Hebrews 11

Hi all, hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's day.

Let's jump right to it. Chapter 11 is all about faith.

The writer starts off with an informal definition of faith, and makes it an ever present thing by using the word "is" in v. 1: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." It is how Christians should define their lives, through things hoped for and the conviction to live it out even when these hoped-for things are not seen.

From there, the writer lists and describes the faith of a whole slew of Old Testament figures important to the Jews in their history and religion; the list includes Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, the Exodus generation, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel, and all th eprophets. I don't really have to summarize their feats (or leaps) of faith because it's, well, in the Bible and very accessible to us all, but here are some of my thoughts.

Strangely enough, it is recorded in Genesis that Sarah laughed when she heard that God promised a child to Abraham whose offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. How does this imply faith? In Judges, it is clear that Gideon was slow in moving to war though commanded by God, Samson broke many of his Nazirite vows and quite fond of drink and women, and Jephthah made a foolish vow that he kept. Eventually, Moses grew proud and broke faith with God and never entered the Promised Land. David committed adultery and murder. Yet, the writer includes them in this "Hall of Faith".

I think that what the writer is trying to say is though our faith may be imperfect, it does not impede God in commending them for it. In v. 13, it says "These all died in faith, not having received the things pormised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth." The men and women listed here kept their trust in God, knowing they will be rewarded even though they seemed so inadequate at times.

So then, for us Christians, what does that mean? I think the concluding verse for this chapter is quite sufficient in leading into the next section, about Jesus as the center of our faith. Vv. 39-40: "And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect." These words remind us that that we should look forward in faith, secure in our salvation though the fruits may be slow in coming and the blessings few and far between at the present.

In other news...

It's been a very quiet, relaxing break for me. I finished Beloved, by Toni Morrison, which is an excellent novel - I highly, highly recommend it. I'm reading four or five other novels at the same time, but Beloved was the one I couldn't put down. I also finished the game Assassin's Creed, which also comes highly recommended though the enemy AI was quite moronic and formulaic at times.

I decided in these last few days to sort and organize our family photos. Which I realized is insane, because they're all printed and there are stacks upon stacks of them. My dad took too many pictures when we were younger. I stayed up until 5 AM last night just putting them into categories. And I don't think we have enough albums for these pictures. But it was really cool looking into my family's past, seeing how our surroundings and ourselves have changed.

Looking forward to seeing you all in a few days :)