Thursday January 4 2023
Our Bible study group is doing a study through the New Testament, and since the pages on the discussion page in the Bible app are very small and my takeaway is very big, I'm putting it all here as to save a lot more space! ^_^ also enjoy the photo of the forest view that stretches before Oneida Lake in NY.
There’s so much that I love about this chapter that encourages me to believe what God says is true to see what’s invisible become substantiated by faith!
”It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.“
Hebrews 11:7 NLT
I once heard a sermon that revealed that the ark was a picture of Jesus, keeping Noah’s family safe inside it even with the destruction happening all around in the world. Even the illustration of a door being in the side- out of Jesus’s pierced side blood and water flowed, forgiving us and cleansing us.
It was the words “the righteousness that comes by faith” that stood out to me in Hebrews 11:7, reminding me of Romans 4:13-
”For the promise that he (Abraham) would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.“
Romans 4:13 NKJV
I once heard another sermon that shared how when God told Abraham to count the stars, the actual Hebrew word meaning was to “tell the story of the stars”. Long before the Bible was written, the gospel was written in the star constellations, beginning with the Virgin and ending with the Lion of Judah. Abraham was told the same gospel that we know! That through Christ were made right with God and declared righteous by faith in him.
”And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.“
Hebrews 11:39-40 NKJV
When I read this I realized all the ones that were mentioned about not receiving “the promise”, all lived before Jesus was born! I believe that Jesus is the “promise” mentioned in this chapter and the way that it says “God provided something better for us” points to Jesus! Since the gift of righteousness by faith in Jesus is way better than the faith of the Old Testament before the full revelation of Jesus being our sacrifice for sins had come.