Hebrews 11: A 5-Day DevotionalExemplo

Our preacher concludes his survey of OT history with an avalanche of vignettes graphically portraying the costs of living by faith in God: mockery and mistreatment, destitution and alienation, homelessness, abuse, torture, and death. Our cultural contexts, as well as our own hearts, often incline us to weigh the “pros” and “cons” of entrusting ourselves wholly to Jesus in terms of the tangible outcomes that may appear in the short run. 

When the reward is distant and the price to be paid is very present and painfully high, we feel pressured to conform and blend in. But Jesus called his followers to swim upstream against the downward current of the culture around them. The ancient exemplars of faith, for all their flaws, held fast to a hope in things not yet seen, considering the God who promised to be faithful and the reward worth receiving, whatever the cost. Both their testimony to God’s faithfulness and his testimony to their faith challenge our self-centered and frivolous conceptions of faith, calling us instead to lifelong endurance, with our eyes fixed steadfastly on Jesus and our hearts resolved to follow him to the end, by the grace he supplies.

Learn more about the ESV Expository Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Volume 12).