I finished a study of Genesis 12-50 today. You know these
stories; I knew them before doing this study as well. As a matter of fact,
during my years of teaching fifth grade at Grace Academy, I taught through
Genesis during the first quarter of every school year (of course there were a
few stories I left out). In these thirty-nine chapters are the stories of
Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Tamar, Dinah, and Joseph
along with his eleven brothers.
At the end of the final session that I listened to today, the
teacher (Jen Wilkin) had us turn to Hebrews 11, the great hall of faith. A
large part of this chapter is devoted to this Genesis clan, from Abraham to
Joseph (verses 8-22). After studying their lives over ten weeks, reading this
commentary in Hebrews brought tears. Men and women (Sarah is mentioned too) who
lived over 1500 years prior to this writing are spoken of as examples of faith
whose trust was in their God, who did not see the promises fulfilled in their
lifetimes (verse 13), and of whom the world was not worthy (38). Then this
chapter ends with the following verses: “And all these, though commended
through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided
something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect”
(39-40).
We see God’s redemptive plan as we look back over Scripture
from this side of the cross. They did not:
-- Though
Abraham received the promise of a nation through whom all other nations would
be blessed, he did not know that God’s own Son would come from his bloodline to
save the world.
-- The day
that Abraham took the knife to slay his son and a voice stopped him and God
provided a ram, he didn’t know that what he had been rescued from, God Himself
would one day do, sending His Son to die on a mountain top.
-- When
Jacob had to flee his home and dreamed one night about a ladder going from
earth to heaven, he understood that God was in that place, but he did not
understand that God would send a descendent who Himself would be that ladder,
the bridge between God and man (John 1:51).
-- After
hoping for years to gain her husband’s love and that desire being reflected in
the names of her first three boys, Leah didn’t know that when she named her
fourth son Judah, saying “This time I will praise the Lord” (Gen. 29:35), that
God had chosen her, the unloved wife, and this son to be in the line of Christ.
-- When
Judah was a grown man and offered himself as servant to a ruler in Egypt in
place of his brother Benjamin who it seemed had stolen a valuable cup, he
didn’t know that he was foreshadowing a descendent who would offer his life for
the guilty.
-- When
Joseph stated in Genesis 50 that what man intended for evil, God intended for
good to save many people through his providing bread for them in the years of
famine, he had no way of knowing that his life was showing in many small ways
the life of a much greater One who would be put to death on a cross, and that
God would intend that evil act for good to provide the world with living bread
that would save the souls of men.
The stories of these men and women
are remarkable in themselves, but until they are looked at from this side of
the cross, they cannot be fully understood. These people did not see the
redemptive purposes that God was working; they simply believed His promises,
and it is that faith that was counted for them as righteousness. We now have
the privilege of looking back and seeing their lives in light of the big
picture. This is the ‘better’ that God has for us that is mentioned in Hebrews
11:39. We have seen God’s redemptive plan unfold and the promise of the Messiah
come true. We will be made perfect along with these saints of old when Christ
returns and sets all things right.
So what does this mean for us now?
Perhaps that’s the question that the author of Hebrews sought to answer as he
wrote the very next sentence. (There were no chapter divisions when this letter
was first written.) “Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of
witnesses [the ones he just listed out in chapter 11], let us lay aside every
weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race
that is marked out for us, looking to Jesus…” (Hebrews 12:1-2). Whether or not
these saints of old are witnesses in the sense that they see what we are doing
now on this earth, they are certainly witnesses to the fact that God keeps His
promises, that He is worth following, and that even when we don’t understand
what He’s doing, we trust that He knows what He is about and will work all
things for good.
So, Sister in Christ, as we stand here in our spot in the
redemptive story line of God’s work in the world, let us trust that the God who spoke to and
led these men and women of old is the same God Who seeks a relationship with us
and Who wants us to live the lives marked out for us with endurance and with
our eyes fixed on Christ. May this understanding of how God worked in the lives
of those who have gone before us even when they didn’t understand it or see the
big picture spur us on to trust Him with our lives as well, especially in
uncertain times. And one day, may our commendation by those who follow after us
be the same: that we too were women of faith (Hebrews 11:3).
--Amy O'Rear
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