Day 2274 – Hebrews-20 – Triumphs and Tragedies of the Faithful – Daily Wisdom

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Welcome to Day 2274 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Hebrews-20 Triumphs and Tragedies of the Faithful – Daily Wisdom
Putnam Church Message – 09/17/2023

Triumphs and Tragedies of the Faithful - Hebrews 11:23-40

We continue our extended series through the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. Last week, we explored Faithful Walks Worth Following. Our focus was on the patriarchs of Israel: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. This week, we continue this theme and explore the Triumphs and Tragedies of the Faithful.

Let’s read Hebrews 11:23-40 on page 1876 of your Pew Bible.

Faith in Action

23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.

31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.[d]

32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and...

Triumphs and Tragedies of the Faithful - Hebrews 11:23-40

Let’s read Hebrews 11:23-40 on page 1876 of your Pew Bible.

Faith in Action

23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.

31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.[d]

39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Before we jump back into Hebrews 11, let’s pause for a “true or false” quiz.

(T) (F) Christians never wrestle with doubts.
(T) (F) Christians never stumble into sin.
(T) (F) Christians are free from imperfection.
(T) (F) Christians are always shielded from hardship, suffering, and tragedy.
(T) (F) Christians take hold of God’s promises without wavering in hope.
(T) (F) Christians never suffer failure or defeat in their faith-walks.

Okay, it's time to grade your quiz. This will be really easy. If you answered “true” to any of these statements, rethink your answer. Every one of these statements is false.

However, these and similar erroneous ideas about the Christian life plague many believers. These false expectations lead to disappointment in other believers, disappointment in themselves, and disappointment with God. The truth is that the authentic life of faith is a constant battle against temptations. It’s marked by stumbling, falling, and getting back up—dirtied and bruised. True believers can be bothered by lingering doubts or jolted by fits of unbelief. They fail their friends, their families, and their fellow believers. They back down when they should stand up; they lose hope when they should look to their Lord in confidence.

The reality of the Christian life becomes even more sobering when we observe the trials and tribulations faced by mature believers characterized by obvious faithfulness. Even the godliest believers can, and do, experience tragedies. They deal with financial disasters, /endure accidents and injuries,/ suffer from sickness and disease, /become the victims of violent crimes, /and walk through dark valleys of despair. There is no force field that protects Christians from the effects of this fallen world or the suffering of their mortality.

In the remainder of Hebrews 11, we see a sharp contrast between the triumphs enjoyed by people of faith (11:23–35) and the tragedies endured by people of faith (11:35–38). Some experienced stunning victories by faith—like Moses, Joshua, Gideon, and David. But there was never constant victory without struggle. This long list of believers throughout history, who are rightly commended for their faith, “did not receive what was promised” (11:39). Yet all endured both triumph and tragedy, deliverance and affliction, as they awaited a day yet future when all men and women of faith would finally be made “perfect” (11:40).

11:23–28 (Roll Board Out)

In the “Procession of Faith,” the author of Hebrews devoted plenty of space to fill in details on the life of Abraham and the patriarchs (11:8–22). And repeatedly see the things that were accomplished “by faith.” Now, the author switches palettes and transitions from the era of the patriarchs to the era of Moses and the Law.

The original Jewish audience of the book of Hebrews probably wouldn’t have had a hard time accepting that the lives of the patriarchs were characterized by “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.” (11:1). The patriarchs had lived before the giving of the Law /and before the conquest of the land! They had not received the promises. /But what about Moses? /Did he live by faith in the unseen?

The author notes that Moses’ life began with an act of faith (11:23). When the paranoia of Pharaoh prompted the unprovoked slaughter of male Hebrew infants as a gruesome form of population control (Exod. 1:9–22), Moses’ parents defied the king’s edict. By faith—and willing to face the consequences—they chose to obey God rather than a man who thought he was a god. By hiding the baby from Pharaoh’s forces and floating him down the Nile River, they trusted God alone to care for their child. This one act of faith set off a series of events that eventually led to the rescue of the Israelite people from Egypt and the ordering of the nation under the Law. It all began with faith.

