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 11.28-31 we read: By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. Moses, after his return to Egypt, reestablished the principles of the faith of Israel—especially the Passover celebration.

It was on the basis of the rebirth of the faith of the people of Israel that they were open to the deliverance of God from their impossible situation: By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. There is no record of any person of Israel dying in the crossing of the Red Sea. God reaffirmed his faithfulness toward his own faith-filled family.

When Joshua was elevated to the position of chief elder of Israel after those forty long years in the desert he led the people of Israel into the land which had been promised to Abraham those generations ago. The battle was won by God alone: By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days. We do not know how this happened, but we do know why—Israel was faith-filled.

And the only person whom God raised up to assist in the Jericho effort was a woman who knew a God was up to something, and when the spies came to her home she aided them: By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. She was not alone, however, because everyone who came to her home was saved with her. Faith takes hold of us.