In the book of Hebrews the author has been trying to give his/her readers what they need to survive the brutal realities of this world. In chapter 11 he/she offers something, that if you have it you can handle absolutely anything that life hands to you.
What is it?
On the surface the answer is faith, but I implore you to dig deeper! When you read through this section you see a list of great people of faith. I think an interpretive key to this section is the fact that the list of people here has a major division - there is a first list and a second list - verse 32-35 and then 35-38.
Hebrews 11:32-35
All these people are characterized by their weakness turned to strength. They started on the margins, but came to power. They were facing overwhelming odds, but in the end they triumphed. In every case these people looked like they were dead but in the end they came out alive. For example, “By faith [Daniel] shut the mouth of lions,” “[Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego] clenched the fury of the flames.” Overwhelming odds, certain death, but there were always miraculous escapes from death and suffering. They called to God and God saved! “Women received back there dead” - in the Old Testament, there were two women whose sons died and through the power of God, through the prophets Elijah and Elisha, they were raised to life.
We love these stories of faith in our culture today. They really resonate. Those stories such as: ‘The doctor said I was going to live only for one month but I didn’t give up hope and I prayed and I fought and now I am all better and I have recovered and the doctor says it was a miracle!’ or ‘My business was about to go under and I was facing economic disaster, but I prayed and I had faith and I worked really hard and God turned it around and now I am successful.’ These are great stories and we are so glad they exist, but if you understand faith to be this simply, that: ‘If I try hard and if I believe enough I can overcome anything or at least I will always escape or things will work out!’ If your understanding of faith ends here or in other words conceptually ends in verse 35, then you are essentially doomed with life as is, with all of its brutalities...
I have heard of heartbreaking stories such as one of an eighteen year-old girl who broke her neck becoming paralyzed. Her friends told her that if she really had faith God would heal her. And they told her that if she was not healed then it was because SHE did not have enough faith... Their understanding of faith ended conceptually at the end of verse 35 - that 'if you have enough faith you will always escape death and suffering.'
But guess what - the Bible does not end its conception of faith in verse 35....
Posts
1 comment:
Le-havdil,
The first century historical pro-Torah Pharisee Ribi Yehoshua ha-Mashiakh (the Messiah) is the person that Yeshayahu 53 is about. Read a translation according to etymology and comments (“What all of the earliest extant Judaic mss. Say; No Nonsense, No-Agenda, No-Holds-Barred, Deal-with-it, Historical Translation) of every pasuq (“verse”) of Yeshayahu 53 in the above website (History Museum (left panel); Mashiakh (top panel); “Mâshiakh of Tana"kh Subverts Tana"kh to be the Mâshiakh?” )
A logical analysis (found in www.netzarim.co.il (Netzarim.co.il is the website of the only legitimate Netzarim-group)) (including the logical implications of the research by Ben-Gurion Univ. Prof. of Linguistics Elisha Qimron of Dead Sea Scroll 4Q MMT) of all extant source documents of “the gospel of Matthew” and archeology proves that the historical Ribi Yehosuha ha-Mashiakh (the Messiah) from Nazareth and his talmidim (apprentice-students), called the Netzarim, taught and lived Torah all of their lives; and that Netzarim and Christianity were always antithetical.
This implies that the historical Ribi Yehoshua ha-Mashiakh of Nazareth is not the same as the Christian J….
Anders Branderud
Post a Comment