BIBLE READING: Hebrews 11.16
“…as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared for them a city.”

This verse comes at the end of a list of people who are held up as heroes of faith. And yet if you examine their lives, you quickly find that they did some regrettable, even shameful things! And yet God is not ashamed to be called their God. Why? Simply put, their desire was for Him. They were moved by faith to obedience even when it didn’t make sense (Hebrews 11.8). In their weakness, they considered God faithful (Hebrews 11.11). Even without receiving the promises, the believed that God exists and would reward them (Hebrews 11.6).

This simple yet profound belief manifested in seemingly absurd choices: to leave comfort for something unknown; to defy powerful rulers; to accept torture and death. We must observe that what the world sees as strange, God looks at with favor. Not because these actions were inherently noble but because they were performed in hopes of what God had promised. These men and women gave up everything in pursuit of something better. They left family, comfort and familiarity to chase after of the promise God. They looked forward in faith, not looking back, to give themselves the opportunity to return to what they left.

People of faith must not be near-sighted but focused on what is to come. Indulgence and apathy only callous the need we have and the desire we feel for a perfected state. People of faith do not idle in comfort but press forward in hope that beyond death is eternal life in the presence of God. The admonition to set our minds on things above (Colossians 3.2) is a call to strengthen our faith by consolidating our heart’s desires. We are not of this world and must not become placated by what it offers.

Admitting they were strangers on earth freed these people to pursue God by faith. Because of this God was not ashamed to be called their God. In fact, God took their name as part of his communicated identity to all future generations (The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – Exodus 3.6, 15, 4:5). And true to His word, God has prepared a city for them.

How would God regard you and your faith? Would he say, “have you considered my servant _______________?” or would he be ashamed your lack of faith? Could it be said that God is not ashamed to be called your God? My friends, by faith we must look forward to all that God has planned for us. We must disregard the pleasures of this world that we are leaving behind, trusting that better things are ahead because God has promised.

“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way…” (Philippians 3.13-15)

BIBLE READING: Hebrews 11.37-38a
“They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy…”

Have you ever considered why these people of faith were treated so terribly? It wasn’t because of their kindness or their simple, reserved practice of faith. Suffering came because they took a stand, with their words and actions.

• Elijah opposed Jezebel and the 450 prophets of Baal because he knew Baal was no god at all (1 Kings 18). His choices led him to experience the loneliness of his faith (1 Kings 19), but it was simply not enough to ignore this reality; they must be confronted.
• The prophets Jeremiah and Uriah were both called by God to call out the people’s sins (Jeremiah 26). The people were enraged, killing Uriah and driving Jeremiah into hiding. Neither wanted to share this message and were personally affected by it; but they opened their mouth and spoke.
• John the Baptist could have left Philip and his immoral relationship alone (Matthew 14.1-12). After all, Philip was a person of the world… shouldn’t that be expected? Instead, John called his sins to light and was eventually executed for it.
• Stephen offered a scathing rebuke to his fellow Jews for rejecting Jesus (Acts 7). He could have stopped, shook the dust off his sandals and moved along, but instead he contended with them and was stoned to death.

If these people knew they would suffer, why did they still choose to do it? They were convinced that God was right and true. They believed that, regardless of how they felt, they needed to share God’s message with others.

To be people of faith, we must be convinced that God is true. But more than that we must be convinced of the outcome of his truth and the pressing need for change. If there is sin in our lives, it must change today. If we see others living contrary to God’s patterns, they must be warned. God is patient and merciful but that should not promote apathy. God’s word is unchanging and today is God’s opportunity to each of us. Faith must be deeply rooted in this conviction, so much that it will speak and act with urgency today.

As God’s people, our mission is to make God known in this world. We are called to shine light in the darkness. This will take different forms as we engage people where they are; but the reality of human selfishness is that we will be hated for it (John 15.18-25). But if we believe God to be true, this must be our conviction: We must confront and correct sinful behavior. We must not let the forces of darkness and evil prevail. We must make every effort to open the hearts of people with the truth of God’s word.

“We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” (2 Corinthians 5.10-11)

BIBLE READING: 2 Chronicles 24.20-22, Matthew 23.29-36

“Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the people, and said to them, “Thus says God, ‘Why do you break the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.’” But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the LORD.” (2 Chronicles 24.20-21)

Zechariah’s message was pointed but it was what the people needed to hear. Their choices had separated them from God. Why didn’t they want to hear that? It was indicting and personal. The reality of his words was overshadowed by their offense at him. Would you want to hear what Zechariah had to say?

When we read that story, we probably don’t put ourselves in the shoes of the murderous mob. Surely, we think, we would have listened. We wouldn’t have treated the prophet this way. We would have turned back to God. That’s what the Pharisees said (Matthew 23.29-30), but Jesus exposed their hypocrisy. In rejecting his message of repentance, they were doing the very same thing their fathers had done to the prophets (Matthew 23.31, 34).

I pray we read these stories with humility for we are not that different than those of the past. Our practice of faith can easily digress into self-assured reliance upon present “goodness.” We must be warned. The scriptures reveal that only a remnant of people is truly faithful to God and rarely do others stand with these kinds of people. These are challenges we must take seriously.

Our faith must be self-aware and repentant. I’m not saying we apply any and every accusation personally, but we must not be deceived about our own goodness. We naturally tend to drift from God and need to be shaken back into reality at times. Our hearts ought to be so geared towards God’s righteousness that we are willing to accept our limitations and failures. This awareness is evident in all people of faith we have seen in Hebrews 11.