In Hebrews 11:24–28, the author demonstrates that the lawgiver Moses was also a man who epitomized a life of faith—just like the patriarchs of old … and just like his parents. From his humble beginnings to his triumphant victory in the Exodus, Moses was a man who accomplished everything “by faith.” This faithfulness of Moses is illustrated by three key decisions he made.

(Bulletin Insert)

First, by faith, Moses refused to go with the flow of a sinful society (11:24–26). Remember the context of Moses’ call. He had been plucked from the Nile as an infant by Pharaoh’s daughter and was raised with the best that Egypt had to offer. F. B. Meyer describes Moses’ place in Egyptian high society this way: “If he rode forth into the streets, it would be in a princely garb, amid the cries of ‘Bow the knee.’ If he floated on the Nile, it would be in a golden barge, amid the strains of voluptuous music. If he wished for aught, the almost illimitable wealth of the treasure of Egypt was within his reach.”

Picture Moses as a Hebrew in his heart, but decked out in all the trappings of royal Egyptian luxury. He no doubt wrestled with the tension between masquerading as an Egyptian in a life that wasn’t really his /and embracing his true identity as a Hebrew, /a member of the people of God. /Simply making the startling decision to be true to his outcast,>Hebrew heritage required faith—turning his back on Egypt's material wealth and physical pleasures to align with a class of slaves (11:24–25). Having been raised in the luxury of Egyptian royalty, Moses would have known nothing of life among the Israelites in the ghetto of Goshen (Exod. 8:22). This attitude of faith manifested itself in an act of the will. He chose to endure ill-treatment by his identification with God’s people (11:25). He considered God’s heavenly reward greater than Egypt's vast wealth (11:26). These were no mere youthful whims whipped up in a wave of emotion. Moses was 40 when he decided to break ranks and officially join the Hebrews. These were acts of faithfulness inspired by a deep trust in the character and promises of God.

Second, by faith, Moses left the familiar to venture into the foreign (11:27). Moses knew Egypt better than any place on earth. Egypt’s buildings, alleys, obelisks, and temples—all the sights, sounds, and smells were “home” for him. Yet, by virtue of his actions, “he left Egypt”—likely a reference either to his flight from Egypt after killing an Egyptian (Exod. 2:14–15) or his leading the people out of Egypt in the Exodus (Exod. 12). But Moses was able to survive the traumatic transition from the familiar to the foreign because he kept his focus on the one true God “who is unseen” (Heb. 11:27). Instead of backing down at the thought of Pharaoh’s wrath, he stood firm, trusting in God.

Third, by faith, Moses was willing to swallow his pride and do the unusual (11:28). On the eve of the Exodus from their slavery in Egypt and after a series of powerful signs and wonders, God commanded Moses and the Israelites to do something unusual. They were to kill an unblemished male sheep or goat, apply its blood to the doorposts of their houses, and eat its meat in haste. This was to be their “Passover” observance, as God would go through the land of Egypt that night and kill the firstborn of every house in Egypt that didn’t have the sign of blood on the door (Exod. 12:5–13). I can imagine more than a few Israelites looking cross-eyed (or just plain cross) at Moses and saying, “You want us to do what with the blood?”

Yet Moses obeyed even this uncouth command. The judgment of God came,/ passed over those who complied,/ and every firstborn Egyptian was killed in a final plague against Egypt (Heb. 11:28). Moses’ obedience to the seemingly absurd led directly to Pharaoh’s release of the Israelites from the land of Goshen. How like God to test our faith by demanding from us what seems ridiculous! Whether building an ark without a cloud in the sky … believing the promise of having a baby while pushing a century … or painting blood on a door to spare your family’s lives, God seems to pair faith with the unusual.

Had Moses failed to respond by faith to any of these decisions, none of what follows in the “Procession of Faith” could have happened.

11:29–31

Moses’ faith and faithfulness led to an explosion of signs, wonders, and miracles wrought by God through his ministry of deliverance. His personal decisions led to powerful triumphs and epic miracles in his generation and numerous generations to follow.

