‘All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.’ Hebrews 11:39-40(NLT)
‘For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord . “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. ‘ Jeremiah 29:11(NLT)
| 5from Judah | 12,000 |
| from Reuben | 12,000 |
| from Gad | 12,000 |
| 6from Asher | 12,000 |
| from Naphtali | 12,000 |
| from Manasseh | 12,000 |
| 7from Simeon | 12,000 |
| from Levi | 12,000 |
| from Issachar | 12,000 |
| 8from Zebulun | 12,000 |
| from Joseph | 12,000 |
| from Benjamin | 12,000 |
Praise from the Great Crowd
‘Then I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds so they did not blow on the earth or the sea, or even on any tree. And I saw another angel coming up from the east, carrying the seal of the living God. And he shouted to those four angels, who had been given power to harm land and sea, “Wait! Don’t harm the land or the sea or the trees until we have placed the seal of God on the foreheads of his servants.” And I heard how many were marked with the seal of God—144,000 were sealed from all the tribes of Israel:
After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living beings. And they fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God. They sang, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever! Amen.” Then one of the twenty-four elders asked me, “Who are these who are clothed in white? Where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.” Then he said to me, “These are the ones who died in the great tribulation. They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white. “That is why they stand in front of God’s throne and serve him day and night in his Temple. And he who sits on the throne will give them shelter. They will never again be hungry or thirsty; they will never be scorched by the heat of the sun. For the Lamb on the throne will be their Shepherd. He will lead them to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”’ Revelation 7:1-4,9-17(NLT)
It’s not easy to live by faith. We live in a broken world. The weather doesn’t work right. Our bodies don’t work right. Our relationships don’t work right.
When God kicked Adam out of Heaven, he told Adam that life would be hard. And it is. There’s a cosmic battle for your life going on inside of you and outside of you. You battle with your own sinful nature. You also battle against Satan himself, who wants nothing more than to “steal, kill, and destroy.”
And sometimes it just gets to us. We just want to give up.
But in Hebrews 11, God urges us to hang on, because God hasn’t forgotten us and will fulfill his promises one day. He promises to give us a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). He promises to take away our tears (Revelation 7). And he gives us multiple other promises throughout his Word.
Hebrews 11 mentions a variety of biblical heroes who demonstrated faith in God’s promises — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Gideon, Samson, and others. Though they endured many difficulties, they kept going in their spiritual journeys.
Then Hebrews 11:39-40 says, “All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us” (NLT).
from The Invisible War