![[pBiblx2]](/img/pbiblx2_logo3.png){kind=logo}
HallOfFaith
Biblical faith by example.
(Thread begun by RandyP )kjv@Hebrews:11 is affectionately called the Hall of Faith by many. Not only is it a fitting memorial for these heros of the biblical faith it is an example to us all of the biblical faith that we likewise ought to carry forward into our lives and times. I say ought because too often our faith rather resembles the non-biblical faith of this world.
What we need then is to study this biblical form of faith that it might have it's biblical effect upon ours. For those of you new to the faith or struggling in the faith this promises to be a most beneficial starting point. For those that have grown comfortable in their faith this may challenge you towards a more Christ productive position in the more biblical faith.
Introduction:
Coming into this amazing chapter we are told of what faith can do in the observant that just strict obedience to the Law could never do. The high priest of the Law is a man (a sinful man at that requiring the yearly covering of blood sacrifice), the high priest of faith is the perfect Christ Himself (who sacrificed Himself for us once and for all and lives again to intercede). The Law can be attempted completely detached from faith and becomes the accomplishment of self (justification a debt God now owes to the law abider), faith is primarily in the accomplishment of God (a tremendous debt that we owe that HE has graciously paid). The author concludes:
kjv@Hebrews:10:38 @Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him."
Proceeding on into the next chapter we are told that even in having such a great cloud of like believing/hoping witnesses the resistance against the message of this faith in the world (age) is immense. It is an age nonetheless that remains framed by the word of God and is used of God for our strengthening toward endurance and for our chastening. The author concludes:
kjv@Hebrews:12:28-29 @Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.
In addition to this before and after context, there are three key verses in this chapter that I would like to point to as keys to the proper interpretation of the passage as a whole.
- nkjv@Hebrews:11:1 @Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
- nkjv@Hebrews:11:6 @But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
- nkjv@Hebrews:11:39-40 @And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
Faith according to the language here is synonymous with both the substance and the evidence. Say faith and you are saying substance. Say evidence and you are saying faith. Substance and evidence are not the same as hope, though hope is the primary object. Substance and evidence are what make hope to be faith.
Given our deduction of 11:1 it could be just as well said that without substance and evidence it is impossible to please God. Substance and evidence of what? of God? or of our hope? How is it that God could be pleased that one has collected a stack of substance and evidence that HE exists? What, does God need self reassuring? Isn't it more likely that HE is pleased to see that our hope is more than just ideological hope, but something lived out daily in us with substantial scope/measure/impact and that this is clearly evident?
To continue in this line then, belief (to credit/entrust) and hope (to expect/confide) are more closely related to each other than faith (persuasion/moral conviction). Thus, if the credit/trust (belief) is that God exists and is a rewarder (hope is along the same line), faith is the daily living substance of and evidence shown forth having been born out of said belief/hope, it is the faith (substance/evidence) of such that please God.
Given our deductions from both 11:1 and 11:6, God has equally provided the saints of old before Christ and the new saints since Christ the very same promised means of perfection (completion/consummation): Christ Himself. Before the time of Christ, it was for the saints to believe that the future Christ will be (is to be) that perfection, for the saints following Christ it is that Christ present is (has now become) that very same perfection. It is essentially a "Christ is" clause in both cases. Christ is as God is and Christ is as God is the reward for those diligently seeking/coming to HIM showing daily living substance/evidence that is pleasing to HIM being thusly rewarded.
Stay close to these keys as we study through the entirety of the chapter in similar context. Having then these keys and this context, let us move forward through our consideration of the Hall of Faith.
Hall of Faith Study:
Please examine the links provided on this page for further context. They will take you to our many dictionary/concordance/scripture resources.
nkjv@Hebrews:11:1-2 @Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
Now we have already discussed the substance/evidence aspect in conjunction with the other two preliminary keys. What we are adding to that is that by having/living this substance/evidence (faith), the Hall of Faith saints that we are soon to examine have obtained something called a "good testimony". The same is said of them in 11:39 so that it can't be denied/overlooked, adding that then they had yet to see the actual fulfillment of the greater promises of Christ's perfection.
