,14

Jesus suffered disgrace. To die on a cross was a shameful thing to happen. He was rejected by the religious leaders and by the political authorities. He bore disgrace. We are then urged to do likewise. The Jews mocked the Christians, proclaiming how “superior” their religion was. Today the world mocks Christians, especially in relation to sexual ethics. We are regarded as at best backward, and at worst as guilty of hate crimes. The writer to the Hebrews reminds his readers that they actually had no investment in the Jewish religion, it was purely temporary. Something that would be cruelly demonstrated in AD 66-70. Likewise, our society is on a road to destruction, the fact that it rejects God’s ways should mean that we have no investment in society. We are looking for the “city that is to come”, the city of God. We are part of God’s kingdom, so if that means bearing disgrace for a time then so be it.

Hebrews 13:7-9 - Remember your leaders

13:7
We learn from this that leaders are people who speak and teach the word of God, and also live the word of God. That is what it means to be a leader. Living life God's way has positive fruit in our lives and others will see it. Leaders should also be people whose faith is worth imitating.

13:8
This verse acts as a sort if link into the next instruction. Good leaders imitate Jesus Christ. And Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He does not change. In current debates about sexual morality there is often talk about the church needing to keep up with society. Such talk is absolute nonsense. The world is living in rebellion against God, so why on earth should the church seek to imitate the world? We are to imitate Christ.

13:9
False teachings have always been around, they were around from the earliest days of the church. We are to make sure that we are not deceived by them, for they will lead us away from Christ. It seems that one of the false teachings that was around concerned eating certain foods. Remember issues surrounding this arose are addressed in Romans and Corinthians, with mentions in others of Paul's letters. Our hearts are strengthened by grace, by God's undeserved favour. Eating the "special" foods did nothing for the people at the time of Hebrews. Today, with false teachers it is often helpful to ask if following their false teaching has actually helped them. By their fruit shall we know them, as Jesus said.

Sermon : Born into darkness - to bring the light

A sermon on Moses:
Born into darkness - to bring the light

Hebrews 13:5,6 - Never will I leave you

13:5,6

Oh how I wish some prosperity teachers would take this verse to heart, in fact they would do well to read the whole Bible, as would we all. We are to keep our lives free from the love of money. The pursuit of money is route to disaster. Instead, as Paul said, godliness with contentment is great gain. Now we must not go to the other extreme. There is actually nothing wrong with wealth. There can be something wrong with how wealth is obtained, how it is used or our attitude towards it, but wealth itself is not bad. The key is a contented heart. Now why do we have a tendency to chase after money? Two factors can be at play, greed and fear. Indeed, greed and fear are said to be what drives the stock market. There is no place for either in our lives for God has said "I will never leave you nor forsake you". We have the assurance of God's provision and care for our lives.

The writer then quotes from Psalm 118:6 to round up this little section. We do not need to fear man, for the Lord is on our side, He is looking after us. This is real, He takes positive action in our lives. God's plan is that we live under His care. See how often the shepherd analogy is used in the Bible, and by Jesus Himself. We need to learn to live as sheep under the loving care of the Lord.

Hebrews 13:3,4 - Honour marriage

13:3

Those in prison is probably those who are there because of their faith, as indicated by the widening of the instruction to help all who are mistreated. We live in a very individualistic society and there is a lot of ingrained culture that encourages us just to look after ourselves, to be self-centred. We need to guard against this, for we are all part of the body. We belong to Christ, and to each other.

13:4

The surrounding culture was very sexually promiscuous, and sexual sin is always a danger. We have here a very clear warning that God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Our society is very near to making it a crime to speak about sexual immorality. We need to remember how seriously God takes it. We need to do this first of all for our own sakes. We need to guard our own lives, seeking to maintain purity. We need to do this as we have a duty to present God's morality, God's plans for humanity to the world.

Hebrews 13:1,2 - Keep on loving

13:1

The previous twelve chapters have all been part of a single argument, namely the all sufficiency of Christ. Now we finish with a series of more general instructions on Christian living. The first is to show brotherly love, in fact he says "let brotherly love continue". There is always a danger that we will allow other things to supplant brotherly love: ambition, pride, bitterness etc. All the writers in the New Testament encouraged their hearers to show love for one another, and this is to be a distinguishing feature of the church.

