The previous chapter closed with the quotation from Habakkuk, "The just shall live by faith," and in chapter 11 we have many bright examples of those who acted in faith amidst the trials and difficulties of their path. These examples are designed to encourage those to whom the Epistle is addressed, as well as believers in all ages.
Faith makes substance of things hoped for but not yet possessed, and it gives us the firm conviction of things not seen. It has for its basis the revealed will of God in the Scriptures, and thus it brings divine certainty into the soul, where otherwise all would be darkness and speculation. The order with which the different actions of faith are grouped together in this chapter is an evidence of divine design; for all was inspired by the Holy Ghost. It commences with creation, as to which we are not left in vague uncertainty, but we know that all was called into existence by the divine fiat of God. Then sin came into the world, and Abel, by faith, offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. He came with the blood of a victim, on the ground of the death of another, and not with the fruits of a cursed earth. This is the faith that justifies, for God reckoned him righteous. Then Enoch was translated to heaven without passing through death. He walked with God during 300 years, in the power of faith, and he had the testimony that he pleased God. Enoch prophesied of the judgment that should come on the ungodly, but he never saw it, for God translated him to heaven. This answers to believers of the present dispensation, who will be "caught up to meet the Lord in the air," when He comes, and so pass into His presence without death before the judgments are poured out on the world. Whatever people may say or do that is good in itself, without faith it is "impossible" to please God. Those who come to Him must believe that God is. This is much more than that He exists, which everyone acknowledges except Atheists; but He is the living God to be counted on, and the rewarder of those who seek Him out. May He enable us to be more in earnest and more diligent in counting on Him!
Noah gives us the example of one who, when warned of God as to the impending judgment, in faith prepared an ark for the saving, not only of himself, but his house. The trial of faith was long, for Noah was many years building the ark, and there was no apparent sign of the flood. But, whatever may have been the mockery or opposition of the world, Noah, moved by godly fear, went on to the end. If in Enoch we have a type of saints of the present dispensation, in Noah we get an evident type of the godly remnant of Israel, who are saved through the judgment which will fall upon the world and are brought in to enjoy the millennial blessing afterwards.
Then we have Abraham, the father of the faithful—above all Old Testament saints the great example of faith. After the Flood a new thing came in, and that was idolatry. It existed even in the family of Terah, Abraham's father (Joshua 24:22And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. (Joshua 24:2)). God then called out Abraham to go into a strange land. He had nothing but God and His word to go upon, but this was enough, and he went out not knowing whither he was going. But there was much more than this. He "sojourned" in the land, he was "a stranger and a sojourner"; he was marked by two things—his tent, which marked him out as a pilgrim, and his altar, which showed he was a worshipper. But he did not go back to Chaldea; in faith he came out and in faith he stayed out. Alas, how many have started brightly enough on the Christian course, but, failing to go on in the power of faith, have become involved in worldly things and lost their distinctive place as strangers and pilgrims here! Not so Abraham, for by faith he went on; he reached out even beyond the dispensation in which he lived, for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Next we have Sara, and here the Spirit of God in grace passes by all the failures and unbelief which we see was there from reading the history in Genesis, and mentions her as one of the instances of faith.
And, as to these, the promised blessing did not come in their day—they died in faith. They "saw" the promises afar off, they "embraced" them, and they "confessed" that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. What wonderful achievements of faith! They might have looked back and returned, but no! they went on in the power of faith, looking on to a heavenly country, even though they had not the bright and full revelation concerning heavenly things which we have, now that Christ has gone on high and the Holy Spirit has come down.
We now come to the severest test of faith recorded in the Old Testament. Abraham, "when he was tried," offered up Isaac. When God said, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest," (Gen. 22:22And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. (Genesis 22:2)), Abraham did not reply, "O God, how then are all the promises to be fulfilled?" No, he went off at once. As well as his feelings as a father, the whole question of the promised seed was involved; but "he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith giving glory to God" (Rom. 4:2020He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; (Romans 4:20)), when the heir was promised; and then when God told him to offer up this very Isaac, he obeyed at once without a question. Marvelous achievement of faith! He believed in a God of resurrection, and thus Isaac became an eminent type of the true Seed, whom God spared not, but delivered up for us all.
The instances of faith in the case of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, were at the close of their life. Here faith looked on to the future blessing and counted on God as the One who was faithful to fulfill the promises He had made, whatever the difficulties might be.
In Moses we have the energy of faith. The faith of his parents is first mentioned—they hid him three months because they saw that he was a beautiful child; and they doubtless also believed that God would yet deliver His people. If apparent worldly advantages ever surrounded anyone it was so in the case of Moses. Brought up by Pharaoh's daughter as her own son, he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. Why not use his influence at court to forward the interests of his people? This is what expediency would have dictated, but faith took him out of these very circumstances which, to mere reason, appeared so advantageous. He "refused" the place of worldly honor, and he "chose" the place of suffering along with the people of God. And that, too, at the very time when the people were in their low estate, both as regards their bondage in Egypt and their slowness to accept deliverance from their position. He esteemed the reproach of Christ—this is how the Spirit of God here speaks of it, though Christ had not yet come—greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked off, in faith, to the reward. Faith enabled Moses to leave the court of Pharaoh, to identify himself with the people of God, no matter how low and despised their estate might be, and to prefer the place of reproach to all the riches and treasures of Egypt. And so the principle is the same in the case of the Christian. He is not to be guided by circumstances or appearances, even though they may be most plausible. Faith in God, His Word, and a single eye for the glory of Christ, can alone give intelligence in His mind and in what is suited to Him.
Then there was the question of the salvation of Israel from the just judgment of God, and their redemption from the bondage of Egypt. The Israelites and the Egyptians were both sinners, but the former, acting in faith on God's command, put up the blood of the slain lamb outside their houses, and so were saved from the destroyer. By faith, too, they passed through the Red Sea—those very waters were a wall of protection to them; but the Egyptians, "assaying" to follow the people of God, but without faith, were drowned. Many, like them, ostensibly follow the same path as the true Christian, without that faith which forms the link between the soul and God; all such only perish in the attempt.
Our chapter then passes over the whole of the wilderness journey and takes us into the land. "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days." The first city which barred the way of the people was Jericho. It is remarkable that this city, walled as it was so strongly, should have been taken in a manner which to mere reason appeared quite useless. Yet God would show His people at the very outset of their conflict with the enemy that the true source of strength was to be found in faith and simple obedience to His command.
From what unexpected material some of those who are given us by the Holy Spirit as examples of faith are drawn! Rahab was a sinful woman, yet she could say, "I know" that the Lord has given you the land. This is ever the language of faith; she did not reason on probabilities, but she knew that Israel was the people of God, and that He had given them the land; and so she identified herself with them and obtained deliverance for herself and her household.
The closing part of the chapter gives us various forms of trial through which the people of God were enabled to pass in the power and energy of faith. God knows all the sorrows of His people, and He notes the very manner in which each had to suffer. They were His worthies, though the world was not worthy of them. And they "received not the promise"—it was put off till that brighter and better day when they, and we also, shall rest in the rest of God, where no trial or sorrow could ever come.