I suggest that our first point of self examination be on the testimony that our faith may already have or not have obtained as received by others. Why would it be important as received by others? Because if it is not obtained for others it is likely not even convincing unto ourselves. Is all this just a hope? or is it a hope deep with living and evident substance? Others may not fully understand or agree with it, but there is a discernment on their part that something different and substantial is evident even if they can't quite place a finger on it.
It is not that we intentionally go out to puff ourselves up larger than life to obtain this testimony, one has to be of this living substance/evidence (faith) inside and out first and foremost so that it is God working this testimony upon us and through us. This is a very important distinction to be made from the start. We do not make our faith, we are made by it. We are to become living testimony of God's effect upon the hearts of sinful men and women touched deeply and substantially by the perfection of Christ.
We will begin to see this concept illustrated in the Hall of Faith names and faces exemplified to come.
nkjv@Hebrews:11:3 @By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
You'll notice the use of "worlds" plural. Most people would likely skip over it relying on the notion that all creation/the universe is framed by the word of God (it singularly is of course), but that is not the fullest part of the meaning to be understood. The Hebrew word is actually more likely pointing us to the concept of "ages"; the ages (periods of time) were framed by the word of God. There is not a period of time beginning to end that was not (past tense) framed otherwise. By faith we understand that.
In this chapter of men and women' whom have obtained the good testimony of faith we will at the same time be lead through the periods of humankind Adam on. In order to understand each person's faith we must attempt to understand the period of time (world) that they then lived under.
So let's get started!
Abel:
(see: kjv@Genesis:4)nkjv@Hebrews:11:4 @By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.
We should probably begin with the good testimony Abel "obtained" from his parents Adam and Eve, the testimony of their life both before and after the fall, life now outside of the garden, the deserving of immediate death but the extended hand of God's purposeful future driven mercy, the presence and subtlety of the deceiver, the promises God HIMSELF made to the two of them concerning HIS plan and their progeny. To a large extent this is where Abel's initial faith came from and was in.
Specifically, we must make mention of nkjv@Genesis:3:15 prophecy given his parents by God concerning the messianic seed crushing the head of the serpent after Himself being struck by the serpent. Additionally, consider the provision of a temporary guilt covering in the form of an animal skin made first by God nkjv@Genesis:3:21.
This then is the world that was framed in which Abel's faith and understanding was operating from; an age framed by the word of God given to Adam and Eve. Through a more realistic acceptance of what all of this meant (more than Cain's), this obtained faith then made Abel to perform a more acceptable sacrifice. It is the testimony of an unconditional promise that God made to fallen mankind that a Christ would be provided, what once was/what now is/what one day will be done.
It is not just that Abel simply believed that God is (exists), it is that God exists in this specific form. It is not just that Abel believed that God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek HIM, it is that God HIMSELF is the reward of those who diligently seek HIM as HE has revealed HIMSELF in this specific form. And that this reward may not fully given in his own abreviated earthly life, but Enoch's and Noah's and ours.
The substance that biblical faith has produced in Abel is that of a true heart performing a true act of reverence towards God in acknowledging his true desperate need and fuller appreciation in light of a specific hope framed by and in the word of this specific God. The demonstrable substance of his faith in contrast to the equally
Enoch:
(see: kjv@Genesis:5:18-24)nkjv@Hebrews:11:5 @By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, "and was not found, because God had taken him"; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
The author of Hebrews continues, again with an emphasis on testimony.
One does not just go out and make themselves and believe themselves into one who sees not death, it is something God must effect upon them (and HE has only done that for one other person). Not seeing death is not the issue here, God effecting upon faith is. How much faith (substance/evidence) is God effecting upon you? This is the question with all of various these testimonies that we are examining.
Let's begin with Enoch's initial faith; it is the same as ours. Enoch received his initial faith from the testimony going all the way back to Adam given by God. This testimony was what his initial faith was in, a testimony added to and confirmed in Abel. It's not just in mankinds fallen nature and a promised by God to get us back out by means of a Savior. It's not just that a symbolic guilt covering has been fashioned and provided by God in opposition to the covering that we would make of ourselves. It is also that other men are willing to look falsely upon all that religious sacrifice is to mean and just as likely willing to kill over the notion of it. These are considerations of great substance and for the true in heart considerations that produce their own type of substance and evidences in other believers like us.
