“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1
Before you read the Scripture, I suspect you saw the title and thought of computers, data, and storing digital information in “the cloud.” But another kind of cloud rises out of Hebrews 11—a cloud of witnesses. Who makes up this company? Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Sarah, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. What a gathering it would be if we could bring them together, in the flesh, and sit among them for an evening. How long would it take to ask everything on our minds, hear the parts of their stories Scripture leaves untold, and receive the wisdom they paid dearly to learn?
We can imagine their voices, can’t we? One of the themes in Michael Card’s writing is “reading the Bible with your imagination.” He encourages us to enter the stories, to wonder what these people feared, what moved them to obey, what they learned through failure, and what they discovered about God. As I revisit Hebrews 11 and the stories behind those names, I can almost hear some of their counsel.
Abel ~ “Build your own history with God. Faith cannot be inherited secondhand.”
Enoch ~ “When the culture around you grows darker, intimacy with God can still become the defining reality of your life.”
Noah ~ “Do not mistake God’s silence for His absence. Keep building what He told you to build.”
Abraham ~ “When obedience takes you to Moriah, trust the character of God when you cannot understand the command.”
Sarah ~ “Your unbelief does not have to be the final chapter. God can still bring promise out of the place where you once laughed.”
Jochebed ~ “There are moments when love must release what it cannot protect and trust God with what floats beyond its reach.”
Six voices from a multitude. Their circumstances differ, but their testimony converges. None of them followed God without fear, cost, waiting, or even momentary confusion. Yet each discovered that faithfulness on earth becomes a witness for generations not yet born.
Perhaps this is why their stories draw me in today. When my own faith becomes thin, I borrow courage from theirs. Their obedience tells me what is possible when ordinary people stake everything on the character of God.
And I have barely begun to mine their lives for gold.
Lord, give me courage to tell my own stories truthfully—the fear as well as the faith, the failures as well as the victories. What You teach me in secret may someday become strength for someone running behind me. Amen.