13:2

The writer was clearly steeped in Scripture, and that would be Old Testament Scripture. The reference to having entertained angels is probably referring to Abraham entertaining three angels (Gen 18:1-15). Hospitality is another commonly encouraged trait in the New Testament, and in the Law as well. In those days some people would travel from town to town and needed hospitality. Also, if the church is under persecution it is all the more important that we help each other, it is part of what will enable us to stand up to opposition.

Hebrews 12:26-29 - A kingdom that cannot be shaken

12:26
We see again how things are greater. In Moses' day the earth shook, but one day absolutely everything will be shaken. There will be a complete realignment of all things, seen and unseen. Now someone might object that there is no scientific evidence for this at all, but such a view is based on a purely materialistic view of life. Science is good, scientific laws are real, but the only reason there is a universe, and the only reason there are scientific laws is because God spoke, because God called them into being. The ultimate source of truth is God's word, and He has said there will be a final shaking.

12:27
Haggai 2:6 speaks of God once more shaking all things that can be shaken. Everything that has been made can be shaken, this material world matters very much, but it is not the ultimate reality. The unshakeable things are God Himself, His word, and those who trust in Him. We need to know what really matters, what is truly reliable.

12:28,29
The Hebrews were hankering after "what was seen", the Levitical system, but we are receiving something much more valuable. The temporariness of the Levitical system was demonstrated in stark and terrible ways in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD66-70. These events also demonstrated that God is indeed a consuming fire. We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. So we worship Him in Spirit and in truth, with acceptable worship. And acceptable worship means relying on the work of Christ upon the cross.

Hebrews 12:23-25 - Do not refuse Him who speaks

12:23

"The firstborn" is plural. Jesus is the first of the firstborn. We all share the same inheritance. We are enrolled in heaven, our names are written in the book of life. In Christ believers are made righteous. This has a twofold meaning. We are justified now, fully acceptable to God. We are being made righteous, i.e. a process of transformation is taking place. This has started now and will be completed on the last day.

12:24

Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant. No one else, nothing else, is needed. He is the perfect mediator, as the writer spent part of the earlier sections of the book explaining. He has purified us through His blood. The blood of Abel cried out for vengeance, the blood of Jesus cries out for forgiveness.

12:25

All this is wonderful, but it has severe consequences for all of us, it faces all of us with a serious choice. The gospel is not merely an offer that we can choose to take advantage of or not. It is a command from God, we are commanded to respond to the gospel. The choice is whether we choose to obey or not. The old covenant had very serious consequences for those who disobeyed, something we see again and again in the Old Testament. People often think, well that was just the Old Testament, things are different now.   The old covenant pointed forward to the new, and in the new everything is greater. The forgiveness is greater, we can now know God personally, He comes to live within us, He transforms our lives. But the judgement is also greater, the consequences of refusing the gospel are greater, eternal damnation. The Old Testament shows us that God is deadly serious about judgement, and a proper reading of the New Testament shows that judgement most certainly has not gone out of the window.

Hebrews 12:18-22 - Not to a mountain that can be touched

12:18-20

This verse is referring back to the mountain that Moses went up. Then there was a dramatic display of God's power, the people could even hear the voice of God, and they begged to hear no more. Instead they were quite happy for Moses to be the only one to go and meet God. So they were quite happy when they were forbidden from going by further. People often complain that God does not make His presence more obvious, i.e. does not do more of the dramatic stuff. The record of the Bible actually indicates that we would not actually want this, it is only an excuse. In this incident the people did not want to know anymore. Jesus came and performed many miracles, yet many still did not believe and some were in outright opposition to Him. The "God should make it more obvious" claim is just a smokescreen.

12:21,22

Even Moses trembled with fear. But we have come to something different. Mount Zion is seen as the new Jerusalem, the object of all God's plans. we have come to the city of the living God. Once again we have come to something much better than anything there was in the Old Testament. We have come to the heavenly Jerusalem. We have come to what God has always being aiming at. In the Old Testament a phrase that occurs again and again is "I shall be their God and they shall be my people".  Jesus said that there is great joy in heaven and among the angels when one sinner repents. We are part of what it is all about.

Hebrews 12:15-17 - Selling your birthright

12:15

“Falls short of the grace of God” can also be translated “fails to grasp hold of the grace of God”. The grace of God most definitely does not mean that we can live how we like and get away with it. The grace of God works to enable us to be the people God always wanted us to be. Note that yet again we see that we have a part to play. God’s grace works to change us, to make us people who are able to be Christlike. We need to be on our guard against sin and wrong attitudes. Otherwise these can grow and cause much trouble.

