Paul is using the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk 2:4 and 10:38 as the spring board for this next teaching on living by faith as he uses the list of those ancient or the forefathers who endured through tribulations, trials and death (and how they lived by faith as he wrote in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:13, “the just or righteous ones shall live by faith” paraphrased). The Lord being the personification of what faith is and how faith is to work.
Hebrews 11:1a
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,…"
Do you know what I think of when I think of substance? I think of the core of something that holds it all together. In other words, just picture a wheel, just a simple wheel. What is the substance of that wheel? The hub. Because the hub is that which goes out to all the rest of that wheel. You take away the hub and you’ve got nothing. And that’s substance. Now the candlestick is as we shared before a picture when looking down from above it, it is a wheel within a wheel. Now I suppose you could take it into almost any other area of life. What is substance? That which counts? The only answer is Christ in His eschatological state and the eschatological inheritance of all the blessings of the New Covenant “in Christ.”(cf. Ephesians 1:3-4, 5:9)
Hebrews 11:1
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Not seen. So how do we know they’re for real? By the Faith of Christ. God said it, and we know it’s true because Jesus through His life showed us and the Hebrews of the old or ancient days, that it is true. As our forerunner or chief lead in this walk towards our salvation by way of obedience through the sufferings and loss along the way, for our hope and trust is that of Abraham’s. As our prototypical type as are those of the list here in found. All right, verse 2.
Hebrews 11:2
"For by it the elders obtained a good report."
We’re going to see, that "by faith the elders (the Old Testament patriarchs) obtained a good report." Now verse 3.
Hebrews 11:3
"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."
He didn’t have to go into His chemistry workshop and put some things together and then throw it out. All he had to do was speak the Word and out of nothing the universe began to appear. I don’t think the whole universe exploded at one time. I think the universe has been exploding and going out and going out and going out over the period of time. But whatever, it was done by the spoken Word and all of Scripture substantiates this.
"So that things which are seen (our universe, everything around us on this planet) everything that is seen were not made of things which do appear." Now you see, the scientist can’t accept that. Can he? He just has a hard time with that. And so they spend billions and billions of dollars trying to figure out the origin of the universe and if they found out what good would it do them? Nothing. It’s not going to change anything. Not one wit.
You know I’ve said that with geologists; they go through all the conflict of geology and everything that they’ve learned – is that going to change where the oil is? Of course not. That’s not going to change one iota. And so we have to accept the fact that when God spoke the Word, the universe came into being. And I don’t care when it was. I don’t care if it was 6,000 years ago or six billion years ago. Makes no difference. Again, I’ll use my word – it’s moot. What difference does it make? And so all Paul says is that we are believers. This we know that the universe was framed by the Word of God and the God Who spoke was Jesus the Christ. He is the One Who is given credited for speaking everything into view. For the old testament saint knew Him as Yehovah in His many titles including the Ancient of Days or the Most High God. All right, now I guess we’d better go on into Abel at least.
Hebrews 11:4
"By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh."
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