Furthermore, this conviction motivated their desire to see others be right with God. Zechariah didn’t elevate himself so others would see his superior faith. Instead, he had no agenda but to reconcile people to God. We must appreciate how true faith compelled these people to act and speak. Our faith ought to be so deeply rooted in God’s rightness that it moves us to make it known.

When God’s righteousness collides with the lives and desires of men, there will always be a fallout. As people of faith, we must see this as part of our refining and our calling. We are salt to preserve the world from judgment and light to expose reality. Let us not fear the fallout but trust what God has promised: he will reward those who diligently seek him (Hebrews 11.6).  

BIBLE READING: 1 Kings 22

“And [Ahab] said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” (1 Kings 22.8)

We like stories that end as they should. Through scripture, we gain comfort knowing that, by faith, good overcomes evil, justice prevails, and outcomes are resolved. Hebrews 11 serves to ground our hope by letting us see the blessedness of people who lived by faith. But it also reminds that resolved outcomes are not promised in this life. While some ‘enforced justice, obtained promises, and [even] stopped the mouths of lions’ (Hebrews 11.33), others ‘were tortured… suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment’ (Hebrews 11.35-36). This verse challenges us to consider some uncomfortable realities. Faith does not make me immune to suffering. Many times, people of faith endured lonely circumstances. They were mistreated and rejected.

Imagine having the reputation of Micaiah. He was a known man of God whose commitment to speak God’s words got him publicly berated and thrown into prison (1 Kings 22.13-28). His peers were swayed by the power of the king, but Micaiah understood his calling (1 Kings 22.6, 14). Even though he spoke the truth, his staunch faith got him labeled a troublemaker. Like many prophets, his story ends with negativity with him stuck in prison. Surely this wasn’t what he wanted, but it was where faith took him and many others.

Consider the story of Jeremiah. He was thrown in a pit, into prison and put in stocks for sharing God’s message of judgment. He was relentlessly opposed by false prophets with a more pleasant message (see Jeremiah 20.1-6; 28.1-17; 29.24-32). Jeremiah wished he could give a message of peace and hope to his people, but God had told him something very different (Jeremiah 28.5-9). Not only was he personally affected by his commitment to faith, but he had to endure the very atrocities that he foretold on the nation (Jeremiah 39). And yet he remained faithful to God’s calling for him.

The point is this: We mustn’t be delusional about faith’s offering. It settles our heart with peace that is not contingent on present circumstances. By faith, we are on a mission from God to be salt and light in this world. There will be times our work is fruitful and positive. But the reality is, many times it will be difficult. Many people of faith died without justice or resolution because they believed God had prepared something better for them. We must fix our minds in this way. If we focus on the negatives, we are prone to shrink back from the mission of our faith. My friends, we mustn’t be short-sighted.

There are present blessings we can enjoy, but we must not be settled by the temporary. Nothing here will compare to what is coming. When our lives are moved by the calling of God and the hope of his promise, we may experience discomfort; but our hope is in God’s promise of better things beyond this life.

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8.18)

BIBLE READING: Hebrews 11.33b

The common theme in our reading this week is those who, by faith, stopped the mouths of lions. A short investigation through a biblical concordance shows that lions are frequently used as metaphors in the Old Testament. Their reputation is one of ferocity and danger. In scripture they are often used as objects of fear, destruction, and terror (see Psalm 7.1-2; 17.12; Proverbs 20.2; 1 Peter 5.8). When David was surrounded by Saul, he compared his situation to being “in the midst of lions” (Psalm 57.4; cf. 1 Samuel 22). In ancient times lions were used as a form of corporal punishment (Daniel 6.16). Even God described his punishment on the nations with lion imagery (Hosea 5.14; 13.7; Nahum 2.11-13). The presence of a lion is a force to be reckoned with.

And yet the writer of Hebrews puts simply that people of faith were able to stop the mouths of lions. This phrase immediately brings to mind the story of Daniel in the lion’s den. When the king banned prayer to other gods, Daniel immediately went home and prayer to the true God (Daniel 6.7-10). For his defiance, the king threw Daniel in the lion’s den. But God sent an angel to “shut the lions’ mouths (6.22), and Daniel was unharmed.

But this wasn’t the first time God stopped the lion’s mouth for people of faith. When attacked by a lion, “the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon [Samson], and he tore the lion in pieces” (Judges 14.6). In preparing to fight Goliath, God, David recounted that God allowed him to deliver his sheep from the mouth of the lions and would deliver his enemy in the same way (1 Samuel 17.34-37). Time and again, the power of God is shown to be greater than that of the lion.

Why do these things matter? King Darius seemed to understand when he brought Daniel out of the lion’s den. “[the living God] delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions” (Daniel 6.26–27). These events witness to God’s ability to save. As David would say to Saul, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion… will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17.36-37). There is no foe too great when compared to God. But more importantly, it is only by his power that people of faith can overcome the enemy.

We understand that Satan prowls like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5.8). We are called resist him, but how? Being firm in faith knowing that his advances have not only been experienced by brethren throughout history but overcome by the power of God (1 Peter 5.9). We may have to suffer a little while (1 Peter 5.10), but God will rescue and deliver those who put their trust in him.