By Faith Part II

By Faith – The Israelites forefathers blessed their successor before Israel came into being (20-22).

When I was young, I was really wondering on how the blessings affect the recipients. I was asking myself if it contains some magical powers. As I try to look back in the story of the early Fathers of Israel, we can see in the story the blessing an heir is very important. Thus, it is not just something that we can take for granted.

The blessing of Isaac to his son Jacob instead of Isau, caused war between the two brothers and almost lasted a life time. That's how important blessing is.

With the three consecutive blessings that is being passed on to their heir, we can see here that the fathers entrusted God for the future of their sons. How about us, do we give blessings to our children? Do we entrust the future of our children to God? As the fathers did this, we can see that the fathers also remained in the Lord until their death.

By Faith – Moses' parents hid him for three months (23)

The growing number of Israelites caused the Egyptians to feel threatened. And by this, they tried to control the population of Israel by killing the infants. Moses' parents have no choice but to hide the child for three months that until such time he cannot be hidden in their house and his mother was forced to put Moses in the basket and allow him to float along the river banks of the river.

Fortunately, the Pharaoh's daughter saw the basket in the river and ordered her servant to take the basket, and she adopted Moses.

Here we see a drastic move that the parents of Moses did. It could have caused their lives if Moses has been found those in those times of hiding. By faith, they hid Moses even though they really don't know the security risk that they are having.

By Faith – Moses when he grew up refused to be known as the son of the Pharoah's daughter (24-28).

The Bible though silent on how the people recognize him, obviously, Egypt recognizes Moses as a prince. He is an adopted son of the Pharaoh's daughter. He could have enjoyed all the treasures of Egypt. He could have a better life, a life full of pleasures. But he chose to suffer along with God's people.

It is by faith that he left Egypt not fearing Pharoah's anger. The Bible says, Moses persevered because he saw who is invisible. He saw that there is above Pharoah and he is bound to the invisible one and not to the Pharoah.

Applying this in our lives. We already know the invisible one. Maybe not in the way Moses have seen the Lord because most of us knew the Lord by testimony, by seeing him working in our lives. But are we willing to follow God above someone whom we believe that is above us?

By Faith – The people of Israel passed the Red Sea (29)

Imagine the Israelites, wondering in the dessert and here comes the Egyptians with full battle gears willing to capture them. For sure they feel hopeless. They feel afraid of death. They are already complaining. But all of a sudden, God did another miracle, the Red Sea was opened and was divided into two, having a dry ground in the middle.

The Israelites could have stayed where they are and be captured again by the Egyptians. At this very moment, they have two main things that they have to do, whether to go across the Red Sea, or to be captured again by the Egyptians. Either way, there is a risk.

But by faith, they chose to cross the Red Sea, it is because it is God who gave them the safe passage.

How about us? Sometimes, God is already showing us a safe passage against the blows of our problems. Are we going to obey him or are we going to do our way in solving the problem?

By Faith – The walls of Jericho fell (30).

This is one of my most favorite stories, the conquest of Jericho. Jericho is a well fortified city. They have high walls, and cannot be conquered that easily. It is one of the key cities in the land of Canaan during that time.

God instructed Joshua a strange command. They are going to march around the city for a week, and in the end, they are going to shout. The instructions are clear, but to human point of view, it doesn't make sense. How can we ever conquer a city by just parading around it for one whole week? In our point of view, it impossible to conquer the city by just doing it.

But by faith, the Israelites followed God's command. They encircle the city everyday and on the last day, they shouted. The walls of Jericho fell to the ground. And they are able to conquer the city.

In our lives, sometimes God instructs us a weird instruction for us to conquer what He's telling us to conquer. The Bible speaks to us, do not equally yoke with unbelievers, and in many ways in really doesn't make any sense to our young people. They still ask why??? And even if they don't ask why, we literally see their disobedient nature. And lo and behold, here comes the sin.

Sometimes, God is telling us to come and pray. To worship God first before studying. Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn't make sense especially if we have an exam the following day, and especially when we have a project to finish because the deadline is Monday.

By Faith – Rahab welcomed the spies and hid them from the disobedients (31).

Rahab, a prostitute have witnessed that their city is being spied. The soldiers of Jericho is hunting the spies. And instead of turning the spies to the authorities, Rahab hid them believing that the Israelites have a better God.

By this, Rahab acted by faith believing that they can also be a recipient of God's grace to the Israelites. She helped the people of the Lord and indeed received the grace she's wanting. She did not know the Israelites personally. She just heard about the greatness of Israelites and she knew that Jericho will not be able to stand their ground against the Israelites.

Indeed, time has come and Jericho was conquered. Rahab was saved.