By Joel C. Gregory
They are testifying to you. Noah is telling every drunk that you can stop. Abraham is telling every fearful liar that you can tell the truth. Jacob is telling every deceiver that you can quit cutting shady deals and live above-board. Samson is telling you that God's power can win over your passion. David is telling you that you can overcome the worst things a human being can do.
Each one of them is crying out, "Do not despair. We made a decision to live by faith and found a way up and out." You can overcome anything but final, absolute despair. The Hebrew letter was written to people who found out that the Christian life was harder than they imagined. They were wavering, giving up, quitting the Christian church and going back to the synagogue. The author was pleading with them -- listen to the witnesses in the stadium.
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But there is a second sense in which they encourage us. They are watching us. The Christian life is lived under observation. Obviously the triune God watches us. The very angels watch the church (
Ephesians 3:19). In
1 Corinthians 4:9 Paul stated, "It seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men." Paul lived with the sense of being watched.
We live the Christian life under the observation of the saints of the ages. That might discourage you unless you understand the significance of it. You could ask, "Have those people in
Hebrews 11 seen everything I have done?" That cannot be answered from the Bible. But they do understand perfectly, know as they are known, and can understand how God moves you from sin to the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ.
What if you were to play the piano in an auditorium full of Van Cliburns, paint in a studio full of Michelangelos, or step up to the plate in a stadium filled with all-stars of all the years? You would want to do your best.
Hebrews 12 reminds us that we are being watched by an increasing number of those who have won the same race, and now sympathetically testify to us by their lives already lived. Because of that great cloud of encouragers and witnesses, we live with a home field advantage.
The Minnesota Twins play in the enclosed, sealed-for-freshness Metrodome. The screechers in the bleachers have yelled at a level of 100 decibels. Minnesota's post-season performance at home was six wins and no defeats. Other teams were unnerved by the place. As the season progressed in 1987 the Twins came to believe they could not lose at home. The Twins won sixty-two of eighty-seven games there and became the first World Series team to sweep four home games. They built the consciousness of a tremendous home-team advantage in their own stadium.