James 4:8
What does it mean to walk by faith?
Faith will always make a way…
Hebrews 11:1-3
New King James Version
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
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Faith brings a confidence in God’s promises and shows trust in His character.
Eyesight produces a conviction about objects in the physical world.
Faith produces the same convictions for the invisible order.
Faith shows itself by producing assurance that what we hope for will happen.
Faith also provides an insight into realities which otherwise remain unseen.
A person with faith lets these unseen realities from God provide a living, effective power for daily life.
These verses present two illustrations of the use of faith.
First, faith enabled the heroes of the Old Testament to receive a good standing with God.
God gave His approval to the faith of these saints.
Second, believing that God created the world involves a leap of faith.
Faith points to an unseen power who made the world we see.
The universe involves more than the physical world. It includes the ages that God had planned, beginning with the act of creation and extending to the consummation of all things in Christ.
By faith we know that all we see around us and all that takes place on earth came from one we cannot see.
By observing creation we may learn of God’s power.
We learn the manner of God’s creation only by responding in faith to the statements of Scripture.
Faith provides us with the only factual account of creation.
God is the only One who was there; He tells us how it happened.
We believe His Word and thus we know.
McCue states: “The conception of God pre-existent to matter and by His fiat calling it into being is beyond the domain of reason or demonstration. It is simply accepted by an act of faith.”
By faith we understand.
The world says, “Seeing is believing.”
God says, “Believing is seeing.”
Jesus said to Martha, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see …” (John 11:40).
The Apostle John wrote, “These things I have written to you who believe … that you may know” (1 Jn. 5:13).
Faith is a way of viewing all of life, what lies ahead as well as what is in the past.
It involves accepting God’s viewpoint as He has revealed it in His Word.
This extends to how the universe came into being (cf. 1:2-3) as well as how it will end.
“Belief in the existence of the world is not faith, nor is it faith when men hold that the world was made out of some preexisting ‘stuff.’
(In the first century there were people who did not believe in God but who held to some kind of ‘creation.’)
But when we understand that it was the Word of God (‘God’s command) that produced all things, that is faith.”
Notice that the writer did not say that God created the universe out of nothing (creation ex nihilo), an idea that the Greeks rejected.
He simply said that the universe did not originate from primal material or anything observable.
His description does not rule out creation ex nihilo, but neither does it affirm it. Genesis 1:1-3 and logic seem to indicate that God did indeed create the universe, something visible, out of His word, something invisible.
In spiritual matters faith precedes understanding.
The worlds were framed by the Word of God.
God spoke and matter came into being.
This agrees perfectly with man’s discovery that matter is essentially energy.
When God spoke, there was a flow of energy in the form of sound waves.
These were transformed into matter, and the world sprang into being.
The things which are seen were not made out of things which are visible.
Energy is invisible; so are atoms, and molecules, and gases to the naked eye, yet in combination they become visible.
The fact of creation as set forth herein Hebrews 11:3 is unimpeachable.
It has never been improved on and never will.
As Covenant children of God, our faith rests in the God who created the entire universe by His Word.
God’s Word has awesome power.
When He speaks, do you listen and respond?
How can you better prepare yourself to respond to His voice?
Faith is more than a belief in God. It is also a way of life.
The heroes of faith, which we read about in Hebrews 11, although they were imperfect, they trusted God and gave their lives to Him.
Hebrews 11 can also encourage us by telling about people’s faith in the Old Testament.
These examples encourage us.
What are you doing to encourage others? Who will you tell?
Selah (let us pause and calmly think about these things)
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Monday, Oct 24
The Berean
Daily Verse and Comment
“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”
— Hebrews 11:3
This verse is rather difficult in most of our modern English translations. It literally says, “By faith we understand the ages to have been prepared by a saying of God, in regard to the things seen not having come out of things appearing” (Young’s Literal Translation).
The key to understanding this verse is the word translated “worlds” in modern Bibles.
In the Greek, it is aioonas, which primarily means “ages” or long periods of time whose sum is eternity.
For modern translations to understand this to be “worlds” distorts what the author was trying to explain.
He is not talking about physical creation of the earth or matter, which “worlds” implies, but about God’s sovereignty over the ages of mankind’s civilizations.
“Framed” is the Greek kateertisthai, meaning prepared, arranged, constituted, set in order—generally, to put a thing in its proper condition.
The Bible speaks of three distinct ages:
1. The time before the Flood,
2. The present, and
3. The age to come (see II Peter 3:6; Galatians 1:4; Matthew 12:32; Luke 18:30; etc.).
Other periods of time can be divided into distinct ages:
The Babylonian, the Persian, the Greek, the Roman, the Medieval, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Modern, the Postmodern, etc.
The author is telling us that the word of God “prepares,” “orders,” or “arranges” the ages of mankind—in other words, God is sovereignly guiding the affairs of men to bring about His ultimate purpose.
As is said to Daniel, “The Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whoever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men” ( Daniel 4:17).
We know this by faith—that is, if we truly believe and trust God, that He is almighty, that He is bringing us to perfection, and that He has a purpose He is working out, we know that He is in control.
We understand by what we read in His Word that He is working toward His ends, and what goes from His mouth (in terms of law, direction, and prophecy) will come to pass (Isaiah 55:10-11).
When God speaks, things happen: It was by God speaking that the earth and everything in it was created (Genesis 1).
The same is true of the migrations of nations, their rise and fall, the installation and removal of leaders, as well as the circumstances of His people in the church.
God is on His throne, and He is governing His creation.
The last half of Hebrews 11:3 is our “proof”:
What we see going on in the world (during our age) has not been brought to pass by men but by the invisible God.
Men think they are movers and shakers; they think they are in control. But God says here that events on this earth have their ultimate design in the invisible God; He rules over the kingdom of men.
There is an unseen hand manipulating events so that the person of faith can understand that history is not an endless cycle of repetition; it is going somewhere. God is drawing things to a conclusion.
We are coming to the end of an age, and God is framing and manipulating events in preparation for this age to climax and end so a new and better age can begin.
This verse tells us that we can see the hand of God working, not only in the big events of this world, but also in our lives if we are living by faith (II Corinthians 5:7 ).
— Richard T. Ritenbaugh
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