Posts Tagged ‘Hebrews’

I wonder if the LORD ever gets jealous of “nature” when we speak of natural and supernatural events and circumstances. Do we realize the LORD is in all things?

When we overlook the LORD as sustainer of everything, we fail to give credit where credit is due. In Colossians 1:17b, we read that “in Him all things hold together.” Hebrews 1:3 reminds us the Son is “sustaining all things by His powerful word.” In Isaiah 46:4 the LORD reminds the children of Israel that He is their sustainer. “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” (NIV)

The reason we can pray “I shall not want” from Psalm 23 is that God holds all things together. Do we realize that “our daily bread” comes from the LORD’s sustaining power, or do we just credit “nature” for the provision of food?

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17 NIV)

The English Standard Version, of God’s Holy Word, provides a title for chapter 11 of Hebrews: “By Faith”.

The phrase “by faith” is repeated nineteen times throughout the chapter. By faith we understand… By faith Abel offered… By faith Enoch was taken up… By faith Noah constructed… he became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. By faith Abraham obeyed… By faith he went… By faith Sarah herself received power… By faith Abraham offered… By faith Isaac invoked future blessings… By faith Jacob blessed… By faith Joseph… By faith Moses… By faith Moses… By faith he… By faith he… By faith the people… By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab…

The ‘by faith’ term is attached to individuals and their actions. The book of James informs us that faith is demonstrated by works. This chapter appears to simply validate that claim until I read of the faith of the walls of Jericho. How can walls have faith? Then I realize that rock walls are just as capable of obedience to God as you or me. We were dead in our trespasses and sins until Jesus Christ made us alive. Jeff reminded me this morning of that familiar triumphal entry passage in Luke 19. The Pharisees tell Jesus to rebuke His disciples for proclaiming Him King. He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” Prior to Christ giving us life, we are no more capable than stones of giving Him praise.

It is only through the power of Christ that we possess faith; it is only through His grace that we can act on that faith. So, along with all the other unlikely individuals that are credited with faith in Hebrews 11, we find the walls of Jericho. Again, I find comfort in knowing that God will empower me to praise Him, and then proclaim me righteous based on the faith He provides. How humbling; how awesome.

“And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah…” (Hebrews 11:32a ESV)

What should be said about Samson? How does he make it into the Hebrews Hall of Faith? An angel of the LORD announces his birth, first to his mother and then to both his mother and father. Samson is to be a Nazirite to God from the womb and he is to begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines. In Contrast, An angel of the LORD announced the birth of Jesus to His mother, and then to Joseph. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.

Samson appeared to be led by lust, greed, anger, vengeance, and self-centered pleasure seeking. Jesus only did what the Father showed Him to do.

Samson violated every aspect of his “set-apartness” while Jesus lived out a life of perfection and obedience.

Samson went to the grave asking God if he could take vengeance on the Philistines in his death. Jesus placed himself on a cross in order to provide the perfect sacrifice for the remission of our sins.

I cannot imagine much more contrast between two lives than we witness between the life of Samson and the life of Jesus. Samson appears to be the perfect “anti-example” of a savior. And yet, Samson’s name appears in the list of ‘so great a cloud of witnesses’ in Hebrews 11. God isn’t talking to perfect people, religious people, or reformed sinners in the book of Hebrews. He is talking to all of us – those of us that need to look to Jesus and realize that nothing we can do will perfect our faith. Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah were listed in Hebrews 11, not because of who they were, but because of who God is. He takes the weak and makes us strong, He takes the fearful and provides courage; our LORD takes the lost and becomes our “founder and perfecter of our faith.”

Praise be to God!

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV)

“And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah…” (Hebrews 11:32a ESV)

Jephthah’s story is told in Judges 10:6-12:7. Jephthah is described as a mighty warrior, but the son of a prostitute. His father, Gilead, had a wife who bore him other sons; Jephthah was driven out because his brothers didn’t want to share their inheritance with him. Jephthah went to the land of Tob to live, and worthless fellows collected around him and went out with him. It sounds like he was leading a gang of bandits.

