Faith

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1. If you read through Hebrews 11, you will find that the entire chapter is about faith, and that it goes into what's been called the Hall of Fame of faith, describing people famous for their faith. Looking through the chapter, however, I see four people that seem like odd choices. They are Sarah, Samson, Barak, and Jephthah. Consider-Sarah laughed at God's plan, Barak relied on a woman, Deborah, to fight his battles, Jephthah sacrificed his daughter-for no real reason, I might add-and Samson broke his Nazarite vow on all three counts-he touched the dead, he drank, and he got a haircut. How on Earth-or more accurately, how in Heaven-did these four get on this list? To answer this question, we must first ask another: what is faith?

To answer this question, we should look at some of the other heroes of the faith mentioned in Hebrews 11. Let's look at Moses. In Numbers 12:7, Moses is described as faithful in all God's house. This perhaps becomes more credible once you discover that in this passage God was yelling at Aaron and Miriam for complaining about Moses. But wait, didn't God yell at Moses for a lack of faith, way back in the burning bush scene? Well, sort of. Moses was yelled at for a lack of faith, but not in God-in himself. considering that Moses gets a rather lengthy mention in Hebrews 11, I would say that faith in oneself is not what is referred to there.

In Nehemiah 9:7-8, God is described as having chosen Abraham to be father to his people. It states of God that "You found his heart faithful before You," and describes that as a reason why God made a covenant with him. Consider Romans 4:1-5. In describing Abraham, it states that he trusted God. It goes on to describe that as faith.

Looking back at Hebrews 11, we see verse 13:"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." They had faith in God far greater than their faith in themselves. That is the faith that all of the people on this list share. This is the faith that we need.