The second Enoch (seventh from Adam) is a quite mysterious figure. We are not privy to the details of his life substance that would show to us how it was that he was righteous or how it was that he pleased God. These details have to be sought out in the greater context of scripture.
For instance, righteousness is something that the context of the Bible will always be attributed as being imparted as part of the righteousness of our Lord and Savior. Enoch had to have had a reliance based upon that.
For instance, how did Enoch please God? As all the rest of us continuing that believe:
nkjv@Hebrews:11:6 @But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Again, it is not just that God is, it is that God has revealed HIMSELF through HIS interactions with these many people to be specifically this. The word of God has framed his time period, other's respond mostly negatively to it, he responds favorably to it. God in heaven is his immediate reward, a good and containing to build testimony through him is ours.
Noah:
(see: kjv@Genesis:6-9)nkjv@Hebrews:11:7 @By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Noah is much less of a mystery; perhaps thanks to Hollywood we've become overly acquainted with him (or the fabricated image of him), perhaps we need to put him back into the mystery to which he belongs. The age framed around Noah is at the first apex of absolute human corruption, terrible time when it even repented God for having made mankind. In all this world only Noah remained true. In the present world today, where we all have been corrupted so and his image along with that, it is hard if not impossible for us to imagine what that one person in the midst of all this corruption would look and behave like.
We can trace the inputs from old that are producing the substantial part of his faith; that from Adam, from Abel, from Enoch, established by God as reliable. We can add now a stunning warning from God made to his grandfather 120 years previous (nkjv@Genesis:6:3) now repeated to him (nkjv@Genesis:6:13). From this comes the hope the produces the substance made evident in the godly fear of building a precisely conveyed Ark.
Is it that Noah sought to scientifically compile evidence to substantiate his belief to himself? No, that is not the direction this chapter traverses. Was it that he had collected enough convincing scientific data as to God's existence as the substance of his and possibly other's faith or evidence of what horrible things were soon to happen? And certainly it is not his hope that all men but him die. It was that Noah by faith knew that the righteous God known by Adam on HIS course to a righteousness imparting Savior sworn of in unconditional covenant is about to judge a immensely sick and corrupt age of man for the benefit of HIS own name sake and the teaching of future generations.
This age and the outcome of it was framed by the word of God. It is not just a word that that God is, it is a word that God is specifically this. It is not word just that HE is a rewarder, it is word that God is a rewarder on HIS own just yet gracious terms. Only those that diligently seek HIM as HE truly has revealed HIMSELF to be have a prayer of not missing this concept. The given understanding of it is a tremendous reward to us in itself.
Abraham:
(see: kjv@Genesis:12-19)nkjv@Hebrews:11:8-10 @By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
In like progression, the faith of Abraham is substantially rooted in the good testimony deposited into him from most recently the man labled "the heir of righteousness which is according to faith". If there was any doubt as to which direction God was going to go with the fulfillment of HIS covenant before Noah's time, Noah's blood line being the only human survivors should make this God's righteous plan most clear.
The age framed around Abraham is much different; that because the word of God all along from Adam down to Noah has thus framed it; and now by God's just and deliberate intervention. It is these consistent yet developing inputs confirmed in the past that produces in Abram his initial trusting sojourning faith. The word of God first gave him hope, the good testimony from God substantiated sources gave him substance, the resulting substance produced life altering experience and evidence. The good report effected in him and in others down the line becomes the input into us giving us our initial hope.
Few if any of this time other than the priestly king Melchizedek (the order of which Christ's is compared) responded to God's framing of the time as favorably. We will come back to patriarch Abraham in a moment.
Sarah:
(see: kjv@Genesis:16:1-18:15 kjv@Genesis:21:1-7)nkjv@Hebrews:11:11-12 @By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude--innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.
In God's effort to effect on Abraham biblical faith, Abraham's wife Sarah was included into the grand scheme. For those believers that prefer to think of faith as something that we ourselves summon up from a hope within, that we can buttress it up strong enough to be effective with bit's and pieces of logic and empirical evidences, here is a challenge: summon up enough faith and data to conceive a child in your nineties.
