Week 3 Day 1: Hall of fame

It has been said by many others that in God's book, faithful and famous are the same concept in His eyes. Here, then, is the hall of fame, although it is noted in the chapter that not all the stars are included, due to lack of time to write them all down.

Who then is included, and why?
Hebrews has a repetition of the idea that the New Covenant is in every way superior to the Old Covenant which has fallen away, because the old looked forward to thing that we now look back to, and they only had partial glimpses of what is now fulfilled and full in our eyes.
Because of this, we have some very significant people in Israel's history listed - Abraham and Moses have a lot of time spent on them, and deservedly so. As the chapter leads on in to the next, the writer uses these figures of faith as encouragement for us, and examples/heroes to look up to and learn from. Basically, having these examples to learn from, we should also live in like manner for Christ. It then goes in to one of the race metaphors similar to the one covered last week.

There are a few themes that keep coming through. The people look forward, they look on to something else not yet seen. They obey without full understanding, because they know and trust God first. Interesting that most of the warriors are ones that made the list at the end, perhaps showing that God uses strong men physically as well as the leaders and quieter stories expanded on about earlier characters - but the emphasis is on their reliance on God, not how God picks strong men, if that makes sense.

Some of the actions that are mentioned as faithful are dramatic, as with Moses and Abraham. Others are quieter, as with Enoch, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph - the last three simply commended for the blessings they gave and the promises of God they passed on to the next generation - showing the importance of teaching and growing the next generation and leading them by an example and conversation(way of living/speaking) of faith in God. Both women and men are mentioned - faith is not dependent on gender.

And yet, with all these amazing examples we read about, we are even more privileged than they, because we can look back to the fulfilled promises that they looked forward to! Hallelujah! Let us pick up our shield of faith and finish our race, to mix our metaphors!