By Faith the Rest, Part 2
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 9:19PM When I have time, I’m editing and reposting a series of posts on Hebrews 11 from the old blog. This is the next-to-last post, number seventeen. You’ll find all the posts done so far in this series listed in the sidebar, or you can look here.
In the previous post, we looked at the happier half of the summary list at the end of Hebrews 11. The people in the first part of the summary received some good things in this life because of their faith, but now the list moves on to examine some hardships endured because of faith.
But others were tortured, not accepting release, to obtain resurrection to a better life. And others experienced mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawed apart, murdered with the sword; they went about in sheepskins and goatskins; they were destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (the world was not worthy of them); they wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and openings in the earth. (Hebrews 11:35b-38 NET)
Perhaps the writer of Hebrews, anticipating that those to whom Hebrews was written would face persecution and hardship, wanted to remind them that having firm faith did not guarantee that they would escape trouble. If they didn’t understand this, they might grow discouraged if they weren’t delivered from difficulty like the faithful people of old in the previous verses.
There were those of faith, he says, who were tortured and refused to turn away from their God in order to be released. They kept their resurrection to a better life in view so that they could stay firm in their faith during torture and, for some, execution. Are you wondering exactly which people of faith are referred to here? These were probably historical Hebrew people who were tortured and killed during the Maccabean revolt. These events can be found recorded in 2 Maccabees 6 and 7. Others, we’re told, were mocked and flogged and imprisoned. Once again, the Maccabean troubles are probably in view.
Some of the faithful were stoned. Since stoning is a distinctively Jewish form of execution, this may be referring to Christians, like Stephen, for instance, who were executed that way. Some faithful ones, the writer reminds us, were sawed apart, and according to tradition, the prophet Isaiah died this way. Some were murdered with the sword. This is an interesting inclusion in light of verse 34, where it says that some, through faith, escaped the edge of the sword. The writer is careful to remind his readers that having faith may result in deliverance from death for some, but not others.
There were also those of faith who were destitute, wandering in the open dressed in sheepskins and goatskins, continually ill-treated and afflicted. They would have been sorry sights in the eyes of those around them, yet the writer tells us “the world was not worthy of them.” The world around would not have seen them as people of value, but they were God’s own people. They were without earthly homes, and at the same time, they were those for whom God had prepared a city (verse 16).
And of course, for all of those of faith who endured hardships like the ones listed in these verses, remaining faithful was the result of valuing the heavenly rewards God had promised. They knew that God was a rewarder of those who seek him, and because they understood this, they could remain faithful in very hard circumstances.
