Feeling More Like Jabez than Abraham

When was the last time you carefully read and contemplated the "Heroes" of Hebrews 11? It is an amazing list and succinct account of so many faithful ones that have gone before us. Followers of Yahweh who trusted and obeyed. It seems there was no easy road for any of them. In spite of hardship and delayed promises they maintained their faithful journey with the Lord. Now we know they were flawed and often times broken examples of what it is to be Godly, yet the writer to the Hebrews reminds us that they were, overall, steadfast. Even though some were cut in two, or died yet waiting, they continued their walk with God.

I have never been asked to sacrifice my son on an alter, or look to a land promised but never received. I have never gone through the Red Sea with Egyptians in pursuit. I have never been tortured refusing deliverance so I would receive a better resurrection. I have never faced the mocking of a trial or been slain with a sword. I have been pretty comfortable in life, never destitute or really afflicted. I honestly like looking at all this from a safe distance. I do look at life as a treasure given by God, so it is His and not mine. I do have a faithful yet imperfect walk with my Savior and cannot imagine myself denying Him is some official court proceeding. I am blessed and encouraged by His Word and promises. I ponder what it will be like to wander the golden streets of a New Jerusalem. However, I must admit I have times of quiet discontent. It is a bit unreasonable when I see the way God answers and provides.

Perhaps you have moments like Abraham and I do. You know, Abraham that remarkable man of faith and faithfulness. Leaving the security of home to live as a Bedouin much of his life and passed on that Bedouin lifestyle to a few generations yet to come. The Abraham who looked at the practical reality of life and responded to God with, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir" (Genesis 15:3). God's promises seemed a bit out of reach. After all Abraham is in his later years and has a wife past child bearing years. God's answer is to promise Abraham that, after four generations, or 400 years, his descendants will inherit the land promised to Abraham. No children makes it hard to to be the "father of multitudes" and 400 years before the promise comes true is a long time to wait. Abraham will have become a part of the dust of the promised land before any of his, yet to be produced, off spring will lay claim to it. Waiting for God to do what is promised is not always easy. I do not like to wait.

I know that the Lord wants to build His church. He wants to see disciples made and His Word proclaimed. That seems pretty clear in the Scriptures. He has called me and given me a gift to teach. That also seems pretty clear both from my experience and the confirmation of others for some forty plus years. So, I study, pray, prepare and teach week by week. And wait for that increase that seems like it should come. I do not want to wait for the harvest to come four generations from now. I want to see many lives changed, souls delivered, families rescued and God's community of believers multiply soon. Today would be good. I admire the list in Hebrews eleven, I just do not want to be on that list. I want to see God move now. I empathize with Jabez and his cry for blessing and increased borders. I might feel blessed to know that generations from now God will move, however, my real desire is more of a right now today move on His part.

I trust in the God who delivered me and gave me life. I am blessed with a wife and children that love me and Him. I have seen God's hand move in the lives of many and have witnessed His healing power in the broken lives that often surround me. But, like Abraham, I wonder about the wait. I wonder about the timing of God's blessing. I am not excited to think of myself as the faithful servant of Hebrews eleven that never saw the fruition of his labor. I have, however, walked long enough to know this is not my call. It is His. And I am His and that is all that really matters. Still, today I feel more like Jabez of 1 Chronicles 4 than the Abraham of Hebrews eleven. Bigger borders of ministry now rather than in 400 years just sounds better to me.   

Are You Saved by Faith or Faithfulness?

I thought we would have a little more fun with words today. This one is foundational to our very existence as followers of God. The Greek word is  πίστις pronounced pistis. . Biblical scholars such as Strong, Mounce, and Wuest, to name a few, understand the word to mean: faith, assurance, believe, belief, trust, faithful, fidelity or faithfulness. It is most often translated with the English word "faith". The question for today is, "Why?" out of at least eight options that could all be accurate why is the word "faith" the most common choice? Is it because of the context of the text or the culture of the translator?

  

Webster defines faith with these possibilities.1,fidelity, allegiance to duty or a person. 2 : belief and trust in and loyalty to God or belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion 3: firm belief in something for which there is no proof. One of Strong's definitions includes, "reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly, believing in such profession". Got questions.org, an evangelical Christian web site gives this addition, "Simply put, the biblical definition of faith is “trusting in something you cannot explicitly prove.” One also described faith as a nebulous trust based on a belief that something is true. The truth is, that for many of us, faith is a personal thing that is pretty hard to explain. Perhaps the reason is that we are of a western culture that flows from Greek thought. For the Greeks Life is founded in what you think. Thus faith is a sort of thing we think about and come to a cognitive rationale for what we believe and trust in. That being the case, our little word, pistis, and its derivatives are most frequently translated, "faith". A sort vague trust in the unknowable. Belief in something that is really just beyond our understanding. We may sense His presence and learn about Him but God is still a bit out of our total understanding. So we must have faith.

