ISSL Reflections August 8 2021 Hebrews 11:1-8, 13-16 Post 3

VII.
Let’s spend some time with the last few sentences from this week’s focus passage.

The writer calls our attention to those he mentioned by referring to them as, “All of these died in faith without ….”

What might these few sentences suggest to us about faith – its content, its direction, and even its fulfilment.

VIII.
Hebrews 11:13-16

All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.

IX.
Is faith the start, the middle or the end of a journey?

Can it be each of those?

The folk our writer calls our attention to are all identified as having faith.

But they are “without having received the promises.” They lack something, Does that mean their faith is not sufficient? Or does that mean it has a “growing edge”?

Notice – “from a distance they saw …”

Is that something of the middle of the journey of faith?

Did you see – “… they are seeking a homeland … God … has prepared a city for them.”

Does that suggest something of the “end” of the journey of faith?

Well, “end” does not seem the right way to describe this.

Maybe we are back to “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Is faith a journey? Is faith the map for the journey? Is faith a “vehicle” to reach the homeland?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *