Through Faith and By Faith - Hebrews 11

Looking at the achievements of faith from the perspective of persuasion and credence. Part Six - These All

Author: Randy Pritts

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Part of the SoGreatSalvationSeries

Today's Text:

"...wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God..." v16

In our study through this chapter 11 "Hall of Faith" considerations of the good reports of our elders, there is one crucial person that we have not considered that is central to the consideration: God. We have good opportunity to do this today as the passage first steers us towards "these all" the elders as a group, then concludes at a better country/city prepared by God and the possibility of pleasing God to a point that HE would not be "ashamed" to be called their God. We'll take the text in reverse order to try and see their faith from the perspective of God's eyes.

First thing we have to tackle is the idea of God being ashamed. In one sense it could be thought of as having to do with the current state of mankind, what with all the violence and rebellion and logical/moral contortions and ugliness of many sorts. In another sense it can be thought of in terms of their Utopian plans and schemes for a world that exist at least in their minds without HIM. There is another sense as well in which this ashamed sentiment might come from those who have tasted HIS goodness and graces, been called into and have partaken of HIS "better testament" and "country", and as mentioned here in v15 metaphorically returned back to the "country" they were at before.

Does God have a right to be ashamed in any of these suggested senses? HE most certainly does. Of which sense is ashamed of most? Likely the third sense. So I will caution us here, just as the author has been cautioning his new Hebrew converts that are leaning toward turning back to their easier former holes.

The problem for most people is perhaps best expressed "These all died in faith, not having received the promises..." v13. Most would conclude from that "why bother even trying then" if what is being promised is never received in this lifetime? That might well be the way man might see it. It is obvious however, that God does not operate that way when it comes to his faithful. You'll recall it said in chapter 10 :

This rather is the way God works. There are at least two reasons for this being so that I can think of off the top of my head :

1. The plan of God is extending out millennia into the future.

   It is not just a plan for you and your future, it is a plan for sea of faithful that number the stars in the skies and sand on the shores. The fulfillment of a promise in our generation would certainly put the generations to follow at a different level of responsibility, which they may not be ready themselves to receive. So then there is this ocean like promise of numerous seed. One seed in Abraham's long line in particular that had to come, become the Worthy Lamb and in so doing become for us the rightful Kingly High Priest eternally. Man, not willing to receive this offer face value on its' own, would need to be persuaded of this need by the slow methodical process of being convinced by the conviction of all evidences throughout multiple ages; our sin allowed to play out, our schemes allowed to fail, our knowledge allowed to prove itself false. Then Christ would be seen for what He truly is and the "better country" seen as something prepared for us by God, not something manufactured by us to prove ourselves gods in our own eyes.

2. If the problem is the fallen identity of self, the cure cannot not be in the extension of self.

   The ailment shall not produce the cure. It is not in the plan of God to reward self by helping it along to improve. Rather the plan is in the abandonment of self and the the taking on the selfless identity exhibited in earthly Christ. The obvious means for God to do this is to place and fulfill the promises in Christ Jesus whom we look to, not to directly fulfill it in us. That is what the feral soul despises about the plan the most. "Fulfill the promise and then I will believe" it is thought. Well Jesus has done exactly that and self still does not believe, nor trusts, nor leaves the carnal land he has known, else leaves then comes immediately right back.

Please note that this doesn't say that they did not see the promises fulfilled at all, it says that they did see them from afar, it was the receiving of the fulfilled promises that didn't come until after their lifetime. Perhaps as the promises went along, they could look back on the promises one by one as the pieces of it began appearing and coming together. Perhaps from there they could look at the pieces yet to come and see how they might be one day be fulfilled by tracking the directions God had already been taking. Perhaps they could see this from the visual aids God had handed them along the way, not the fulfillment itself, but, a picture or a shadow or an analogy or a vision. They did see it, they just hadn't receive possession of in full until the time of Jesus.

