Faith is a sure hope, the same in principle in both Testaments, and begins with believing in God as the creator Heb.11:1-3).
- Faith does not protect us from suffering and trouble.
- 11:4. God looked after Cain without saving him, while Abel suffered an early death, but was right with God.
- Heb.11:7; 2 Peter 2:5. For 120 years Noah’s testimony was rejected. For an extreme case, see Job 13:15.
- Faith looks to the blood and the heart.
- 11:4. Was the issue with the offerings or the ones making the offering? Both. Calvin: ‘surely the fat of brute animals did not smell so sweetly that it could, by its odour, pacify God.’ Yet Abel offered a blood sacrifice – Gen.4:3-4; Lev.17:11; Heb.9:22).
- But also see 1 John 3:12. Cain does not break with sin – Gen.4:7; Prov.15:8. ‘Be of sin the double cure,’ wrote Augustus Toplady.
- Faith obeys God and is rewarded.
- 11:5; Gen.5:21-24. Only Enoch and Elijah went to heaven without dying, but faith learns that God is the God of everlasting life.
- 11:7; Gen.6:12-14, 22; 2 Peter 3:5-9, 10-11. The New English Bible says of Noah: ‘he put the whole world in the wrong’. Thomas Manton: ‘Obedience is faith’s daughter.’ If Christ is not your Saviour, He will be your Judge.