Plants, animals, mountains, oceans, sky, cities, homes, families, TVs, cell phones, money, clothes, church buildings, classrooms, skyscrapers, books, food, friends, rock concerts, musical instruments. They all have something in common: they are part of the visible world.

Grace, love, gentleness, forgiveness, God, Heaven, Satan, Hell, humility, pleasure, pain, goodness, wickedness, gravity, electricity, wind, intelligence, emotion, anticipation, fear, ideals, the girl in the Fantastic Four. They all have something in common: they are all part of the invisible world.

Hebrews 11 is known to most Christians as the Faith Chapter. It gives a definition of what faith is, and then it proceeds to show what a powerful force it can be by giving Old Testament examples of ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things because of their faith. When we discuss faith from a biblical perspective, we are basically talking about two categories of things: what we hope for, and what we do not see (Heb. 11:1). Faith is the ability to be certain that things in both those categories are real things, not just “fig newtons” of the imagination.

Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses’ parents, Moses, the people passing through the Red Sea, the walls of Jericho, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephtha, David, Samuel and the prophets. Verse 39 says they were all commended for their faith—their certainty that the hoped-for and the invisible things were real—yet it says none of them received what had been promised. Verse 40 says that “God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”

If there is one character in Hebrews 11 that might be called the “star” of the chapter it would be Abraham. Let’s take a brief look at his life in the book of beginnings, the book of Genesis. In Gen. 12 we find Abram (Abraham’s original name before God changed it) leaving his home in Ur of the Chaldeans, and the household of his father Terah, who had moved his family to Haran to the north of Canaan. All this movement was the result of Abram hearing a message from God (Gen. 12:1-9).

Remember that in Abram’s time there were no written Scriptures, so when God wished to communicate with people, He sent angels, dreams, visions, voices, or other special manifestations. When Abram received God’s message, he obeyed, even though it meant the pain and fear of leaving what was familiar, and moving into a land that was inhabited by warlike societies that could threaten him and his family. The Bible tells us that Abram would pitch his tent, and build altars in the places where he stopped in order to worship this God who had called him and given him these promises. Why do you think the building of these altars was important?

Next, the Bible tells us that a severe famine spread across the land and Abram took his family and possessions down to Egypt to live. While he was there with his wife Sarai, he made some unwise decisions that would have to be called failures. He decided to lie about his wife and pretend she was his sister, he instructed her to tell the same lie, and he allowed the Egyptians to take her into the king’s harem to be his wife (Gen. 12:10-20).

Now, let’s ask ourselves, what does this reveal about Abram’s faith, and what does the outcome of this episode tell us about God’s response to our failures?
--Abram’s faith was imperfect. It had to be tested and built up, not based on human wisdom, but on the word of God.
--God doesn’t go back on His word just because we are less than perfect. He teaches us lessons and disciplines us by our trials and failures, but He never forsakes those who are truly His children.

The angry Pharaoh sent Abram away, who returned to the place he had first built an altar and worshipped the Lord. Interestingly, the very next challenge we read about in Abram’s life—the conflict between Lot’s herdsmen and Abram’s about grazing land—Abram makes a decision that certainly seems like a great success for his faith.
--Abram allows Lot to choose which part of the land he would like to settle in.
--He maintains good relations with Lot in view of the hostile nations living around them.
--He chose to avoid the wicked “cities of the plain” and remain in the land of promise.

After he and Lot parted company, Abram again hears from the Lord, who repeats and expands the promises he was given. Is there a pattern that is emerging between the exercise of faith and the blessing of God? Here are some other highlights of Abraham’s life:

--When Lot and his family were captured in the war of four kings against five, Abram rescued them with a fighting force of 318 men.
--When Melchizedek, king-priest of Salem, came out to bless him, Abram gave him a tenth of the spoils he had won in the battle. But Abram refused to accept any tribute from the king of the wicked city Sodom.
--When Abram asked for a sign that God would give him a son, God gave him the vision of the smoking firepot and the blazing torch as a sign of the covenant.
--At Sarai’s request, Abram fathered a child with Hagar the Egyptian: Ishmael
--Circumcision was given as a sign of inclusion in the covenant people of God. At that time God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah.
--Three men visited Abram with a prediction of Sarah’s childbearing. The also bring news of the coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abram pleads for Sodom, that the righteous would be spared.
--Abraham repeated the same failures with Abimelech, king of Gerar, as he did with the Pharaoh in Egypt. Even the greatest people of faith can have moments of weakness and need to repent and forsake besetting sins. Abraham and Abimelech later made a treaty that they wouldn’t deal falsely with one another.
--God kept his promise and Abraham and Sarah have a natural child in their old age: Isaac. When Ishmael showed disrespect for Isaac, Abraham sent him and his mother away, yet God provided for them and Ishmael became a nation of 12 tribes.
--God put Abraham’s faith to its greatest test by ordering him to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering on Mt. Moriah, the future sight of the temple in Jerusalem, and the place where Jesus would be crucified.

Genesis 15:6; Abraham believed a promise, and a Person. Hebrews 11:19 tells us that he reasoned that God’s demand that he sacrifice Isaac was possible only because God could raise the dead. And passing from death to life is the ultimate reward for true faith.

Want to comment on this Prose? Sign up to Edit Red and you will be able to comment on Prose and get access to: Upload your own stories and poems, get readers and their feedback, promote your work...