12:16

Sexual immorality is warned against in many of the New Testament letters, in fact in most of them. We are sometimes too reluctant to speak about this in church, but we should not be so. Sexual immorality is very destructive, both to individuals and to society at large.

However, holiness and unholiness are not defined just in terms of sexual morality as Esau is mentioned next. His sin was to regard his birthright as essentially meaningless. We rightly react against "pie in the sky" versions of Christianity, but the New Testament has a persistent focus on what will happen when Christ returns and instructs us to look forward to that day. We should regard the return of Christ, the culmination of all things, as absolutely vital, and it gives us a right perspective on life. Otherwise, we too may be tempted to trade our birthright for something that is ultimately trivial.

12:17

The writer of Hebrews has no compunction about issuing severe warnings. Christianity is not a game, but a matter of eternal consequences. Esau later desired to inherit the blessing, but could not do so. This was despite him seeking the blessing with tears, he was extremely earnest. This should also serve as a warning to those who talk of people getting a second chance to avoid going to hell. There is no warrant for this at all in Scripture. We need to decide for God today, and to continue in this commitment. Life is a serious business.

Hebrews 12:12-14 - Strengthen the weak knees

12:12,13

So instead of feeling cowed by God’s discipline and seeing it as motivation for giving up, we should be encouraged, and be motivated to press on with evermore zeal. There may be a quote from Proverbs 4:26 here, but it is not clear. We need to understand how God deals and interacts with us, otherwise we can make mistakes in life.

12:14

Lest anyone get the impression that sin does not matter or our lifestyle does not matter, the writer urges his readers to make every effort to be holy. Note also that just because it is Christ alone who has justified us, that does not mean that we do not put effort in. The New Testament is full of instructions for us to act. We are to be holy and to seek to be holy. We are also to seek to live in peace with everyone. There will be divisions, and the New Testament is equally full of instructions about taking a firm line with false teachers, but we are not to be disputatious, always seeking conflict. Instead we are to seek peace. Without holiness we cannot see God. Sin blinds us, holiness enables us to see clearly. It is amazing how much clearer things seem when we stop being double-minded and choose to be wholehearted for God.

Hebrews 12:8-11 - A harvest of righteousness

12:8

In fact, if we were not disciplined then that would indeed be a sign that we were not really God’s sons, a sign that we were rejected. We should also note here that there is a modern notion that God does not find fault with us, that we should not seek to correct people. such ideas are complete nonsense and totally unbiblical. God desires the best for us. That includes forgiving us for our sins, but also includes transforming us. If God did not seek to transform our lives then we would have cause to say that He does not love us.

12.9,10

Natural fathers discipline their children, and eventually the children would respect them for it, in most cases. Now all human fathers are imperfect, yet they usually seek to do their best, and overall it is usually for the best. God is the perfect Father, so we can be completely confident that all His actions are perfect. His motive in disciplining us is not to reject us, but so that we can share in His holiness, so that we can become more Christlike. Therefore we should be all the more willing to submit to His discipline.

12:11

At the time discipline is always unpleasant. The discipline itself can be painful, and the fact that we are being disciplined is not pleasant either, because it makes us aware of our failings. However, the discipline will produce a harvest of righteousness and peace, if we allow ourselves to be trained by it.  So the whole point of this is to understand what is going on, and  for us to react in the right way. Discipline is not a sign of rejection but of acceptance. We must not rebel against the discipline, nor must we run away to some other supposed source of salvation. Instead we should learn from the discipline and be trained by it. Then we will increase in holiness.

Hebrews 12:5-7 - Endure hardship as discipline

12:5,6

The writer then draws attention to the fact that a good father disciplines his children, and Proverbs 3:11,12 shows that God Himself disciplines us as His children. So how does all this fit into the general  argument of Hebrews? Well, we become aware of our sinfulness. Our reaction can be to think this means we are being rejected by God and we need to do something else in order to gain His approval. The writer is showing that this is definitely not the case. God makes us aware of our sin, but does so not to reject us, but because He loves us. He is disciplining us, and that is part of the process of transforming our lives. So far from being a sign that God does not accept us, our becoming aware of our sin is a sign that He accepts us as sons. 

This is why the author describes these words as a “word of encouragement”, it shows that we are in a relationship with God.

