By faith Abel -- against the wind

The Word for today:
Hebrews 11:23-40

mark this: (Hebrews 11:4)
By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.


Before I ever read the Bible, I heard all about Cain and Abel. I knew they were brothers, sons of Adam and Eve, and that Cain killed Abel.

And I always wondered why I heard more about Cain than Abel. When I came to faith in Jesus Christ and started living my faith out in public in real ways, I found out why we hear more about Cain.

Cain is the world’s boy. He goes along and gets along. He has the reputation as the rebel, but if we consider for a moment that there were four persons in the world and that Cain followed the path already taken by Mom and Dad, while Abel took the path that had been taken by no one…

You tell me which one is the rebel and which one is Mama’s boy.

I have a growing contempt for the Cains of the world. They’re the kind that take a poll before they vote. They boldly proceed—but only in the direction of the prevailing wind. They are well-liked and very likely to be named Citizens of the Year.

And they have a growing contempt for me and my kind, who will never—trust me--be elected Mayor of Podunk.

***

While my disdain for Cain increases, my respect and fascination for Abel has multiplied. He has few lines in scripture, but he has a position and place in God’s story which is powerfully eloquent.

As I mentioned above, within the microcosm that was his world he stood absolutely alone. He followed God when no one else did. Project him out to the macro world and we see the Arch-Rebel, Jesus Christ--walking as God told him to walk, bringing the sacrifice God told him to bring--without ally or precedent or example.

There’s a cute little poster, found in any Christian bookstore, with a Christian fish swimming that-a-way, against the tide of prevailing opinion, and straight into the teeth of a whole school of sharks coming this-a-way. My kids got me that picture, set in a frame, for Father’s Day a few years ago. I take it as a great compliment every time I see it, and as a source of ongoing inspiration and resolve.

But as I swim against the tide, I stand in absolute awe of Jesus Christ and Abel. I know how lonely faith can be, yet I have a phalanx of support when compared to them. I know how misunderstood faith can get, yet I am standing with many others in the place where they stood utterly alone.

Jesus Christ and Abel are my biggest and big brothers, respectively. And they are my biggest and big heroes. They went first, and they went alone.

I am deeply indebted to them. There are other heroes in the Hall of Faith, but Jesus and Abel are the original inductees, in a class by themselves.

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Faith: do-able, you-able, and me too-able

The Word for today:
Hebrews 11:1-22

mark these:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Here we are, in Hebrews 11, at the Hall of Fame of Faith!

Over the next half-dozen days, we’re going to tour the Hall of Faith. We’re going to meet the most amazing cast of characters and re-tell their amazing exploits.

We’ll hear about Abraham and Sarah and Enoch and Abel and Samson and Deborah and Gideon and about unnamed “others.”

But as we read their deeds of faith, don’t think of yourself as an outsider. We’re meant to be inspired by these stories of people just like us, who made the Hall of Faith despite (and sometimes because of) their doubts and neuroses and attitudes and wounds and worries.

This isn’t Cooperstown or Canton or Cleveland, where we go to count the stars of the diamond, or the gridiron, or the radio waves. Those Halls will never induct us, because most of us can’t hit the curve or the high note.

This Hall is different. It isn’t about setting new records or being at the center of the spotlight. This one is about following the Leader! We can all do that.

I once heard Bible teacher James MacDonald tell his students that—

“Faith is believing the Word of God and acting upon it,
no matter how I feel,
because God promises a good result.”

I wrote those words down and tucked them inside my Bible. Then I printed them on little placards and placed them where my teenage sons are most likely to see them—on the refrigerator.

Those words summarize the three Bible verses that have helped me understand what the Bible means by “faith.”  Two of those three verses are found right here in Hebrews 11:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  (Hebrews 11:1)

Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.  (Hebrews 11:6)

The other, the most instructive of all, is found at Luke 5:5--
But Simon answered and said to Him, "Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net."  (Luke 5:5)

Faith starts with the Word of God, then it follows:  At your Word I will let down the net.  It is not complicated or mysterious at all.  It’s do-able and (if I may coin a phrase) it’s you-able.

***

The signature line of Hebrews 11 is this one:

By faith Abel  (11:4)
By faith Enoch  (11:5)
By faith Noah  (11:7)
By faith Abraham  (11:8)
By faith Sarah  (11:11)
By faith Isaac  (11:20)
By faith Jacob  (11:21)
By faith Joseph  (11:22)
By faith Moses  (11:23)
By faith Rahab  (11:31)

I hope that among them, some day, will be your name and mine.  By faith.

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for the joy set before him

The Word for today:
Hebrews 10:19-39

mark this: Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

mark this: Hebrews 12:1-2
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.


