“These all died in faith without having received the promises, but they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on earth.” (Hebrews 11:13 CSB)
Great heroes of faith persevere and remain faithful to God and to what they believe. Perseverance and faithfulness is why these in Hebrews 11 are listed. Even though they died without having received the Messiah as God promised, they saw it coming and remained faithful even through death in some cases. Some were persecuted and killed, yet they remained faithful.
The purpose of Hebrews 11, in fact, is to encourage believers to remain faithful to the faith and faithful to God. The Letter to the Hebrews was written at a time when some believers were becoming discouraged. Jewish believers in particular were considering returning to Judaism, in part because the promise of Christ’s return had not happened, because they were being persecuted by their fellow Jews, and because they were being invited to return to the Jewish fold by abandoning their Christian beliefs. The writer of Hebrews, thus, pointed them to the superiority of Jesus over everything and to the faithfulness of those who had come before.
God calls us to faithfulness, to persevere in our faith. That is a bottom-line truth. Faith and faithfulness are two sides of the same coin. You cannot have one without the other. A call to faith is a call to faithfulness.
Lord, Today may we each demonstrate faithful perseverance in our walk with You. Amen.
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