The Just Shall Live By Faith

It is very exciting and encouraging reading through Hebrews 10 and 11 about the saints of God living by faith. God works miracles in the lives of His saints as they live in obedience to His will. We read that by faith Noah built an ark and saved his house, that Abraham sojourned and God multiplied his seed as the sand of the sea, that Moses forsook the pleasures of Egypt and lead the Nation of Israel into Canaan land, and that the walls of Jericho fell down because Joshua trusted God and obeyed His command. But all the stories of people living by faith do not end this way. There are those who believed in the promises of God just as much as Abraham did but their story turned out different. There are saints of God who forsook the pleasures of this world, not to lead a nation to victory, but to live a life of poverty and obscurity. These are the real heroes of faith, those who followed God no matter how bad the outcome. They were willing to follow Christ straight into the valley of death. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:36, “And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourging, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned they were sawn asunder, were tempted were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented”. In the eyes of the world and sadly many Christians, these people missed the will of God and were definitely not living by faith. Although it is hard for us to comprehend, the saints in Hebrews 11:36-37 had just as much faith in the Word of God as the men and women mentioned the verses 1-34.

I don’t claim to know why God would deliver Peter from prison and then allow others to be sawn asunder. I can’t explain why God would allow some women to receive their dead raised to life while some women had to receive their dead. To say that the group delivered from death and prison had a greater faith in God than those who perished would be in direct contradiction to the Scriptures. There is no way that we with our finite understanding can comprehend God’s infinite wisdom. We simply have to trust Him. We must trust Him because “without faith it is impossible to please him”. It takes faith to say “God knows best” at the same time that the fire that will consume your body is being kindled at your feet. It takes a measureless amount of faith to say “I will still go with God” while burying a loved one who died for the cause of Christ. No, we may not be able to explain all that God may put us through but we are not expected to understand or give an explanation. We are called to live by faith however, and often times the darker the trial and the deeper the valley, the more real our faith becomes, and the sweeter our God becomes.

No one likes trials. No one especially wants to end up like the “and others” mentioned in the ending part of Hebrews 11 with the trials of cruel mockings and being sawn asunder. But we read in Hebrews 11:38 that the world was not worthy of these great saints. These people’s faith was so great that no matter how dark things looked and no matter how bad things got, they were going to remain faithful to God and to His Word. They knew that God’s faithfulness was not dependent on the outcome of His will.