Holy Scriptures and Israel

Guest (Male): Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus Yeshua the Messiah and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now teaching God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective here is Gideon Levitan.

Gideon Levytam: I like you please to turn with me this meeting to the book of Hebrews and as you well aware we have been dealing with this book for quite a while but we are getting to one of the most beautiful chapters chapter 11 and 11th chapter really deals with the necessity for faith not only faith in theory but faith that acts faith that is more than merely intellectual faith but faithfulness that is necessary for those that believe in Yeshua the Messiah. And of course we know that the writer who wrote to Jewish believers to Hebrews in first century brought before them a whole chapter I'm amazed when I think about that without mentioning even one time New Testament individual constantly bringing before them an old Testament individuals in this chapter.

And most of those individuals are actually Hebrews the vast majority of them some of them prior to their Hebrew Abraham and some of them are non Hebrews even later on after like Rahab is mentioned here. But today I would like to deal with the verses that has to do with Abraham and Sarah his wife. So please turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11 and we are going to read today from verse eight all the way to verse 19. Hebrews chapter 11 and verses eight to 19. And I'm going to read those verses now. By faith Abraham when he was called to go into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed.

And he went out not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles in tents with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which has a foundation whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one and him as good as dead. So many as the stars of the sky in multitude.

And as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off. And they were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country that is an heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.

For he has prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. According that God or accounting I should say that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence also he had received him in a figure. And I stop here. Verses eight to 19 is the passage that we are going to speak about this meeting. Now this passage is very interesting because we are finding ourselves today in Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur between those two seasons for our nation Israel for the Hebrew people and we know very well how solemn and how serious the time between Rosh Hashanah the first month of Tishri and the Yom Kippur the 10th of the month of Tishri.

We know how our own people are literally longing and praying and beseeching God that God will forgive their sins and that their name will be inscribed in the book of life. And here we are reading this chapter that was written to early century Jewish Hebrew Israeli believers that they come to faith in the Messiah and they have been challenged by the writer. They have been going through pressure they have been going through persecution they have been going through suffering they have been going through internal emotionally feeling because they have been held between whether they should continue to follow after the Messiah and forsake everything that is behind or whether they should believe in the Messiah but go back and offer sacrifices and maintain their life in association with the temple and its all would belong to the law and always belong to that which God had given in the past and they were struggling.

Beloved I am telling you if you would have been there one of these Hebrews individuals you would have struggled in the same way as they have been. And the writer does not condemn them. The writer does not tell them if you will think of them in a bad way but he tried to appeal to them to explain to them to help them to be drawn after the Messiah Yeshua that have already come and died for them and you know like how you and I need the same encouragement from the Lord. You know how you and I sometimes feel so discouraged so dismayed things are not going the way we want them to go.

People are disappointed us and we have disappointed people and we get sometimes discouraged and how we long for some word of encouragement from another brother and another sister and how we need it and I'm speaking for myself how we need that every time as believers in our life. And here come the apostle the writer and he if you will open before them their history and fall before them their history as if it were taking a spreadsheet and spreading before those Hebrew believers the whole history of their people. And you know this this is very precious.

It's always a precious to the hearts of believers in every generation to hear of others that have gone before of others that have been faithful to the Lord. They have not been a perfect individual they have made mistake they have sinned a time they have gone wrong away from the things of the Lord. You never read of perfection except one by the name of Yeshua. But beloved he presenting before them that in spite of their failure in spite of their unfaithfulness in spite of what they have done that they were wrong God look at that which they have done right and the God is honoring them.

God is honoring them and as we said often in our Bible classes and in our meetings together that we never catch God by surprise when we go astray. We never give God some sort of unexpected situation when we deviate and fail. God knows that but what God does he draw us he pull us closer to him he encourages us to follow after him in spite of ourselves in spite of what's going on around us. And that's the encouragement that you and I need as believers today and those Hebrews needed at that time. So we have already covered the first seven verses of Hebrews 11.

What is faith? It is the confidence it is the assurance of things hoped for and it is the conviction of things that we are not seeing. That is faith. Faith is the substance of things that we hope for and it is the evidence of things that you and I do not see. That's what faith is. We trust God for what he say we believe God for what he promise and we have confidence that what he had said is going to come to pass. That's what faith is. It's not what we often hear of people that we have to have faith in faith.

