Devotionary

Today’s episode involves another set of twin sons and their blessing by their grandfather: Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons of Joseph. Jacob and his family are living in Egypt, on land provided to them by the Pharaoh. At this point, Jacob has no idea when they will return to the land of Canaan. But being old and knowing his days are numbered, he chooses to pronounce a blessing on his two grandsons. And he does so – by faith – trusting God for the eventual outcome and fulfillment of his blessing.

In today’s episode, we’ll be unpacking a single verse, verse 20 in Hebrews chapter 11. It’s a short verse, but is jam-packed with significance. It involves Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, and speaks of the blessings he gave his two twin sons, Esau and Jacob. What makes this particular verse so interesting is that it claims that Isaac pronounced these future blessings on his sons … by faith. And yet, the story of the event, as recorded in Genesis, seems to paint a slightly different picture. Or

What exactly was God testing? Was there something about Abraham He didn’t know and needed to find out? If God is all-knowing, then it would seem that He knew what the outcome would be before anything even happened. So, was the test for God’s benefit or Abraham’s? The way you answer this question will make a huge difference in how you understand God’s declaration of Abraham as righteous because of his faith.

Abraham was being commanded by God to do the unthinkable. To us, what God told Abraham to do wasn’t even logical. Was God really asking Abraham to take the life of very son He had miraculously given him? While much of this story may not make sense to us, God’s reasoning and motives can’t be questioned. He is holy, just and righteous in all He does. And He had a perfectly good purpose behind His seemingly unjust command.

The Old Testaments saints all died in their faith. They died without having received what God had promised them. That sounds rather anticlimactic, doesn’t it? Kind of a let-down, a disappointment, until you consider what the author is trying to teach us about faith. He mentions a better country, a heavenly one, that contains a city that God has prepared for them. It was that future promise on which they placed their hope. Not the immediate, temporal blessings of this life.

Sarah seemed to struggle a bit believing that God was going to actually pull off what He had promised. It wasn’t so much that she didn’t trust His promise. It was that He seemed to have missed the fact that she was old and barren. So she just assumed God was going to fulfill His promise some other way. And she was not above giving suggestions. But in the end, she believed God. She was learning that faith is not a commodity, but a way of life.

Abraham’s long life was characterized by faith. Abraham obeyed God. But he did so because he trusted God. Now, he didn’t always trust God fully and completely. Sometimes he had his doubts, not so much in God’s promises, but in how He was going to bring them about. Occasionally, he and his wife. Sarah, tried to help God out. But Abraham was going to learn that God’s will is best done God’s way. And Abraham would believe God, right up to the end.

Noah’s story is a powerful example of faith because it involved a salvation from death that would require some pretty significant steps of obedience in the face of overwhelmingly difficult and seemingly illogical demands by God. Noah’s salvation required faith. But it wasn’t his faith that saved him – it was God. It was Noah’s faith in God, not the ark, that saved him. In the face of God’s looming judgment, Noah found mercy, grace, and refuge in the salvation provided by God.

While the record of Enoch’s life and accomplishments is short, he does hold the somewhat unique distinction of being one of just a few men in the Bible who never died. That’s right. The book of Genesis says, he walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. And while that’s a fairly significant claim to fame, the real thing that sets Enoch apart is his faith. He was taken to be with God because he believed and trusted in God – all without having to experience death.

Long-dead, murdered by his own brother, Abel still provides us with a powerful example of the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. The story of Cain and Abel has puzzled Bible readers for millenniums. Why was Cain’s sacrifice rejected by God? Why was Abel’s accepted. How was Abel showing assurance in things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen? And how, even today, is his short-lived life a demonstration of faith?

Faith is based on hope. And our hope is based on those things we have been promised by God, but have not yet fully received. Faith is less a commodity than it is a way of life, a means by which we understand the world around us and all that happens to us as we wait for what has in store for us.

Today’s episode deals with the believer’s need for endurance in the face of all the pressures and problems of this life. The temptation will be to lose hope or to think that what Christ did on the cross was somehow insufficient. The presence of difficulties can lead to doubt, which can result in disbelief. But the author reminds us that we are not those who shrink back. We press forward in faith, trusting the promises of God based on the finished work of Jesus.

The author of Hebrews is trying to encourage us to consider the incredible nature of Christ’s gift to us. It should create in us a confidence and assurance that shows up in the way we live our lives. He is faithful and true. What He has promised to provide for us: eternal life, He will deliver to us. But in the meantime, we must hold fast and have confidence that His death has provided us with unbridled access to God the Father – even now.

Today, we’re in Hebrews chapter ten verses 11-18. This episode is entitled, “Fully Forgiven” and deals with the remarkable reality that, for those who have placed their trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior, their sins have been fully and completely forgiven – once for all. And not as a result of anything they have done, but because of what Christ has done for them. As a result, the author of Hebrews says, God will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.

Today we move into chapter ten of Hebrews verses 1-10. This episode is entitled, “The Good Things To Come” and will reveal how the old covenant of the law was intended to be a shadow of something better to come: The new covenant made available by Jesus’ death on the cross. His selfless, sinless sacrifice was what the Mosaic law and sacrificial system pointed towards, but temporarily and imperfectly. He had to die, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that men might be made right with God.