What more can I say? I would run out of time if I told you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. Through faith they conquered kingdoms, brought about justice, realized promises, shut the mouths of lions, put out raging fires, escaped from the edge of the sword, found strength in weakness, were mighty in war, and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured and refused to be released so they could gain a better resurrection. But others experienced public shame by being taunted and whipped; they were even put in chains and in prison. They were stoned to death, they were cut in two, and they died by being murdered with swords. They went around wearing the skins of sheep and goats, needy, oppressed, and mistreated. The world didn’t deserve them. They wandered around in deserts, mountains, caves, and holes in the ground. All these people didn’t receive what was promised, though they were given approval for their faith. God provided something better for us so they wouldn’t be made perfect without us. (Hebrews 11:32-40, CEB)
I had to read this a couple of times because of the last sentence. “God provided something better for us so they wouldn’t be made perfect without us.” Because this is the end of the faith chapter, some cheated death, and others endured death, and yet none of them received the promised but were given approval for their faith. Because “God provided something better for us so they wouldn’t be made perfect without us.”
God provided us, those who came after these told about here in the passage something better, so that those in the passage would be made perfect with us.
We need all believers, and until we understand that, we will continue to wait for Jesus to return.
We need each other.
aSacredRebel 