Wednesday, June 4, 2008, Part 1
"The prophets who through faith . . . gained what was promised" (Hebrews 11:33b).
IDEA: God will keep His promises to us as we live by faith.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand that faith enables us to wait for the fulfillment of God's promises.
Sometimes it sounds as if the writer of the letter to the Hebrews indulges in a kind of double-talk: In Hebrews 11:33 we read that "the prophets through faith gained what was promised," then in 11:39 we read that "all these having obtained a good testimony through faith did not receive the promise."
What do we do with this? What does this mean?
I. God made different kinds of promises to different people in the Old Testament.
Some of the promises had a relatively immediate fulfillment.
God in Exodus 6:6-8 told Moses that He would deliver the people out of slavery in Egypt and bring them into a land He had promised them.
On the other hand, God had made a promise to Abraham that went beyond Abraham's lifetime to fulfill.
In Genesis 12:2-3 God said that Abraham's descendants would become a great nation. How old was Abraham when God made that promise to him? On the strength of that promise, Abraham left his home in Ur and headed for a place he did not know.
When did Abraham see that promise fulfilled? When he died he had only a son and a burial plot for his wife Sarah.
Did God fulfill the promise he made to Abraham? Yes, but he took a long time to do it.
Both of these cases would fulfill what the writer of Hebrews 11:33 said: through faith they would gain what was promised.
II. There was another promise made that the people of the Old Testament believed but never saw its fulfillment.
God would send a Savior. He made that promise to the prophet Isaiah (53).
It is a promise that is both clear and confusing.
He said, "Through oppression and judgment he was taken away and who can speak of his descendants for he was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken."
That says that someone would come who would die for the transgressions of the people. It also says that he would die without descendants.
But in Isaiah 53:10 he said, "It is the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days. And the will of God will prosper in his hands."
That says that he is going to see his offspring, but he will die without having children.
It's a great promise that both the people in the Old and New Testaments saw fulfilled when Jesus came.
The people of the Old Testament, however, were not as clear about the details, looking ahead as we look back.
But God kept His promise to them and to us.