Some Assembly RequiredSample

As I was reading through Hebrews again recently, this particular verse in chapter 11, verse 7, leapt off the page to me in a different way than when I had previously read it.

7 By faith [with confidence in God and His word] Noah, being warned by God about events not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his family. By this [act of obedience] he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which comes by faith. [Hebrews 11:7 AMP]

By faith [with confidence in God and His word] Noah, being warned by God about events not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his family.

This chapter is a quintessential teaching on the concept of faith. Let’s pop up to the top of Hebrews chapter 11 and read the first three verses because we are going to unpack the purpose of faith, the power of faith, and the practical requirement of faith over these next few days together. Check out the Amplified version below for clarity.

1 Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]. 2 For by this [kind of] faith the men of old gained [divine] approval.

3 By faith [that is, with an inherent trust and enduring confidence in the power, wisdom and goodness of God] we understand that the worlds (universe, ages) were framed and created [formed, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose] by the word of God, so that what is (now) seen was not made out of things which are visible.

I love to study Matthew Henry’s commentary when in Bible study, and he wrote of verse 1:

“Faith and hope go together; and the same things that are the object of our hope are the object of our faith. It is a firm persuasion and expectation that God will perform all that he has promised to us in Christ; and this persuasion is so strong that it gives the soul a kind of possession and present fruition of those things. Christ dwells in the soul by faith, and the soul is filled with the fullness of God, as far as his present measure will admit; he experiences a substantial reality in the objects of faith.”

In other words, faith is sort of like virtual reality. Everything about you, when you put on those VR goggles or glasses, appears to be reality—like, yea, I really am traveling down the beautiful Amalfi Coast, even though I’m really standing here in my socks in the living room of my house in Jenks, Oklahoma! Faith, downloaded into our spirits, into a place in our hearts and lives designed by God for it, is activated through salvation in Christ! It means that we can now see potential from the fragments. We can pull out the nuts, bolts, table legs A, B, C, and D, and believe that this tiny little hex key is going to produce a beautiful, new dining table and seating benches! Yes, I can believe it because I’ve seen one of those put together. I trust that the boxes that were loaded into my truck bed will become an amazing asset to my dining experience! Why? I saw the completed model. I sat on the benches on the showroom floor. And surely, after paying the price, I, too, will experience that completed project I desire.

Faith. The evidence of things not seen. But the assurance of things hoped for.

The beautiful, endearing value of this chapter to you and me in the 21st century is that it contains history traced back to the beginning of time. The history includes men and women of old who believed God and thousands of years later we are still talking about them. Noah had no such thing as virtual reality in his day. We don’t have documentation of how he heard from God, whether it was in a vision, a dream, through an angel, or just a mind-boggling journey from his heart to his mind. But somehow, BY FAITH, Noah was warned by God about events not yet seen.

Dig a Little Deeper

What are the things you're hoping for in your own life, in your family, in your children? Require yourself to visualize the reality you're believing for. Now, ask the Holy Spirit to divinely download faith in your heart to believe Him to produce the evidence of such things, and grant you courage to obey His voice, just like Noah did.