Understand By Faith!

1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

faith is...substance..., the evidence... The apostle Sha'ul (Paul) says, 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:13,14; Rom. 8:16 the Spirit from God given to the believer is the pledge, the guarantee of the things hoped for. Here we are being told that faith is itself the very substance of the things hoped for. In truth, faith is the first expression of regeneration, of one born of the Spirit. This is the meaning of the text saying here that faith is the substance of the salvation to come. As the Spirit of God is received now in the manifestation of faith, and all its fruit, repentance, love, joy, and more, so shall all the salvation to come be the full expression of creation existing entirely in the Spirit of God.

[See further thoughts on this verse on the Heb\Wrk\Nts page under the heading, Emuah.]

2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.

the elders... Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph and Judah, Moses and others. All of these being born from Above possessed the faith given by the Holy Spirit of Promise.

3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

By faith we understand... Rebbe Nachman explains that the faithful children of Israel receive their intelligence and wisdom from Above through faith. Adam was not made to know good and evil, to understand what works and what does not work in creation, through a method that was secular and independent of the mind of God. This is the difference between the mind of sin and the repentant and faithful mind of the children of Israel, and all who would walk before God together with them. Adam was made to think and to know and to understand in communion with the word of God, to receive intelligence and wisdom and understanding from that communion with God.

Faith at the Beginning

4 By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.

Abel knew the promise against the serpent had to be a promise of corporate redemption for Adam — but it was not given to Adam. Therefore Able knew that it had to be a promise of a promise. At some point a promise of the blessing deriving from the promise that God made against the serpent would be made to someone.

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Another line of thought is that Cain and Abel knew God but only Able believed in God. That is to say, to know God by nature is not the same as it is to know God by revelation in the redemption of Israel in Mashiach, and Abel believed in that redemption, showing this in his offerings, whereas Cain in his offerings showed no faith in this. Thus, even though Canin new that Hashem Elohim is the Creator and created his father and mother from the ground, which He had created through the six days of creation, he did not trust God to raise the dead and provide the atonement for Adam’s sin which would enable the resurrection. The Word of God still walked among them and spoke with each of them personally. It was not possible that they could be atheists. But they could be unbelievers.

Cain knew God through unbelief and had no hope in God, and therefore did not really know God. Did he repent in the end? He may have repented. God knows. God, who created Cain, showed that He was unwilling that Cain should perish but that he should come to repentance. This testimony was what was left to Cain. Now it can be seen that also in Abel’s testimony, in his blood crying from the ground, Cain’s testimony that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance is itself elevated to a certain level of redemption. We do not know if Cain later repented. God knows. But we do know that God made it so that Cain was not created in vain, because the evil that Cain did to Abel was translated by God into a testimony of the blood of Mashiach. And as Mashiach prayed for those who shed his blood, "Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing," so there was an application in principle to the blood of Abel that was shed by Cain, because it was made a type of the blood of Mashiach. How is this?

The question is answered by asking how it was that Abel believed in the hope of the Messianic redemption of Israel. The promise that was made against the serpent, in speaking of the seed of the woman, from Cain and Abel’s point of view, would have reference to the firstborn of the woman. Cain would have had the question laid before him from the moment he heard of this promise against the serpent from his father and mother, "Is this seed you, Cain?" They would not have had to articulate the question. "Cain himself would have asked, "Is this me?" However, knowing the poison of the serpent in his own heart, he chose to doubt the Word of God.

A dialogue between the brothers most certainly preceded the offerings of Cain and Abel. Their common ground was that they agreed that offerings should be made. What did this mean to them? They agreed that the commandment of God had been disobeyed and that they should acknowledge that a way of repentance and reconciliation with God should be sought. It is apparent that Cain was of the opinion that since the commandment was that they and their parents should rely on the provisions of the Garden of Eden for food, and thereby acknowledge that God had given them all provisions needed for life, that they should start by making an offering of foods to God, to show that they now did acknowledge Him as the Provider of all things.

This opinion would have carried the implication that disobeying the commandment had been a mistake that they had learned from and could be fixed simply by not repeating it. Abel, on the other hand, appears to have argued that such an offering of foods to God as an acknowledgement of Him as the Provider of all things was insufficient. It would not have acknowledged the need for the seed of the woman to crush the head of the serpent. And it would not have acknowledged the need for the fulfillment of God’s word of justice, his corporate sentence of death to Adam. Therefore, for Abel, the only offering that could be sufficient was an offering that acknowledge the justice of the sentence of death upon creation itself, and implied a prayer for mercy. To Abel, the only the only hope for Adam was the resurrection of the dead.

This disagreement between Cain and Abel meant that Abel was saying that Cain was not the spiritual firstborn of his mother, even though he was the physical firstborn. For he was saying that Cain did not even see the need to acknowledge the need for the heel of the firstborn to be poisoned by the serpent during the act of the firstborn’s crushing the serpent’s head. Abel was not saying that he saw himself as being that spiritual firstborn, the seed of the woman in the prophecy of the promise against the serpent. His act of offering slaughtered animals implied, rather, that he saw himself as needing an atonement provided from Above. It would seem that Cain might have thought that if Abel believed that resurrection was the only way to redemption that he would help him along in that direction. At least Cain’s action has this kind of sense to it, as it was the action of anger at seeing God receive Abel’s offering and not his own. It is in this way that Cain can be seen to not know what he was doing. God made his actions to give to Abel the very immortalized testimony that Abel desired to have to the hope of the spiritual firstborn of the woman.

5 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is one who rewards those who diligently seek Him.

7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Abraham's Faith

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;

10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

11 By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.

12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

The Heavenly Hope

13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.

15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.

16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

The Faith of all the Patriarchs

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,

18 of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,”

19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.

22 By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones.

The Faith of Moshe

23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command.

24 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,

25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,

26 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.

28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.

By Faith They Overcame This World

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days.

31 By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.

32 And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Samson and Samuel and the prophets:

33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

35 Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.

36 Still others had trials of being mocked and scourged, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.

37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented —

38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.

39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,

40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.