Daily Thought

ROTHERHAM translates ‘Looking away unto’, v. 2 EBR. Away from what? A great cloud of witnesses found in chapter 11. They exemplified faith in certain facets, but the call now is to look off to the Author and Finisher of faith. In what way were they witnesses that surround us? Are they watching our race? How disappointed they would often be, and surely they have that which is far better to gaze on in glory! The word ‘witnesses’ has been interpreted to mean ‘those whose lives and actions testified to the worth and effect of faith, and whose faith received witness in scripture’, W. E. VINE. In what way is this so? They had their failures and we learn from their mistakes. They were men ‘of like passions’ as ourselves, and yet completed the race, and we should not fail. Above all, their lives witnessed to God’s faithfulness to them, and ‘He abideth faithful’ to us also. There are encumbrances, the weights and sin, but there is also encouragement, ‘looking away off to Jesus’. It is to look beyond the cloud to a form radiant and sublime, to the supreme Leader and Perfecter of faith, the Lord of the whole host of the faithful. His faith never wavered, and was characterized by a true dependence upon God. He is thus the author, the file leader, the One who takes precedence, and the Perfecter, the One who supremely reveals faith in its working. He exercised the patience of faith - He endured, as did the patriarchs, 11. 8-22. He exhibited the power of faith - He despised, ‘cared nothing for the shame’, GOODSPEED. Faith is confidence in things hoped for, and He looked to ‘the joy set before him’. There was the joy of pleasing the Father, and so ‘he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross’, Phil. 2. 8. There was the joy of the Father’s presence, returning there as the perfect and glorified Man, and the triumphant Messiah, Ps. 16. 10, 11. There was the joy of knowing His sufferings purchased for Him a bride, Eph. 5. 25-27. He endured, and now He is set down, enthroned. Beware of losing that single gaze. The moment we take our eyes off the Lord Jesus and fix it on others, our pace in the Christian race will slacken and our onward progress in grace decline. Let us, then, so run the race set before us.