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By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

(It was by faith that Moses’ parents hid him for three months when he was born. They saw that God had given them an unusual child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s command. New Living Translation).

Here is yet another facet of faith – it shows bravery.

In verses 23-28 ‘…faith is portrayed as a force sustaining God’s people in times of opposition and affliction, enabling them to overcome fear and temptation and to fulfil his purpose for them…Faith in God is incompatible with fear of hostile forces.’ David Peterson: ‘New Bible Commentary’, p.1348.

Moses’ parents were living in dangerous times. When they recognised that God had a special purpose for their boy, they did what they could to protect him, even though a dark, ominous threatening cloud hung over them, and all the people of God.

‘The account is given in Exodus 2:1-10. Moses’ parents were named Amram and Jochebed (Ex.6:20). Though godly faith cannot pass on their faith as they do family traits, they can certainly create an atmosphere of faith at home and be examples to their children. A home should be the first school of faith for a child.’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘New Testament Commentary’, p.836.

PRAYER: Almighty God, I pray today for all my brothers and sisters around the world who live under threat because of their faithfulness to you. Give them, I pray, ever-increasing courageous faith. I also pray for myself. I am ashamed to say that I see so much cowardice in my soul. Lord make me brave in faith. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left. (New Living Translation).

‘The faith of Joseph was certainly remarkable. After the way his family treated him, you would think he would have abandoned his faith, but instead, it grew stronger. Even the ungodly influence of Egypt did not weaken his trust in God. Joseph did not use his family, his job, or his circumstances as an excuse for unbelief. Joseph knew what he believed – that God would one day deliver his people from Egypt (Gen.50:24-26). Joseph also knew where he belonged – in Canaan, not in Egypt, so he made them promise to carry his remains out of Egypt at the Exodus. They did (see Ex.13:19 and Josh.24:32)!’ (Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘New Testament Commentary’, p.836.)

Faith knows what it knows, and what it knows inevitably leads to action. Without works it is ”dead” (James 2:26). Joseph was so sure that the people of Israel would be delivered from Egypt, he told his brothers to take his bones with them when they left:

” Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ ²⁵ And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, ‘God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.’ ” (Genesis 50:24,25)

Faith is formed and nourished by God’s Word. Joseph’s confidence came because of what he knew of God’s promises.

“The best praying man is the man who is most believingly familiar with the promises of God. After all, prayer is nothing but taking God’s promises to him, and saying to him, “Do as thou hast said.” Prayer is the promise utilized. A prayer which is not based on a promise has no true foundation.” (C.H.Spurgeon).

By an act of faith, Jacob on his deathbed blessed each of Joseph’s sons in turn, blessing them with God’s blessing, not his own—as he bowed worshipfully upon his staff. (The Message).

Jacob was ”still living by faith” when He died (see 13a). As he told Pharaoh when he arrived in Egypt, his 130 years on earth had been ”few and difficult” (Genesis 47:9), but at the end of his days he was still a worshipper of God. Many of his difficulties were self-made. Some were not. But in everything he had learned to trust in the faithfulness of God.

If we look at Jacob’s blessing of Joseph’s sons, as found in Genesis 48, 49, we will see that he did indeed bless them ”with God’s blessing”. There was something prophetic about these blessings. God was speaking through him. With Jacob, as with Isaac (20), he saw that God’s saving line would be fulfilled through the younger son.

Furthermore he ”blessed each of Joseph’s sons in turn”. We are individuals. We were not to imagine that we were ‘mass-produced in some celestial factory’ (John Stott). God has a distinct purpose for each of His children. May we know what ours is, and, like David, serve God’s purpose in our own generation (Acts 13:36).

By an act of faith, Isaac reached into the future as he blessed Jacob and Esau.

Faith not only has sight (seeing is believing), it also has foresight. Sometimes it gets glimpses of the future. On occasions a person may have more than a glimpse – more like an open window into the future God is preparing for them, or for others (as was the case here).

When God reveals something to you, there may come a time to appropriately speak about it in the presence of others, but great sensitivity to the Holy Spirit is required. However, it is never inappropriate to talk to God about what you believe He is showing you. When, or if, it becomes time to tell someone else, He will impress it on your spirit.

Meanwhile, we do well to be like Mary, and treasure ”up all theses things and” ponder them in our hearts (Luke 2:19)

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, ¹⁸ even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ ¹⁹ Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

Faith sacrifices.

It was one of those moments you don’t forget. It is etched on my memory. I was sitting in a morning Bible study, in the big top at ‘Spring Harvest’, a Christian festival. This was many years ago and I was a young man in my early 20’s. The speaker was talking about Abraham and Isaac. ‘God never wanted Isaac,’ he said. ‘He wanted Abraham; and when He knew He’d got him, He gave Isaac back!’ That resonated with me, and it’s a principle I’ve seen work out in my own experience more than once through the years.

Faith sacrifices, and sometimes has to be willing to sacrifice its very best.

