And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. v40
All the people of great faith mentioned in Hebrews 11 can be placed broadly into two groups.
Firstly, many of them, like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses appear to us as victors. These are people of great accomplishments. They have experienced the great power of the LORD YHWH, and were delivered mightily from harm and evil. By faith, they "stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight" (v33-34)
In fact, there are so many of them, that more than half of the 40 verses (v4 - 12, 17 - 34) in this chapter is devoted to such victors. We often wish to have their kind of faith and live their kind of victorious lives.
In contrast, there is another group of people mentioned here. While they are also people of great faith, they do not appear to have been victorious in their lives. Instead, they come across to us as victims. These are people who suffered greatly. They were tortured, mocked and flogged. They suffered chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy— wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. v37, 38
These apparent "victims" did not seem to have accomplished any thing in their lives. They were certainly not delivered from the harm and evil that were inflicted upon them by their enemies. None of them are mentioned by name. And only four out of the forty verses in the entire chapter 11 is devoted to them. It is easy to ignore such people. Not many of us would wish to live their kind of lives and to suffer greatly like them. At least that's not the kind of "faith" that many preachers preach on Sunday in church!
When we take a closer look at Hebrews 11, however, we find that both these groups of people have something in common, regardless of whether they appear victorious or victimised in their lives. Verses 2 and 39 tells us that they all have obtained a good report in their lives. It tells us that both these groups of people are equally commendable in the sight of God. Neither is more successful than the other. Whether they appear victorious, and well-known, like Abraham or David, or appear victimised and unknown like those anonymous people mentioned in verses 35b to 39, they have all obtained good report in their lives.
Let us strive to obtain a good report in the sight of God.