Did Jesus, being God, still need faith? I mean, if he could see the future (as God can) then he wouldn’t need faith, like we do, would he?

We can’t answer that question because its premise is erroneous. There has never been a moment when Jesus was not God, but when he came here to take our place on the cross, he emptied himself (Philippians 2:7) of the prerogatives of deity (things like omniscience and omnipresence), in order to become like us in all things, except for sin.

So, for the most part, he knew as much about the future as the Word of God told him. Does that remind you of somebody? It should, ‘cause that somebody is you.

Jesus’ “saw” the future in the Word of God. Jesus saw the cross, and past it, with the eyes of faith. He read in the scripture that the Messiah would be cut off and killed. He also read that his sacrifice would rescue, redeem, heal, and liberate many people, and that his body would not see the corruption of death. So, for the joy set before him, he went to the cross.

Certainly that joy was not set before his physical eyes. He went to the cross, and through the cross, because the Word of God promised redemption, rescue, resurrection, and rest on the other side:
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

That’s all our faith really is. It’s trusting the Word of God enough to live it out. So when the Bible tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen, the substance and evidence are the Word of God.

The only difference between God’s faith and my faith is that he acts on the Word he wrote, while I act on the Word he wrote. Look that sentence over (and over) and the difference will eventually emerge.

Tomorrow we will learn all about the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11, commonly known as the Hall of Fame of Faith. But one name will be missing until we get to chapter 12, where we will see that Jesus is the source—the author and perfecter--of our faith.

Jesus wrote the book on faith. Of that we’re all aware. Then he lived it out, embodied it, turned it into flesh. It was his most comprehensive miracle. Now it's ours to emulate.

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So, Gorgeous…

The Word for today:
Hebrews 10:1-18

mark this:   Hebrews 10:11-12
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.



When Jesus finished his work of re-creation, he sat down. A Bible line like that is meant to ring a bell.

It’s meant, of course, to bring us back to the time when God finished his work of creation and rested (Genesis 2:3).

God wants us to draw these parallels for many reasons. First of all, he wants us to rest assured that (as Jesus triumphantly declared from the cross) It is finished, complete. There is nothing we have to do and nothing we can do to improve on what he’s done.

Think of yourself as a master work of art. If you don’t, you’d better start thinking that way because the Word of God says you are:

For we are God's workmanship (Greek "poema") created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

The Greek word “poema,” here rendered as “workmanship,” is the word from which we get the English word “poem.” Literally, it means that those who trust in Christ are God’s masterpieces, written (or fashioned) by the very hand of God.

I like to think of myself as something akin to the perfect “David” by the great Michelangelo! You may scoff, but that’s scriptural and—here’s the point—anything less is unscriptural. God sees us complete and perfect in Jesus.

While we still see ourselves in process but not yet there, God sees what we shall be. Time does not obstruct his view. And this, of course, is what we shall be:

We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  (1 John 3:2)

So many of the mysteries of scripture are cleared up when we see the ultimate, through the eternal eyes of God; when we understand that the Kingdom of God is both now and not yet; and that heaven is all the way from here to there.

In an ultimate realm that is more real than the shadows we can see, we already are who we shall be.  The poema is finished, and we, too, are at rest:

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.  (Ephesians 2:6)

God saw that physical creation was good (1), even very good (2), and he said so. But he sees you as his masterpiece, and says so. We ought to stop trying so hard to get where we are.

So, Gorgeous, you can call me David if you want to.

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(1) Genesis 1:25; (2) Genesis 1:31

our favorite leap of faith

The Word for today:
Luke 1:41 (below)


After 993 days without one, Stand in the Rain knows what to do with a day off:  Take it!  

There is no February 29 on our reading schedule, so we thought we’d leave you with our favorite leap year verse (John the Baptist’s prenatal leap of faith) and call it a day…

When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  (Luke 1:41)

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mercy seat: the connection between the inside and the outside

The Word for today:
Hebrews 9:16-28

mark this: (from Hebrews 9:3-5)
Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place…having the Ark of the Covenant.  Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.

mark this: Romans 3:23-25/NET
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith.



Haven’t I seen you somewhere before? Do you have a twin?

These are questions that come to mind when we meet someone who looks so familiar that we could swear we must have met him before.

There are certain scenes in the Bible that should evoke the same questions.  Yesterday, we showed pictures--from Genesis, Exodus, and the gospel of John--which looked strikingly alike. In each one of them, angels were stationed at the place where man and God might meet.

