Sermons are not narratives and do not break down neatly into chapters, so we back up a couple of verses to capture what the Preacher is moving on to next. He quotes the prophet Habakkuk, then identifies himself with the listeners (We are … among those who have faith and will possess life.)” What we read next is a clear indication that this is a sermon: he repeats the phrase “By faith…” more than a dozen times in a row, following it with example after example of people who lived by faith. We can hear the preacher emphasizing and re-emphasizing his point. Let’s just sample the first few verses.
Hebrews 10:38-11:7
38 But my just one shall live by faith,
and if he draws back I take no pleasure in him.” Habakkuk 2:4
39 We are not among those who draw back and perish, but among those who have faith and will possess life.
Chapter 11
1 Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. 2 Because of it the ancients were well attested.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible.
4 By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice greater than Cain’s. Through this he was attested to be righteous, God bearing witness to his gifts, and through this, though dead, he still speaks.
5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and “he was found no more because God had taken him.” Before he was taken up, he was attested to have pleased God. 6But without faith it is impossible to please him, for anyone who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
7 By faith Noah, warned about what was not yet seen, with reverence built an ark for the salvation of his household. Through this he condemned the world and inherited the righteousness that comes through faith.
Every scholar notes the difficulty of translating verse 1. The Greek words translated here as “realization” and “evidence” both had a range of meanings that really stretch a translators skill–and it is likely the Preacher was just as happy that his congregation would hear overtones of the various meanings, some of them not as obvious to us. Msgr. Ronald Knox was an Anglican with tremendous verbal and scholarly gifts who converted to Catholicism, and he was asked by the Catholic bishops of England to translate the Bible into contemporary English in the mid-twentieth century. Here is how he translated verses 1: “What is faith? It is that which gives substance to our hopes, which convinces us of things we cannot see.”
Faith grows within us as part of our interaction with our Lord.
The first three examples, Abel, Enoch, and Noah, were all well-known and revered among Jews–but note that none of the three were Jews. Abel was a touch point of discussion about what makes for an acceptable sacrifice to give to God. Enoch’s reputation among Jews in Jesus’ day had grown strong, as a man who pleased God so much he was taken directly into heaven (not sent to Sheol with everyone else). Noah was described in rabbinic teaching as proclaiming God by preaching to his neighbors who were mocking his preparation for the Flood of judgment that was coming.
Reflection: keep your eyes open for other indications in Scripture, in the Old Testament, that God is looking for faith beyond the people he especially chose. They, too, may yet inherit “the righteousness that comes through faith.”
Reflect again on how the Preacher has exhorted his people about “what was not yet seen” not just in Noah’s day, but in his own day. And in our day, what do we as Christians not yet see?
Second reflection : ? The second coming of The Lord ?
Yes, we do not see that yet. He phrases it in a different way in Chapter 2:7-8.