12:7

So, if we are going through a time when we become acutely aware of our own sinfulness we are to endure the hardship as discipline, not see it as a reason to run to something else to try and assuage our guilt. We are not being condemned. Far from it, God is treating us as children. We know that natural fathers discipline their children (or, at least should do so). So we need to be careful not to misinterpret what is happening. We are not being condemned, we are being disciplined.

Hebrews 12:3,4 - For the joy set before Him

12:3

The fact that Jesus endured great opposition, and the way that He dealt with it, are made much of in the New Testament. We are to have the same attitude that He had. Jesus suffered, so we should not be surprised if we too suffer. If that does come upon us then we can gain strength from the way that Jesus endured. We are to be completely focused upon Him.

12:4

Why were the Hebrews wanting to go back to at least some of the Levitical practices? It was because of their concern about their own sinfulness and unworthiness. One error we can fall into is not being concerned about sin at all “because Jesus has forgiven us”, such an attitude is completely unbiblical. Another risk is that being concerned about sin can lead us to adopt wrong practices, such as the Hebrews were in danger of doing. In this verse the writer draws a contrast between their battle with sin and Jesus’ battle with our sin. Jesus went to the cross for our sin.

Hebrews 12:1,2 - Fix your eyes on Jesus

12:1

The writer has just finished going through a long list of people who lived by faith. In doing so they were looking forward to the future promise of Christ, and lived their lives in obedience to God. We are to do the same. In the immediate context, the hankering after Levitical practices would do nothing to help the Hebrews, but would only hinder their progress. We should be wary of carrying too much baggage. We must also be very wary of sin. Sin is always destructive, and it can so easily “entangle” us. Instead we are to run the race with perseverance. This race is the race marked out by God, and it was marked out from the beginning of Genesis, as the writer has just shown. We are not following our own path, but the path that Christ has laid out for us.

12:2

Our focus is to be on Jesus, not on any man made system. We need to beware of this at all levels. The Hebrews needed to keep their eyes off the Levitical system. We are all in denominations or streams of some sort or another. This is inevitable, but we must never make an idol out of the grouping that we are a part of. Likewise, no system, such as G12, alpha or whatever, must become the focus. These things may be helpful, but they must not become the focus. Jesus alone is to be our focus, He is the “pioneer and perfecter” of our faith. And the focus of His life was the cross. Jesus was prepared to endure its shame for the joy set before Him. People may mock us for our trusting in Christ’s work on the cross, but we too must scorn that shame, for we have a tremendous joy set before us. After the cross and resurrection Jesus ascended to sit at the Father’s right hand. We too will be seated with Him in glory.

Hebrews 11:35-40 - Commended for their faith

11:35-38

The focus then returns to the looking forward theme. People sought to gain an even “better resurrection”. Many faced severe suffering, even death, and death in some pretty painful ways. They were rejected by the world, and they chose this because of they were trusting in God, looking forward. The Hebrews too lived in a hostile world. To a much lesser extent, our society is hostile to Christianity. We need to have the same attitude that the heroes of faith had. There will be times when our faith has a direct effect now, at other times it will mean suffering now because we are looking forward to something far, far better.

11:39,40

Verse 39 sums up the primary point the writer is making. “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised”. God approved of them, and these people God approved of recognised that the Law was not “it”, but was pointing forwards to something better.

Verse 40 then has the unity between the Old and New Testaments. The people of faith of the Old Testament share in the same inheritance as us. God’s plan was far greater. If someone chooses to old on to the Law then they are (i) holding on to something that will fail (because they will fail the Law); (ii) holding on to something that is far inferior to what God has for us.

Hebrews 11:30-34 - What more shall I say?

11:30,31

The miracles continued when the Israelites entered the promised land, with Jericho’s walls famously collapsing after the army marched round them for seven days. Why is this mentioned? Perhaps it is because the city was captured without a battle. With the Levitical law the people had to play a part in the sacrifice, but with the gospel we trust in what Christ achieved.

Rahab helped the spies when they came to Jericho. She assisted them because she believed that their God was powerful. By putting her trust in God she was saved. LIkewise, we are saved by putting our trust in God.

11:32-34

There are no shortage of people of faith in the Old Testament, faith has always been the way of following God. It is a little strange that he says “gained what was promised” in v33 when earlier his emphasis has been on the looking forward. It seems that he has now moved on to the practical outworking of faith. Faith is both a matter of looking forward and making life different today. Its outworking affected all areas of life: winning battles, administering justice, escaping danger. Weakness was turned into strength.