But faith also believes in the God of resurrection, and He has remarkable ways of bringing back from death what we place on the altar. It doesn’t always happen, and, at the front end, we have to sincerely let go of anything God is asking of us, being prepared to sacrifice it all. However, in the purposes of God, ‘Isaacs’ often make a come-back.

All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. ¹⁴ Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. ¹⁵ If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. ¹⁶ But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (New Living Translation).

In an article for ‘the Spectator’ entitled: ‘Now I’m 64: my tips for aging’, Julie Burchill quoted the philosopher Camus who said, ‘In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.’ I think many Christians will identify with this, even though they may find themselves in the ‘winter’ season of life.

I clearly remember one Friday, just a few years ago, when I was visiting Studley Royal, a beautiful deer park next to Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire. Although I don’t normally tend to be this way, on that morning I was for some reason feeling a bit down about getting older, and maybe just a little depressed at the thought of death.

Then I went into your sanctuary, O God… (Psalm 73:17).

We went inside the beautiful church building at Studley and I saw something there that spoke to me of heaven. I can’t remember exactly what it was. I believe it may have been a verses from one of the the psalms. But it brightly illuminated the gloom within, and I left that church with an altered perspective. The ‘invincible summer’ broke through into my wintry thoughts and feelings.

I believe God wants all who trust in Jesus for salvation to know – to know deeply – that there is nothing to fear. Jesus always keeps the ”best” wine until last (John 2:10).

(By the way, it was Albert Camus who said, ”I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live as if there isn’t and die to find there is.” Now there’s a thought!)

 Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.

We have noted before that ”better” is a key word in Hebrews. It is used many times (1:4; 6:9; 7:7, 19, 22; 8:6; 9:23; 10:34; 11:16, 35, 40; 12:24). It can also be translated ”superior”. Everything about Jesus and all He brought in is ”better” than anything enjoyed under the Old Covenant.

In today’s reading we run into the idea of a ”far better country”.

My mum was a big fan of the country singer Jim Reeves. I remember she had an E.P. (45 rpm!!) of Jim singing:

”This world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through,
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue;
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door,
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

I think it is fair to say that the heroes of faith described in Hebrews 11 lived in something of that spirit. When they died, they were still believing that God had something ”better” for them.

It takes me back in thought to the C.S. Lewis quote we considered recently:

”If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”

Tim Keller said: “All death can now do to Christians is to make their lives infinitely better.” This is Biblically true.

Following Tim’s death in May of this year, Carey Nieuwhof shared certain insightful observations. Here is one that stays with me:

”David Kinnaman and I interviewed Tim in 2021, a year after his pancreatic cancer diagnosis. I asked Tim what he was thinking about day-to-day in light of his diagnosis.

Tim’s honest answer is worth reading and re-reading:

I would say that as a man who was 69 years old, I actually was pretty unfocused because the reality is it doesn’t matter whether you have cancer or not. When you’re approaching 70, you should actually know the time is short. You don’t really have decades anymore. You’ve got years anyway.

And so I should have been more focused, but I was tending to do whatever anybody asked me to do….You’re a nice person, you’re a minister. So you do whatever anybody asks you to do.

And I had no focus. I really didn’t. I wasn’t saying what do I really —if I finally had one year left, two, three, four, five years—what should I be doing? I didn’t have that focus. Now I do.”

All these people were still living by faith when they died. 

These words remind us of the inevitability of death. ‘Death is the ultimate statistic: one out of one dies.’

But they also speak to us regarding the invincibility of genuine faith. It does ‘keep right on to the end of the road.’

As we have seen repeatedly, these Hebrew Christians were tempted to ”shrink back” (10:39). Under the pressure of persecution, they felt the pull to return to the old Jewish religion, and they needed to be severely warned about the spiritual danger they were in (e.g. 10:26ff), and to be exhorted:

”You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised” (10:36).

Jesus warned of a coming time when, He said:

”Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will wax cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:12,13).

” Integrity is built by defeating the temptation to be dishonest; humility grows when we refuse to be prideful; and endurance develops every time you reject the temptation to give up.” Rick Warren.

PRAYER: Lord God, please help me to keep walking by faith and not sight until that day when faith becomes sight.

And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹² And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

The highlighted words above show that Abraham and Sarah were facing double-trouble. It wasn’t just Sarah who was infertile. They were both biologically incapable of having children.

One of the celebrated heroes of the Christian faith said,

‘The borderline of human helplessness is the borderline of divine miracle.’

‘Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees
And looks to that alone;
Laughs at impossibilities
And cries: It shall be done!’ Charles Wesley

‘Got any rivers you think are uncrossable?
Got any mountains you can’t tunnel through?
God specializes in things thought impossible
and he will do what no other power can do…

…God is the same and his word is dependable
He’ll make a way through the waters for you
Life’s situations by him are amendable
Mountains and hills he will part for you too.’

“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
    and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
    and to the quarry from which you were hewn;
² look to Abraham, your father,
    and to Sarah, who gave you birth.
When I called him he was only one man,
    and I blessed him and made him many.” (Isaiah 51:1,2).

This is an example of what can happen when God’s promise and power encounters our barrenness at the borderline.