See the Bible Through Jewish Eyes BIBLE STUDY WITH DR. RICH FREEMAN
Hebrews 11: 4-7
Examples of Faith (PART 1/Before the Patriarchs)
Hebrews 11, the Great Hall of Faith chapter,
begins with a biblical description of faith. Now the
writer of Hebrews will expand this description of
faith by giving us some examples of it, beginning
with Abel and then moving on to Enoch and
Noah. Hebrews 11:4 says, “By faith Abel offered to
God a better sacrifice than Cain.” A major theme in
the book of Hebrews is the superiority of Yeshua
over the sacrificial system of the
day, including a better sacrifice
(Hebrews 9:23). What made
Abel’s sacrifice better was that he
offered the type of sacrifice that
God required, a blood sacrifice,
the first of which would have been
the animal slain to cover Adam
and Eve. By offering the better
sacrifice than Cain, Abel “obtained
the testimony that he was righteous.”
What made Abel righteous was
his faith, the evidence of which
was offering the sacrifice that God
required, namely a blood sacrifice.
It is through that offering of a
blood sacrifice that the writer of
Hebrews says, “Though he is dead,
he still speaks” (Hebrews 11:4).
The next person to demonstrate
faith was Enoch. Enoch and
Abel both demonstrate the kind of
faith pleasing to God, one that “obtained
testimony” or “obtained witness”
that they were righteous and
pleasing to God. Hebrews 11:5
says that Enoch “obtained the witness
that before his being taken up
he was pleasing to God.” The only
additional biblical information we
have on Enoch is found in the book of Jude, where
it says in chapter 14 that Enoch prophesied against
an ungodly generation regarding God’s impending
judgment. One can speculate that Enoch believed
that though he was prophesying against this ungodly
generation, God would protect him and keep him
safe. For his faith, Enoch was rewarded by being
“taken up so that he would not see death.” For his faith
Abel was murdered, a very different outcome to two
examples of great faith. The writer of Hebrews further
describes faith by writing, “Without faith it is impossible
to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). Though Abel
and Enoch had very different outcomes in their lives,
they both pleased God because of their faith. They
believed that “He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
The last example of faith in this study is Noah. In
JULY 2018 / THE CHOSEN PEOPLE - 6
Hebrews 11:7, the writer says four
things about Noah. First, he says,
Noah was “warned by God about
things not yet seen.” God warned
Noah that He was going to judge
the ungodliness in the world by
bringing about a cataclysmic flood
that would wipe out all life on the
planet. There had never even been
rain, let alone a flood, and yet
clearly Noah believed God. Second,
it says that Noah “in reverence
prepared an ark for the salvation of
his household.” Can you imagine
Noah hearing God say, “I want
you to build a ark.” His response
had to have been, “What’s an ark?”
God would have replied, “It’s a
big boat.” Yet, because of his faith
Noah believed God at His Word
and accepted what he did not
understand. Because of his faith,
Noah, his wife, their three sons
and their wives, as well as two of
every creature on earth were saved
from the flood that destroyed the
rest of the world. Third, by obeying
God and building the ark for
which he would have been soundly
ridiculed, Noah “condemned
the world.” Those who did not have faith that was
pleasing to God perished because they ignored Noah’s
warnings. Fourth, Noah “became an heir of the
righteousness which is according to faith.” What Noah
inherited was the new world after the flood and it
would be his legacy to repopulate the earth through
his sons—an allusion to the new world to come for
all believers in Messiah.
Dr. Rich Freeman, D. Min.
serves as the Vice President
for Church Ministries
and Conferences with
Chosen People Ministries
and lives in South Florida
with his wife, Julia.
Hebrews 11:4-7
4 By faith Abel offered to God
a better sacrifice than Cain,
through which he obtained
the testimony that he was
righteous, God testifying
about his gifts, and through
faith, though he is dead, he
still speaks. 5 By faith Enoch
was taken up so that he would
not see death; and he was not
found because God took him
up; for he obtained the witness
that before his being taken up
he was pleasing to God. 6 And
without faith it is impossible to
please Him, for he who comes
to God must believe that He
is and that He is a rewarder of
those who seek Him. 7 By faith
Noah, being warned by God
about things not yet seen, in
reverence prepared an ark for
the salvation of his household,
by which he condemned the
world, and became an heir of
the righteousness which is
according to faith.