By Faith the People of Israel

This is an edited old post from the old blog. The previous posts in this series are in the sidebar at the right.

Next up on the list of faithful ancients in Hebrews 11 are the people of Israel. The author gives us two examples of circumstances when the people of Israel exhibited faith, one occurring right after Moses led them out of Egypt and the other when they were  conquering the promised land.

By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if on dry ground, but when the Egyptians tried it, they were swallowed up. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after the people marched around them for seven days. (Hebrews 11:29-30 NET)

I’m reading Exodus right now, and judging from the Exodus account, the Israelites were more often fickle than faithful. Over and over again, they complained about the things that were happening. But in these two instances, they acted in faith, and so here they are, in the list of the faithful in Hebrews 11.

First our text tell us that it was by faith that the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea. You’ll remember that they had just left Egypt because God had acted miraculously on their behalf. If anyone should have known that God would protect them and deliver them, it was the Iraelites. However, when the armies of the Egyptians came after them and they saw no way out, they were terrified and complained to Moses.

“Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you took us away to die in the desert? What in the world have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Was this not what we told you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?’ For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert.” (Exodus 14: 11-12 NET)

To save them, God divided the waters of the Red Sea so that the people could cross. And that crossing took faith. To walk across the sea bed as if it were dry ground meant that they had to trust God to keep on holding back the walls of water on each side of them. Their trusting obedience saved them from the Egyptians, who came after them and were swallowed in the sea as the walls of water came tumbling down again.

The second example of the faith of the people of Israel comes at the fall of the walls of the city of Jericho, recounted for us in Joshua 6. Can you imagine how silly all that marching around the city must have seemed to anyone who was not acting in faith? But the people trusted God, followed his instructions, and he acted on their behalf. On the seventh day

[t]he rams’ horns sounded and when the army heard the signal, they gave a loud battle cry. The wall collapsed and the warriors charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. (Joshua 6:20 NET)

Their faith in God had been warranted. They obeyed God in faith and are included as examples for us in this list of faithful people of old.

Round the Sphere Again: Words and Lists

Strange Vocabulary
What should we, as Christians, do about our distincitive words? Says Trevin Wax, “We need to take the hard road – explaining Christian concepts to outsiders in a way that can be understood. Then, we need to initiate them into the Christian community where these words are used and celebrated.” Read the whole piece.

Defining Words
How do we know what the Greek and Hebrew words of scripture mean? (Bill Mounce at Koinonia)

Four from John Eight
The Thirsty Theologian show us another simple way learn more from a passage of scripture—make a list of some of the doctrines found in it. He’s listed four major doctrines taught in John 8, and assures us that there are even more. 

Can Do and Can’t Do
By G. E. Ladd, a list drawn from what the scripture says about the kingdom of God. (Justin Taylor)

Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy 18

What do Christians mean when they say the Bible is inerrant? The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy tells us what leading inerrantist mean by inerrancy. I’ll be posting a section of this statement each week until I’ve posted the whole thing.

You can read previously posted sections of this statement in by clicking here. After a preface and a short statement, the Chicago Statement contains a section called Articles of Affirmation and Denial.

---

Article XVI.

We affirm that the doctrine of inerrancy has been integral to the Church’s faith throughout its history.

We deny that inerrancy is a doctrine invented by scholastic Protestantism, or is a reactionary position postulated in response to negative higher criticism.