Some would respond that for Abraham and Sarah it was not merely faith that made this to happen, that it was his personal obedience; sighting kjv@Genesis:18:17-19 beforehand and kjv@Genesis:22:16-18 after Isaac's birth. What we are rather seeing here is the purposely delayed fulfillment by God of HIS long developing promise; recall Abraham and Sarah had jumped the gun themselves in attempting to forcefully receive this promise. The conception of Issac was their first true test; and they certainly failed it humanly.
The promises here were of a son to be birthed by Sarah herself, of a unconditional commitment that in this son Isaac a nation of descendants soon would emerge and be given the land which Abraham had been promised. Many years (four centuries) from this current point a formal law would be given by God to the brand new fully birthed nation of Israel which was being readied by God in the wilderness to receive Abraham's land soon to come; a new and now conditional covenant would be agreed to based upon this law intended for the continual keeping of the nation within their land. It would be wise for us to know that the nation of Israel was not able to keep this conditional law based covenant, even after re-swearing themselves to it several times.
While we could think of this conditional works based covenant as being separate or additional, better yet it is to consider that at the same time it is a direct continuation of the original unconditional covenant with all mankind presented from the time of Adam, Issac being the seed through whom the Messiah one day would come (kjv@Matthew:1 kjv@Luke:3:23-38). The apostle Paul spoke of this Law as a stern schoolmaster set for teaching to us our desperate need. We will further explore these hefty considerations in the Hall still to come.
Sarah's place in this Hall of faith is a faith much like any of ours, that God was going to do something big through her, that God was a God of HIS word. Her difficulty was in not knowing how it was God was going to do this big thing. Her mistake was in tying God's fulfillment down to mere human means. This will be a reoccurring theme, so make good note of it!
Storyline Reset:
nkjv@Hebrews:11:13-16 @These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
Considering every Hall of Faith hero that we have examined thus far, we can't say that the majority of these people did not receive some tangible immediate benefit from their faith. Enoch did not see death, Noah believed unto the saving of his family, Abraham resided in the promised land (as a foreigner) becoming wealthy and influential, Sarah well beyond the natural ability of her elderly womb received strength to conceive; blessings none of which any could have achieved or done on his/her own. There was also much sacrifice and personal/world turmoil just as well. That is not what is meant by the "promises" associated with/pointed to by biblical faith.
The biblical faith starts as a God given hope implanted in us strong enough to produce a transformational and evident substance working in us and through us. Perhaps best stated in this passage as a hope that there is something better for us all that is not earthly, something by faith that we reach out desiring skyward. All of this here and now (this age framed by God's word) whatever it may be good or bad is but a process to get us onward seeking/coming into that. That one thing sought for above by us here is the same thing for all of us, saints old and new: the final fulfillment of a grand promise long ago made by God near the moment of our fall, that of the perfection of Christ.
While we are resetting the table of our many considerations of this biblical faith, let us again go back to what I early proposed as the three keys to this chapter's understanding:
- nkjv@Hebrews:11:1 @Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
- nkjv@Hebrews:11:6 @But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
- nkjv@Hebrews:11:39-40 @And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
Faith is synonymous with both the substance and the evidence. Say faith and you are saying substance. Say evidence and you are saying faith. Substance and evidence are what make hope to be faith.
Is as saying without substance and evidence it is impossible to please God.
Ultimately God/Christ is our reward/inheritance in Christ.
_Please go back to the fuller explanation → of these keys if you don't yet understand them._
Abraham:
(see: nkjv@Genesis:21:8-22:19)nkjv@Hebrews:11:17-19 @By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called," concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
This now is the point where most major religions begin to diverge from the long sturdy rail of righteousness by faith long established to this point through his Hall of Faith predecessors either by adding to it or putting it aside. This vital moment was an intentional test of Abraham's understanding of the established track I do believe, the proper understanding of it even today remains an intentional test of ours. It delineates the dividing point between the righteousness born of faith (that being of grace and not works of our own lest any man should boast) and a righteousness born of works of obedience minus the supremacy of this well stated grace. The greater context of this debate centers around the interpretation of kjv@Genesis:22:16-18.