No we don't have faith in faith we have faith in a person we have faith in God we have faith in Yeshua the Messiah. That's what faith is. It's in a person in God the son in the Messiah himself. And so by faith many others have gone before those Hebrews many others continue to trust God in spite of situation that were against them. And so we talked about Abel. It is interesting that the first man that he mentioned in the book of faith in the chapter of faith is not Adam and Eve but Abel. Why?

Because Abel was the first one we reading in the scripture that offer a sacrifice which in accordance with the will of God. In contrast to his brother Cain that offer a sacrifice which was not according with the will of God. And so the first man that is mentioned in the scripture is Abel he offered the sacrifice of faith. And then we see Enoch Enoch as we have him in verse five we have covered him as well. And here we see him how he walk by faith. And by the way I did not mention this in our last meeting together because Enoch was the father of the oldest men that ever live by the name of Methuselah.

We find him in Genesis chapter five. And you know what happened we never read of Enoch that he walked with God before Methuselah. But he we read of him that he walked with God after he gave life to Methuselah which tells us a lot because in the name Methuselah you say it in English Methuselah. In the name Methuselah we have two Hebrew words which mean Methu and Shalach. Methu means when he will die Shalach means I will send or it will be sent. What will be sent? The judgment of the flood was going to come after Methuselah was going to die.

It was like a message from God I'm going to judge the world and I'm going to send the flood upon the face of this earth. And it seems like that through the name Methuselah Shalach Enoch got the message from the Lord. And it changed his whole life. Instead of not walking with God we read that he walked with God. Now I do not know if he walked with God before we don't read it in the Bible but what we do read in Genesis five that Enoch walked with God after he begot Methuselah. And you know sometime we need warnings from God warnings that will warn us that will change our conduct and our behavior that when we get warning from God it motivates us to walk with God.

And so with Enoch we see the walk of faith. And then we had Noah the last one in verse seven and Noah gave us the illustration of the works of faith. Here's a man who build an ark preparing for the flood while it was never drop of rain have come down ever has yet. He have never seen rain. How could you build an ark so far away from the water and show you building an ark. Noah must have been the kind of a man that everybody mocked and laughed at them and know every nail he put into the ark was a message to the world.

Judgment is coming the flood is coming. Are you ready? Will you come in into the ark? Are you ready? And you know unfortunately only Noah his wife his three sons and his three daughters-in-law enter into the ark from among the human race and the rest were judged by God. And what we see Noah the works of faith. He carried on to build the ark. He carried on to work and to do things for God in the midst of an age where everybody laughed at him and mocked at him and Noah trusted God. And so we saw the three men and now beloved we are moving now verses eight to 19 and we see actually the first Hebrew in the Bible.

We have a lot of misunderstanding about who is Hebrew who is Israeli who is Jewish. And we have a lot of misunderstanding but let me tell you as far as the Bible teaches the first Hebrew we call him the first Hebrew was Abraham the father of all the nation of Israel the father of Isaac the grandfather of Jacob the great grandfather of the children of Jacob who are the children of Israel. And here the writer who writes to the Hebrew believers of first century bring before them the first Hebrew. And his name is Abraham. And so notice I want to tell you four things here in verses eight to 19 about Abraham and Sarah.

Now look at this for a moment. You know promises that people receive are very easy to receive but very hard to wait for. God made promises. And God made promises to Abraham and through Abraham to a nation namely the nation of Israel of which those Hebrews to whom the writer write were part of. And God made promises and he is going to keep those promises but the problem that men have the problem that you and I have is to wait for those promises to come to pass. Waiting is not easy. Waiting and trusting is not something very simple is something that demands much from all of us.

But God made promises. He made promises to Abraham he made promises to Isaac he made promises to Jacob he made promises and he promised that those promises which he have made he's going to keep. But it's very hard to keep to wait on promises. And so what we find out in the history of Abraham is that just like Abraham you and I might ask the same questions and those are four questions that we often say. And the questions are like that where or how or when or why. This is exactly what you and I would say many time when people say promise us things is where how when and why.