After eighteen years of oppression from the Ammonites, Israel came to their senses and cried out to the LORD, who told them to go ask the gods they had been serving to save them. They finally put away the foreign gods and served the LORD. The people went and found Jephthah and negotiated with him to lead them and rule them. He agreed to lead them in battle if he could rule them after he returned with a victory and they accepted these conditions.

Now, Jephthah reminds me of many of us that seem to think, that in order for the LORD to bless us, we have to DO something. After his successful negotiation with the elders of Gilead, he decides to offer something to the LORD to negotiate a victory from God. Jephthah makes a conditional vow to the LORD. He promises that IF the LORD gives him a victory, then he will make a burnt offering of whatever (whoever) comes out of his house upon his return from battle. God provides the victory; Jephthah’s only child comes out of the house to greet him as he returns from battle, and he is grieved that he made this vow to God and must sacrifice his daughter.

An additional aspect of his story is when Jephthah allows himself to get sucked into a civil war and is responsible for killing 42,000 Ephraimites at the fords of the Jordon.

Just like Gideon and Barak, the LORD uses Jephthah, another seemingly unfaithful man, to provide relief to His people. Then the LORD credits Jephthah with faith – the Lord’s ways are not our ways.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV)

“And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah…” (Hebrews 11:32a ESV)

Of all of the names from the book of Judges found in Hebrews 11, Barak might be one of the most surprising. You may read his story in chapter four of Judges, but it really doesn’t place Barak in a very good light. He comes onto the scene receiving a reprimand from Deborah, a prophetess, as she reminds him of a command from the LORD that he apparently is choosing not to obey. He demonstrates his level of faith by telling Deborah that he will follow God’s command to go into battle, only if she will go with him. She agrees to go, but prophecies that he will not receive glory because the LORD will hand Sisera, Jabin’s commander, over to a woman. Just as prophesied, Jael, wife of Heber, drives a tent-stake through Sisera’s temple and then presents the fallen leader to Barak.

Barak exercised his measure of faith; he had enough faith to go into battle as long as a woman of God came with him. When we don’t possess enough faith to proceed, God provides. And then the LORD commends the faith.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV)

“And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah…” (Hebrews 11:32a ESV)

Have you ever marveled at what a gracious God we serve? Yahweh looks on the people that He chooses, covers their faults, declares them righteous, and then commends them. Four very unlikely candidates for God’s “Hall of Faith” (Hebrews 11) seem to appear just in passing. The four individuals mentioned from the book of Judges are a remarkable collection of men; not remarkable for what they accomplished, but remarkable because of God’s work in and through them. Not one of these men stands out as a spiritual giant, yet God places them into a list of individuals “commended through their faith.”

Gideon’s story is told in Judges, chapters six through nine. The Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against the Israelites and devour the produce of the land every time they planted crops. The outside oppression was so bad at that time that the Israelites made caves and dens and other strongholds in the mountains to hide. Gideon is introduced to the story while he is “beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.” When the angel of the LORD informs Gideon of God’s call, Gideon asks for a sign. The angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched a goat and unleavened cakes that had been placed on a rock; fire comes out of the rock and consumes the food – the angel of the LORD vanishes. When the LORD tells Gideon to tear down the altar of Baal that his father had and the Asherah pole beside it, Gideon performed this task by night “because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day.” Gideon then tests God twice by asking for a fleece to be either dry or wet while the ground is the opposite. God is gracious and continues showing signs.

We probably all remember the story of how God proclaimed that the army Gideon finally gathered was too large and how the LORD instructed it to shrink to just 300 men. When the LORD finally gives Gideon his marching orders, Gideon is informed that “if you are afraid” go down to the camp of the enemy and hear what they are saying. When Gideon and his servant get near the enemy camp they hear two soldiers conversing about a loaf of barley bread that comes down a hill and knocks over a tent. The soldiers conclude that it must represent the sword of Gideon; they agree that they are doomed. Hearing this story gives Gideon enough faith to follow the LORD’s instructions and he ends up routing the enemy (while God confused the enemy and caused them to turn on each other).