Even though there is an element of truth here, there is a more satisfying answer if we place things in a more Hebraic context. In Hebrew life is more about what you do rather than what you think. God has revealed Himself in His Word and given instruction and direction as to how best to live. Those who accept this, who believe, respond to the revelation God has given. It becomes less about "faith" and more about "faithfulness", which is one of the acceptable ways to translate pistis. What impact does this have? Let us consider a few passages to see what I mean. 

Luke 18:8, “I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" This translation asks the question will the Son of Man find those who believe, have made a mental decision that what was told them is true. Will there be any who believe, who think this way when the Lord return. Now the other translation of pistis. "I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faithfulness or faithful ones on the earth?" The noun pistis is now a person instead of a thing. It is personal and we are required to behave in a way that is in obedience to the Lord. It is no longer a concern about what we think but what we do that matters.

Hebrews 11:1 has long been the evangelicals go to verse to define faith, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The substance of faith is a hope we have and faith is also evidence of something unseen. It makes this thing called faith pretty intangible and entirely personal. Faith is what I want it to be and what I think it should be. However, if piatis is translated faithfulness, now what I do is the substance of what I hope for, and what I do is the evidence of the unseen that I hold to be true. Those around me know what I believe and why I have this hope based on what I do, not just what I tell them I think is true. The writer of Hebrews then gives examples of faithfulness. Noah showed what he believed as he faithfully built the ark. Abraham put his believe on display by leaving his home, Sarah believed God, the Faithful One, and was given strength to deliver the promised child. Abraham gives evidence of His belief as he faithfully takes Isaac to the mount. Moses's parents believed, the evidence is how they faithfully hid Moses.

We know that Messiah, Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15).  That being true perhaps the writer to the Hebrews is saying, "But without faithfulness it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him," Hebrews 11:6 (emphasis mine).  A diligent seeker is doing something, not just thinking something. The Lord is a rewarder of those who walk in obedience. The other examples in Hebrews 11 are great examples of those who were faithful. We know they believed and trusted God by what they did, not just by what they thought. The substance of what they hoped for and the evidence that they believed is clear by their faithfulness to the one who called them.

There are other thing to consider, but we will save those for next week. Today's question is, "How about you and me?" Does the faithfulness of our lives give evidence of what we say we believe? If not, does what we say we think about God and His promises really matter?

   



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Jesus the Irritator or God's Unkept Promises

Do you have people that irritate you? Some co-worker or neighbor or even a family member that knows how to push your buttons. They just know what to say to bug you, raise your blood pressure just a little and tempt you to say something better left unsaid. Have you ever thought about how irritating Yeshua (Jesus) was? He knew what people thought and knew just what to say to get a rise out of them. And He wasn't particular. He irritated pretty much everyone at one point or another. Sometimes our lack of understanding keeps us from seeing just how provocative He was during His ministry here on earth. But before we get there we need to address the foundation that leads to this particular confrontation, this particularly irritating exchange with the Sadducees.It deals with God's unkept promises. 

I have heard it said and have reminded people many times that Yahweh and Yeshua are completely reliable. God never fails, He always keeps His promises. It is a comfort and something to hang on to when things seem a bit on the dark side. When life seems unfair or spinning out of control it is always good to know that God will always keep His promises to you. He is not fickle; He does not change, and many of His promises are unconditional. They are based on His sovereign integrity. We can depend on Him and rest in that truth. So what do we do when His Word says He didn't keep His promises? Unconditional promises, bound by a covenant of His design that are then not kept. How do we deal with such apparent horrific news?  Let me explain what I am talking about. The problem is recorded for us in Hebrews Chapter 11. It is a wonderful passage about the remarkable faithfulness of God's servants. Verse 13 says, "All these died in faith (or faithfulness) not having received the promises." Now I know it says they saw them afar off, but seeing from a distance and receiving are two different things.  This passage says they did not receive them.

In Genesis 12 the Lord calls out to Abram and tells him to get out of his country and to go to land God would show him. God promises to make him a great nation with a great name. A great promise. The Promise is of a land that is to be his, the Land of Canaan. This promise is reiterated numerous times. Here are a couple of examples. Genesis 50:24, "... But God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Issac and to Jacob." God says that they will go to their ancestors as well but the promise said, they, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would get the land. Exodus 6:3-4, "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name, Yahweh, I was not known to them. I have established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers." God gave His covenant to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who never received the promise. It does not say to "you" or their decedents, it says it is to be given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. A covenant from God that was not kept. So how do we deal with this and be honest to the text?

Fast forward to Matthew 22 where the Pharisees and Sadducees are taking shots at Messiah. Jesus has been irritating them with the things He has been teaching. The Sadducees denied the supernatural. They didn't believe in angels, most miracles, or the resurrection. Their chief theological opponents were the Pharisees, who believed all these were true. The Sadducees set up an absurd scenario about seven brothers who each die, passing the wife on to the next brother; then she dies. They ask Yeshua whose wife she will be in the resurrection. Messiah responds, "Concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and he God of Jacob' ? God is not the God of the dead but of the living" (Mt. 22:31-32). If you are a Sadducee your are saying, "Ouch" because Yeshua just shot you with an argument from the Pharisees, your arch enemies in the theological world. 

