It is rare that you or I go through a single day without encountering a mirror. It is that necessary evil, waiting each morning to reflect back to me just how awful I look first moment out of bed. But then it becomes helpful, guiding, as I work the weird part and cowlicks out of my hair and shave gingerly below my nostrils. Finally looking good enough to venture out among the public, I encounter more mirrors – in my car. These are probably the most necessary and useful mirrors in my possession. While I work to maneuver 3,000 lbs. of lethal machine, these mirrors allow me to see all around it. Most of my maneuvers are successful thanks to my mirrors. With them I can see backward and forward at the same time.
Spiritually speaking, faith allows me to see backward and forward at the same time. Hebrews 11, the 'faith chapter', records the faithful actions of past heroes. We are inspired by their victories, results of their trust in God, His character and His Word. And as these acts of trust were responses to divine revelations, we understand our forebears as looking backward to the prior promise or instruction, and forward to the indicated reward.
Abraham received a promise in the past through a miraculous gift, his son Isaac, and so was fortified to exercise faith in sacrificing that same son. God’s former instruction to Moses to lead His people out of Egypt and the future vision of deliverance into a promised land steeled Moses’ faith. There were pleasures of sin for Moses in Egypt, but instead he persevered in faith. “He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.”
There are still a lot of “treasures in Egypt.” There is still time to “enjoy the pleasures of sin.” These are the temptations that surround us and attempt to seduce us every day. And Satan is the master of the Funhouse Mirror, distorting reality and casting an image that entertains but at the same time lies. Only the Word of God portrays reality accurately and reflects the requirements and rewards of faithful obedience.
All seven examples in today’s text display people who mirrored the character of God. And in so doing, help us to see backward and forward at the same time. Backward to the ancient yet timeless truths and promises of God, and forward to the rewards secured by those promises -- by the God who can be nothing else but faithful.
Pray: Faithful Father, help me to be a faithful reflection of your character, trusting Your power to pull me through, acting each day according to Your purposes, sensitive to reflect well on Your reputation and fame in this world. There ARE pleasures in sin, but they are short-lived. The real joy is in my victories of faith in Christ Jesus.
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