You Have More Than They Did—Are You Using It?
Hebrews 11:39-40 (NIV)
CONTEXT: Hebrews 11, often referred to as the 'Hall of Faith,' recounts how the Old Testament saints lived by faith, trusting in God's promises despite not receiving their ultimate fulfillment, enduring trials, persecution, and even death while looking forward to something greater.
11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients [the Old Testament believers] were commended for.
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39 These saints were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect [complete].
Canons of Dordt
Point 1 - God's Unconditional Election
Index for Articles 1-7
Article 8 - A Single Decree of Election
This election is not of many kinds, but one and the same for all who were to be saved in the Old and the New Testament.
For Scripture declares that there is a single good pleasure, purpose, and plan of God’s will,
by which he chose us from eternity
both to grace and to glory,
both to salvation and to the way of salvation,
which God prepared in advance for us to walk in.
Summary
In some ways, it may seem like the Old Testament saints (believers) had a more direct channel to God than we do. God spoke to Abraham in visions, to Jacob and Joseph in dreams, to Moses from a burning bush and fiery mountain, and to Elijah in a gentle whisper that followed a rock shattering wind, earthquake and fire. God led His people through the wilderness via a pillar of fire/cloud and proved His deity by sending fire from heaven.
But even with all of these manifestations from God (the official term is theophanies), the heroes of old spent much of their time waiting to learn more about the salvation God had promised them. Hebrews 11 points to Noah, who spent decades building a ship in the desert; Abraham packed up his entire household and began moving even before he knew where the LORD was moving him to; David was anointed king, but then had to simultaneously honor and evade King Saul.
These men and women (Rahab, v31) continued to fear the LORD even though they often had to wait decades, sometimes even centuries. Even though they did not see the full picture, they clung to God's promises of a Redeemer with genuine, saving faith. As the author of Hebrews puts it in v38, the world was not worthy of them.
They were commended for their faith - their ability to have confidence in what is hoped for and assurance about what is not seen. Yet, despite over 300 messianic promises given by God to His covenant people, none of them received what had been promised...
Dig Deeper
It would be dead wrong to end the final sentence of Hebrews 11 that way. While it's true that generation after generation of God's covenant people took their final breath still waiting for His promises of a Savior to be fulfilled in time, God did fulfill His promises to them.
God revealed more and more of the coming Messiah through His prophets as time went on, and it became clearer that God had planned something better for us. That something, of course, is Jesus Christ, whose once-for-all sacrificial death and grave conquering resurrection finally fulfilled all of the promises that God's people had clung to for centuries.
In this way, God's people of old, together with us would be made perfect (whole and complete). As the Canons put it, Scripture declares that there is a single good pleasure, purpose, and plan of God’s will, by which he chose us from eternity... both to salvation and to the way of salvation. In other words, you are saved in the exact same way that God's covenant people have always been saved: through faith in the Messiah.
You've been given so much more insight as to who the Messiah is through the gift of the New Testament. Those faithful saints of old would have given all they had to read what you've been given! Be sure to take advantage of this and read it often!
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who has fulfilled all of His promises to His people in Christ;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will be inspired by the saints of old as you live each day in the full knowledge of the hope they clung to;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Acts 21
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