Like the ancients
I want to please God.
Without faith that is an impossibility.
But what does it look like to be certain of a hope?
To have assurance in an unseen thing?
The author of Hebrews 11 says faith is like…
Someone
who believes
Invisible + Invisible = Visible Creation
God’s commands + things we cannot see = Cosmos
Abel
has seen injustice—the first of its kind.
But has never seen vindication—the world has never had a need for it.
Yet from the grave he speaks of its coming.
That’s faith.
Enoch,
who walked with God
for 300 years!
And was then taken away.
Faith goes for long walks.
Noah,
warned about a never-before-seen event,
rejects the world’s seeing-is-believing framework
and constructs an ark.
Faith prepares for future events.
Abraham
hearing bizarre things from an unseen God like,
“Leave your family land for unknown lands.”
“Live footloose and fancy-free in mobile homes.”
“Imagine counting your children like you count the stars.”
Nonetheless leaving, living, and imagining. Why?
He is certain this God is an architect and designer of permanence.
Faith takes the long view.
Sarah,
who has never witnessed a baby born from a couple so worn out
–her words, not mine–
considers that God’s promises
may in fact be downright laughable,
and ridiculously true at the same time.
Faith swaddles.
Isaac,
who has never seen a family make
such a colossal mess of giving blessings,
still blesses his boys,
trusting that God will sort it all out
perfectly.
Faith blesses.
Jacob,
looking beyond death and
reminding his son and grandsons:
God’s promises for you are in Canaan, not Egypt.
Do not settle for less.
And when—not if but when you go—carry me home with you.
Faith reminds.
Joseph,
knowing his eyes too won’t see the grand fulfillment,
reminding the next generation:
God’s story doesn’t end with us.
It doesn’t end here. He will come for you,
and when He does, let us go home together.
Faith points the way.
Moses’ parents
believing the words of Jacob,
believing the words of Joseph,
believing despite what the circumstances look like
after 400+ years of believing
that putting an infant
in an ark
and letting it
float down a long river
isn’t a foolish act.
Faith doesn’t give up hope.
Moses
who considers option A: status, wealth, pleasure
and option B: disgrace, scarcity, hardship
deciding the invisible Messiah is a better reward
than all the treasures of Egypt.
Faith humbles.
The Israelites at the Red Sea
witnessing
the wet sea separated from dry ground,
the terrorizers unyoked from the terrorized,
the might-makes-right divided from the desperate-for-a-miracle
the conceited divorced from those of the covenant
and then stepping wide-eyed into God’s miraculous space.
Faith moves forward.
The walls of Jericho falling
not by some mighty military campaign
or a brilliant conquering strategy.
No, God has His own methodology. Walls fall
when His people walk out His head-scratching directions.
Faith encircles.
Rahab,
whose hope in YHWH God is so certain
that instead of quaking in fear with everyone else,
she extends risky hospitality to strangers.
Faith spreads peace.
All those
who conquered or were conquered,
all who were martyred or escaped,
all who succeeded or suffered.
Faith considers circumstances temporary.
Last on the list is
the only one of flawless faithfulness:
Jesus
who sees what’s unseen,
holds the weight of the invisible,
bends the long arc of history,
builds the eternal,
sustains the generations,
laughs at far-fetched ideas,
alters the laws of physics,
brings us home.
Jesus is our hope.
He is our certainty.
He is our assurance of things unseen.
Jesus, come quickly and perfect our faith.
This post was inspired by Marty Solomon’s 20-part series on Hebrews 11.
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