Deeper Reflection
MOST OF US KNOW THAT HEBREWS 11 IS ABOUT FAITH. The word “faith” is repeated 24 times in the 40 verses. Hebrews 11 shows three kinds of faith, which can be encapsulated in verse 35: “Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection.”The first kind of faith is exploit faith: “women received back their dead by resurrection.” Exploit faith is faith as expressed in this statement made by the great missionary, William Carey: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.” It is the faith that sees the dead resurrected, that “conquered kingdoms”, that “performed acts of righteousness”, that “shut the mouths of lions,”, that “quenched the power of fire”, that “escaped from the edge of the sword” and that “became mighty in war, putting foreign armies to flight” (vv.33-35a).In our Christianity, we tend to focus on and emphasise exploit faith. Many of us often prefer to have this kind of faith. When it comes to faith, the first thing that comes to our mind is almost always exploit faith. We like to see great things happen to us, even great things brought about by God. Our presupposition is, the greater our faith is, the greater will be the things that we can do and happen to us, which is not necessarily so. When we pray, “Lord, increase our faith” (Lk 17:5), generally, we are seeking for greater exploit faith. There is nothing wrong about that. However, the faith emphasised in Hebrews is the other two kinds of faith.