SUNDAY 7th
Hebrews 11:3 ‘By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.’
In this chapter, the Hebrew author takes the readers of his letter right back to the very beginning, Genesis Chapter 1 and to the account of creation.
He was writing this Hebrew letter to Jews who had come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ but were mixing their old Judaism religion with the new covenant of grace and some were even possibly being drawn back to the old rituals and rejecting afresh the new covenant because of the fear of impending persecution.
And as he starts to encourage them from the example of their ancestors in chapter 11, he first takes them right to the beginning of their Hebrew Scriptures and the account of creation.
What he is saying to them is, ‘you are holding fast to what you have believed about creation, you stand firm on your confidence in the one true God who made everything. In the same way I want you to grasp a stronger hold on to genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by seeing faith at work in the report of your ancestors lives’ and then as he gets to Hebrews 12 he wants them to see their ancestors as a large crowd standing in the arena of life cheering them on, encouraging them not to give up the new found life of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ but to persevere to the end.
Verse 3 is a good starting point for us as well. If we are going to doubt the first few chapters of the Scriptures, and not believe in the creation account, then what is there to stop us from doubting everything else that follows through the rest of this book? None of us were present at the beginning to witness what took place, but by faith we believe what has been recorded for us.
We believe by faith that ‘In the beginning God . . .’ That is, God was already there. We believe by faith that God spoke and as he spoke whatever it was he spoke came into being, the land, the sea, the creatures in the air and in the sea and upon the dry land, the fruit and the flowers and the trees and the shrubs, the moon and the stars and the sun and the galaxies which are still being discovered billions of miles away in outer space, and we believe by faith the creation of man from out of the dust of the ground. YES, humanly it does seem difficult to fully comprehend, but we believe BY FAITH, faith enables us to believe that the universe was created by the word of God, and exactly as the Genesis writer says, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. The term used to describe this is ‘ex nihilo’ ‘out of nothing’. David the psalmist records in Psalm 19:1 ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork,’ and Psalm 24:1-2 ‘The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.’
And I declare today in this devotion that BY FAITH, I believe. I also believe in the work of creation taking 6 literal days of 24 hours as it records for us ‘and there was evening and there was morning, the first day, the second day, the third day, the fourth day, the fifth day, the sixth day and then on the seventh day God rested from all his work that he had done.
And it is BY FAITH that if we were to move further into the Scriptures and read the characters, accounts, stories, happenings etc, I believe them to be literal and true. Noah and the flood, the Egyptian plagues and the Israelites exodus, David and Goliath, Jonah and the Whale, Daniel and the den of lion’s, the Hebrew lads and the furnace, and moving into the New Testament, the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, his full and complete atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, and the many more accounts which speak of seeming impossibilities having taken place but by faith I believe because I believe in the God of the impossible and the Hebrew writer makes it very clear that Christian Faith requires this kind of faith. Hebrews 11:6 ‘And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God MUST believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek Him.’
Let us remind ourselves that it is possible to have this kind of faith, though not out of ourselves but as a gift from God to all who would believe. (Ephesians 2:8)
How is your faith to believe today? Remember we only need to have faith as small as a mustard seed to accomplish great things with God (Matthew 17:20) but however we feel our measure of faith is we can call out with the same plea as the disciples, ‘Lord, increase our faith.’ (Luke 17:5)
Incidentally if Jesus said we could remove a mountain with mustard seed sized faith a seed which is about 1 or 2 mm in size, imagine what we could do with faith the size of the world’s largest seed, a coco de mer from a palm tree which is about 12 inches in size (30cms) and weighs about 40 pounds (18kg). Wow, Lord I will be grateful for the mustard seed sized faith, I have not even yet started to move mole hills, let alone mountains!
Today I am repeating the same song as last Wednesday
By faith we see the hand of God
In the light of creation’s grand design
In the lives of those who prove His faithfulness
Who walk by faith and not by sight
By faith our fathers roamed the earth
With the power of His promise in their hearts
Of a holy city built by God’s own hand
A place where peace and justice reign
We will stand as children of the promise
We will fix our eyes on Him our soul’s reward
Till the race is finished and the work is done
We’ll walk by faith and not by sight
By faith the prophets saw a day
When the longed-for Messiah would appear
With the power to break the chains of sin and death
And rise triumphant from the grave
By faith the church was called to go
In the power of the Spirit to the lost
To deliver captives and to preach good news
In every corner of the earth
We will stand…
By faith this mountain shall be moved
And the power of the gospel shall prevail
For we know in Christ all things are possible
For all who call upon His name
Keith and Kystyn Getty CCLI788682