“These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” (Heb 11:39-40)
The list is awesome. All the pillars of our faith are included. People like Abraham, Moses, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets . . .. People whose faith resulted in miraculous healings, miraculous births, miraculous deliverances from impossible situations . . .. People who were all commended for being sure of what they hoped for, being certain of what they did not see . . . (see Heb. 11:1,2).
After living such lives of great faith, you would think they would receive great reward, but the Bible tells us that the only reward they received was “commendation”! Why? Aren’t these people role models that we all are to follow? Didn’t they desire more then to just be “commended” for their faith? And what does the last line of this verse mean: “only together with us would they be made perfect.”?
I had just read through the list of the “faithfuls”, and I had spent quite a bit of time talking to God about the desire to develop the kind of faith these people showed, when I came to this text. I didn’t understand it at all. How could it be that they, whose faith was so much more solid than my own, could only be made perfect together with me?
I was pondering this, going over and over it in my mind, asking God for clarification of what this verse was trying to say, when my eyes dropped ahead a few lines to the first two verses of Heb.12: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
Suddenly the image of the Canadian Olympic team flashed across my mind and I understood. These great men and women of faith were not running their races for themselves! They were part of a team — God’s team! And I am part of this team, too! In fact, anyone who wears God’s uniform is part of this team! (Did you know that God’s uniform is white — as white as snow?) The only difference between us and the men and women of faith listed in Heb. 11 is simply that they ran (and won!) their races much earlier in the games! Though they had earned their prize, they will not receive it until every member of God’s team has finished. Only then will we all march forward together to receive our “Gold”!
In the meantime, though I may sometimes feel alone in my struggles to develop faith, I am not. I have my own “fan club”! Those who have already won their races now stand by to cheer me on! But why would they care about me? Because they want us all to stand up together, no one missing, to receive our ultimate reward!
Lets think about it another way for a moment. In the midst of your worst struggles to maintain trust in God, Abraham is standing right there, calling out to you: “Come on, Lyn! I know what you’re going through is hard. When I was waiting those 25 years for Isaac to be born, I lost hope sometimes, too! But God is faithful! He’ll be faithful for you too! Don’t make the mistake I made. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus!” And on the other side stands Gideon. He cries out, “Don’t look at all those negative circumstances, Lyn! Remember, I had only 32,000 men to fight an army many times that size. Then God downsized my army to a mere 300! We were seriously outnumbered, doomed for failure, our death warrants already signed! But God is faithful! At His command, the Mideonites started fighting amongst themselves! Not a one of my men was lost! Just keep your eyes on Him, and pretty soon all those bills, that lost job, and the landlord pounding at your door with eviction notices will start fighting each other, too!”
With a cheering section like that, who could possibly give up? Who could possibly lose? So “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith . . .” (Heb 12:1-2). Then, in the end, we, too, will take our places beside Able, Enoch, Noah and Samuel, and we will all receive our ultimate prize together!
“. . . only together with us would they be made perfect.” (Heb 11:40)
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Moderator, The Nugget, Scriptural Nuggets (www.scripturalnuggets.org ), Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org