The author of the Letter to the Hebrews has a great deal to teach us about faith and how faith works in the life of the servant of God. In 11.7-9 we read: By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. Can we even begin to imagine what was going through the mind of Noah as God directed him in the building of the ark? This ship was the means of salvation from death.
I am convinced that anyone who would have sought to get aboard would have been welcomed, but no one did but his own family—and perhaps these did so because it was dad’s project and they didn’t want him to look bad: By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Noah’s faith was not rooted in fear, but in the firm grasp of the fact that God had spoken so clearly.
And who could argue about the high level of faith found in God’s servant Abraham: By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. He simply set out on a journey to where—he had no idea, and what would become of him when he got there was also a mystery—but he trusted the word of his God.
Those who came after these faithful elders shared in the full reward of that high level of faith as well: By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. We who would be faith-filled ones need to position ourselves alongside these elders that we come to trust in the word of Father God.