What faith did saints in the Old Testament have? We believe in Jesus. What did they believe? The Lord has been showing me how their faith wasn’t all that much different than yours and mine today.
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.
Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV
“Therefore” is toigaroun, a rare New Testament word, comprised of “gar” (for), “oun” (therefore) and “toi” (truly)—an emphatic “therefore.” Toigaroun seeks our undivided attention to its conclusion, inviting us to re-explore chapter 11 with this conclusion in mind, especially looking unto Jesus. Earlier the writer of Hebrews similarly summarized previous chapters, asserting, “Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest…” (Heb 8:1). Now he’s doing it again but focused to a single chapter. How did this “great cloud of witnesses”—Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, etc.—run their race? It was by looking unto Jesus! The key to unlocking the writer’s intent of Hebrews 11 is hanging on the back door in plain sight!
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
Hebrews 11:4
What made Abel’s sacrifice more acceptable than Cain’s? It’s because Abel was looking unto Jesus! By faith he saw beyond the sheep to the Lamb of God, Jesus, the promised Seed of the woman to bruise the serpent’s head. Peter revealed how each prophet “searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ.” (1Pe 1:10-11). Abel, first in a long line of prophets (Hebrews affirming his wordless testimony, “he still speaks”), saw the sufferings of Christ. To these Hebrew Christians tempted to abandon Jesus to hold onto pictures (temple, priests, land, etc.), Abel stands as a silent rebuke. Even Abel from the very beginning didn’t do this.
By faith [Abraham] went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
Hebrews 11:9-10
By faith Abraham saw past the natural inheritance, physical Canaan, to the spiritual one. It wasn’t for the city’s sake alone that he was looking forward to. Toigaroun affirms he was looking unto Jesus, for the heavenly city is where Jesus is. “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…to Jesus” (Heb 12:22, 24).
Abel seeing Jesus in the sacrifice, Abraham seeing Jesus in the city, and each one’s unique testimony of looking unto Jesus put these Old Testament saints in a brand new light for me. Although I sort of thought of them as “Christians,” this revelation declares it so. It was never about the shadows (e.g., the sheep that Abel offered up, land of Canaan promised to Abraham, the priesthood and tabernacle established by Moses). It was always about faith anchored in the substance of things hoped for: Jesus, to whom they were looking.
[Moses] considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
Hebrews 11:26-27
Moses lived as seeing Him who is invisible—Jesus. In this regard we share a common faith. “Though you have not seen [Jesus], you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1Pe 1:8). This is the same kind of faith this “great cloud of witnesses” enjoyed. “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day,” Jesus testified. “He saw it and was glad” (Jn 8:58).
Now while we who live in the full noonday sun of New Testament illumination do have an advantage over the Old Testament saints, these brothers and sisters were truly Christians in faith that looked to Jesus. Now, they didn’t know Him by the name “Jesus,” yet their faith saw the very same Person, the Son of God, second Person of the Trinity. So whereas Paul affirmed that the saints of the New “have the same spirit of faith” (2Co 4:13) as those of the Old, Hebrews affirms that faith had the same object: Jesus Christ. The same Holy Spirit who oversaw their faith to behold Jesus is likewise at work in ours.
God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them.
Exodus 6:2-3
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew God as God Almighty—El Shaddai. Beyond these patriarchs Shaddai vanishes into oblivion, only scant mentions in the Psalms and Prophets. But, LORD—Yahweh or Jehovah—appears 6,800 times, remarkable considering God’s names number about 10,000 names in the whole Old Testament. Curiously, though, Abraham was acquainted with the name Yahweh early on: “I have lifted my hand to [Yahweh], God Most High…” (Gen 14:22). So how can God say, “But by my name [Yahweh] I did not make myself known to them”?
The analogy of the tabernacle came to mind after I asked God for insight. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob saw Yahweh as badger skins, those unattractive outer coverings of the tabernacle. They saw Yahweh’s outer shell but didn’t enter into the tabernacle to enjoy its beautiful treasures within.
Moses prophesied of another Prophet like him (Deut 18:15). Jesus was the prophet like Moses (Acts 3:22), not only in many signs and wonders, but in revealing a new name of God to the people. This new Moses takes us beyond the badger skins of Shaddai and Yahweh into the temple’s inner beauties of the name “Jesus.” And as Yahweh eclipsed Shaddai in the lingua franca of the people, Jesus, the name above every other name, has eclipsed Yahweh. God is most clearly revealed in Jesus.
The same Author of faith safeguarded the faith of the Old Testament saints by His Spirit to look to Jesus. Faith has always been a supernatural work, not a product of man’s ingenuity. How amazing to think how from Abel onwards, so many others were looking unto Jesus! Now when I read the Old Testament, I envision Jesus past the shadows set before them in their lives. Jesus is far more present in those pages than I’d ever dreamed possible.
Glory Unveiled: Discovering Jesus 