The Power of Faith 2 - Hebrews 11:6-22

11:7 - Next in line is Noah who was “warned of God of things not seen as yet” and commanded to build an ark. I think we remember how viciously Noah was ridiculed for doing what he was commanded by God. And if we think about it, building a huge boat and gathering animals and plants and supplies and all that was probably just as bizarre back then as it would be today. So imagine building an ark today and what all that would entail as far as societal pressures go. Sometimes not drinking alcohol or coffee can seem just as bizarre in our society today as Noah building an ark back then, who knows. But if Noah can withstand the mistreatment because people thought what he was doing to obey God was strange, then we certainly can do it too. 11:8-16 - On to Abraham, Israel’s father. When Abraham left Ur “he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker it God.” But he couldn’t find one, so he went off to create his own. He traveled where the Lord showed him “not knowing whither he went,” and was led to a “land of promise, as in a strange country.” We might not appreciate the significance of Abraham’s wandering around to find the place that God wanted him to live. We live in a society where we can travel across the country in a few hours and do so in comfort. When Abraham left the city he was raised in, he went into a harsh, inhospitable desert. In Ur there might not have been God, but there was certainly food, water, and shelter. In the desert, he could plan and prepare for so long but at some point all this preparations would have run out and he would have been at the mercy of whatever elements there was around him. It's interesting to compare the journey of Abraham to the Promised Land to that of the early pioneers traveling to Utah. I would imagine that the experience of Abraham must have been similar to that of Brigham Young in that they didn’t know exactly where they were going, they just believed they would know it what they saw it. Again, maybe it’s because we don’t live in a time where God asks us to leave what we know and risk life and limb to Mother Nature in order to find a better place to live that makes it so difficult for us to relate to this example of faith. But maybe instead of venturing out into the unknown wilderness, Jesus asks us to live the gospel where we are and in plain view of all those around us. Sara also demonstrated faith when she “received strength to conceive seed.” We know the story of her being very old when she had Isaac, and we can think, “either she believed it would happen or she didn’t but either way if she just ended up pregnant then there it is.” But it’s kind of like Elizabeth who had John when she was past childbearing age, Elizabeth and Sara both heard the promise, and I’m not exactly sure how it worked in their relationships, but in order to conceive, they still would have had to be having sex and my guess is that if both Sara and Abraham were both old, sex might have not been as frequent if at all. So interestingly, Sara demonstrated faith by having sex. The IM quotes Thomas S. Monson as teaching, “Faith precedes the miracle. It has ever been so and shall ever be. It was not raining when Noah was commanded to build an ark. There was no visible ram in the thicket when Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. Two heavenly personages were not yet seen when Joseph knelt and prayed. First came the test of faith- and then the miracle.” This is definitely a lesson that I’ve learn in my life, obedience first, then the lesson. Abraham and Sara were promised seed “so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.” But Paul pointed out that when Sara and Abraham died “in faith, not having received the promises,” meaning that they lived their lives hoping for the promised blessings from God, but when they died, the promises were not yet fulfilled. The IM comments, “Many of the Lord’s choicest blessings must wait until after physical death to be received, as Elder Spencer J. Condie explained, while serving as a member of the Seventy: ‘Important componens of faith are patience, long-suffering, and enduring to the end. The Apostle Paul recounts the faith of… Abraham, and Sara concluding that ‘these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.’ These faithful Saints knew that this earth life was a journey, not their final destination.” When considering what to do and how to act and what to believe, keeping an eternal perspective is so important. We have to trust that our actions and behaviors in this life matter for the next. It’s like an investment that also pays out dividends while we are in this life. 11:17-22 - Abraham did more in faith than just set out for a different place to live, there was also the time when he was commanded to sacrifice Isaac instead of an animal to God. There is a conundrum here because Abraham was promised that he would have innumerable seed through Isaac, but if Abraham sacrificed Isaac then how would he be able to have all that posterity? Paul suggests that Abraham knew that “God was able to raise him up, even from the dead.” So Abraham took Isaac to the mountains as a sacrifice and I guess figured that somehow God would provide in a way that allows Abraham to be obedient but also fulfill the promises made to him. That’s a really interesting thing to think about, that Abraham had so much faith that he thought to himself, “well I’ll sacrifice this kid that is so important to me and is central in so many of God’s promises. It’s up to God to keep those promises so he’ll take care of it.” I’m going to have to think about this a little bit more. At first I didn’t understand what Paul was saying when he mentioned Isaac blessing Jacob and Esau and Joseph’s sons because Paul says that these blessings were done “by faith.” But I have deduced that these blessings weren’t simple feel good types of blessings but contained the promises that he had received from his father Abraham. And really, aren’t all blessings like that, we have to trust and believe that someone saying a few word while standing next to us is going to yield some sort of positive result. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph were all demonstrating faith when they gave the promises of God to their sons even though there was no indication that the fulfillment of those promises were close to happening.