Heavenly Mindedness (6)

 

Reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10:

 

 

“In our text, however, we meet faith in its more simple and direct mode of operation. It appears as dealing with the unseen and future. From the life of the patriarchs the more militant, strenuous features are absent. In their lives it is allowed as in a region of seclusion and quietness to unfold before our eyes its simple beauty. Faith is here but another name for other-worldliness or heavenly-mindedness. Herein lies the reason why the writer dwells with such evident delight upon this particular part of the Old Testament narrative.

 

“The other figures he merely sketches, and with a rapid skillful stroke of the brush puts in the highlights of their lives where the glory of faith illumined them. But the figure of Abraham he paints with the lingering, caressing hand of love, so that something of the serenity and peacefulness of the original patriarchal story is reproduced in the picture: “By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, for he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” The charm spread over this part of the subject to the author’s vision also appears in this, that, after having already dismissed it and passed on to the portrayal of Abraham’s faith in another form, as connected with the seed of the promise, he involuntarily returns to cast one more loving glance at it: “They died in faith, not having received the promises, but seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own. And if indeed they had been mindful of the country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country, that is a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared them a city.”  G. Vos.

 

There are 39 verses in Hebrews Chapter 11. The author of Hebrews picks the story of Abraham up in verse 8 and doesn’t move on with Isaac until verse 20. However, as Vos notes, there is a short interlude in verses 13 – 16 in which the author looks back at what he has surveyed, from Abel through Abraham, “These all died in faith…” Then “he involuntarily returns to cast one more loving glance” at Abraham’s faith.

 

Vos also wants us to see that in the lives of the Patriarchs faith has a, “more simple and direct mode of operation. It appears as dealing with the unseen and future. From the life of the patriarchs the more militant, strenuous features are absent.”

 

The lives of the Patriarchs take us through verse 22, concluding with Joseph. Then we have Moses in verses 23 – 29; and from 30 – 39 we have a crescendo of action, what Vos terms, “the more militant, strenuous features” of faith. Moses is a transition from the contemplative, simple, and direct faith of the Patriarchs to the militant faith that characterizes the chapter’s conclusion. In Moses we see both “simple and direct faith” and “militant and strenuous faith.” In verse 27 we note that Moses “endured, as seeing Him who is invisible;” this echoes the Patriarchs. In verses 28 – 29 we see Moses keeping the Passover and leading God’s people through the Red Sea; this anticipates the crescendo of militant and strenuous faith.

 

Vos says that the faith of the Patriarchs deals “with the unseen and future”. Faith as “heavenly mindedness,” as a framework of life, a way of life, is the thrust of Vos’s message – living supernaturally in communion with the True and Living God, in Jesus Christ. This is the way we are called to think, to feel, to see, to touch, to breathe, to make decisions – we learn to see the unseen and to live in that reality.

 

What is the “future” of which Vos speaks? While our inclination is toward future “events” in the nature of newspaper headlines, the primary sense that Vos is thinking of is the Patriarch’s desire “for a better country, a heavenly one, the city with foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (verses 10 and 16). We’ll explore this primary sense in the next post.

 

However, the primary sense not only does not exclude the sense of future events as the unfolding of specific events in history, it lays its foundation. “By faith Noah, being warned  [by God] about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the saving of his household…” (11:7). The Flood was a specific event, Noah saw it coming in some fashion, he sensed it, because he was heavenly – minded.

 

But here’s the thing we usually miss; our propensity is to ignore the simple faith of the Patriarchs, the cultivation of heavenly – minded faith, and move directly to faith that is militant and strenuous and faith that sees and anticipates future events. This is akin to a new hire at a company, who is just out of school, insisting that he be promoted to president of the company after a week’s experience. What we would shake our heads at within a company, we often embrace in the Kingdom.

 

Why is it that many people who preach and write about “prophecy” are constantly churning out books and videos, constantly updating (though they might deny they are “updating”) their teaching? One reason is that they’ve promoted themselves to be president of the company. They are chasing events and adjusting their teaching when they ought to be modeling a stable and grounded faith, a heavenly – mindedness in our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

I think the structure of Hebrews 11 demonstrates that the simple faith of the Patriarchs is the foundation of the militant and strenuous faith that propels us in verses 30 – 39. We often miss this because we are attracted to action, we want things to happen. Lasting things do not happen, as a rule, without a solid foundation. Certainly, a life of eternal significance is not lived apart from a firm and deep foundation in Jesus Christ, it is not lived apart from a heavenly – minded life in Him.

 

The prominence of Abraham in Hebrews 11 is in harmony with Abraham’s role as our father of faith (Romans 4:16; Galatians 3:29, 4:28). In Romans Chapter 4 we see that Abraham’s simple and heavenly – minded faith resulted in his faith perceiving and believing that the future event of Isaac’s birth would indeed happen. In Hebrews 11:19 we see that Abraham’s simple faith caused him to believe in a potential future event, the raising of Isaac from the dead. He saw the potential event as clearly as he saw the actual future event. (Consider Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in Daniel 3:17 – 18. They saw two potential outcomes of their trial by fire – it appears that they were good with either one, for they were heavenly – minded.)

 

I want to conclude this post by looking at the above words from Vos, “The charm spread over this part of the subject to the author’s vision also appears in this, that, after having already dismissed it and passed on to the portrayal of Abraham’s faith in another form, as connected with the seed of the promise, he involuntarily returns to cast one more loving glance at it…”

 

Now I don’t know that the writer of Hebrews had “already dismissed” the portrayal of Abraham’s simple faith; the author of Hebrews may very well have simply been going with the flow, as I suspect Vos was doing. And I don’t know if the author “involuntarily” returned to cast another glance at Abraham’s simple faith. But I don’t have any problem at all with Vos’s suggestion that it had been dismissed and that the author involuntarily returned to it, because Vos is a man possessed by the Word of Hebrews 11 and he is also a man possessing Hebrews 11. In other words, Hebrews 11 has made its home in Vos and Vos is making his home in Hebrews 11. This is the incarnation of the Word of God – and this is the way life in Christ ought to be with us.

 

You cannot write something like “The charm spread over this part of the subject to the author’s vision” unless you are living within the Word, and unless the text has become the Word, living and breathing and enveloping your very soul – and unless you are communing with the saints.

 

When the Word is living and incarnational we have a liberty to communicate the Word as Vos is doing; a joy, a freedom, which passes our understanding and leaves us at a loss for words.

 

How is it that Christians can be in church all their lives and never be possessed by the Bible, or by even one book of the Bible? How is it that so many do not experience the incarnation of the Living Word? How is it that we do not possess the Bible to the point where we can say with Paul, “My Gospel (Romans 2:16; 16:25), my Romans, my Psalms, my Hebrews”?

 

We can teach exegesis all we want, producing pedantic teachers and preachers. We can teach how to preach, using three points or a big idea or image or other approaches. But if we cannot model the communion of the saints, if we cannot lead others into the incarnation of the Word, if we cannot lead our brothers and sisters in possessing the land of the Word of God (Joshua 1:1 – 9) we shall remain wrapped in grave clothes. Can we not demonstrate joy in the incarnational Word? Can we not romp and jump and rejoice and sing in the Word? Can we not walk with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others in and through the Word? Can we not see and feel charm where there is charm, agony where there is agony – and above all, see Christ everywhere and in everything?