Hebrews 11:13-39

11:17-19 | Satan tempts people to bring out hte worst; God tests people to help bring out the best (2 Cor. 2:9; James 1:3,13; 1 Pet. 1:6-7). Genesis 22:1-18 records God’s test of Abraham regrading Isaac, the son of promise. When God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, he obeyed without hesitation (Ps. 119:60), even though it would mean not only losing his only son, but destroying the promise. Yet Abraham had faith in God’s ability to do whatever was needed to fulfill His word - reasoning that perhaps God would raise Isaac from the dead.

11:20 | Isaac maintained faith through his near sacrifice in Genesis 22, his wife Rebekah’s barrenness (Gen. 25:21), and into old age.

11:21 | Jacob coveted the promise of God - an indication that he understood the importance of God’s blessing. Rather than trusting God to arrange the circumstances, however, he deceived his brother and his father to get the birthright and the blessing. Still, he shows up in the Hall of Faith because, when facing death, he had hope in the promise of God. By blessing his grandsons with praises to God on his lips, he looked forward to the future (Gen. 48).

11:22 | Besides Daniel, Joseph is perhaps the most faithful figure in the OT. He was only 17 when his brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt. He spent his entire adult life in that foreign land - some of the time unjustly imprisoned - but he never forgot who he was and where he belonged. At the end of his dys, he focused not on the wealth of his own kingdom but on the promise of a future kingdom (Gen. 50:24-26; Ex. 13:18-19; Josh. 24:32).

11:23-29 | Moses occupies more attention than any other in the Hall of Faith (he is mentioned 10 times in the Book of Hebrews). His life is characterized by faith and faithfulness from birth to death (3:5; Deut. 34:5-12).

Many people give in to temptation not because they want too much but because they settle for too little.

11:30-31 | If believers live by faith, the battles they will enter can be confronted with onfidence because all faith is based in the promise of Almighty God. The promise to Joshua was that he would conquer (Josh. 6:3-5). Rahab was promised deliverance from the judgment on her country (Josh. 6:16-17).

11:32-33 | Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah are from the ag when the judges ruled Israel and “everyone did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 17:6; 21:25). These four men served when Israel had no king to demonstrate the courage needed to stand up for what is right.

11:32 | In the Hall of Faith, David alone represents the age of kings in Israel - because he lived a life of complete devotion to God, and perhaps because he faithfully trusted in God’s promise to make him king despite all the hardship endured (1 Sam. 16-17). Samuel so trusted God that he was willing to stand against the people, rebuke the king (Saul), and waith for God’s anointed.

11:33 | Stopped the mouths of lions no doubt refers to Daniel 6, and quenched the violence of fire refers to Daniel’s three friends and their ordeal in the fiery furnace (Dan. 3).