Look inside this book.Where the Bush is Burning: A Daily Devotional by [Thomas Tice]

Tag: Hebrews 11

What More Shall I Say?

What More Shall I Say?

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And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets. 

Hebrews 11:32 

The stories of the lives of the people of faith is the stuff of legends. The writer of Hebrews concludes his chapter on the heroes of the faith long before he runs out of material. He has spoken of faithful people from Abel to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He has included women of faith like Sarah, Moses’ mother and Rahab. He has worked his way through the heroes till he arrives at Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jepthah, and David. He has fully recorded their acts of faith and their sufferings for the truth. Living by faith has taken many people through numerous hardships and even to horrific deaths. The common thread that runs through all their experiences is they lived and died in faith. Their faith was in the character of God; the word of God; the promise of God and the Christ of God. God promised Him in the garden; foretold Him throughout the Old Testament; revealed Him in the New Testament and continues to accomplish all that pertains to Him today. All these people of faith lived and died on the bare promise of God. What more shall we say?  

Great God of Wonders, 
we rejoice that You have told us the stories of all these people of faith. 
We praise You that from them we have learned 
to walk by faith ourselves.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
What Must We Believe?

What Must We Believe?

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But without faith 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 

What must we believe? According to the writer of Hebrews there are two foundational elements to our faith. The first is that God is. This is critical to faith. If we believe God is, then we believe what He has revealed of Himself in the creation. ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.’ It also involves our belief in His revelation of Himself in His word. ‘All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.’ From that inspired word we learn ‘that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.’  This is the second element of faith the writer cites. Faith is confident in the character of God and how He evidences His character in His actions toward those ‘who diligently seek Him.’ Regardless of anything else we may understand about God and His dealings with us, these lie at the root of the tree of faith. When we believe God is, we believe He is all He tells us He is. When we believe He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, it brings us to Christ, Who is the manifestation of God doing good to us in the world. All true understanding of God leads us to Christ.  

Our Wise and Wonderful God,
we rejoice that You have showed us what is good.
We praise You that what You have shown us
leads us to faith in Christ.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
Where Does Faith Take Us?

Where Does Faith Take Us?

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Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. 

Hebrews 11:1-2 

Where does faith take us? When we have faith, what effect does it have on where we arrive in life? Our text says that by faith ‘the elders obtained a good testimony.’ What did their lives look like that caused them to obtain this good testimony? The rest of the chapter is a list of the heroes of the faith and it describes how their actions evidenced their faith. Abel offered the sacrifice God stipulated, instead of the work of his hand, as Cain did. Abel’s sacrifice pointed to Christ. Cain’s sacrifice was an exercise in self-righteousness. This meant one of the brothers looked to Christ, and the other to himself. The chapter goes on to speak of Enoch, whom the Scripture tells us ‘walked with God’ and who ‘pleased God’ according to our chapter. Noah believed that God would judge sin with the flood and thus prepared the ark, a type of Christ, Who saves us from the wrath of God. Abraham went out of his own country on the bare promise of God, Who said He would give  him a promised land. All these, and more we intend to consider, were those who had faith in God, and in the coming Christ, which led them to do what they did.  

Our Wise and Sovereign God, 
we rejoice that You lead us in the life of faith. 
We praise You that You show us Your Way, 
and teach us to follow You.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning 
What Is Faith?

What Is Faith?

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Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  

Hebrews 11:1 

What is faith? We use the word, but what is it really? Our text offers the divine definition, but in order for us to understand even that definition, it requires some consideration. What is substance? We would say substance is that which can be empirically experienced. What is evidence? Evidence is the objective, substantive proof of the reality of an event or a thing’s existence. So faith is in what is evidently real and genuinely substantive, even though we have not seen it as yet. What we hope for is based upon all we know of the character of God. It rests upon the presupposition that God ‘is and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him,’ as a later verse in the chapter says. Thus faith is treating as fact what God has said will be, without actually having seen it as yet. We need to have a working definition of faith if we are going to consider the heroes of the faith who appear in the rest of this chapter. Most of all, faith relates us to Christ. The whole book of Hebrews is to point the readers to Christ as the Mediator of the new covenant.  

Our God of Grace and Glory, 
we rejoice that You give us every reason to have faith in You. 
We praise You that all Your works 
point us to Christ. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Framed By God’s Word

Framed By God’s Word

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By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.  

Hebrews 11:3

Why do we believe that God created the universe? We believe it by faith. Our text articulates this in clear terms. This takes us back to Genesis 1:1, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’ Our thinking regarding these things flows from our presuppositions. We believe that God is. We also believe He has revealed Himself in creation and in the Bible. From these presuppositions flows the rest of our thought which brings us to Christ. John explains, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made.’ Thus Christ, to whom John is clearly referring, was the agent of the Trinity responsible for creation. The writer of Hebrews corroborates this same idea when he says that God, ‘has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.’ Thus we see that our belief in creation is a matter of faith in Christ. This supersedes all others claims. It stands on firmer foundation than human reasoning can afford us. Because our faith and conscience is fast-bound to God and His word, we believe by faith He created the universe, the world, and us. We are therefore, as His creatures, bound to acknowledge Him as God and obey what He has revealed to us. This will lead us inevitably to Christ.  

Our Glorious Living God, 
we rejoice that You are our Creator. 
We praise You that You have not only created us, 
but saved us by free and sovereign grace.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

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