“trust puts God in God’s place and it puts us in our place”
Download discussion questions: Hebrews 11:1-7
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I encourage you to look at the passage in Hebrews before you read this Blog entry. What do you see in the text yourself? What questions come to your mind? How would you interpret what the writer says? After even a few minutes examining and thinking about the text you will be much better prepared to evaluate the comments in the Blog.
A Shift in Style
Moving from Hebrews 10 into chapter 11 marks a distinct change in the pastor’s approach. The first nine and a half chapters have been a continual blending of sermon styles: exposition and explanation, exhortation and encouragement, caution and warning, comfort and reassurance. (See a suggested outline that illustrates this pattern.) The end of chapter 10 reads like a summary of those categories:
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- 19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence… (Exposition)
- 22 let us draw near…hold fast…consider how to stimulate… (Exhortation)
- 26 For if we go on sinning willfully… (Warning)
- 32 But remember the former days… (Reassurance)
In chapter 11, the style shifts. Now the writer presents a staccato series of statements and biographical sketches to describe and illustrate faith, the quality highlighted as a final encouragement at the end of chapter 10.
But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul (Hebrews 10:39).
After his extensive exposition, exhortation, warnings, and reassurance the pastor is ready to express the key element of application: “faith to the preserving of the soul.”
Definitions and Descriptions
As our discussion began, one person asked if verse 1 is a definition of faith. Working with a youth group that emphasizes Scripture memory, his experience was that, asked to define faith, most people would quote “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Someone suggested that this was more of a description than a definition. “Definition” suggests complete explanation setting the boundaries of a term. Verse 1 provides a description to be elaborated on by the individual examples in the rest of the chapter.
Then the question came up, “Why this long list of ‘men (and women) of old’ instead of a more precise definition or explanation?” The list (sometimes called “the heroes of the faith”) provides actual examples, not hypothetical ideas or made-up ideals. Just a brief survey of the names reveals that the “heroes” were far from perfect. Even limiting the list to the present passage, a person pointed out Noah’s intoxication and the unfortunate consequences (Genesis 9:20-24). Names later in Hebrews 11 reveal similar shortcomings. The writer to the Hebrews (as well as the audience) certainly would have been aware of the larger story in each of the examples. Yet the focus was on their faith not their failures.
A group member made the point that the variety of examples (eleven detailed, six others named, several groups) provide a diversity of strengths, weaknesses, and circumstances to expand the description of faith offered in verse 1. Another commented that these examples also illustrate that even under the old covenant, faith was foremost.
A Good Report
Another question we discussed was the meaning (in verse 2) of “gained approval” or, in King James, “obtained a good report.” We noted that the same verb (μαρτυρέω, martureō) is also translated as “obtained the testimony” (v. 4, of Abel) and “obtained the witness” (v. 5, of Enoch). All three of those instances are passive verbs, with the sense of “was witnessed to” or “was attested.” The same word is used again in verse 4, this time as an active verb with God as the subject, “God testifying….” Faith was the object of God’s approval, His commendation or good report. God’s commendation results from faith.
But then someone asked, does this somehow make faith just another form of a work? Do we have to muster up our faith to get God’s good report? One person differentiated faith and works on the basis of control.
Works are actions where we have control, whether acts of charity or behavioral change or overcoming sin. We have control of our actions (or at least believe that we do), so our discipline and management skills can make it happen. In contrast, faith is essential when we recognize that our sense of control is an unfortunate illusion. Faith, as another observed, is “holding on when life is a wreck.”
That very fact creates an irony we agreed on. Faith is often more difficult in the face of little difficulties – the car breakdown or the failed dishwasher (to name two examples from our discussion). Major crises – the biopsy report or the lost job – somehow can seem easier subjects for faith, easier to trust God when life is a wreck. As long as we have the illusion of control, we try to manage the car repairs or work a new dishwasher into the budget. Faith fades into careful management of the circumstances. But when we have no chance of control over the biopsy or the job market, better management is not an option. Faith, trusting in God for the outcome even when life is a wreck, is the attitude described in this passage. Faith is the essential ingredient, the necessary and sufficient component in God’s pleasure (v. 6). As one person in our group suggested, it is as if God says, “That’s what I’m looking for.”
Belief and Trust
In previous conversations our group has considered the composition of “faith” as the blending of belief and trust. (All three words are English translations of forms of πιστός [pistos]. Different translations reflect different parts of speech and various contexts.)
One observation was that the second part of verse 6 might reflect that dual description. “he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
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- We must believe that God “is,” that He exists and what He is like.
- We must trust that God “rewards” those seeking Him, that He is committed to our best.
That blend of belief and trust seems (at least to me) to make “faith” more understandable. For example, when we struggle with our faith, is the struggle more in the area of belief (certain doctrines or characteristics of God or His work)? Or do we wrestle more in the area of trust (specific circumstances or immediate difficulties)? Hopefully, that two-fold framework of faith will be helpful in understanding the faith of the “heroes” of chapter 11. Thinking in terms of belief and trust can also help us see how to grow in our own faith.
