Heb 11

Context: Heb 10 warns of returning to the law of Moses and its animal sacrifices, and that we must instead put our faith in the work of Jesus. A quote from Hab 2:3-4 shows that God will certainly deliver in due time those who now endure trials, but that this promise is for those who live by faith. As evidence, Heb 11 shows how the lives of believers were shaped by the power of such faith in God’s work even before the law of Moses was published, and also thereafter. For the power to overcome evil with good comes not from pursuing a righteousness of the law, but from faith in God that He alone can save. However, this promise to believers in the Old Testament was only fulfilled with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (vv13+39, cf Acts 13:32-33). For only now he dwells in all who believe their testimony, making them witnesses of God’s redemptive work in them.

• cf Heb 10:37-39 begs the question: What exactly is faith?
  • v1: How did he define what faith actually is?
  • Of what hope were already these saints in the OT assured of, Heb 10:16?
• v2: What did he mean by the ‘commendation’ which these people received? (lit. testimony; the word ‘martureo’ used here is also the root of the word martyr)
• v3: Why did the writer attribute to faith even his understanding of God as creator?
  • Was this faith in a ‘God of the gaps’ (i.e. that one must believe in a creator as long as their is no proof to the contrary)?
  • Is faith always necessary to interpret the meaning of available evidence? Why or why not?

• In the stories of Abel, Enoch and Noah, does anything strike you as odd or offensive to ‘common sense’ religion?
• Does the writer describe them like other heroes of antique mythology to inspire fear of some deity?
  • Is he interested in such ‘deism’ at all, or only in proving which notions about God are true, and which ones are false?
• What does he prove from the examples of these three Bible characters?
  • Hint: What did these men do and what did they not do to please God?

• Did any of the previously mentioned saints act in response to a specifically mentioned promise?
• What was so special about God’s promise to Abraham and how he and his wife responded to it?
  • Read Gen 12:7; 21:12 and Gal 3:16. Why did Paul emphasize that the promise is about only one offspring (singular, not plural)?
  • If this promise to Abraham were only a tribal myth, how would you explain that it neither glorifies Abraham nor his tribe, but only one offspring in a distant future, Gal 3:16?
  • What does the writer take as proof of Abraham’s faith in a God who fulfills his promise of salvation by raising the dead, v19?

• v22: Why did Joseph care about where his bones would be laid to rest?
• v13, “These all died in faith…”: What exactly did they all believe in although they did not yet receive it? cf 1 Pet 1:2-3; Acts 4:2
• v16: What city were they waiting for? In what ways is Jerusalem (Zion) a symbol for a place in a new creation that the Bible calls the heavenly Jerusalem (Gal 4:26; Rev 21:2)?

• What do you think about Freudian and other theories that men invented God for their own convenience to cope with the difficulties of this short life?
  • How convenient was the faith of Moses for himself?
  • cf vv35-38: Why would no one invent such a religion for their own advantage (as claimed by evolutionary theories about the origins of faith in God)?

• Why then did the writer conclude that none of these ‘received the promise’, v39 (i.e. its fulfilment)?
  • Read again Heb 10:16. What exactly was the promise that was made to them, but fulfilled only now?
  • What did they only foresee from afar (v13) that was still needed for this promised new covenant to become established, cf Acts 13:32-33?
  • What did the resurrection of Jesus add to the promised forgiveness of sins, cf Acts 13:37-39? [lit. ‘justification’ – to be made right]

• Do you (should we?) care what distinguished the faith of Old Testament believers from ours? What difference, if any, does it make to you?
• In your tradition and experience of the faith, how central is the resurrection of Jesus? E.g., do we attribute too much to the death of Jesus and/or too little to his resurrection?
• What do you find harder to explain when you witness about Jesus: His death for the forgiveness of sins, or that his resurrection invested him with the authority to set people free from the grip of sin (Acts 13:39)? Why?