“By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”

We begin the ‘by faith’ section of chapter eleven. What follows is an example after example of faith at work; people who moved according to their faith to be obedient to God. The first ‘by faith’  is an addition to the lead-in on the meaning of faith itself. Faith is summed up in the belief of a creator and a creation.

This is within itself a profound statement. We see what is made, and we have decided that we know the nature of the things used to create the universe. What the writer tells us in this one verse defies our knowledge and the knowledge of the entire scientific world. We can take the creation and create something else, and we assume that that is how God created the world. We think He took the elements and formed them into the shape we know as the universe. That isn’t at all what the writer is saying in verse three. He is saying that God made visible things from things invisible. He made the elements that are in formed shapes.  Do you believe that?

Faith is taking God’s word that what we can’t understand is still real. Man was made from the dust of the ground, but who made the dust? Who made the ground? Stars are hot gasses, but where did they come from? No one knows except God and those who have faith in His words. It is beyond understanding and thus can only be accounted for by faith.

Task for Today: Before we look at Abel and that vast ocean of faithful saints, let’s take a moment to think about our own faith. Do you believe the impossible? That is what God is asking. He wants you to believe impossible things about Him based on no evidence but His word. Repeat this statement, “I believe the universe was created by the word of God using that which can’t be seen.” Can you do it?