This is the core understanding of the Christian Faith. Where being unfulfilled makes it difficult for most people to see how what these saints had given themselves over to can be any improvement, these saints are more than persuaded of the fulfillment because they are interacting with God and participating in HIS act of fulfillment by the giving of their entire selves to HIS directions.

Yes, it may appear from such a worldly vantage that it wiser to keep one's gaze closer down to earth, embrace both here and now, stay the course, fit in best that we can as a citizen of this world. In this modern and scientific age, this is a land that is what it is, no transcendent cause or promises made. It is whatever you make it, either get along with it or get drug and crushed underneath of it. It is a city where only the strongest of the strong survive, are king of the hill and lord of the roost. You work for the good of them and for the good of others best as you can, take what you are owed of the remaining pittance, and then pay tithes from whatever is left to whatever god or pleasure or diversion that serves this upside down life best. There are many within this world that call themselves Christians, yet fully embrace this world, that are not along side with God ashamed by it.

In order to willingly conform with this worldliness, the majority of the masses have to overlook what is wrong with all of this. They have to focus in on their own lives and discount the lives of others that are chomped to pieces by it. There are untold numbers in it that are poor, disadvantaged, disenfranchised, runaway/missing, homeless, refugee, neglected, mentally/emotionally unstable, addicted, divorced, incarcerated, paroled, shunned, hostage to a violent spouse/parent or situation, victim of rape/incest, bullied, belittled, outcast, sold on the sex or labor markets. There are those that have been robbed blind, caused bodily injury upon, falsely accused, not received justice, suffer racial prejudice, and so much more than this. These are the kind of numbers one has to overlook to get to a point of being comfortable with their own lives and the progress being made by mankind. If anything the numbers have stayed the same if not gotten worse. It is shocking the number of people that over the years have just gotten comfortable with all of this, else thrown in the towel saying "well there is nothing that I can do about this". The hope for them is unwisely placed on the shoulders of more government, fairer economics, more uniform education and socialization, and technology (especially more technology). Those are the problems according to them, not the deceptive heart of man, not the banishment of God and Christ from their considerations.

Unfortunately, it seems like this is the way that it has to be because there is no other alternative left. Science, they claim, has all but proven that God does not exist. What we are left with is a life caused upon us by random chance, that is just as randomly not to exist or change course or flip upside down. What we have is there being no objective meaning or purpose, only the illusion we choose to make of it called relativism. What this leads many to is much like Abraham and Sarah saw in the land of Canaan, the adoption of tribal gods who wet our rains, bless our seeds, fill our wombs, fight our wars, deities that objectify promiscuous sex. It gets to the point where the ground cries out because of the perfusion of blood consistently spilled out on it and sins so great that they take decades and decades to play themselves out.

I remind you this as well, that it is not for the lack of laws and codes and civil courts that lands and kingdoms on earth inevitably come to this. These lands and kingdoms had all that in place. It is just that the heart of men cannot be contained nor understood no matter how many laws and how much enforcement. One only has to look at their own country, good as it is, what vile wickedness weaves its' web inside and underneath. This same fact could be said to be true during the world that had to be done away with in the time of Noah; not even the deluge of mountain topping waters can wash away from the heart of man all that.

"...they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country..." v14

Now it is not that we all don't seek a better country, people are always seeking to improve their life, their nation, their city, their world. It is not that there are not some part of this life that are really good (I should say better for some not others). What it comes down to is how we see ourselves getting there. In verse 16 it is the difference between the city God has prepared in comparison to what mankind intends to build for itself.

Man intends to build his city without there being a God, at least not a god of any consequence. The problem with that is multi fold.

1. Man has very little grasp of the full picture. He sees what he wants to see, knows as much as he wants to know, refuses to see what it is that is wrong with him, is unaware of the secret things constantly besetting him.

2. Doing so requires taking control, which requires acquiring the power, which requires sustaining the power, which requires protecting the power, all of which exposes man's effort to the considerable influence of corruption; the fallacy being that corruption could possibly boil and boil and out from it bring forth purity.