Let's suppose now that God has altered HIS original plan. The covenant that first was unconditional clear back in nkjv@Genesis:3:15 and understood and confirmed generation after generation leading up to Abraham is now post deluge without any prior announcement suddenly to become a conditional covenant based upon each one's self determination to do what it suspects/agrees to be right. It is almost as if God suddenly is switching more to a righteousness that Cain himself would have approved of, that the perfection of Christ could be achieved through the law and good works (as many religions suppose) minus the person of Christ.
That is not the thing illustrated by Abraham's near sacrifice of Isaac. The more consistent way of conceptualizing this is that though Abraham's inclination was telling him of an obedience based righteousness all the way up to placing the knife at the young boy's throat, his given sense of the obtained faith won over his frail human mind producing in him the overwhelming substance/confidence in God's immediate promise "In Isaac your seed shall be called". He was able to come to that conclusion because of the long established line started from Messianic prophecy and the picture of a God given covering for guilt (not man's) developing outward generation by generation. This illustration is meant purposely to expose to us the better victory of faith and grace, not the reward in indulgences of self obedience and nearly completed self/human sacrifice.
The framework of this age continues rather to be by God's never changing ever present word. The belief is not just that God is, but that God is specifically this. It is not just that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek HIM, it is those who diligently seek HIM as HE actually is (not as we suppose HIM or ourselves to be). Without this faith remember that it is impossible to please God, that is why Jesus could boldly declare that "unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisee...one can not enter the Kingdom (nkjv@Matthew:5:20 )".
Abraham, being from the period of time that he was in, is yet held to the same standard of righteousness that you and I as recipients of the tremendous bounty in Christ Jesus (nkjv@Isaiah:53:10-13) (See also: kjv@Romans:4:1-8). He died still in faith not having received the greatest of the promises. We do later though find him on Christ's mount of transfiguration immensely aware of Christ's soon eminent fulfillment.
Isaac:
nkjv@Hebrews:11:20 @By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
Abraham actually had two sons, the elder Ishmael by his own device through his wife's bond servant, the younger Isaac solely by God's miraculous hand through his wife Sarah. The children of son Issac are known as the children/heirs of promise, the children of son Ishmael the children/heirs of the bond woman. That is not to say that Ishmael and his generations are not greatly loved and greatly blessed, it is to state that God's promise of Messiah made to Adam and Eve for all peoples and nations will continue through Issac; as confirmed by his miraculous conception and the continued emphasis God has long presented towards a providing a full substitution sacrifice.
In the confirmation God gives to Isaac kjv@Genesis:26:4-5 there is reference to Abraham having obeyed God's voice, kept God's charge/commands/statutes/and laws. It is the first mention I am aware of a works based righteousness
Isaac in turn had two sons Jacob and Esau. Jacob was born as an answer to a prayer made by Isaac to God on behalf of his very much loved but long barren wife Rebekah. Jacob however tricked brother Esau twice, first out of the majority share of the family inheritance due the elder, then the dying Isaac's final bedside blessing. Isaac had been promised the lands of Canaan promised his father Abraham. Jacob was now promised the continuation of that yet to be fulfilled promise made Issac. God twice reconfirms the continuation of these promises as being through Jacob, not through Esau.
The two later would come to represent nations. Like with Ishmael, it seems that the people of those nations take the meaning and supposed honor out of context as if one was chosen over the other because one was better or more deserving (as if a reward). Jacob is chosen to continue the line over Esau (kjv@Genesis:25:23), this before either were born, before anything had been done or said. The fact is that God had to do what HE had to do based on what was needed to get to the point of Messiah for all mankind. There should be little to be infighting left over considering that none of these men we're talking about are stellar examples of unselfish godly perfection.
The good report to be obtained by us through faith from this is that God works HIS good pleasure of HIS unfathomable purposes regardless/despite the condition of man. Man is fallen, all men are of the same condition, yet HIS stated objective has always been to redeem mankind out of this helpless condition, HE has framed the course of these many ages in order to direct us toward just that.