After the battles are won, the people want to make Gideon and his family their ruler. He says he would rather not, but he will take gold from them. He makes an ephod that becomes a snare to him and his family because people begin to worship this ephod. Gideon acquires many wives, has seventy sons by them, and also has a child by a concubine in Shechem. Gideon’s death is recorded at the end of chapter eight, but his story continues through chapter nine. Abimelech, the son of Gideon’s concubine, kills seventy sons of Gideon, sets himself up as king, is cursed by Gideon’s youngest son, Jotham, and the LORD has to deal with Abimelech and the people that helped him.

What a gracious and merciful God we serve, that looks at Gideon and commends him for his faith. May we all experience that same level of grace when we are repeatedly unfaithful to our Maker and Redeemer.

 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV)

A phrase began to jump out at me each time I ran across it in my reading of Scripture: “But God…” I noticed that the phrase illuminated a contrast with God’s plans and ways and the world’s plans and ways. I recognized that we could have eliminated the need for the “But God” phrase if we had just begun with God’s perfect plan.

I did a search for the phrase, “But God,” in multiple translations of Scripture and found over eighty examples; each shed light on God’s sovereignty, grace, justice, and mercy. Here are just a few cases in point.

Beginning in Genesis 3, the serpent is questioning, “Did God actually say…” and the woman’s response includes, “But God said.” That should have been enough; the serpent should have been silenced by God’s Word. But he wasn’t.

In Genesis 8, the wickedness of mankind had resulted in a worldwide flood. “But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.”

In Genesis 17, Abraham is asking God to consider Ishmael as a solution to the problem of Sarah’s old age and her not being able to produce offspring, “But God said, ‘No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac…”

Genesis 20 finds Abraham attempting to pass Sarah off as his sister in order to protect her. Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah; “But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, ‘Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”

Genesis 50 contains one of the more famous “But God” phrases in Scripture. Joseph is putting his brothers at ease when he explains, “You intended to harm me, But God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

Psalm 73:26 says, “My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Acts contains a few instances of the “But God” phrase concerning Jesus Christ, “But God raised him from the dead.”

Romans 5 states, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this; While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

One of my favorite “But God” phrases comes from 1 Corinthians 1:27. “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”

Hebrews 12:10 declares, “Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; But God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.”

Our sin requires correction. Thank the LORD for all of the “But God” passages, where his will is proclaimed against the backdrop of our need.

Have you ever wondered why December is the twelfth month of our calendar year instead of the tenth month? Decem, novem, octo, and septem are Latin words for ten, nine, eight, and seven. So September was the seventh month, October was the name of the eighth month, November marked the ninth month, and December was the tenth and final month of the early Roman calendar (about 750 B.C.).

 While the world’s calendars have experienced numerous changes and revisions,  it is comforting to know “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 (NIV, ESV, NASB, NIrV)

John 1:14 (ESV) “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Hebrews 1:3a (ESV) “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.”

God made flesh! What an act of humility; what an awe-inspiring work of grace, glory and truth. Let us all worship Him during this coming season that many call Christmas. May His focused and deliberate act of kindness give us pause as we contemplate all of the implications of God the bridge-builder, peace-maker, sustainer, and Redeemer.

During His sermon on the mount, Jesus exhorts us to “Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.”  James tells us to draw near to God and He will draw near to us. The author of Hebrews proclaims, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (NIV)

Do we believe in the Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us enough to earnestly seek Him? Do we believe in the faithful and just God that chooses to forgive and cleanse us and declare us righteous? Or are we like the voice from Psalm 10:4 who in his pride  does not seek Him;  in all his thoughts there is no room for God?