The first of these involved the unprecedented miracle of Israel crossing the Red Sea (11:29). Yes, it was the miraculous action of a mighty God that split the waters of the Red Sea and allowed the people of Israel to pass through (Exod. 14). But what faith it took for those men, women, and children to trudge from shore to shore with walls of water on either side! We see that faith was necessary to trust God even amid one of the most profound miracles in the Bible. When the faithless Egyptians attempted the same crossing under the same conditions, the walls of water gave out and drowned them in the sea (Heb. 11:29).

The second miracle involved the battle of Jericho (11:30). Forty years after the Red Sea miracle, the Israelites finally crossed over the Jordan into the Promised Land—this time with Joshua in Moses’ place as the leader of Israel. However, though the land to the west of the Jordan had been promised to God’s people since the days of Abraham, they had to liberate it from the nations that had turned the land of Canaan into a den of wickedness. The day quickly came when they were standing before the heavily fortified city of Jericho with a decision to make: Follow God’s ludicrous instructions for toppling the city (see Josh. 6:1–5), or head back for the wilderness across the Jordan. /Faced with the impossible, /by faith, /the Israelites embraced the commandment of God and conquered the city God’s way.

Finally, the author of Hebrews splashes his canvas of faith heroes with an unexpected figure—a harlot named Rahab. Featured in Joshua 2 and 6 as the one person in Jericho who came to the assistance of the Hebrew spies and agreed to help them, she appears again as a member of the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:5 and a heroine of faith in Hebrews 11:31. The fact that she became an ancestor of David indicates that, when she was miraculously delivered from God’s judgment of Jericho, she converted to the faith of the one true God of Israel. By faith, she preserved her life and wisely chose to side with the people of God.

11:32–38 – (Flip Board)

Though the author could have gone on with an extended narrative of legacy-makers from the Old Testament, he finished the rest of his montage of faith giants with a collage of tiny thumbnail sketches. He mentions just a sampling of names that would have conjured a series of vivid images in the minds of his Jewish readers: the judges Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah; King David; and Samuel, along with the line of the prophets (11:32).

If we continued the author’s “Procession of Faith,” we could add New Testament heroes of faith to this list, like Mary & Joseph, Peter, Paul, James, and John. We could advance in church history to include Polycarp of Smyrna, Justin Martyr, and Athanasius of Alexandria. We could mention the early attempts at reform by medieval heroes like Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, and John Hus. And who could forget the contributions of stalwarts of faith like Luther and Zwingli, Edwards and Wesley? And more contemporaries, Jim Elliot, Corrie ten Boom, and Mother Theresa? If the author of Hebrews could have named all those who deserve recognition for their lives of faith, imagine the lineup of champions we would have today!

After presenting this parade of faithful people, the author presents a colorful tableau of events illustrating incredible feats of faith (11:33–38). However, this faith medley transitions in the middle of 11:35 from major chords to a minor key—from triumphs of the faithful to tragedies of the faithful. The first category is an awe-inspiring mountain range jutting triumphantly skyward … the second category is like a steep slide into dark valleys of seeming defeat. Let’s juxtapose these two very different outcomes for the faithful to see how starkly they contrast. (Bulletin Insert)

11:39–40

Just as the sun shines on the just and the unjust, and rain falls on the wicked and the righteous (Matt. 5:45), storms of tragedy sweep over the faithful and the faithless alike. In this fallen world, everyone experiences a mixture of both triumphs and tragedies. However, neither astonishing victories nor demoralizing defeats represent the end of the story. Remember, faith isn’t about what we see, feel, experience, or accomplish in this life. Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see (Heb. 11:1).

This is why the closing verses of this passage put everything in perspective. With 11:39–40, the author of Hebrews clears up the varied experiences of the triumphant and the tragic. His panoramic portrait of people and scenes of faith is finished. Above his completed work of art, he writes these summarizing words: 39 All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. 40 For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.

You see, we are part of God’s faith walk. We are here to build God’s kingdom until Christ returns a 2nd time to set up His kingdom, the new Global Eden.

Approval was granted—not because of their personal merit, pedigrees, or perfection, but because of their faith. Amid triumph and tragedy, they longed to see the unseen, to catch a glimpse of the future. And with the eyes of faith, they saw the Lord Jesus Christ—the One who is superior for...