Jacob:
nkjv@Hebrews:11:21 @By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.
The time surrounding Jacob was a time again framed by the word of God. The hope that carried him through these tough times was born from the good report handed down to him successively from Adam on through to his father Isaac, promises not yet received by any of them, but evidences of a steady methodical process by God in communicating the drive forward towards it. Though Jacob did not always show the best confidence in this faith by his actions, that faith did see him and his decedents through that age towards an eventual age of receiving the fulfillment of that unwavering long standing promise.
The twelve sons of Jacob will become the twelve tribes of the nation Israel. One son in particular is used by God to show all others man's desperate need for a savior. Joseph becomes a savior of sorts on a smaller scale to the nation before the nation even starts. Jacob is remembered in this verse envisioning the great future fulfillment beyond as he approached his death and the faith in these promises yet to be carried on, blessing the son's of this Joseph.
This is not just the mere belief that God is, it is the belief that God is all the more specifically this. When the bible speaks of God to the godless, it identifies HIM as the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob; that is what HE wants to be known as, that is what differentiates HIMSELF from all the pagan contrary and vain imaginations of God(s). The reward this God gives to those who diligently seek this specific revelation of HIM are not the simple repayment owed for especially good works or good natured people, they are the reward of being brought into a deep new and living relationship with a risen Savior; a reward given all men good or bad who believe in the revealed core essence of Christ Jesus the only begotten son of this very God.
Joseph:
nkjv@Hebrews:11:22 @By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones.
Notice how the accounts of these Hall of Faith heroes repeatedly points the next generation towards the glorious future just as God had pointed Adam those many years before? There is a trans-formative faith building experience or deliverance being experienced personally or as a group by each generation in advance of the future fulfillment of God's promised helping to prove successively the reliability of God's very word in smaller more digestible ways.
Jacob's son by beloved wife Rachel Joseph was led and gifted by God to be one of the premier patriarchs of the biblical faith. Despite Joseph being all of this to the nation of Israel and to us, the promised Messiah would not be from Joseph's lineage, rather it would be from his half brother Judah. The substance of Jacob's faith remained that the nation of Israel was eventually to dwell as promised in the land Abraham once sojourned. He had been made confident enough through his many earthly trials that he left the nation instructions concerning the transport into that land of his own bones.
Moses:
nkjv@Hebrews:11:23 @By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king's command.
Hundreds of years now pass. The Egypt that God once used Joseph to prove HIS awesome benevolent power to now had the twelve tribes under a tight ungrateful insanely jealous and suspicious fist of bondage. It is here that the confident bones of Joseph rest in a crate awaiting entry into the promised lands to the north.
There is the child's mother and sister who have hidden infant Moses from the authorities three horror filled months. This is where the promises passed down through the generations have gotten them personally (some promise eh?). Their plan is that the child be placed into a basket and floated blindly into the reeds of the Nile's marshy bank (some plan?).
Whether their hope is in the soon fulfillment of the great promises made to their great forefathers or simply in the hope somehow of extended life of the beloved child we are left to guess. My guess is that they realized that the road to God's greater fulfillment had to be given a smaller but timely miraculous opening of a tightly sealed Egyptian door; thus in such hope the child is released with many great tears on wicker craft into the unknown of the night. The two would likely not be mentioned in this Hall of Faith separately if this foundational assumption as to their hope was anything different.
The door opened by God amazingly was the door of the Egyptian Queen! No one that night could ever had foreseen that.
God given hope inherently makes for God given substance, the kind of substance that can effect these tremendous moments in time. These women are brought into this substance, the substance is not made for on their own. Their future report is good and beneficial to the obtaining of biblical faith for many future generations.
nkjv@Hebrews:11:24-28 @By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.
EDITOR: TO BE COMPLETED
Twelve Tribes:
nkjv@Hebrews:11:29-30 @By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days.
Rahab:
nkjv@Hebrews:11:31 @By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.
Honorable Mentions:
nkjv@Hebrews:11:32-38 @And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented-- of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
All:
nkjv@Hebrews:11:39-40 @And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
Comment Board:HallOfFaith
Further Resources:
Child Threads: