Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Obeying God's delegated authority, part 21. Jos 1:16-18; survey of Heb.
Title: Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Obeying God's delegated authority, part 21. Jos 1:16-18; survey of Heb.
Announcementsopening prayer:
Heb 10:32 But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings,
Heb 10:33 partly, by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.
Heb 10:34 For you showed sympathy to the prisoners, and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one.
Heb 10:35 Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
Heb 10:36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
The Bible describes these times as the "little while" or the "momentary".
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1Pe 1:6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,
1Pe 1:7 that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ
1Pe 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,
1Pe 5:7 casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.
1Pe 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
1Pe 5:9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
1Pe 5:10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
1Pe 5:11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.
2Co 4:17-18
For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Sometimes, the "little while" or the "momentary" seems like forever, and it is at these times, a day here or there, or a string of days, where the temptation to fall back rather than hold fast is so very strong. At these times we must refocus the eyes of our heart upon the promises of God and let our hearts take courage as we wait for the Lord.
Exo 14:13-14
"Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent."
As we know from our study of the Exodus generation, that this test would be over fairly soon, but that was not even remotely the end of all tests.
We must be prepared for thought testing, system testing, disaster testing, people testing at all times. We never know when the stumbling blocks will come, or when one is overcome, when the next one will appear.
Ron and Ruth Sosenko have been married for twenty years. When they decided to get married, it was very difficult to find someone to marry them, since they lived in Bavaria, which is almost entirely Catholic. Ron had become a Christian a few years earlier and was listening to Col. Thieme's tapes. Ruth was naturally raised in the Catholic church, but was also learning Bible doctrine. Ruth was singing at the American Military Chapel and had asked Pastor Schafranek if he would marry them. He agreed. In speaking with him, he related that he was a Jew from Augsburg and had been put in the concentration camp that was actually very near them in Landsberg.
While he was there he became friends with a Lutheran Pastor who gave him the gospel and kept telling him that God had a plan for his life. Later his Pastor friend died in his arms. Months later he was freed by the Americans, the only member of his family to survive. While working for the Americans he decided that he would go to Australia and become a Lutheran Pastor.
Ron wrote to me, "The Lutheran Pastor whose name I don't remember also stood up for God's word and Good always comes out of doing Good. When God sends his word out it will accomplish His will. Even in a horrible situation good can come out of it."
[back to Heb 10:35]
Heb 10:35 Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
Heb 10:36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
In the next two verses, this exhortation to patience is supported by a quote from the prophet Habakkuk in the late 7th century. He cried out to God because of the oppression that was rife on every hand, and wondered when divine righteousness would at last be vindicated on earth. God answered his complaint and bade him to be patient.
The oppressor would at last reap the judgment which his God-defying ways had incurred and God's purpose would be accomplished.
Habakkuk was witness to all of the evil being done in Judea and that the wicked surrounded the righteous and persecuted them and stole from them. God's answer to these wicked people was the discipline which would come from Babylon. Habakkuk naturally asked God how He could destroy His own people with an evil nation, to which God replied that Babylon would itself be judged in due time. God would remove the wicked from Israel and eventually remove all wickedness by means of an expected deliverer.
Habakkuk awaited this deliverance from Babylon as well as the destruction of Babylon, but the prophecy goes deeper still, as the writer of Hebrews knows full well. Deliverance would ultimately come from the Messiah, and His coming was in a little while, and He will not delay the Father's timing by one second. The great Deliverer would vindicate all the righteous and judge the wicked unbelieving. This is a certainty - in a very little while. Verses 37 and 38 are from the Septuagint's version of Hab 2:3-4.
Heb 10:37 For yet in a very little while,
He who is coming [the Coming One] will come, and will not delay.
Heb 10:38 But My righteous one shall live by faith;
And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.
When this deliverer appears, He will vindicate the righteousness of God and put down the oppressor; and like the first Advent, He will not draw or shrink back.
Verse 38 is as much about Christ as it is applied to the believer, or professing believer, i.e. an unbeliever in the midst of the church.
Christ is coming. To shrink back to our old way of life because of persecution or social pressure (loss of friends or antagonism from family) is to prove ourselves reprobate, and God has no pleasure in that. We are to be pleasing in His sight.
Rom 8:6-8
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
1Th 4:1
Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you may excel still more.
Joh 8:29
"And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him."
2Co 5:9
Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.
Eph 5:8-10
or you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn [proving] what is pleasing to the Lord.
Heb 10:37 For yet in a very little while,
He who is coming [the Coming One] will come, and will not delay.
Heb 10:38 But My righteous one shall live by faith;
And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.
My righteous one shall live by faith. This verse lit the spark of the Reformation, when the Augustinian monk, Martin Luther found them in his Greek New Testament.
Every believer is fully justified by faith. So then how should he walk in this life? He should live by continued confidence and calm trust in God, and not in doubt, fear, or apprehension.
Faith at salvation is to become faith in God's word and with enough of instruction that faith grows into faith towards the future which is hope.
Gal 3:11
Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, "The righteous man shall live by faith."
Rom 1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith."
He is exhorting the Christians whom he addressed, to perseverance in the gospel and the truth even in the midst of many persecutions. To encourage this he says, that it was a great principle that the just, that is, all believers, ought to live in the constant exercise of faith in God. They should not confide in their own merits, works, or strength. They should exercise constant reliance on their Maker, and He would keep them, right up until the moment He takes them home to the visibility of their eternal life. The sense is, that a persevering confidence or belief in the Lord will preserve us amidst all the trials and calamities to which we are exposed.
In our justification faith our position is secure forever. This is a forward looking faith after salvation which becomes "hope."
As we saw in Rom 5, hope is realized through tribulation, where we are forced to apply faith or to return to our old ways of non-faith. God wisely allows us to enter situations where faith must be exercised if we are to maintain our walk with Him in peace.
Hope is confidence in God. It is confidence in His future deliverance that is accompanied by joy. This becomes a test for the ages when under persecution.