I am sure many of you will be relieved to know this is the penultimate Nugget in the series A Puzzling Paradox – Pain & Praise, Suffering & Solace, Grief & Glory. I will write one more to draw it all together after giving you the final key to understanding the Paradox in this Nugget. I wrote, the final key to understanding the Paradox not to understanding God.
The Bible is filled with paradoxes. If you put your mind to it, there will be some which come readily to mind.
- The first shall be last and the last shall be first
- If you want to be great in God’s Kingdom learn to be the Servant of all
- The way to gain your life is to lose it.
- To die to self is to truly live.
There are many more. But the ultimate paradox in the Bible I believe is found in Hebrew 11. It is a chapter which most who have been followers of Christ know well. I am sure you don’t even need to open your Bible before you tell me what the main theme of this chapter is all about. You know immediately this chapter in the Bible is the Faith Chapter. You can probably quote many of the examples the writer of Hebrews uses to make the point. You may be able to give me some quotes from the chapter.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 1:1
Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Hebrews 1:6
If asked I am sure you could give me a list of names of whom the writer has used as examples of men and women of faith. All without opening your Bible to look up any details. But have you ever realised what this chapter is actually telling you? I somehow doubt it. Because the Faith Brigade have taken the message and twisted it. In this series of Nuggets I have called them the Name-It-And-Claim-It Brigade, the False Teachers. For that reason we have lost sight of what the writer to the Hebrews was actually telling us; lost sight of what God was actually telling us in this chapter. Are you aware that there are two kinds of people of faith and they are split into three lists? I suspect that you haven’t. Before I make it clear to you, see if you can determine the lists for yourself. If you want to challenge yourself, don’t look below. Take sometime to work it out for yourself.
But of course if you have already looked then it is too late. Or if you really can’t be bothered and would rather just let me do the work for you and you benefit from it, that’s fine; I am willing to do that for you. But tell me, who will benefit the most?
Names and Deeds (Hebrews 11:4-31) | Names Only (Hebrews 11:32-35) | The Unnamed (Hebrews 11:35-40) |
---|---|---|
Abel | Gideon | Tortured |
Enoch | Barak | Mocked |
Noah | Samson | Scourged |
Abraham | Jephthah | Chained in prisons |
Sarah | David | Stoned to death |
Abraham | Samuel | Sawn in half |
Isaac | The Prophets | Killed by the sword (Beheaded) |
Jacob | Wore only sheep and goats skins | |
Joseph | Destitute | |
Moses | Oppressed | |
Rahab | Mistreated |
Did you notice how the writer of Hebrews has structured these lists differently? The first list from Hebrew all the way through to 31 is introduced by “It was by faith that. . “. Notice also we often refer to the people in Hebrews 11 as being the heroes and heroines of faith. But that is not the case, look at the lists carefully and you will see in the first list the names are those who are indeed the heroes of the faith; the most well known names in the Bible. The people we would get right in a quiz about who did _______ . Maybe with the exception of Rahab who is somewhat out of place.
The second list is introduced by:- “How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories . . .” This group are indeed merely listed. The writer has seemingly run out of time. But he hasn’t actually. He had all the time in the world to set up this chapter with a fuller account of the exploits of each of these people for the benefit of those of us who would read it over 2,000 year later. When you are writing for posterity, for generations to come, you have all the time in the world. Oh this is not a rushed job. This was deliberate. In this second list we have seven names listed and not linked to specific deeds. Rather the names are listed and then a summary list of the deeds tagged to the end.
These people:- overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, received God’s promise, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, escaped death by the sword, their weaknesses turned to strength, strong in battle, put armies to flight. There are seven names (that alone should tell you something). But there are nine deeds and the deeds mentioned don’t match the names in the list.
When we come to the third list – The Others, these people are unnamed and notice the difference in the lists of deeds. The first two lists are typical exploits done by courageous heroes and heroines of the faith. They are set in the mould of David’s mighty men. Mighty men and women of valour, known for the great exploits they did. The generations to come still recount their stories. Notice the link to the second list where the writer talks about recounting or retelling their stories. That’s what we do with heroes. But the third list of exploits has a significant change to it. The deeds are not mighty deeds at all. They are all the things these people in the last list suffered. Excuse me! They don’t belong in the Annuls of Super Heroes. Take them out of here. They are an embarrassment to the Faith. Stop! It is you who claim that who are an embarrassment to the Faith. My eyes have filled with tears at the thought of some of the ones I have told you about. The woman and her husband who were asked to leave a well known NZ Evangelical Church because he was suffering from dementia and it was an embarrassment to this church that after praying for them they were not healed. So they were blamed for their lack of faith, not the lack in the ones who prayed for them.
What does God say about this last group of nameless heroes?
- Of whom the world was not worthy
- For whom the world was not good enough
- The world did not deserve these good people
- The world was not good enough for these great people
- The world was not worthy of them
- The world didn’t deserve these good people
- They were too good for this world
About whom is this reference made? All those in this chapter of the book of Hebrews or just the ones in the third list? I know what I think. Time for you to make up your mind.
There is one more point to draw to your attention. Notice how the chapter ends. In reality we have two lists of people. There is the Success Group and the Failures. That is the way the False Teachers, False Prophets and the Name-It-and-Claim-It Brigade would see it. But the wonder of God is seen in fact that God’s Perfection is evident in the combination of both groups! God’s Glory can be seen in the Heroes & Heroines and those who are deemed not worthy. Oh I know I have twisted the words. I did it deliberately. We can judge the third group as being Not Worthy. But God states it is the world that is not worthy of them; not that they are not worthy of the World – either the World per se or the World of Faith. Neither world is worthy of them; they are a cut above!
The mystery, the enigma of it all is that the Acts of God and the Ways of God, which are seemingly unfathomable are set in a paradox where both sides of the same coin represent the fullness of the reality we are faced with. I will draw this all together in the last Nugget of this series. I never imagined it would take me 31 Nuggets to complete. I know some of you are probably thinking, “Ian, for the sake of your readers, put us out of our torment and finish this series now with this Nugget. Don’t make us wait another week for a few concluding comments. Tell us now! This Nugget is a relatively short one compared with some of your tomes.”
No, it is needful for you to digest what I have given you in this Nugget first before we move to the conclusion. It’s important for us to see God’s purpose in the way He has set things in paradoxical pairs. As we have seen in this Nugget, it seems God has deliberately set deeper truth in paired contrastive concepts so that we can only come to realise that deeper truth when we take into account the extremes of the paired opposites and wrestle with them.
See you next week for the conclusion of A PUZZLING PARADOX.