© Jeanne E Webster
Hebrews 11—a brief
First generation Jewish Christians suffered the soul-splitting surgery of having to give up long-held traditions, only to be persecuted by family and foe alike. Their most crushing anguish: Christ had not yet returned . . . and there was no apparent sign that He would return.
The Book of Hebrews exhorts them to hold fast to their faith in Christ. Chapter 11 is a form of trail of tears of God’s people as they had sojourned towards the Promised Land. Example after example of those who lived by faith in God is accounted as a good report, signifying their righteousness in the eyes of God. “By faith. . .” they lived and died, ever advancing towards their goal. Study this chapter. It is a soul awakener, a study in Christian economics. The price on the world market had been steep: torturing, stoning, cutting apart by swords, burning alive in pots of hot oil, lunches for lions, wandering destitute, sick and tormented. The writer of Hebrews affirms in v. 38, “Of whom the world was not worthy.”
Christians today have the same goal, and at times, comparable anguish while seeking our eternal home. We face times of weakness, trials, pain and sufferings, persecutions, cruel mocking, bonds and imprisonment. And, yea, even death. Our brothers and sisters in many countries face these trials on an everyday basis. May we be comforted in the promise that faith sustains; emotions fade away.
Heb. 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”
Seek the joy that comes from doing God’s will. Even though the fruit is unseen, know that it is there!