October 8, 2006
Hebrews 2, verse 9: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” I think Mr. Darby goes further and says, “For every thing.” I was thinking of our first hymn, “On Calvary we’ve adoring stood, and gazed on that wondrous cross.” And now we can say, “We see Jesus.” You know, it is precious when you stop and think of what we have been enjoying in Hebrews 11: we have been looking at the worthies of faith and how “by faith” they were able to have or do things for God’s glory. Here is another great aspect of faith: it gives us to see what we can’t see, to behold what is not visible. It is given to us so plainly in the Word of God that we can believe what God said because God said it and have it just as real and wondrous. We began with seeing our precious Saviour hanging on the cross as the sacrifice in our place. Perhaps we can close by saying, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour.” Have we seen Him? Well, by faith, yes. We can see what was done at Calvary, see Who He is, see where He is. We can see that Blessed One who is the eternal Son of God, Jesus our Lord and Saviour, yea, our All in All. And so if we stood at Calvary and saw the Lord we adore, we can lift our eyes and see Him now at the right hand of the majesty on high and say, “Oh, Lord, we adore Thee.” He is our adorable Lord. Soon we shall see Him by sight, and then we shall truly says, “Oh, Lord, we adore Thee.”
EG Hymn 330 – A message came from heaven, Prayer • Last time we were talking about Noah’s ark, and how there was a door. There was also a window—where was that window? Let’s read carefully to find out, because sometimes we can make mistakes if we don’t look at what the Bible says carefully. Speaking of reading carefully, does the Bible tell us where God was when Noah was in the ark? In Genesis 7:1, God tells Noah to come into the ark; in ch 8:15 & 16, God tells Noah to go out of the ark. So God was in the ark. So we can see that little things can tell us a lot; so now, where was the window. Read Genesis 8:5–12. Noah opened the window—and looked out? No, he had a different way to find out if the earth was dry. He sent out a raven; but it flew back and forth and never came back; it like the dead meat available. Then He sent a dove, but she couldn’t find anywhere to land, so she returned. After seven days, Noah sent her out again, but she came back again—this time with an olive leaf in her mouth; so Noah knew the waters were abating. In another week, He sent her out again and she did not return. So Noah never looked out the window—it must be in the roof of the ark. Next time we will look at why God wanted it there.
Hebrews 11:32–40 • We mentioned before about how this chapter divides into three parts: the Witness (From Abraham to the children of Israel), the Walk (from Moses to Rahab) and finally the Warfare (the rest of the chapter). We can see how when the children of Israel were still in Egypt, they were a witness. After they got out, they had to walk through the desert. When they at last were in the land, there was warfare—they had to conquer it. Canaan is a picture of our enjoyment of Heaven before we get there; we will always have an enemy trying to steal that joy, so we must fight to keep it. This part of our chapter brings us into the book of Judges. Verse 32 has seven examples of faith for us (6 names and “the prophets”). We have been looking at specific individuals in specific circumstances, but now we are into a summary; it is as if God was saying, “There are so many examples of faith in the Old Testament, there isn’t time to write them all.” One of the first things we notice about this list in v. 32 is that the names are not in chronological order. One way to look at it is that Gideon had more faith than Barak, Samson than Jephthah, and David than Samuel. The first four of these men were judges; that time in the history of Israel was very dark: “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). When there is such a disregard for God, how can there be faith? It is so much like the world today. Gideon had a remarkable calling: he was called while hiding and threshing wheat. Although he saw his weakness, he accepted the position God gave Him in faith. God whittled his small army down to only 300 men, but Gideon still trusted God. His method of fighting must have seemed a bit strange, like at Jericho, yet his faith held out. Barak’s name seems to be out of place: he had to call on Deborah to help him. And where do we see the faith in Samson’s life? Well, he wanted God’s people free and used his strength to that end. Yet sometimes he was doing the right thing in the wrong way—and he was so easily distracted. Then there is Jephthah. He was a bit rash, but still fought for God’s people and God honoured that. With David, we have so many beautiful examples of faith; even when he sins, and repents. The verse ends with Samuel and the prophets. We can see in some of these examples that in times of little faith, God notices even a small step in the right direction. So God can use faith even if it is not so great—it is not how much faith we have, but Who it is in. EG Hymn 369 – I claim for my own a king of the throne, Prayer