Those are the things that you and I may very well or those are the words that we would mention every time when we wait on a promise. And I would like you to see here that Abraham in spite of those four things or four words where how when and why. He still obeyed God and waited on those promises of God. Notice by the way that the word promise is mentioned five time in the text in which we read today from verse eight to verse 19. Let me read you those words. Verse nine by faith he sojourned in the land of promise.

Verse nine at the end with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise. Go down to verse 11. The last part of verse 11 because she judged him faithful who had promised. Go a little bit further down to verse 13 in the first part of verse 13. These all died in faith not having received the promises. Look at verse 17. By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac when he that had received and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. You notice that? Five times. The word promise or promises are written here in this text for verse eight to verse 19 of Hebrews 11 which tell us volumes.

It tells us so much because here is a man that did receive promises from God. He received the promises from the God of the universe. And he wanted those promises so much for his life. And so beloved look at this. Now as we got those five times we read about the promises of God I would like to show you that Abraham was faithful in spite of the fact that he didn't receive all the promises yet in his life. Number one is found in verse eight to 10. And in verses eight to 10 we read we see that Abraham's obedience to God while not knowing where and here is the word where he is going.

He continued to obey God. And even he did not know where he's going to he obeyed God's word and went to where God have told him to go. Look at this verse eight nine and 10 by faith Abraham. When he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed. And he went out not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise. And look at this last verse verse 10.

For he looked for a city which has foundation whose builder and maker is God. Look at the man Abraham. The first Hebrew that is actually found in Genesis chapter 14 the first Hebrew individual he is called Abraham the Hebrew in Genesis 14 and verse 13 the first man that is called a Hebrew he trusted God to such an extent beloved brothers and sisters that when God called him in Genesis chapter 12 to leave his family to leave his country to leave all that which is surrounded him and to go to a place which God told him of.

You know he obeyed. We read in this verse. He obeyed and he went out not knowing whither he went. Here we see the preciousness of this man the trust of this man. He obeyed God and by the way if you read in other passages if you read in the book of Acts chapter seven you will notice that he stopped somewhere on the way. He actually did not continue all the way to Canaan. He stopped somewhere in the place called Haran. We actually read it today in Genesis 11. And you know what happened here instead of continuing all the way to the promised land because of relative because of his father he stopped in Haran and he waited in Haran for a while before he continued to the land of Canaan.

And you know it teaches us many things here. You know what happened with us as believers sometimes. Sometime because of family ties because of parents or children or brothers and sisters and relatives sometime because of our relative we don't continue on in spiritual progress because our natural tie is very important for us. You know the expression blood is thicker than water. And you know this is a true expression because many times believers and those Hebrews needed to hear it and you and I need to hear it that a time because of natural ties because we love our parents and because we love our family we don't continue to progress spiritually because we do not want to separate from our blood relation.

We do not want to hurt them we do not want to lose them and therefore sometime we neglect our spiritual progress because of our own family ties. And you know Abraham we read by the way that Abraham did not leave Haran before his father died. It says by the way I'm reading verse 31 of Genesis chapter 11 and Terah took Abraham his son and Lot the son of Haran his son's son and Sarai his daughter-in-law his son Abraham's wife and they went forth with them from Ur listen from Ur the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan.

But look what happened. And they came unto Haran and they dwelt in Haran. They stopped there. They didn't continue and then we read and the days of Terah were 205 years and Terah died in Haran. And then chapter 12 come. Now the Lord said unto Abraham get thee out of thy country and of thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land which I will show thee. You see beloved God had to repeat the call of Abraham in Haran because Abraham stopped there because of family ties. And that's what happened with us and that was our apostle is telling the Hebrews.

About you notice the interesting part here in Hebrews 11 he does not mention at all the pause in Abraham's life.

Guest (Male): You have been listening to the Holy Scriptures and Israel with Gideon Levitan. Gideon teaches God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective. For more information about this ministry write to Holy Scriptures and Israel box 1411 Niagara on the Lake Ontario L0S 1J0 or visit our website at Holy Scriptures and Israel.com. You are also invited to Gideon's weekly Bible teaching on Fridays at 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. and Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. at Willowdale Christian Assembly Hall 28 Martin Ross Avenue in Toronto. Holy Scriptures and Israel is made possible by your prayers and financial support. If you would like to support the program visit Holy Scriptures and Israel.com.

God bless you. Shalom Shalom.