Lamech: A Display of Deep Human Depravity

“Lamech said to his wives:  ‘Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, pay attention to my words.  For I killed a man for wounding me, a boy for striking me.  If Cain is to be avenged seven times over, then for Lamech it will be seventy-seven times!’” Gen. 4:23-24

This “song” of Lamech falls in the middle of the genealogy of Cain.  After Cain kills Abel, the writer of Genesis gives the reader a list of Cain’s descendants.  The names of these descendants have a whole lot more meaning to a B.C. Hebrew than they have to an A.D. westerner.  But, a redemptive statement is given in the song that falls in this genealogy.  It is a statement that shows just how immense the depravity of humans is.  Consequently, it implies how great of a Savior we have in Christ.

After Cain kills Abel, God spares Cain’s life though justice would have demanded death for Cain.  On top of this gracious blessing, God tells Cain that anyone who kills him will suffer vengeance seven times over (Gen. 4:15).  What a gracious God!  Unfortunately, we see that human depravity, being what it is, takes advantage of God’s gracious blessing and preverts it.

Lamech reacts with great vengeance against those who merely hurt him:  he kills them.  This, no doubt, is injustice.  On top of that, Lamech believes that those who hurt him deserve a worse punishment than those who hurt Cain.  Not only does Lamech have a false view of vengeance, he is filled with pride.  If anyone hurts him, they deserve to suffer much, much worse than they deserve.  Implicitly, Lamech believes that he is better than his father, Cain.

Humanity is quickly spiraling downward at this point.  Instead of blessing and mercy coming from God, man has placed himself in God’s position.  He is inflicting hurt and injustice.  This downward spiral will reach a bottom point in the next couple of chapters – only to rear its head again after the flood.

And this depravity is what the Son of God came to fix.  Quite frankly, we are all a bunch of Lamechs.  Our natural man desires deep hurt, murder, and injustice for those who hurt us.  Thanks be to God that Christ did not want vengeance for those who killed him.  He wanted them to be forgiven.  Christ is the anti-Lamech.

The Spear and the Vapor

¹And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

²And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. Gen 4:1-2 KJV

We have already explored how the creation and the Fall of Man are rich with foreshadows of Jesus Christ.  As we move into the next phase of man’s history, we find two sons born to the first created couple.  We also find new whispers of the Redeemer.

It’s worth considering that Eve’s exclamation, “I have gotten a man from the LORD“, may reveal her mistaken belief that this son would be an immediate fulfillment of God’s prophecy.  Recall from our last post how God proclaimed woman’s seed would crush the head of the enemy, removing the curses placed upon mankind.  Surely this must have crossed her mind.  How sad that instead this son would only reveal the true depths of depravity found in the heart of sinful man.

Cain’s Hebrew name is commonly translated “spear”, while his brother Abel’s name is translated “vapor”.  The imagery here seems obvious.  The violence of Cain’s murder of his brother is symbolized by his namesake – a weapon, while Abel’s short life is but a “vapor” – an image used throughout the scriptures to describe the brevity of life (cf. Ps. 39:5, Jas. 4:14).

Looking again, Cain is representative of the whole-scale rejection by the world of anyone and anything that reveals the will of God.  Jesus even uses Cain’s murder of Abel in His scolding of the Jewish leaders of His day:

³³ Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? ³⁴ Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, ³⁵ that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Matt. 23:33-35

It is interesting that as the serpent was the catalyst of man’s Fall and of Cain’s murderous jealousy, Jesus condemns the Jewish leaders as  “serpents” and a “brood [offspring] of vipers“.  Once again, the Genesis account points to ultimate fulfillment in God’s working of our Redemption.

Furthermore, could there be any richer foreshadowing of the death of Jesus than the death of Abel?  Abel was a shepherd who offered a pleasing sacrifice to God and was murdered by his jealous brother.   Jesus is the “good Shepherd” whose entire life was marked by sacrifice of self to please the Father.  Because of their jealousy and pride, Jesus was murdered by his own national and spiritual brothers.

While we want to avoid taking the symbols further than they were intended, please humor one last observation.  Consider the seemingly needless, final blow in His hour of death when Jesus (the ultimate Abel) was pierced by the namesake of Cain himself – a spear.

But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. John 19:34

The Original World War

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring” (Genesis 3:15).

One of the many ways in which we could describe the story of biblical history is that of a war.  The biblical story is a story of war between the offspring of Eve and Satan.  And, thanks be to God, we already know who wins:  the one who crushes Satan’s head (Genesis 3:15).