Most of us miss the irritating barb because we don't spend a lot of time reading the Talmud, an ancient Jewish commentary. Here you find Rabbi Simai, a Pharisee, arguing for the resurrection based on the land promises. God has a covenant promise with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for them to receive the land of Canaan. They did not receive the promise, just as we read in Hebrews 11, therefore they must raise from the dead to yet receive the promise at some future date. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must receive the land for God to be true, so they must rise from the dead. There must be a resurrection from the dead. Like Rabbi Simai, we too believe that Yahweh and His Son always keep Their promises. Jesus uses the Pharisee's argument to poke the Sadducees concerning the resurrection. How irritating can you get.

Perhaps, just perhaps, Rabbi Simai has something here. We know that all believers will be resurrected, and that includes Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It appears that God's resurrected followers will be with Him for one thousand years here on earth. So perhaps the promises will yet be fulfilled. Perhaps the covenant to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, will be realized in the days ahead. Seems reasonable, if we believe that God really does keep His promises. It gives us a little more confidence in the God of the covenant promises. Even if we don't see them being fulfilled at this moment. If this is so for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then the promises to us will be received, the covenants we partake in will be honored. God is trustworthy, even if He is pretty irritating at times. 

Do the Righteous Ones Live by Faith?

As one approaches the study of the Scriptures we have pointed out that there are some differences between the Greek/Western/American world view and that of a more Eastern/Jewish/Hebraic world view. The reality is that most of us read Bibles that were carefully translated by scholars that come from a Western or Greek point of view. Thus their translations would naturally follow that mind set. A key difference is in the foundation for who we are. Greek thought centers on what you think and how you feel. Hebraic thought centers more on what you do and how you live. The mindset of the translator and that of the reader will influence how a word or passage is translated or understood. It is not that one is necessarily incorrect but the perspective can be quite different. 

The writer to the Hebrews is assumed by most to be Jewish, a writer from a Hebraic point of view writing to a predominately Jewish audience. The abundant references and passages from the Tanakh , or Old Testament indicate a great familiarity with those Scriptures. It would seem most reasonable for him to be writing from a Jewish mind set. That being said, let us consider chapter 10 verse 38. "The Just shall live by faith" (KJV) or "My righteous one shall live by faith" (NASB and NIV). This is a quote borrowed from Habakkuk 2:4, "The just shall live by his faith" (KJV or "The righteous one shall live by his faith" (NASB and NIV). The translation leads us to believe that the just/righteous one lives by or according to what he believes or thinks to be true. And this is true but it may not be as clear as we would like. The word faith is a bit ambiguous, rather hard to grasp. From Bible school days I was told that God defined faith for me right there in Hebrews. Hebrews 11:1 " Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith is something hoped for and something unseen. That really doesn't help much, other than to let me know that I was right in that faith is hard to explain or is it just more of a feeling. 

Let us return to Habakkuk 2:4. The Hebrew word here is emuna. It is translated faithfulness 18 times, truth 13 times, faithfully 5 times and faithful 3 times. It is only translated faith one time, here in Habakkuk 2:4. What if we use the most common translation and see that the just/righteous man lives by his faithfulness. A righteous man will live faithfully. He will live out what is true. We know he is just and righteous by what he faithfully does and how he faithfully lives. A just and righteous life is lived faithfully in agreement with God's Word and God's commandments. With this now in mind, bounce back to Hebrews 10:38 where the Jewish writer is writing to a Jewish audience from a Jewish mindset, and guess what he might have meant when he quoted Habakkuk. The Righteous one shall live by his faithfulness or he shall live faithfully.  Just to let you know, the Greek word here, pistis, translated faith is also translated faithfulness in Romans 3:3 and Galatians 5:22 and many other places, so faithfulness is an acceptable translation of the word. 

If this is reasonable then just carry the thought a couple of verses down and we find that "faithfulness is the substance of things hoped for and faithfulness is the evidence of things not seen." When I speak to others of my faith in Messiah as savior, my faithfulness to how He calls me to live is the substance of what I hope for and my faithful living is evidence to those around me that what I say I believe is true. Faith is not intangible or hard to explain, it is the reality, the substance, of how I live. And those around me can see, understand, and grasp what my faith, my belief is for it permeates my life and is expressed in real tangible ways.

Need some examples of what I mean? By his faithfulness Able offered a better sacrifice, the first, the best of his flocks as a blood sacrifice. Through his faithfulness Enoch was taken away so he did not see death. Noah faithfully prepared  an ark for the saving of his household. Abraham faithfully obeyed when he was called to go to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. All the wonderful examples in Hebrews 11 are of those who lived faithfully. They are not about what they thought and felt but about what they did and how they lived. Faithfully.

So are you and I called to live by faith or to live by faithfulness. Are we called to live faithfully in obedience to what the Lord has told us to do, or is it more about what we think and feel? The Lord did say that if we love Him we will keep His commandments. We will do what He tells us to do. We are to live faithfully. Could it be that the writer to the Hebrews is telling them and us, "But without faithfulness it is impossible to please him" (Heb 11:6). Do you think you have faith or do you live faithfully? There is a difference.