For example, as someone pointed out in our discussion, trust changes us. As we trust God, we begin to see more of who He is and our trust can grow. That growing trust changes our behavior. Trust supersedes frantic attempts to manage circumstances. We may still try to change conditions where we actually do have some degree of control, but those attempts are done in a spirit of submission, not in a demand for change. In the words of one of our group members, “trust puts God in God’s place and it puts us in our place.”
The Faith of Abel, Enoch, and Noah
What aspects of faith (belief and trust) does the pastor provide in the examples of Abel, Enoch, and Noah?
Abel
Abel and Enoch don’t have the known flaws that were mentioned above about the other “heroes of the faith” in Hebrews 11. Perhaps the infection of sin was not yet sufficiently virulent to mar their stories. Or perhaps the author of Genesis simply chose to provide only the briefest biography of those two early examples.
In any event, our group had several comments about the faith of Abel.
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- Somehow (not revealed in Genesis) he (along with his older brother) knew about the practice of sacrifice.
- Genesis includes the detail that Abel offered the “firstlings of his flock and their fat portions” (Genesis 4:4).
- Abel’s offering would have involved blood, although not explicitly mentioned by the writer to the Hebrews. (However, with the earlier emphasis on blood, e.g., fifteen times in chapters 9-10, that omission seemed curious to some in our group. Why wouldn’t the pastor extend Abel’s example to emphasize the centrality of blood even in that first sacrifice? But not every question gets answered in every study.)
Based on those (and other) observations, our group drew several conclusions.
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- Able believed in God. Whatever the source of his knowledge about sacrifice, he was obedient. And he offered the “fat portions,” the best he had to give.
- Able trusted God. Sacrificing the first-fruits requires trust. What if this first-born lamb (or goat or whatever) is the only one this year? What if the next one born is sickly and dies? Wouldn’t it be just as good to keep this first one safe and offer the second? Or maybe the third? Able offered the first-born in trust.
Enoch
Needless to say, Enoch is a bit of an enigma. There is a brief comment about him in the letter of Jude (v. 14), but no mention of that reference is found in Hebrews. (It is unclear whether or not the writer was familiar with that contemporary document.) Other than that, Enoch is mentioned only in genealogies (Genesis 5 and 1 Chronicles 1:3). The regular pattern of the genealogy in Genesis 5 is simply interrupted with the comment, “Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24, Hebrews 11:5). All of the other eight summary biographies from Adam to Lamech end with the terse statement, “…and he died.” But not Enoch.
Apparently, all we know about Enoch is that he was the seventh generation from Adam, in the line of Seth, Adam and Eve’s third son (Genesis 4:25). Interestingly, the writer of Genesis includes a further detail about that lineage that led to Enoch, “Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.” Perhaps Enoch was the essence of that characteristic of “calling on the name.” He was certainly one of whom God gave His approval for faith.
Noah
Clearly, we have a lot more information about Noah to understand his contribution to the growing description of faith in Hebrews 11. It is also likely that the original audience was familiar with the Scriptural story. The writer’s mention of Noah would bring those Biblical details to the mind of the Hebrew congregation. Once again, our group discerned both belief and trust in Noah’s faith.
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- Noah believed God’s warning (Hebrews 11:7), even though the warning was about things beyond his experience, probably beyond his imagination, “things not seen” (an echo of verse 1b).
- Noah acted “in reverence.” During our discussion, someone asked about that word, but we did not immediately take the time to investigate further. Later research discovered that the word (εὐλάβεομαι, eulabeomai) is used only here in the New Testament. A related noun (εὐλάβεια, eulabeia) is used twice in Hebrews (5:7 of Jesus and 12:28 of our worship), and nowhere else in the New Testament. The writer to the Hebrews chose a relatively rare word to describe Noah’s attitude. Maybe the pastor wanted to draw attention to the reverence (or “awe” or “godly fear” in various other translations[1]) that is a part of genuine, obedient faith.
- Noah trusted God. Building a huge boat in a presumably arid region put Noah’s resources and his reputation at risk. Our group discussion easily imagined what Noah might have faced from neighbors, possibly even from some of his own family members. Noah had to endure those reactions for an unspecified length of time. A building project of that scale could have taken months or longer, with questions and discouragement through each ensuing dry day.
- Noah knew God. Faith was more than a mechanical religious duty; it was a relationship. He “found favor in the eyes of the Lord… he was a righteous man, blameless in his time” (Genesis 6:8-9). The Genesis description climaxes with that relationship: “Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9b).
Interestingly, the same relational vocabulary of walking with God is used for Noah and for Enoch (Genesis 5:24). Enoch was taken directly to God’s presence. Noah was given an overwhelming task. Faith (as Hebrews 11 will continue to illustrate) can have very different outcomes.
A group member wondered why Job was not included in Hebrews 11, another unanswerable question. But clearly, Job is another example of an unexpected result of following God in faithful belief and trust. Someone commented on the different outcomes of Enoch and Job (and Noah) as simply God’s prerogative. Seeing those Biblical models can encourage our belief and trust for unexpected developments in our own walk.
The continuing study of Hebrews 11 and the remaining “heroes of the faith” will provide further opportunities to explore aspects of faith. As God is willing, may we find ways to continue grow and to stimulate one another in belief and trust.