After being kicked out of the garden, Satan immediately begins attacking the offspring of Eve.  Specifically, he attacks the offspring through whom the great, promised descendant will come.  He thinks that if he can kill the ancestral line, he ultimately wins the war. And yet, God, in his sovereignty, protects the ancestral line until the great One comes.

Consider these:

Noah is spared from the destruction of sin brought on by the devil.  Abraham’s life is spared when he goes into Egypt.  Isaac follows suit.  Jacob is protected from his brother Esau.  Judah is protected from death by famine.  Jumping ahead a ways, David kills the giant and lives through the onslaught of his rebellious son Absalom.  Joash is protected from his wicked grandmother.  Zerubbabel emerges from a gracious act of God:  God did not allow all of the offspring of the kings of Judah to be killed.  This list is by no means exhaustive.

And then we come to the crucifixion narrative.  Christ is condemned to death.  He is put on a cross and he dies.  Who has won the world war between the offspring and Satan?  One would think that the death of Christ was the end of the story.  But it isn’t.  He triumphs over death, thereby putting death to death.  The one who holds the power of death can’t hold the Son of God in the grave.  Jesus has crushed Satan’s head.

But, as we see in the New Testament, we become the godly offspring who triumph over Satan.  We are all children of God through faith and the offspring of Abraham (and thereby Eve) through that same faith.  Satan has always tried to devour the godly offspring (Revelation 12), but he has his just reward (Revelation 20).

Satan may strike at our heel.  We crush his head and win the World War.

The Folly of Fig Leaves

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”  Gen. 3:7

“The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”  Gen. 3:21

So the Liar’s entrance into the story resulted in the Fall of Man.  Theologians have debated long and hard about the effects of the Fall.  What was the result of his eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

Is man now so totally depraved that he doesn’t have even the slightest ability or will to choose God, or does man now simply have an inclination to sin but also possesses the ability to choose God?

On the other hand, perhaps the result of eating from the Tree didn’t affect man’s will at all – after all, even in his pre-Fall state man chose to sin.  Could it be that the Tree simply opened man’s eyes to the reality of his choices and their consequences?  It seems consistent with the name “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”.  Otherwise, shouldn’t the tree have been called the “Tree of the Ability to Choose Good or Evil”?

Regardless of our position on the specific results of the Fall, no one denies that man “fell”.   He chose to disobey God and thereby changed his relationship with the Father forever…at least until God graciously acted on his behalf.

Man’s Fall resulted in recognition of his nakedness.  Adam and Eve now saw themselves the way God sees mankind – stripped of all the externals, all the pride and self-righteousness.  Our sinful state is laid bare.

The shame of nakedness is repeated often in the Bible.  The next example is later in Genesis, when Ham “uncovers his father’s nakedness” and his son Canaan is forever cursed for it.  The Mosaic law is full of regulations on and references to nakedness.

C.S. Lewis said it is man’s duty to “learn to like” that fact that God sees us for what we truly are.

In the twinkling of an eye, in a time too small to be measured, and in any place, all that seems to divide us from God can flee away, vanish, leaving us naked before Him, like the first man, like the only man, as if nothing but He and I existed. And since that contact cannot be avoided for long, and since it means either bliss or horror, the business of life is to learn to like it. That is the first and great commandment. C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock

The theological lesson here is three-fold.  The first lesson has already been stated.  Man is naked in his sinful state before God.  He is exposed and rightly ashamed.

The second lesson can be seen in Adam’s and Eve’s feeble attempt to correct their situation.  They sewed fig leaves together to form rough coverings for themselves.  This demonstrates, of course, man’s inability to adequately cover his shame (deal with his sin).  Despite our best efforts at righteousness, we can never recover what we lose when we sin.  Man’s efforts at self-justification are as flimsy and pathetic as a loose string of fig leaves.  Note the reference to both clothing and leaves when Isaiah said the following about man’s “righteous acts”:

“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.“  Isaiah 64:6

Best of all is the third lesson:  When God provided Adam and Eve with full coverings of animal skin, He demonstrated that He alone is able to adequately cover the shameful nakedness of man’s sin.  By His grace, He provides relief for our shame.  It is truly by His grace, for instead of asking God to clothe them, Adam and Eve desperately try to do it themselves.   In a great foreshadowing of His redemptive plan, God unilaterally and graciously makes clothes truly suitable for Adam and Eve.  He replaces their sad fig leaves with His glorious raiment.  Interestingly, the raiment is provided through death – animal lives are sacrificed to provide the skins for Adam’s and Eve’s covering.  Even so, through the sacrificial death of Christ, God ultimately clothes the entire naked world in His righteousness.

