People who believed in God
1This is true: People who believe in God are completely sure that God will do the things that they hope for, and which He has promised. Faith is to be sure of the things that we believe but can not see. 2Our forefathers believed in God and that is why the Old_Testament says that God was pleased with them. 3We, who believe in God, understand that God has spoken and that is how He made heaven and earth. So, He used something that we can not see to make the things that we can see.
4Abel sacrificed_an_offering to God and because he believed in God, God was more pleased with his offering than with the offering that Cain sacrificed. Abel believed and that is why God said he was righteous. God said this because He was pleased with Abel's offering. Abel died, but he believed in God and so even today we can see his example talking to us about his faith.
5Enoch believed in God and God took him away. He did not die and that is why no one could find Enoch's body because God took him away. Yes, before God took Enoch away, God said He was pleased with Enoch. 6God will never be pleased with someone who does not believe in Him. Someone who wants to serve God must believe that God lives and that He rewards the people who want to serve Him.
7Noah believed in God and that is why God warned him about what would happen, and about things that were coming but that people could not yet see. Noah served God and he did what God said. He built the ark to save his family. Noah believed in God and he showed the people of the world that they were wrong and guilty. God blessed Noah and made him righteous so that he could live in the right way because he believed in God.
8Abraham believed in God and so he listened to God when He told Abraham to go away to a place that God wanted to give him. Abraham went away but he did not know where he was going. 9Abraham believed in God and that is why he went to live as a stranger in the land that God had promised him. He lived like a stranger in tents with Isaac and Jacob. God promised Isaac and Jacob that He would give them the same things as He had promised Abraham. 10Abraham wanted to live in the city of God, the city that God Himself had planned and built, the city that will always be there.
11Sarah could not have a baby and she was getting very old. But Abraham believed in God and that is why God gave him strength to become a father. Abraham believed that God would do what He had promised 12and that is why this man had so many descendants. He was very old and almost dead, but his descendants became as many as the stars in the sky and as many as the grains of sand of the sea, which no one could count.
13All these people who believed in God died and they did not receive what God had promised to give them. But they saw these things a long time before they happened and they rejoiced and were happy about it. They accepted being strangers in this world, as people who did not live here on earth forever. 14People who say they are strangers here on earth are saying that they are waiting for another land where they will live forever. 15If Abraham and his people longed to go back to the land where they had come from, they would have gone back to stay there. 16But they did not keep on thinking of that land. No, they longed for a better land, the land where God is, in heaven. That is why God is not ashamed when they say He is their God and He has prepared a city for them to live in.
17-18God promised Abraham that He would give him descendants. God said: ‘Isaac's children will be your descendants.’ But God wanted to test Abraham. He wanted to see what Abraham would do, so He told Abraham to sacrifice his son. Abraham believed in God and that is why he was willing to sacrifice Isaac and he started to sacrifice his only son.
19Abraham was sure that God could raise dead people and make them live again and that is why God gave Isaac back to Abraham. This is an example that shows how God will raise dead people and make them live again.
20Isaac believed in God and that is why he blessed Jacob and Esau. Isaac blessed them and promised them things that would happen later.
21Jacob believed in God and that is why he blessed both of Joseph's sons. He used his staff to bow down and worship God while he was dying.
22Joseph believed in God and before he died, he told his descendants that the Israelites would go from Egypt back to their land and he told them to take his body with them.
23Moses' parents believed in God and that is why they hid Moses for 3 months after he was born. They did it because they saw that he was a special and beautiful child and they were not afraid of what the king said. 24Moses grew up and he believed in God. That is why he did not want people to say that he was the son of Pharaoh's daughter. 25Moses chose to suffer with the people of God. He did not choose to enjoy doing wrong and to be happy for just a short while. 26Moses knew that it was better to suffer when people humiliated him like they humiliated Christ later. This was better than to be rich or to have all the beautiful and expensive things of Egypt. He did not want to be rich. He wanted to receive the reward that God gives.
27Moses believed in God and that is why he went out of Egypt. He went away, but not because he was afraid of the king who became angry. No, Moses went away because he was like someone who could see God, whom no one could see. 28Moses believed in God and that is why he told the Israelites to celebrate Passover and to sprinkle blood on the door frames so that the angel who had to kill the people would not kill the oldest sons and the first calves and lambs of the Israelites.
29The Israelites believed in God and that is why God helped them walk through the Red Sea like people who walk on dry ground. When the Egyptians tried to do the same, they drowned in the sea.
30The Israelites believed in God and that is why the walls of Jericho fell after the Israelites walked around the walls for 7 days.
31Rahab the prostitute believed in God and that is why she welcomed the Israelite spies into her home and she did not die.
32I do not have to say anything more, because it would take a very long time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets. 33They all believed in God and that is why they defeated the kings of other lands. They did what was right and they received what God had promised. They believed in God and that is why lions could not open their mouths to eat them. 34They put out big fires, and they escaped when people wanted to kill them with swords. They were weak but God made them strong. They were like very strong soldiers and they made the armies of enemies flee.
35Women got back their family members who were dead, because God made them live again. People beat and wounded believers and they died. These believers did not want to stop believing in God. If they said that they would stop believing, they would have been free to go and live. But these believers who died like this believed that God would give them a better reward when God raises the dead people. 36People mocked other believers and beat them with whips. They tied the believers and put them in jail.
37People killed believers with stones, or sawed them into pieces or killed them with swords. Other believers did not have any clothes and they had to put sheepskins and goatskins over them. They did not have any food or clothes, and people made them suffer and hurt them. 38These people who believed in God were too good for the people of this world. They had to flee to deserts. They had to hide in mountains and caves and holes in the ground.
39The Old_Testament tells us that God was pleased with all these forefathers of ours because they believed in Him. But He did not give them the things that He had promised them. 40God did this because He had a better plan for us who believe in Christ. God wanted to make the believers of the Old_Testament perfect together with us.
