The Roll of Faith, and the Role of Faith -- so popular is this chapter people quickly forget the context. It's more than a hymn honoring the faith of the Patriarchs, but a note to our Jewish Christian readers the legacy of their best examples are more about faith than about Judaism. From the very beginning, it was not rituals and Law which made these people memorable, but their commitment in faith to what God had commanded and promised. From the very beginning, it was faith which distinguished saints from the rest of humanity.
Faith cannot be defined by its meaning, but by its results. This is the standard spiritual understanding of things. Thus, it is roughly equivalent to the term "commitment." It is rooted outside human space, and does not yield to logical probing. When God commands and promises, we assume its truth and act accordingly. It matters not what we gain from our senses; we defy them even. Its call to action is ultimate, and is the measure of what truly matters. We do what we must, regardless of cost. As a spiritual exercise, it is directly tied to God's act of creation, partakes of the same stuff of God Himself.
Everyone in the record of Scripture held up as a model of obedience and reliance on God is also a record of faith. Whatever else we may say of Abel's offering compared to Cain's, it was a matter of faith in God. That was the key; the substance of the offering by Law was hardly the issue. Abel's faith cost him his life. By contrast, Enoch didn't die at all. His faith made him too holy for this world, a holiness measured by desire for God. While Noah's faith didn't keep him from eventually dying, it was a rather mundane death of old age, long after he and his family survived as the only souls to walk on the earth after the Flood. Their faith was an active condemnation of the sin of the world.
Faith compelled Abraham to leave behind everything that mattered to him. His faith was the power to obey blindly in traveling to a far land. Not just a land he was told he would inherit, but because he knew the promise to his descendants was a mere symbol of something far greater, a place in Heaven above. He and Sarah had the audacity to believe God's promise they would bear a son so very late in life. That son became the grand nation of Israel, and far more, for his true descendants are those of faith, which outnumber any mere human census. Faith compelled them to leave that beloved homeland in Mesopotamia and live as wanderers in a place they never held. To them, it hardly mattered in light of the spiritual inheritance, for they were strangers to earth itself. Faith embraces that Spirit Realm which has no boundaries.
Because of that conviction, Abraham was not troubled at the impending death of his only son on that altar on Mount Moriah. If God wanted Isaac's life, surely he would give it back since He promised that life was Abraham's future. God could not fail. That faith was passed down through Isaac, who foresaw his sons' destiny. Jacob in old age prophesied his family would bring his bones back from Egypt to the land Abraham never owned, escaping the slavery of Pharaoh.
Faith demanded Moses forsake his Egyptian adoption and join his people in slavery. It was that same faith in his parents which kept him alive when others his age were sacrificed to the Nile gods. He knew even if they never left that land, a Messiah was coming to set them free to ignore their bondage and set their eyes on Heaven. That was good enough to leave behind all the good things Egypt might have offered had Moses reigned there. So they celebrated the Sparing of their lives not with sneering at the dying Egyptians, but as a symbol of things much higher than this world. So when commanded to walk into the sea, they obeyed, and God's plan for their rescue slaughtered the Egyptians, all without any swords or weapons of any kind.
Faith also knocked down the massive walls of Jericho, but held up that portion which sheltered Rahab. And on and on, through the Period of Judges and Monarchy, faith made all the difference in choosing to believe and obey God's promises, whether it meant living in safety or dying without mercy. It mattered not either way, for faith rises above life itself, and outlives death. There is no logic to what faith demands, nor what it brings. Rather, it is its own logic, a perspective which treats this world and its delights with contempt.
Judaism had sold its birthright of faith and symbolic logic for the pottage of human insight. Jews had ransomed their other-worldly perspective for shiny metal and dirt -- wealth and lands. By human standards there was nothing greater, but by spiritual standards it was all foolishness. Did these readers believe the trappings of their old religion were really so valuable? Did they blanch at mere human misery when they stood to lose Eternity? Everything they thought they knew and had as their legacy was more about faith and Christ than about Law and ritual.
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Ed Hurst
23 April 2008
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