FAITH, AND ITS POWER OF ACHIEVEMENT.
Hebrews 11: 32-35 And what shall I more say? For the time will fall me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah; of David and Samuel and the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword from weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens: Women received their dead by a resurrection.
Continuing with the SECOND HALF-PRACTICAL.
Hebrews Chapters 10: 19 - 13: 25.
Of a Life in the Power of the Great Salvation
In the TENTH SECTION
Hebrews 11: 1-40.
The Fulness of Faith.
BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY
With the entrance into Canaan and the fall of Jericho the first period of the Hebrews history closes. It would take too much time for the writer to proceed as he had done; he now mentions a few of the most prominent names from among the Judges, the Kings, and the Prophets, and then passes on to a general view of the very wonderful proofs that trusting in God's faithfulness had given of what it could do or suffer. His desire is to take the veil from the heart of the Hebrews, and show them, what so many who know Scripture history will never see, that under and behind and within all the outward events recorded, there lives, as the vital Principle, in the Faithfulness of God. The history is, on the one hand, the record of what God has done through and for those who have trusted Him; on the other, the proof that in God's leading of His people, the one token of His presence and working was always the Spirit of Faith which He gave. Faith in exercise is the breaking out of the Divine Life within, the very substance of things hoped for, the proof of the presence of things not seen.
In mentioning the great achievements of the trusting ones, our writer gives three separate trios. In the first we find mentioned what the heroes who trusted in His Faithfulness of faith had accomplished. In combat with their enemies, they subdued kingdoms; in ruling the people and opposing evil, they wrought righteousness; in dealing with God, they obtained promises. In the second, personal deliverance from wild beasts, from the powers of nature, from the violence of men, is in the foreground. They Stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword. In the third, we have the experience of the power of trusting in His faithfulness for personal strengthening: From weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens. And then there is added one thing more: Women received their dead by a resurrection. By trusting women conquered the power of death. There is no power on earth that can stand before the power of God's Faithfulness, because the power of His faith is the power of God working in us.
The memory of the heroes and heroins of olden times may be most instructive, if we regard them in their true light. One thing that impresses us is, how little God has promised a faith that it will be freed from difficulty and danger. It would be as easy for God to prevent the enemy coming as to give the victory over him. To do this would be infinite loss; God's faithfulness and our trusting in Him would never be called into exercise; man would never learn to know either his God or himself as His child. Every trial accomplishes a double purpose. It gives us the opportunity of honoring God by the trust with which we wait on Him. And it gives God the opportunity of showing how faithful He is in watching over His child, and how truly He is working for him and in him. It is in trial that all the heart of the child is drawn out towards the Father, in dependency and humility and of trust. It is in trial that God can reveal in the opened and receptive heart of His child all the tenderness and all the saving power of His Love. Without trial there could be no school of trusting faith, no growth of spiritual character, no strength of will given up to God and clinging to Him. Let us bless God for every trial, small or great: it gives us a grand opportunity for putting the crown upon the head of God, and of being made fit that He crowns us too, as one having run the race and NOT stalled, quite or turned back.
Another thought of no less importance, that comes as we think of the achievements of trust in the history of the Hebrews, is how closely they were all identified with the public welfare, with lives devoted to the cause of God and the people. Selfishness is the death of trust and faith. How can you believe who take honor one of another? As long as we seek to be strong in our trusting, for the sake of our own comfort and goodness, and the possession of power, even if we dream of using it all for others, when once we obtain it, we shall fail. It is the soul that at once, in its weakness, gives itself up for the sake of God and others, that will find in that Self-sacrifice is the need and the right to claim God's mighty help through His Faithfulness. Gideon and Barak, David and Samuel, they were all men whose names and whose trust would never have been known, but that they lived for their nation and God's cause in it, that they were God's chosen instruments for doing His redeeming work in His people.(Here we have to mention that His people are made up of two classes, the Hebrews and the Gentiles, as both now have equal standing on a level playing field and the same right to come through the same gate or door into His presence, the death of all self-will and to all the foods of deceptive riches of the spirit of the world. Through the gate of the cross, flesh and Blood of Christ found as being in Christ Jesus: in Him hanging on the tree, in His death, in His burial and resurrection and our total acceptance of the fact and Truth which had been hidden from plain sight to all but those who by choice have chosen the Way of God's Divine Plain gained acceptance by Him. emphasis added)
The sphere of God's special revelation is now no longer just for the Hebrews, but the world. What a work there is to be done in it! Among the Hebrews and their stronghold of Judaism a stumbling-block for them and those seeking to be counted as one with them, Christians and heathen, in church, mission and school, in temperance and purity of work, in the great fight against iniquity, lawlessness and worldliness in every shape, in larger and smaller circles what room, what need for the heroes of trusting faith to subdue kingdoms, to work righteousness, to obtain the promises! Let each of us offer himself to God for the struggle. And as we trust we can surely conquer. In this connection let us cease to seek a trusting in our own interests: let us lose ourselves to the receptivity of God's working in our souls. We shall lose ourselves to find ourselves back in God and His Grace, Love, Truth and Faithfulness.
1. Wherefore, having- boldness to enter into the Holiest, let us draw near in fulness of His faith. Live the life of faith in the Holiest with God: then your whole life on earth will be one of trusting His Faithfulness.
2. Give yourself wholly to God and His faith within will give the confidence to ask that God give Himself wholly to you.
3. In the little things of daily life we need trust as much as in larger interests. Trusting counts nothing insignificant, because nothing is good in which God is not. Trust yields itself to God for Him most literally and completely to be All in ALL. This allows God the freedom to do all that He desires within us again to the infusing of His nature in our souls.
4. Remember the real value of strong trust is to gain victories through God, to live for the salvation of souls and the extension of His kingdom.
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