We ended our review of God’s Faith Hall of Fame with the first part of verse 35: “Women received their dead back to life.” It’s on the list with “conquered kingdoms…closed the mouths of lions…” Great stuff. But if there’s a single verse of scripture that kills any idea of a health and wealth “prosperity gospel,” it’s this verse. Here’s the rest of it:

…Others were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. (Hebrews 11.35, NIV)

That part continues:

Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. (Hebrews 11.36 – 38, NIV)

Tough stuff.

Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours. (Hebrews 11.39, 40, MSG)

The text continues with a clear message for all of us, the “therefore…”

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (Hebrews 12.1 – 3, ESV)

It’s an endurance race. A race with spectators! All those folks and their like in Hebrews 11. Winners lay aside harmful things and distractions because they know…

…the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. (Mark 4.19, ESV)

A race where Jesus is the goal and the example.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2.5 – 8, ESV)

And winning a race requires discipline, the next subject in Hebrews 12, the topic of the next blog, and certainly the inescapable message of the Olympics, from which I’ll be sharing some stories over the next few days.

Those of us in the Historical Books Reading Program have just finished Hebrews and are about to start 1 Chronicles, a parallel look at some of the stories of 1 Samuel – 2 Kings. But it starts with nine chapters of names! I’ll be reading in Psalms as a supplement during that time, and the blog will talk about lessons learned from the Olympics, among other things. Stay tuned.