New Testament · Letters
Hebrews chapter 11
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Now is the under everything we hope for, the of things we can’t yet see.This is what the were — their trust was what defined them.Through trust we understand that the entire was put together by — so what we can see was made from what can’t be seen.It was trust that made Abel’s to God better than Cain’s. Because of his trust, God acknowledged him as a by accepting what he brought. And even though Abel is dead, his trust still speaks.It was trust that caused Enoch to be directly to be with God so he never experienced death. He couldn’t be found because God had taken him. And before he was taken, he had this reputation: he genuinely .And without trust, it’s impossible to please God. Because anyone who comes to God has to believe that he exists and that he the people who him.It was trust that made Noah take God seriously when he was warned about things no one had seen yet. Out of , he built a to rescue his family. His trust exposed how wrong the rest of the world was, and through it he was recognized as a man who was .It was trust that made Abraham obey when God called him to leave for a place he would later receive as an — and he left without even knowing where he was going.It was trust that made him live as a in the land that had been promised to him, living in tents alongside Isaac and Jacob, who shared the same promise.He was looking forward to a , by God himself.It was trust that gave Sarah herself the , even though she was way past the age for it — because she considered the one who made the promise to be .And so from this one man, who was , came descendants as countless as the stars in the sky and as innumerable as the grains of sand along the shore.All of these people died still trusting, without having received what was promised. But they saw it from a distance and welcomed it, and they openly admitted that they were on this earth.People who talk like that make it obvious they’re looking for a .If they had been thinking about the country they left behind, they would have had the chance to go back.But instead, they were something better — a heavenly homeland. That’s why God to be called their God. He’s already prepared a city for them.It was trust that made Abraham offer up Isaac when God him. The man who had received the promises was ready to offer his —the son about whom God had said, “It’s through Isaac that your descendants will carry your name.”Abraham that God was powerful enough to raise someone from the dead — and in a sense, that’s exactly what happened.It was trust that made Isaac Jacob and Esau about what was coming — things that hadn’t happened yet.It was trust that made Jacob, when he was dying, each of Joseph’s sons. He leaned on the top of his walking stick and .It was trust that made Joseph, at the end of his life, talk about the of the Israelites and give instructions about what to do with his bones.It was trust that made Moses’ parents hide him for three months after he was born. They could see he was an child, and they weren’t afraid of the .It was trust that made Moses, when he was grown up, as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.He chose to be mistreated alongside God’s people rather than enjoy the .He considered the to be worth more than all of Egypt’s treasure, because he was focused on the that was coming.It was trust that made him leave Egypt without fearing the king’s anger. He kept going because he could .It was trust that made him establish the and the , so that the of the firstborn wouldn’t touch the Israelites.It was trust that made the Israelites walk through the on dry ground. When the Egyptians tried to do the same thing, they drowned.It was trust that brought down the walls of after the Israelites had marched around them for seven days.It was trust that kept Rahab the from being destroyed along with those who , because she had welcomed the and treated them well.What else can I say? I don’t have enough time to tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the —who through trust conquered kingdoms, , obtained what was promised, shut the mouths of lions,quenched raging fires, escaped being killed by the sword, , became powerful in battle, and foreign armies.Women received their dead back, raised to life again. Others were , refusing to accept release, so they could gain something better — .Others endured and whipping, and beyond that, chains and prison.They were stoned. They were . They were killed with swords. They wandered around in sheepskins and goatskins, , oppressed, and mistreated.. They wandered through deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.All of these people were , yet none of them received what had been promised.God had that includes us — so that they wouldn’t without us.