Last week we looked at "What FAITH is..." This week we started looking at "What FAITH does..."
Beginning in verse 4 of chapter 11, the author shows his Jewish audience/readers that "faith" is not something new. He goes all the way back to the time of Adam and uses sixteen people who demonstrated the kind of faith that exemplifies the definition found in verses 1: "Now faith is the substance/realization of things hoped for, the evidence/conviction of things not seen."
We began by looking at Moses. "By faith Moses..." (vs. 23-29)
Moses is a great example for the author to use because the Jews always associated Moses with the law--the great Mosaic Law. He was also the greatest of the Old Testament figures. Since the Jews lived by works not faith, seeing that Moses was a man of faith makes him a great standard. Looking at Moses we see the decisions that faith makes--what faith accepts and what it rejects.
NOTE: The record of the life of Moses covers the Old Testament from Exodus, chapter 2 to Deuteronomy, chapter 34. Almost four of the books of the Pentateuch are about Moses.
The Decisions of Faith
Faith REJECTS:
1. The world's prestige (v. 24) - "...refused to be called the son of the Pharaoh's daughter."
2. The world's pleasure (v. 25) - "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season."
3. The world's plenty (v. 26) "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt..."
4. The world's pressure (v.27) "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king..."
Faith ACCEPTS:
1. The Lord's plans (v. 23) - "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child [fair unto God]..."
2. The Lord's provisions (v. 28) - "Through faith he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them."
3. The Lord's promises (v. 29) - "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians attempting to do were drowned."
Faith is very decisive, and life is made up of decisions. From the time that you wake in the morning, you begin a process of making decisions. At every juncture of your life you are either fulfilling the will of the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit, or you are fulfilling your own will and quenching the Spirit. And so you go through life making the decision to be filled or to quench the Spirit. You go through your life deciding for the will of God or against it. When you're spiritually mature, there's no more decision because both of the wills always agree.That's real maturity.
So as we come to Moses, we are zeroing in on the decisions that faith makes. When somebody really believes God; when somebody really trusts in God and believes that God honestly and truly has his best interest at heart, then he will, on the basis of that trust, make certain decisions. And those decisions become the decisions that really govern his temporal existence and his eternal existence as well.
Now, the writer of the book of Hebrews has presented, for ten chapters, the new covenant. And he's presented it to people tied to the old covenant, namely the Hebrews. And he has tried to show them that they can leave Judaism, they can leave the old covenant and they can come all the way to Jesus Christ. And then he introduces the concept of faith at the end of the 10th chapter by saying, now the only way you'll ever apprehend the new covenant is by faith. He makes it clear that "faith" isn't anything new because your own prophet Habakkuk said "the just shall live"...what?..."by faith."
So the author says the only way they will ever be able to get a grip on the new covenant in Christ... which brings a man into God's presence and forgives his sin and give him eternal life... is by faith.
Next week, we will look at another example of faith.
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