Hebrews chapter 11

vs 11

Don't think I'm being a stodgy old man by accepting the NIV over the T, but the truth is the alternative text really does make more sense in the view of the evidence given in the Old Testament. Having said that, we know of plenty of OT things that get "cleared up" in the NT, so there's no reason this couldn't be one of them. The only thing is we're given two options.

Either way, the child-bearing of Sarah and Abraham is an act of faith due to their great ages. I will point out that, although this is an action, having a child (especially past age) is more of a passive action. There's only so much you can do to ensure you have a child. In the case of Abraham and Sarah, it really is a miraculous event. So now we get into that Gospel territory of miracles happening to those with faith.

I'm not going to go there though, because it's only really glossed over. Everything we can say about it, I think, is really going to be a coveted theological issue more than a biblical interpretation issue. That doesn't mean it's not interesting, but I just don't know how much I can add to such a conversation.

Of course, if I can't add anything to this conversation, why am I bothering to write?

vs 12

This shows that when God is faithful, he is faithful in a big way. But since the passage is about faith of people, it is also giving some credit to Abraham and Sarah. If they weren't faithful, the nation of Israel may have never been. I don't like statements like that, but you get my drift. Because they were faithful, Israel existed.

vs 13

Now here we get down to the brass tacks of the point of faith that is being discussed here. The faith of all these people mentioned is a forward-looking faith. Hence the link to hope I was talking about. They look forward to the things promised to them, even though in life they never received them. And yet their lives were shaped, changed, altered, different because of this fact.

vs 14

Christians should be visible by their attitude to this world, and to heaven.

vs 15

How deep a chord does that strike with you? It's strong with me. We are meant to leave this world behind now, in as much as we live in it. But how often do I turn around and go back? How often do I look heavenward, and yet think, "But this world has so much to offer" and so turn around and walk the opposite direction down the road? That is not a picture of the Christian life.

vs 16

The faith - that is, assurance of the hoped for and yet unseen - that there exists for us a heavenly dwelling, and the resultant life change is what makes God not ashamed to call himself our God. I wonder how often God cringes when he is called my God.

vs 17

Would we ever be prepared to put the promise of God on the chopping block for the sake of faith? Not that I've had any promised children, but I've seen the knife fall on several of the promises God made me. God called me to go into politics at university. I had several opportunities to be involved in political campaigns.

Then God gave me a wonderful job working for AMT. It was a true blessing at the time, because it pulled me out of working at a service station, and it thrust me into the heart of Christian mission, gave me interesting and challenging work to do, and helped me to develop administrative skills.

But then I felt God's call to the CDP and to politics again. It seemed like the right time, and the right direction, but it meant putting a knife to my work with AMT.

Now, I feel as if the knife has been put to my political aspirations. But what could I do? I was challenged to it by God's Word as I prepared that sermon on work. I had to practice what I preached.

God gave me the opportunity to study theology at a tertiary level. I was so thankful for it. It has been so important to me. But circumstances again have changed, and instead of finishing with a Masters, I'm possibly graduating at the end of semester, if I manage to pass Hebrew, with just a Grad Dip. For now, and the foreseeable future, the door to theological study has closed to me.

So now, here I am. Making a decision to study teaching. I haven't started the course yet. I've had God's knife put to politics twice, to mission support work, and to theological study. The thing is, I've had faith that all of these things belong to God. I just haven't felt that way about teaching yet. May God inspire me as to his plan there. Because otherwise, it just feels like a career decision in order to support me and Penny. Yes, I know, verse exposition ended a while ago. But really, as the theological train departs from my station for a while, what more do I have to add but personal experience?

vs 18

Abraham had an exact promise from God on this issue. I can't say I've ever received such a promise - that is, a promise with an end point. Well, that's not true, I've received one. The same one all Christians have received. Shouldn't that be enough? The thing is, I don't think we're ever going to be called to put our salvation on the altar of sacrifice. Or are we? Is that what happens every time we get called back from thinking our salvation has something to do with how good we are, or how much we know?

No, it's not really the same. I know what it is like. It's like putting our own lives on the altar, being prepared to sacrifice that which God has saved for his sake. And we are called to do that. He or she who loses their life for the gospel shall save it. There's no reason doing that shouldn't be as tearful an experience as sacrificing your son. Perhaps the reason we're not quite as tearful about it is because we don't do it, because it hurts.

vs 19

Of all the things I've put to the knife for God (I haven't even mentioned all the other things that I could from when I actually became a Christian - perhaps I consider them as nothing, like Paul? Some of them I do), I think what I don't have faith in is that God can resurrect them like he could Isaac, or Christ. Isaac never actually died, but Christ did. Both had their lives returned to them, in a way. Where is my faith that God can do that with anything he has promised me, or called me to? That's the sort of faith you expect from missionaries who have really hard people to reach out to.

vs 20

Although he wasn't totally sure what he was doing, once it had happened, he stuck by it. Perhaps this verse is saying that Isaac saw God's hand in Jacob getting the blessing, and so he didn't want to mess with it. Isaac, after all, had an older brother who was not blessed.