Chapter 11

1Faith means being sure of what we hope for and convinced about realities we do not see.

2Because of this faith, the people of long ago received God’s approval.

3By faith we understand that the universe was formed by God’s command. What can be seen, then, did not come from things that are visible.

4By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. Through it, Abel received God’s approval as someone who did what was right, and God himself spoke approvingly of his offerings. Though Abel is dead, he still speaks through that faith.

5By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not experience death. No one could find him because God had taken him. Before he was taken, he had received God’s approval as someone who pleased him.

6Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

7By faith Noah took seriously God’s warning about events that could not yet be seen. He built an ark to save his household. By building it, he showed that the world stood condemned, and he received the right standing with God that comes through faith.

8By faith Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave for a place he would later receive as an inheritance. He left without knowing where he was going.

9By faith Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land God had promised him. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise with him.

10Abraham was waiting for the city with firm foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

11By faith Abraham received the ability to father a child with Sarah herself, even though he was past the proper age. He considered the one who had made the promise trustworthy.

12So from this one man, who was as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand along the seashore.

13All these people died still living by faith. They did not receive everything God had promised, but they saw it from far away and welcomed it. They openly admitted that they were foreigners and temporary residents on earth.

14People who speak this way make it clear that they are searching for a homeland.

15If they had kept thinking about the land they had left, they would have had an opportunity to return.

16Instead, they longed for a better homeland—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared a city for them.

17By faith Abraham offered Isaac when he was tested. The man who had welcomed God’s promises was prepared to offer his one and only son,

18even though God had told him, “Your family line will be traced through Isaac.”

19Abraham reasoned that God was able even to raise Isaac from the dead. So, in a manner of speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

20By faith Isaac spoke words of blessing over Jacob and Esau, even about things that were still to come.

21By faith Jacob, as he was dying, spoke words of blessing over each of Joseph’s sons. He also bowed in worship over the top of his staff.

22By faith Joseph, near the end of his life, spoke about the future departure of the people of Israel from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.

23By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born. They saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king’s command.

24By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.

25He chose to suffer alongside God’s people rather than enjoy the temporary pleasure of sin.

26He considered suffering disgrace for the Messiah—God’s Anointed King—to be greater wealth than Egypt’s treasures, because he was looking ahead to the reward.

27By faith Moses left Egypt without fearing the king’s anger. He remained firm because he lived as though he could see the God who cannot be seen.

28By faith Moses observed the first Passover and had blood spread on the doorways, so that the one destroying the firstborn children would not touch Israel’s firstborn.

29By faith the Israelites crossed the Red Sea as though they were walking on dry ground. When the Egyptians tried to do the same, the sea swallowed them.

30By faith the walls of Jericho fell after the Israelites had marched around them for seven days.

31By faith Rahab, a prostitute, did not die with those who refused to obey, because she welcomed the Israelite spies in peace.

32What more should I say? I would run out of time if I told about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets who spoke for God.

33Through faith they conquered kingdoms, did what was right, received what God had promised, and shut the mouths of lions.

34They put out raging fires, escaped death by the sword, and gained strength when they were weak. They became powerful in battle and drove foreign armies away.

35Women received their dead family members back alive. Others were tortured to death and refused release so that they might receive a better resurrection to life.

36Still others endured mocking and whipping, as well as chains and imprisonment.

37They were killed with stones, sawed in two, and murdered by the sword. They wandered about wearing sheepskins and goatskins, with nothing they needed. They were oppressed and mistreated.

38The world did not deserve them. They wandered through deserts and mountains and lived in caves and holes in the ground.

39All these people received God’s approval because of their faith, yet they did not receive the complete fulfillment of his promise.

40God had planned something better that included us, so that they would reach the final goal only together with us.