Hebrews 11:27-29 - Leaving Egypt

11:27

Yet again we get the emphasis on looking forward. There was a price to pay by Moses for his actions. He was choosing to suffer, and foregoing the riches of Egypt. There will be times when following Christ involves a stark choice in our lives, and choosing Christ may involve a real cost. However, this cost is purely temporary, the rewards are eternal.

11:28

As we all know, the Israelites had to daub the blood of a lamb on the doors of their houses in order to be safe from the angel of death. Now we read these stories with the benefit of hindsight. We know what happened, but when the command to sacrifice the lamb was given Moses had no idea if it would “work” or not. He knew that God could do miracles, there had been several plagues by this point, so he probably didn’t doubt that the angel of death would come and do his stuff. But he had no basis for believing that the blood would save them, except the word of God. So keeping of the Passover was an act of faith, an act of trust in God’s word.

11:29

The parting of the Red Sea was also something that Moses had not seen before. So how did it work? Moses had to raise his staff. Now he had never seen this happen before, and he had to do this in the presence of the people, and a very scared people at that. So Moses did this and the sea was driven back. This took a period of time (Ex 14:21). Then when they walked across the Red Sea they had to trust that God would keep the water back. The fact that this was a miraculous event is shown by the drowning of the Egyptians when they tried to cross over.

Hebrews 11:23-26 - Moses

11:23

Moses was born at a time of persecution of the Jews, with even babies being killed (Ex 1:16,22). Ex 2:2 says that his mother saw he was a “fine child” and hid him for three months. This was done in defiance of pharaoh’s edict. Now when we read this section in Exodus I guess most of us don’t immediately think of Moses’ mother exercising faith. Faith shows itself in many different ways, decisions and actions we take in life can be true indicators of whether or not we have faith. Faith most definitely is much more than an intellectual assent to some credal statements, though sound doctrine is very important!

11:25,26

The Christians often experienced persecution or discrimination, and this was true of the Hebrews. Moses was brought up in the palace, if he had played his cards right he could have chosen to continue to enjoy that sort of existence. Instead he chose to be identified with the Jews. This was an act of faith. He believed the Jews were God’s people, so it was far more sensible, far more rational, to be associated with them, than with the temporal riches of Pharaoh’s kingdom. So the Hebrews would experience opprobrium from the civic authorities, the Romans, and from the Jews themselves. They needed to ask themselves who they believed God was working amongst, what was God doing? We need to do the same, especially as our society becomes ever more anti-Christian. Do we believe Christ is Lord or not? If we do, then we really have no option but to choose to obey Him and follow His ways, even when that brings us into conflict with the world. It is the rational thing to do. Note that the writer refers to the riches of the palace as the “fleeting pleasures of sin”. Anything that is done in a manner contrary to God’s ways is an act of sin.

Hebrews 11:21,22 - Jacob and Joseph

11:21

In Genesis 49 we read of Jacob blessing all his sons, though some of the blessings were less than desirable. In 48:8-22 he specifically blesses Joseph’s sons. Jacob blessed the younger rather than the older one (Gen 48:14). The emphasis of the writer here, however, is on the future blessing, the looking forward. Neither Abraham, Isaac or Jacob received the blessing in their lifetime, but they were not disappointed. They looked ahead, and saw the blessing coming on future generations. They did not doubt God’s promise at all. The Old Testament, from beginning to end, is a book that looks forwards. Therefore the Hebrews should definitely not be people who looked backwards.

11:22

Next up in the list is Joseph. The aspect of his life that the writer draws attention to is not one that we normally pay much attention to. We normally focus on his dreams, being sold into slavery, subsequent imprisonment and eventual elevation to prime minister. The writer is focused on looking forward, and showing that all the Old Testament heroes were looking forward. Joseph looked forward. When he was close to death while in Egypt he gave instructions that his bones be taken to the land of Israel. He saw a future for the nation (Gen 50:24,25).

Hebrews 11:17-20 - Abraham and Isaac

11:17-19

Abraham’s severest test came when God told him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. This story is quite amazing if we read it. Prior to this we see that Abraham had many struggles with faith, yet when we come to read the story of the sacrifice of Isaac (Gen 22) we see that there is no hesitation on Abraham’s behalf, no sign of reluctance to obey the command. Moreover, he seemed to be convinced that they would indeed both return (Gen 22:5). Most sermons on this incident talk about the agony that Abraham must have gone through, yet if we read the Bible itself we do not actually find any mention of that, We just find straightforward obedience and faith.