One scene took place at the Garden of Eden. Man and God were together in the garden, but man's sin soon separated them. As Adam and Eve left the garden, cherubim with a flaming sword guarded the way to the tree of life. On the ground next to the entrance was the blood of an animal whose skin provided a temporary covering for their nakedness.

The next scene was from the tabernacle. In the inner compartment--the Holy of Holies--the Ark of the Covenant was covered with a golden lid, called the “mercy seat.” There, only once per year, when the blood of an animal was sprinkled on that lid, God met with one man for just a moment. Cherubim, fashioned from pure gold, were at either end of the mercy seat keeping watch.

Finally, we saw two angels stationed at the tomb where Jesus’ body had lain. But this time something very different happened. Instead of standing between the people and God (as they did at the Garden of Eden); instead of admitting only one person per year (as at the Tabernacle) the angels at Jesus’ empty tomb invited a common person--Mary of Magdala--to come right in and see for herself where Jesus’ body had been.

***

These three pictures, though much the same, are slightly, progressively, different. They are examples of a poetic technique called “incremental repetition” (which sounds oxymoronic--How can something change while staying the same?)  The many resemblances between the scenes actually enhance the few slight differences between them.

In the first scene, man was shut out of the Garden altogether, though the sword which kept them out also lighted the way for their future return. Almost unnoticed, a blood atonement (the animal skins) is foreshadowed.

In the second scene, though the blood atonement is ceremonially observed, its effectiveness is limited to just one person and just one moment every year. Nonetheless, the steps of Adam and Eve are retraced in reverse as the high priest enters the Presence of God.

In the third scene, the angels beckon a woman (a picture in reverse of Eve’s banishment) to enter the tomb--which itself is a picture of the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, which itself was a picture of the Garden of Eden where man once enjoyed unhindered access to God.

To emphasize how Jesus, who is the mercy seat (1), had forever obliterated the sin barrier between God and man, the thick curtain that shut the people out of the Holiest Place had been torn, at the moment he died, from top to bottom as if by invisible hands.

The cherubim, who long to look into such things (2), finally got to see what they’d been waiting for. The Garden, the Holy of Holies, Paradise itself (all pictures of God’s Presence) would be closed no more.

Man and God meet at the mercy seat. Like other tabernacle furniture—the lampstand, the laver, the altar, the ark itself, etc., the mercy seat pointed to a person. As both Son of Man and Son of God, he is the connection between God and man whom Job had longed for—someone who might lay his hand upon us both (Job 9:33).

***

On that first Easter morning, when Mary Magdalene thought she’d seen the gardener, she was right. This last Adam will never let thorns and briers choke the Garden again.

And if Mary should encounter the subtle speech of a serpent, she’ll tell him to go speak to her Husband, this time.

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(1) See Romans 3:23-25/NET (above); (2) 1 Peter 1:12

you'll meet him at the mercy seat

The Word for today:
Hebrews 9:1-15

Mark this: Hebrews 9:5
Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.  (Hebrews 9:1-5)



Pictures can “rhyme” just as well as words can, and maybe even better. Here are three pictures that rhyme:

From Genesis 3:24:



From Exodus 25:18-22:



From John 20:11-13:



These pictures don’t resemble each other by accident. God is visually rhyming theses scenes in order that we see the connection between them. He wants to stir within us the sense that we’ve seen these scenes before and that they are meant to be seen as reflections of each other.

***

Let’s view them one at a time, with brief captions:



East of Eden, cherubim stand guard at the entrance to the garden. As Adam and Eve looked back, the blood of an animal, slain to provide a covering for their nakedness, darkened the ground just inside the entrance. See Genesis 3:24.

***

The Ark of the Covenant (in the Tabernacle’s innermost compartment, known as the Most Holy Place) had a golden lid that was known as the “mercy seat.” Cherubim, fashioned of gold with overspreading wings, were stationed on either side of this lid, gazing down upon the place where the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement. It was here, between the cherubim, where God met with man. See Exodus 25:18-22.

***

Angels are stationed at the tomb where Jesus’ body had been. See John 20:11-13.

***

These pictures perform the same function as the chorus (or refrain) does in a song.  When we think of the Bible (as we should) as one long song with many verses, these visually repetitive scenes hold the verses together and give the whole “song” a coherent meaning.

Let them do just that for the rest of the day until we reconvene tomorrow, when I will provide some further commentary and connective material (which by that time you won’t even need!)

But before we go, I want to leave you with a pivotal passage that will help you make the connections God wants you to make:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith. (Romans 3:23-25/NET)

Let these pictures make their way into your heart and head. Let them settle (as pictures will) deep beneath your consciousness. And may you meet God there, in the innermost compartment between the cherubim.

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