"Therefore do not throw away your confidence" (1)

     Hebrews 10:32-36 says, “But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.”

     The Christians addressed by the Hebrew writer had suffered upon their conversion to Christ. Some of them were held up before the public eye and ridiculed. Some were made a spectacle of as they were cast into prison. Some had their property plundered. The ones who may not have experienced these things first hand were so concerned and involved with the saints who were that they could truly be considered partners with them in their suffering. 

     Few things would be as stressful, particularly from the perspective of a father, as having one's home and property confiscated. A father must provide for his family. He works hard to provide a place where his wife and children can feel safe, a place to which they can return each day confident that food, clothing, and shelter will be available to them. He may not be able to present them with an abundance of worldly goods, but love for his family and His God powerfully motivates him try and make their lives as comfortable as possible. How his faith must be shaken when those things are plundered from him!

     Or is it? The Hebrew writer reminds those first century saints of a time when they did not just accept such persecution, but they accepted it joyfully! “But how can that be?” today’s non-Christian and worldly-minded Christian ask incredulously? After all, Jesus’ statement in Luke 12:15 that “one’s life does not consist in the abundance of His possessions” just sounds so strange, so unrealistic, doesn’t it? Yes, if approached from a worldly perspective. There is nothing praiseworthy or commendable in suffering to the one whose vision cannot extend beyond his life on earth.

     However, early after their conversions the recipients of the Hebrew letter had been able to take a much longer view. Even as their houses and property were taken from before their physical eyes, their spiritual eyes were fastened upon a “better possession and an abiding one.” They were very much like Moses, of whom the Hebrew writer would speak just a few verses later. “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward” (Hebrews 11:24-26). One must not gloss over the fact that Moses knew of a reward exceeding that of being called the grandson of the most powerful man on the planet and enjoying all the vice and pleasure associated with it. One must be even further moved in considering that he thought of these sinful pleasures as merely “passing” when he could have indulged in them for the greatest part of a long life. The worldly-minded exclaim, “What a wonderful life this man gave up!” The spiritually minded exclaim, “What a wonderful reward he grasped!” In the beginning, the Hebrew saints kept that reward firmly in mind.  What about you and I?