Faith That Produces Action

¹Faith is having confidence in what we hope for and being sure of what we don’t see.

²That’s what the people of long ago were praised for.

³By faith we understand that everything was made at God’s command, so that what we see was made out of what was not visible.

⁴By faith Abel brought a better offering to God than Cain did. Because of his faith, Abel was praised as a godly man when God said good things about his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he has died.

⁵By faith Enoch was taken from this life so that he didn’t experience death. “He couldn’t be found, because God had taken him away.” Before God took him, Enoch was praised as someone who had pleased God.

⁶Without faith it’s impossible to please God, because those who come to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who try hard to find him.

⁷By faith Noah, out of great respect for God, built an ark to save his family after God warned him about things that could not yet be seen. By doing this Noah showed the world that it was guilty, but he was considered right with God because of his faith.

⁸By faith Abraham obeyed God and went to the place he would later receive as his own. He did that even though he didn’t know where he was going when God told him to start on his way there.

⁹By faith he made his home in the promised land like an outsider in a strange country. He lived there in tents, and so did Isaac and Jacob, who received the same promise he did.

¹⁰Abraham was looking forward to the city that has foundations, the one that God has planned and built.

¹¹By faith Sarah was able to become a mother even when she was too old to have children. God had promised this would happen, and Sarah believed that he was faithful.

¹²Abraham was also past the time when he could have children, but from that one man came as many children as the stars in the sky and the countless grains of sand on the seashore.

¹³All of these people were still living by faith when they died. They didn’t receive the things God had promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a long way off. They admitted that they were outsiders and strangers on earth.

¹⁴People who say things like that show that they’re looking for a country of their own.

¹⁵If they’d been thinking of the country they left, they would have had a chance to return there.

¹⁶Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. So God isn’t ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared a city for them.

¹⁷By faith Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God tested him. This man who had welcomed the promises was ready to offer his one and only son.

¹⁸God had said to him, “Your family line will continue through Isaac.” Even so, Abraham was ready to offer him up.

¹⁹Abraham did this because he believed that God could bring back people who had died. And so, in a sense, he did receive Isaac back from the dead.

²⁰By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau and told them what was going to happen to them.

²¹By faith Jacob blessed both of Joseph’s sons when he was dying. He worshiped God as he leaned on the top of his staff.

²²By faith Joseph spoke to the people of Israel about how they would leave Egypt someday. As he was dying, he told them to take his bones with them, to be buried back in their land.

²³By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born. They saw that he was a special child, and they weren’t afraid of the king’s command.

²⁴By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter after he had grown up.

²⁵He chose to be treated badly with God’s people rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.

²⁶He considered it more valuable to suffer shame for Christ than to have the riches of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

²⁷By faith Moses left Egypt. He knew this would make Pharaoh angry, but he wasn’t afraid. He didn’t let anything stop him, because he saw the God who can’t be seen.

²⁸By faith Moses kept the Passover Feast. He commanded the people of Israel to sprinkle blood on their doorways so that the destroying angel wouldn’t kill their oldest sons.

²⁹By faith the people of Israel passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians tried to do that, they were drowned.

³⁰By faith Israel’s army marched around the city of Jericho for seven days, and then its walls fell down.

³¹By faith Rahab, the prostitute, welcomed the spies, and she wasn’t killed with those who didn’t obey God.

³²What more can I say? I don’t have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, or about David and Samuel and the prophets.

³³By faith they conquered kingdoms, ruled fairly, and received the blessings God had promised. They shut the mouths of lions,

³⁴put out great fires, and escaped being killed by swords. Their weakness was turned to strength, they became powerful in battle, and they beat back armies from other countries.

³⁵Women received their loved ones back when they were raised from the dead. Others had to suffer greatly, but they refused to be set free, so that after death they could be raised to an even better life.

³⁶Some were insulted and whipped; some were held in chains and put in prison.

³⁷Some were killed with stones, some were sawed in two, and some were killed by swords. They went around wearing the skins of sheep and goats. They were poor, systematically oppressed, and mistreated.

³⁸They wandered in deserts and mountains, and they lived in caves and holes in the ground. The world was not worthy of them.

³⁹All these people were honored for their faith, but none of them received what God had promised.

⁴⁰That’s because God had planned something better for us. God wanted to make them perfect only when he could make us perfect with them.