^“I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed…“  Jesus in  Rev. 3:18ff

“for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”  Gal. 3:27 (NIV)

Thank God for His grace in providing Christ’s sacrifice to cover our nakedness of sin.

In the words of the prophet, Isaiah:

“I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” Isaiah 61:10

The Great Liar Shows Up

Genesis 3:1:  “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made.”

Adam and Eve have been dwelling in a glorious paradise created by their father in the first two chapters of Genesis.  In the third chapter, the story of redemption begins – and it is initiated by the figure who serves as the chief antagonist throughout the Bible:  Satan, the serpent of old (Revelation 20:2).  And Satan begins the work that he is most famous for: lying.  “When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of liars.” (John 8:44)

True to his nature, Satan comes into the garden and proffers a grand lie that sends the creation into a tail-spin.  He says, “When you eat of that tree, you will not die.  You will actually become like God.”  So Adam and Eve eat of the tree.  But what happens?  Adam and Eve become subject to death – just like God said would happen.

Through a lie, evil was brought into the world.  The grand hope of the Christian however, tells us that the great deceiver will ultimately be cast into hell because of what Christ has done.  He will no longer deceive the nations and he will endure torment with the rest of the ungodly, away from the presence of God forever (Revelation 20).

Besides obvious references to the victory over sin, Genesis 3 also tells us of Christ’s victory over the great deceiver.  He will be crushed by Christ (Gen. 3).  Though he came into the garden, he will never again come into the garden.

A New Heaven and a New Earth

What we find in the first two chapters of Genesis is a picture of the world as God intended.  In this almost magical, Narnia-like setting, we see some interesting things:

• Man walks in the presence of  God with no intermediary.
• In this perfect landscape flow rich rivers.
• The man Adam dwells with his perfect bride, Eve.
• In the midst of the garden stands the source of eternal sustenance  -  the Tree of Life.

Reading the Genesis account can be mundane when we focus on these images by themselves.   Sunday school flannel-board lessons and coloring pages of apples, snakes, and a naked Adam and Eve (hidden behind some shrubs) mask a deeper meaning behind this classic Bible story.

The reality of it is so much more interesting.  The Genesis account in chapters 1 and 2 is pointing us forward to something else – something wonderful found only through Jesus Christ.

As good as chapters 1 and 2 may be, in chapter 3 it all gets messed up.  The man and his bride make the wrong choice to disobey God’s law, thereby judging themselves unrighteous before Him, receiving respective curses, and losing the eternal life made possible by the Tree.  The rest of the story of the Bible is God’s plan to make things right again.  It’s the history of redemption.  That’s really what this blog is about – uncovering God’s redemptive plan in all of Scripture.

What we want to focus on today is how a description of the ultimate reality of redemption in Jesus Christ is seen in these first two chapters of Genesis: how the images we pointed out earlier are ultimately fulfilled in the “new heaven and new earth” ushered in for those who are true believers in Christ.

Revelation is the book of victory.  It describes the ultimate triumph of Christ over all evil and the appearance of a new creation – a “new heaven and a new earth”.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. Rev. 21:1

Let’s take a look at how the new heaven and new earth are a mirror-image of Eden and how Christ the Lamb is at the center of it all.

Man walks in the presence of God with no intermediary.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. Rev. 21:3

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. Rev. 21:22

Rich rivers flow.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. Rev. 22:1,2

The true Adam dwells with His perfect bride.

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” Rev.  21:9

I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 2 Cor. 11:2

The Tree of Life stands again to provide eternal sustenance.

On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. Rev. 22:2b,3

What Jesus Christ provides is setting the world aright again.  This old, fallen, corrupted world will be replaced with a new world.  What form it will actually take God only knows, but we have the clear teaching of Scripture to tell us that the final revelation of the victory in Christ will reestablish what God first created in Eden.  When we think of it this way, the new heaven and earth seems a little more tangible, a little closer.

Christian philosopher Peter Kreeft interestingly speculates that being translated into heaven may be something like being born from the womb.  Before birth, the fetus only knows the reality of the womb and can’t imagine anything different.  It may imagine a bigger and better womb, but it can’t possibly comprehend what awaits it in the outside world.  Once it is born, the child later realizes the womb was actually part of his present world all along.  Doctor Kreeft says perhaps heaven is like this and that in heaven we will find out it was closer than we imagined but much better than anything we could have imagined in the “womb” of our earthly existence.

