Hebrews 11 is one of those passages that everyone is familiar with and finds inspiration in. The standout stories there sweep across the biblical narrative from Abel to David to Daniel. They provide us with examples of the people of God rising to meet adversity, overcome obstacles, and conquer challenges due to their trust in a transcendent God. This is our family tree (see 10:39) and as we read their accounts our hearts swell with a healthy pride in the courageous actions of our ancestors.
What we’re not as familiar with are the circumstances that prompted the writer to record these powerful words. That is found in 10:36-39—the verses immediately preceding chapter 11. The writer speaks in v. 36 of their “need to persevere.” The disciples had been through some difficult times because of their faith in Christ (see 10:32-34). We’re told in 12:4 of their continued resistance to sin (probably the sin of renouncing Christ and His priesthood/sacrifice – see 10:26-31), but there was always the temptation to “shrink back” (10:38). He reminds them that, “We do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and are saved.” With these words he gives them a powerful push in the right direction. In chapter 11 he continues this as he inspires them with selected stories of “those who have faith and are saved.”
What I’d like to do in this piece is take a step back from the text of chapter and rather than look at the specific men and women mentioned, I’d like us to think about what the writer is doing in more general terms. I think this could be helpful for us to think about and utilize when we find ourselves with the “need to persevere.”
1. He points them to the past. The past can be helpful or harmful depending on how we decide to use it. That’s why one of the marks of maturity is the ability to constructively make use your personal history. Some people are never able to do this and live as prisoners of their past. So, it’s not a small thing. And when add to that the fact that our past grows larger with each passing day, you can see why it is imperative that we learn how to handle it correctly.
Benefitting from our past is lot like panning for gold. You must sift through the dirt and debris to get to the gold. You also must learn the difference between gold and pyrite (also known as Fool’s Gold). There is treasure to be found, but you must be willing to make the search to find it.
Our first impulse in panning our past is to remember the good and forget the not-so-good, right? And if “good” is when you trusted in God through the ups and downs of some trial, there’s certainly some gold there and remembering that is definitely a constructive use of the past. At other times though, good can be Fool’s Gold. For example, if the “good” is simply a time when all the circumstances went your way. Say you interviewed for a job, it was just what you wanted, they offered it to you, and you accepted. There’s nothing wrong with that but you probably didn’t learn a lot from the experience either. And we all know the circumstances in life don’t always work out the way we would like them to.
That’s where your not-so-good experiences come into play. Even though they might have been painful (maybe due to mistakes on your part), they also contain the gold you are looking for if you are willing to mine for it. After all, there’s no shame in making mistakes (we all do that), but don’t waste the pain by failing to learn from it.
This is what the writer is doing in Hebrews 11. He’s pointing disciples to the past—but it’s a carefully sifted past and what he has to share is the gold he has found. Not surprisingly, this treasure nonetheless contains some painful pieces as he speaks of people undergoing torture, flogging, imprisonment, death by stoning, being sawn in two, and death by the sword. We don’t have to ignore pain to benefit from the past.
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 