Personal Study of Hebrews 11 - Part 2

Hello again, welcome to 2018.

Continuing on from my last post, I will proceed to breakdown verses seven through twelve of Hebrews 11. Each verse will be stated from the ESV, followed by connecting scripture references, word studies or other personal thoughts. Once again, I hope you find this resource useful, insightful and perhaps even encouraging. Because faith, as I’ve heard it said, is the currency of heaven.

Faith: 

complete trust 

or confidence 

in someone 

or something.

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Hebrews 11: Part 2 – Verses 7-12

⁷ By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Who is Noah? 

Maybe this joke will help... 

“Need an ark? ~ I No-ah guy.” 

Terrible joke, I’m sorry. 

We meet Noah in Genesis chapters 6 through 9. Now in the time of Noah the world was evil, and God was sorry He created man because of their wicked hearts. God literally wanted to wipe man off the earth... “but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (see Genesis 6:5-8).

 Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation and he walked with God (Genesis 6:9). Noah exerted faith, and even though he could not see the rain to come, in reverent fear, Noah obeyed God’s instructions and constructed an ark, and in turn, Noah saved his whole household, a set of every animal God had created, and even food (Genesis 6:19-22) from the great flood waters God sent.

Reverent fear is not being scared or afraid in a negative way towards God, but having great respect for and awe of Him. When we have reverent fear of God, we will do all that we can to honour Him and respect Him as we should – showing this in how we live our lives; in how we act, think and speak. A quote from Joyce Meyer’s book “Living Courageously”: “Being a victorious child of God, who is successful in life, is quite easy once we have this loving, reverential fear and decide to promptly obey God.”

Noah obeyed God in reverent fear. And in doing so, Noah “became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”

More on the righteousness that comes by faith:

Romans 1:17 – “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “the righteous shall live by faith.”

Philippians 3:9 * - “and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that come from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith...”

We are welcomed to become co-heirs with Christ through our faith in Him.

Romans 8:16-17 – “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if we are children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

⁸ By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Who is Abraham? Originally called “Abram” his story can be read on and off from Genesis 12 through Genesis 25.

In Genesis 12, God called Abraham out from where he was living - where he was comfortable, where he felt secure - to go to a place in which he did not yet know. And Abraham went (see Genesis 12:4).

More often than not, God will ask us to do something we don’t know all the details for. And, in faith, we must obey and trust that God will lead us and bring us to where he wants us to be. There is, of course, a whole set of events that will happen in between us leaving our starting point and arriving at our destination; this is where we will have to trust God to provided us with the wisdom to overcome and He will see us through (an example is Abram and his wife Sarai in Egypt found in Genesis 12:10-20).

 ⁹ By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 

We see in Genesis 13:12a that Abraham settled in Canaan, a foreign land that had been given to him by God.

The covenant between God and Abraham is found in Genesis 17, and it is multi-generational, as Abraham’s offspring is mentioned. This includes Abraham’s son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob, and all of their offspring, because God is inclusive.

God’s covenant with Abram stated in Genesis 17:4-8 – “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you through their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your offspring after you. And I will give to you and your offspring after you the land of the sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 

This city could be even a reference to heaven, which I think it is, but in literal terms, Abraham was looking towards the promise land. God said to Abram, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess” (Genesis 15:7).

¹¹ By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 

Sarah received power to conceive because she considered God faithful to keep his promise:

Genesis 18:10 – “The Lord said, ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

Genesis 21:1-7 – “The Lord visited Sarah as he has said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.””

¹² Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

God is faithful, and although Abraham was old and dying, God allowed him to have Isaac and ultimately have descendents as numerous as the stars of heaven. God said to Abraham more than once the following promise: In Genesis 15:5, “Look toward heaven, and the number of stars, if you are able to number them... so shall your offspring be.” And again in Genesis 22:17a, “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.”

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This concludes my personal study of Hebrews 11:7-12. More to come!