On the subject of God’s perfect world, consider miracles.  Perhaps miracles aren’t really abnormal – they are the norm.  When we see God performing miracles for Israel and when we see Jesus performing miraculous deeds (healing the blind and sick, raising the dead), we see the world restored to its proper, perfect order before the fall.

The main point of what we have been saying (to quote Paul) is this:

For men, dwelling in the new heaven and new earth is all made possible through Jesus Christ, the living water, the light, the true Adam, the redeeming lamb, and the faithful bridegroom.

The Sabbath Rest

God finished his work of creation on the sixth day.  On the seventh day He ceased from working.  (Gen. 1)  This question comes to mind when the Genesis creation account is read:  Why is God ceasing from his labor significant?  I would suggest that this “resting” of God is meant to point forward to something greater that God has in store for his people.  We will find rest through Christ and we can rest in his finished cross work.

The idea of rest shows up most prominently in the fourth of the ten commandments:  Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.  The seventh day was a holy day.  No work was to be completed on that day because God himself had ceased from labor on the seventh day.  The Mosaic law continues with the idea of rest on “sevens” throughout.  Each seventh year, the land was not to be worked.  The Israelites were commanded to let the land rest.  The question inevitably comes to mind:  Why is it that God wants the seventh day to be remembered?

The pattern of work followed by rest is picked up by the Old Testament prophets.  When pronouncing judgment upon Israel, the prophets connected the absence of sin with the Sabbath.  The land itself would experience a “Sabbath” from sin when the Israelites went into exile.  This connection between Sabbath, purity, rest, and relationship becomes a theme in the New Testament.

Jesus shows up on the scene proclaiming to be the “Lord of the Sabbath” (Luke 6).  He is the one who calls all to rest (Matt. 11).  He heals on the Sabbath thus showing a connection between spiritual renewal and the Sabbath.  A.G. Shead says it this way:  “In all three Synoptics, the subsequent miracle is an example of what Jesus’ lordship of the Sabbath will mean in practice:  people delivered from the shadow of death and restored into the unblemished image of God.“

It is little wonder then that the Hebrew writer speaks of our future glory as a “Sabbath rest.”  The Lord of the Sabbath gives us Sabbath rest.  We cease from our labors, we are redeemed from the burden of sin, we find rest for our souls, and we get back to the original activity that took place in the garden on the seventh day:  We glorify God and enjoy him forever.  We have Sabbath rest in him.

Alpha and Omega

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, ^[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Genesis 1:26

“And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil…” Genesis 3:22 a

“Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” Genesis 11:7

One really must wonder what the Hebrews thought about God’s “us” statements quoted above.  Of course theologians have long noted the use of the plural “Elohim” to identify God in the Hebrew text, but a valid question remains:  Who was God talking to?  Whoever it was (lets use “X”) surely must be critical to our understanding of everything that follows.  Look at each of these references again.

“X” shares God’s creative power…Genesis 1:1

“X” shares God’s personal image…Genesis 1:1

“X” shares God’s understanding…Genesis 3:22

“X” shares God’s dwelling place…Genesis 11:7

Here in the opening act of God’s great dramatic play we are introduced to the main characters; and like the opening of a Shakespearean production, we are immediately eavesdropping on a conversation.  God is carrying on a conversation with a nameless party or parties who share His power, His image, His knowledge, and His dwelling place.  Who could the mysterious “X” party be?  “X” is not immediately identified, but is spoken of as if the reader would be naturally aware of its presence.

Orthodox Christianity would contend this represents the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Bruce Marshall’s Trinity and Truth speaks of the “epistemic primacy” of the trinity. In other words, all true knowledge of God starts with this concept.

Understanding the triune nature of God is a great difficulty.  Augustine said it this way:

“If you deny the trinity you lose your soul, if you try to explain the trinity you shall lose your mind.”

In spite of this ontological conundrum, we believers assert its truth, for this deep mystery is revealed in a very real way as God’s story unfolds.  While the Holy Spirit is a vital subject all its own,  the deepest mystery of “X” is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.

As we examined in the last post, Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 reveal a strikingly similar set of facts.  We might add that Hebrews 1:1 plainly brings it all together, stating this:

^“1In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ²but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.”

And Paul in Ephesians the first chapter adds the following:

^“3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”

It can be no coincidence that so many of the canonical books (including Genesis) begin with the premise of Jesus Christ as present in person, in power, and in purpose at creation.  He is the triune God, the Word, the Creator, and the Redeemer.

How truly awesome it is to know He is the Omega; but how much more incredible still when we see so clearly in the Scriptures that He is the Alpha.

