RELIGION —
Hebrews 11 is one of those passages that everyone is familiar with and finds inspiration in. The standout stories from Abel to David to Daniel sweep across the biblical narrative and 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 I want us to do is to take a step back from the text. Rather than look at the specific men and women mentioned, I’d like us to think in more general terms about what the writer is doing. I believe this could be helpful for us to utilize when we find ourselves with the “need to persevere” (10:36).
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 of history (ours or others). Some people are never able to do this and live as prisoners of the past. Add to that the fact that the past grows larger with each passing day, you can see why it is important that we learn how to handle it correctly.
Benefitting from the 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 the past is to remember the good and forget the not-so-good, right? And if “good” is when someone trusted in God through the ups and downs of some trial, there’s certainly some gold there and remembering it 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. 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 not-so-good experiences come into play. Even though they might be painful, they also contain the gold we are looking for if we are willing to mine it. After all, we don’t want to waste our pain or the pain of others 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 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.
Next week: Part two.
You can find more of Bruce’s writings at his website: a-taste-of-grace-with-bruce-green.com