Faith to please him

The book of Hebrews is believed to have been written by Apostle Paul in Rome around 68AD along with Galatians and the second book to Timothy. One of Paul’s objectives under the guidance of the Holy Spirit was to confirm Jewish Christians in the faith; to confirm to the Jews that prophesy had been fulfilled concerning the Christ that was to come. Not surprisingly considering this objective, the book focuses heavily on faith, and in chapter 11 we see Paul declare his faith and remind the Hebrews about the faith that their fathers-Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, and others had lived by with conviction and with passion.

In verse 6, it is made clear why Paul harps on the importance of faith as he declares, “But without faith it is impossible to please him…” The Bible Scholar, Dake commenting on this verse emphasizes the absolute necessity of faith, and actually describes it as “the secret of pleasing God”. If Paul and Dake are to be believed, faith is the secret formula, the foundation, the route to pleasing God, and as we shall later see, to obtaining a good report, not just from men, but like the fathers of our faith, from God and generations of believers to come. Why is it impossible to please God if you do not have total, absolute, complete faith in him and his word? The second part of verse 6 shows why- “…for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently serve him”. Indeed the very first verse of chapter 11 describes faith as the “substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”.

In short, the only reason a man will obey God’s commandment not to steal, kill, hate his brother, serve other Gods, commit adultery or why he would repent from such actions, and worship God in truth, loving his fellowman, accepting and preaching the true gospel of Christ without personal motives, making worthy offerings to God and paying his or her tithes, not fearing principalities and powers, not doing evil even in secret places, etc is that he totally and completely believes in the existence, power and sovereignty of God and that God’s word and promises will be certainly be fulfilled. He must believe in the reality of heaven and hell, in the certainty of the victory of light over darkness, in the truth of the second coming of Christ, in the certainty of a day of judgment. Otherwise why will you refuse that bribe, or that temptation, or that portion of the king’s meat?

Let’s go back to the biblical examples of outstanding faith in Hebrews 11. In verse 4, we are reminded of Abel, who offered a “more excellent sacrifice” because he gave of the “firstlings of his flock”. It appears to me that God had regard to Abel’s sacrifice rather than Cain’s because Abel did not take God for granted and took care to give of the firstlings of his flock, “and of the fat thereof” (see Gen 4:4). Why did Abel bother? By Faith! Why did Enoch so please God that God decided that he should not see death? Because he had faith in God. The one I find most interesting is Noah. If we were around at the time of Noah and saw him suddenly building a great ark, what would we have thought of him? If we had asked him, Mr Noah, why are you building this great ship and he answered that God warned him of a mighty flood to come, would we not have laughed at him and called him a fool? Would we have thought he was not “reasonable”, not a “practical” Christian? Would we have wondered if Noah was not taking this thing to an extreme?
How many Noahs are we criticizing today, simply because God has spoken personally to them, and they have chosen to obey the word of God rather than do as the world is doing? Alas, Hebrews 11: 7 testifies of Noah that, “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” Note that the things Noah was warned about were not seen AS YET, still he moved with FEAR, and as a consequence saved his household. He did all this only because he believed every word that God had uttered to him, without an iota of doubt.

Of course we know about Abraham’s many acts of “stupid” faith, as it would have looked to curious onlookers-when he was called departed from the land of his fathers and went out, “not knowing whither he went” (Heb 11: 8) or when he was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac upon God’s instruction even though he had waited until old age before Isaac was born. If Abraham told you of God’s promise that he would be a father of a generation at the time he was yet to have neither Isaac nor Ishmael, would we not have laughed him to scorn? If God told a sister that she would have four children and she was already thirty-eight years without a husband, would she still believe? What has God told you that is yet to manifest and you are beginning to wonder if God has not made a mistake? A wife or husband? The fruit of the womb? Healing? Protection? Great prosperity? A call to ministry? A new beginning? Restoration? Promotion? Can you, like Abraham believe in the evidence of things not seen? Can you like Noah believe in that which as yet, had not happened?

Can you like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, “…not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them…”? (Heb 11:13) Consider Joseph who we are reminded in verse 22 on his death bed, gave instructions to his children concerning the returning of his bones to Israel. How come he was so certain that indeed over four hundred years later his bones would be returned to the land of promise? We see this great testimony of faith and faithfulness in Gen 50: 24-25 where the bible records that when Joseph was 110 years old spoke to his descendants on his death bed saying, “…God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob….God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence”. It is amazing as we see in Exodus 13:19 that the faith of Joseph was rewarded many years later-“And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you.”

Or Moses who chose to suffer affliction with the children of Israel, rather than enjoy the pleasures of Pharaoh’s household (verse 25) and esteemed the reproach of Christ above the treasures of Egypt (v.26); or the children of Israel who “passed through the Red Sea as by dry land; which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned”; or Rahab, Gedeon, Barak, Samson, Jephthae, David, Samuel and the prophets all of whom along with the other fathers of faith we have discussed “who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens” (Heb 11: 33-34). This is the testimony of which we are called to inherit for being in Christ, we are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Gal 3: 29). Will this be the testimony in heaven and generations to come concerning our faith? Does our faith please God?

Opeyemi Agbaje