Why does the writer use this incident here? Maybe verse 18 gives us a clue. The command of God to Abraham seemed to negate His earlier promises, seemed to go against the fulfilling of God’s own word. Maybe the Hebrews thought that the command not to engage anymore in Levitical practices went against fulfilling God’s word, especially if they had a Jewish background and had been brought up in the Jewish tradition. Isaac did indeed not die, and the Hebrews would indeed be declared righteous by God.

11:20

Now this is a slightly strange one. We can see that Isaac had faith in blessing his sons, he saw a future for them and believed that God would fulfill His promises, but we know, of course,that there was much more to the story, as given in Genesis 27. Jacob, at his mother’s instigation, deceived his father into giving him the blessing. After he became aware of the deception Isaac proceeded to bless Esau. Even when giving Jacob the blessing Isaac had doubts over which son it was (Gen 27:24).

Hebrews 11:15,16 - A better country

11:15,16

We see here the attitudes of both people of faith and of God Himself. We need to remember that we are in a relationship with God, we make an error whenever we view it purely from one direction, ie purely from our attitude towards God, or purely from His attitude towards us. The two interact with each other. The people of faith were looking forward to the place God was leading them towards. They were not looking back to the land they came from. Abraham never looked back to Ur of the Chaldees. Indeed, Israel was repeatedly warned against looking to return to Egypt or to receiving help from Egypt. In the context of the book of Hebrews, the writer is warning them against wanting to return to the Levitical system, it is over and has no part to play in the future. Instead they are to look forward to the heavenly country. Now this does not mean a pie-in-the-sky country. Rather it means a country built and designed by God.

So our attitude is to be one of looking forward. God’s attitude is that He is not ashamed of people of faith, for He is the One who has prepared the city for us, He is the One who has called us out of the world to follow Him. One of the factors that would have tempted the Hebrews to go back to the Levitical system would be awareness of their own sin. The writer is assuring them that God is not ashamed to be identified with them, so they should not be ashamed of themselves, and there was no reason whatsoever to hark back to the Levitical system.

Hebrews 11:13,14 - Seeing from a distance

11.13

The writer now points out that none of these people actually received the fulness of the things promised to them. Obviously they received something. Noah and his family survived, abraham had a son etc, but they did not receive anything like the complete fulfilment of the promise, see especially Gen 12:2,3. Moreover, the Jews knew that Abraham, Noah etc had not received the fulness. So why does the writer make this point? I think it is because he is making the point that the Old Testament never envisaged that it was the end point. So the Hebrews should not hark back to the Levitical priesthood and sacrifices, and if they did hark back to them they would actually be going against the Old Testament.

11:14

They lived as strangers and aliens, so should we. In doing so we admit that this world is not our true home. We are also saying that we are looking for something better. “A country of our own”. We want to live in God’s kingdom. Jesus told His disciples that He was going away to prepare a place for them. We are looking for what God has for us, for what He can do for us, for what He can enable us to do. We are not looking for a land that man himself can make.

Hebrews 11:11,12 - Multiplying by faith

11:11

But looking forward to the heavenly city does not mean nothing happens in this one! Sarah too had faith. Physically she was unable to have children, she had not had any and was now far too old, yet God enabled her to have a child. This happened because she considered Him faithful. In the same way we are forgiven, justified, because we consider Christ to be faithful. We trust in His promise, and because we do this it will come to pass.

11:12

So the nation of Israel was formed from this one man and woman, a couple who naturally speaking could not have children. But God made it possible. Now if we look at the story of Abraham and Sarah we will see that often they doubted, faith was not an easy matter. We sometimes paint a false picture of what it means to have faith, as if we only had enough faith we would never struggle. This is not true, and it is not biblical. The writer alludes to God’s promise in Genesis 15:5. and 22:17. So we can look at ourselves and come to the conclusion that we can never be righteous, but instead we are to look at Christ, for He is our righteousness.

Hebrews 11:9,10 - Living as strangers

11:9

This world is not our permanent home. We live here, and we have to live here, but there is a sense of a lack permanency. The risk is that we respond to this by trying to make ourselves completely at home here, looking for security in this world. The prosperity gospel could be said to be an attempt to do this. In the context of Hebrews, the people were in danger of looking to the Levitical system to provide their security. The writer is emphasising the impermanence, something that was experienced by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the founding fathers of the nation of Israel. So there was nothing unusual, nor unbiblical, about the Hebrew’s position. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were heirs of the promise and lived in impermanence, so would they.

11:10

Why did Abraham live in this state of impermanence? Because he was looking forward to a better city, a better home, a home what was built by God. We are doing the same. We should not expect to find security in this world, security comes only from trusting in Christ. We look for our security and our reward in Him alone. Remember that in Genesis 15:1 God said to Abraham: “I am your shield, your very great reward”. We are looking for something better.

Hebrews 11:7,8 Noah and Abraham

11.7

Next in line is Noah. Notice the emphasis on “things not yet seen”. Back in 11:1 the definition of faith included “assurance about what we do not see”. Abel offered his first fruits without any guarantee of a reward. Noah was told a flood would come. There was no evidence of this except the word of God. Faith is relying upon the word of God. This faith led to action, Noah built an ark, as directed by the Lord. Such a course of action was sensible if and only if God’s word was reliable.

By his faith the world was condemned. People say it is impossible to believe in God, or that God has not given enough evidence. Noah, in his day, showed that it was possible to hear God and to act on God’s word. Today the fact that many do believe in God refutes the claim that there isn’t enough evidence. Gen 7:1 says that God found Noah to be righteous, this happened after he had shown faith.

11:8

Abraham is the example par excellence of faith, cited in Isaiah 51, and the foundation of much of Paul’s teaching. Abraham was called by God and to leave the place he lived in to go to another country. But God did not tell him where he was going. The only source of security that Abraham had was that God had spoken to him, his evidence was the word of God. This was his assurance of what was not yet seen. The Jews would know that Abraham did indeed receive a land, though it came to future generations. Faith is built on a trust in the character of God.

Hebrews 11:5,6 - Impossible to please God without faith

11:5

We read about Enoch in Genesis 5:18-24. There it tells us that Enoch walked faithfully with God, then God took him away and he was no more. The writer’s interest in Enoch is that he walked faithfully with God, and then did not experience death. We will die, but we will also live forever. He also tells us that “he pleased God”. In evangelical circles we tend to ignore these sorts of statements because we believe, rightly, that we are saved by grace through faith. This is true, but what we do with our lives matters, and it affects our relationship with God. We can do things that please Him, and things that displease Him. This does not affect how much God loves us, but in any relationship the actions of one side affect that relationship, and we are in a relationship with God. How much better if we live our lives in way that pleases God? How much better the relationship will be, and the way to please God is to have faith in His Son.

11:6

This is one of the best known verse in Hebrews. If we want to please God we need to have faith, and having faith requires believing He exists. This may seem obvious, but there some deluded people in some mainstream churches he seem to think believing in God’s existence is an optional extra. See also the importance of believing that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. What we do matters, and what we do has an effect.  Our lives will be better if we truly seek God. I do not mean this in a cheap prosperity gospel sense, I mean this in a depth of our relationship with God sense.

Within the immediate context of Hebrews, the temptation to go back to Levitical practises would be motivated by a desire to please God, The writer is saying that if we want to please God then we need to have faith, and specifically faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice.

Hebrews 11:3,4 - A better offering

11:3

It is amazing how relevant this statement is. How do we know the world was made at God’s command? Because He has told us so and we believe Him. The universe exists because commanded it to be so. “What was seen was not made out of what was visible”. This is completely at odds with the materialistic world view, which seeks to explain everything in terms of what is seen. Note that it says “we understand”. It is not just about knowing a fact, rather it adds to our understanding of how the world is. Proverbs tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The atheistic worldview is founded upon a lie, and so will inevitably lead to contradictions and nonsense. The theistic worldview is built upon a foundation of truth.

11:4

After the “generalities” about faith, we come to the list of examples from the Old Testament. It is all by faith from beginning to end. The first example is Abel. See that the writer gives more value to the lives of people in the Old Testament than we perhaps do. We recognise the importance of people like Abraham and Moses, but then there are others, like Abel, who we perhaps consider to be little more than a footnote in the Bible. The writer to the Hebrews sees them as of significance. Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain. He offered the first fruits. Faith shows itself in actions. If we really believe that God is God, that He is our provider, then we will give our firstfruits to Him. Moreover, God spoke well of his offering. What we do matters to God, and is appreciated by Him.