The Christian Creation Account: God Hints at the Resolution to the Divine Drama

“In the beginning God created . . .” (Gen. 1:1)

“In the beginning was the Word . . .” (John 1:1)

Throughout the course of history, there have been many different explanations for the origin of the cosmos. Ancient cultural traditions abound with varied, mythological legends about gods forming the earth. Much of modern science has attempted to abandon theistic explanations for the existence of the world, opting instead for naturalistic approaches. Christianity has its own explanation for the beginning of all things: A transcendent and immanent God created it.

Genesis 1 and 2 contain the Christian creation account. These chapters tell the story of God creating the earth in six days, followed by a day of rest on the seventh day. The method by which God creates the world is speaking; He speaks the world into existence. Significantly, the first thing that God creates is light. The last thing God creates is man – the most glorious part of God’s creation.

As marvelous as the creation account is to Christians, the story is not finished with Genesis 2. The story is not as glorious if we do not see the creation account as a foreshadowing of the grand purposes of God in creation. God creates knowing that sin will come into the world in the very next chapter – Genesis 3. And yet, through the creation itself, God hints at the coming of the one who will save the creation from the decay of the fall.

Consider how John the apostle understands creation in light of the coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the “Word” who was with the Father in the beginning (John 1:1). At creation, the “Word” does what words do: He spoke (John 1:3). Christ is the “light of the world” (John 8:12). And Jesus, God himself, becomes a man (John 1:14). Lest we forget the day of rest, Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath who brings healing and rest on the seventh day (John 9).

The creation story is about Jesus? Yes. There have been many different explanations for the creation of the world. Only the Lord of history could have begun the divine drama by hinting at the resolution. The transcendent God becomes a man in order to bring light, speak words of redemption, and offer rest to those who believe in Him.

The Great Cloud of Witnesses

What exactly is a “witness”?  The word is used in two ways in modern English.

The first use describes a person who simply observes something.  It means you were an onlooker as an event occurred.  It might be used in a sentence like this:  I was a witness to Saturday’s football game.

The second use is found in a legal setting, in which someone signs as a witness to a notarized document, testifying to the validity of a signature.  Better yet is the actual witness who provides testimony in a court of law.  An example might go like this:  I was a witness in a murder trial.

In Hebrews 12, we have a unique statement.  After spending an entire chapter listing a number of well-known Bible characters who exhibited faith as well as alluding to other anonymous individuals who lived by faith, the Hebrew writer says the following:

^“1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Heb 12:1-3

When you consider the previous post “Moralism for the Masses“, it is ironic that today this author heard a sermon in which the speaker very eloquently explained how this Hebrews passage alludes to a great host of the faithful who have passed-on and who serve as examples for our emulation.  In another dimension, they look down on us as witnesses to our own struggles in living Christian lives.  Like spectators along the sidelines of a spiritual marathon, they watch us and shout, “We did it!  You can do it!   Don’t give up!”  We also see Jesus Himself standing at the finish line, urging us to complete the race.

Is this really what is being taught here?  In all the New Testament, the word “witness” or “witnesses” is almost always a reference to those who “bear witness”.

Is there anything in the Hebrews 12 passage that suggests all the faithful from history can see us?  Is the writer really suggesting they are “observers” of our lives?  From the context and a rather common sense exegesis of this text, the answer is clearly “no”.  It’s the second definition above – somebody who testifies to something, not somebody who observes an event.

What we have in Hebrews 12 is not a great cheer-leading team in the clouds.  It’s all the faithful from the past who are “witnesses” testifying to something.  What is it they testify to?  Better yet, who are they testifying about?  The answer is in the context.  Because of these witnesses, we are told to endure hardship also, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” .

Can we look at their examples of faith?  Yes.  Should we?  Yes.  We can draw encouragement from these stories, but their real purpose is not to give us moral support.  We are to look upon the one they bear witness to, the one to whom they point us.  We look upon Jesus.  The sitting Jesus.  The Jesus who completed His work of justification.  They testify of Him; and He is so much more than the “head cheerleader” urging us to finish the race.  He ran the race for us – the one we couldn’t run on our own, and He has already made the victory ours through His sacrifice and our faith.

All the cheers of the faithful are of no value compared to the comfort of knowing Jesus won the race for all of us.  It is this confidence that motivates us to press on, to endure to the end.

Which sounds better:  “You can do it!” or “Have faith – I have done it for you!”?

Which motivates you more to action:  Grit and determination or gratitude?

Think about it.  That’s what Hebrews 11 and 12 is all about.