3. For several millennia man has been attempting to do this by the same means, by the right kind of government, the right type of economy, the right cultural environment, the right set of laws and legal system etc... Add to this that in the modern era that man has placed all his hopes upon science and technology, which is a cold metallic by the numbers reality, which makes as many bad things appear as it does good. Technology is just as likely to either kill mankind off or replace him, just as Science in the past decades has sought to kill off its' elder siblings Philosophy and Religion.

4. There are always the unknown and unintended consequences, they go hand in hand and follow men's designs wherever they go.

5. Man can not get out out of the way of the freight train running over him - his own vanities. What man describes as his great achievements, the bible classifies as puffs of vapor (call them vanities and or iniquities). In the grand scheme what are they really? Good works, what good are they? We often need to remind ourselves of that.

6. It is virtually impossible to get all people to agree, no matter what the subject. Meaning that the future world will nearly have to be forced upon us which makes us all the more contrarian and violent.

Contrast this with the designs and intentions of God. The city God has prepared in Christ Jesus deals with mankind from the inner heart outward. It deals with sin and death and the sinner's relationship with God in an absolute and definitive way, kills sin at its' root, liberates the soul from its' long time and universal captivity to it, purges the conscience from its' memories and ill effects, heals the pain, replaces feral fear with living and obedient trust, gives it eternal hope and meaning, allows it to partake in Christ's divine nature and glorious inheritance (to name but a few things that the author up til now has proclaimed). This is what God all knowing and all present and all powerful chooses to do for man. Why a man or woman would not choose to accept it is far beyond me.

"...if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out..." v15

Funny, isn't it, how we look back on things as being better before than they really were? That is especially true when you are in the midst of the uncertain facing your fears up against the battle with the unknown. The memory of those tangible and savory things like onions and cucumbers made the majority of Israelites want to go back to Egypt, beg forgiveness from their captors on their vegtable longing knees. You mean that you would really be willing to go back to stomping mud and straw into bricks at the crack of a whip just for the taste of it in your mouth again? When confronted with the unknown and unplanned for that is the direction the somple mind is likely to go. The same could be said of the pleasures of sex and drugs and worldliness once known. What, was it ever really that good? Wasn't it dirty and sticky and messy and filled with a whole lot of heartache, torture and pain?

Even if you were not into all that, isn't it easy to forget about the others in this world that have been raped, been abused, been victimized or torn apart, been bullied, gone missing, been robbed, been murdered, been oppressed or falsely accused, been black mailed, feared for their life or livelihood or family or home. Yes, we can look back on somethings here and there and prop them up/minimize the numbers and ill effects and want to go back. It's not just the looking back that will do this either, we'll pick out certain things in the future that we would like the most and prop them up, while neglecting the upcoming things that should horrify us just the same.

The point is that it is far too easy to be mindful of the country whence we came out of, allow ourselves the opportunity at least in our minds to venture back. It is just as easy as not seeing the ills that the country has and makes worth leaving for in the first place. What it takes then to move forward is a faith made of grit and substance, enough substance, even the face of the great unknown and against the sum of all fears, to make us willing to hold fast/not waiver/provoke one another to loving good works. What is called for here is a faith that is fully persuaded and embraces the promise stated of a "better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city".

As far as these elder go :

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.

As for us: What do you say? Is there any reason on earth for us to return back?

Now for as what this sojourning or pilgrimage through a hostile foreign land would look like, we have to look upon these individual elders of the faith with good reports to better figure out all that. But, at least now we better understand the need for it in a metaphorical sense, and the idea of what man could build for himself versus what God has better prepared for us, and the conflict between the two ideals that would make God either pleased or ashamed.

Comment Board: ThroughFaithAndByFaith06

Tags: Faith, Promises, Utopia, Man-made, God-made, Future, ,

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