As we read Hebrews 11, we find a single common denominator to the lives of the people mentioned. Each had a particular characteristic that denotes the kind of faith Yehovah Elohim - God loves. What was this element? Their faith was born of deep intimacy with Yehovah.
The fact is that it’s impossible to have a faith that pleases Yehovah without sharing intimacy with Him. What do I mean by intimacy? I’m speaking of a closeness to Yehovah that comes from yearning for him. This kind of intimacy is a close personal bond, a communion.
It comes when we desire Yehovah more than anything else in this life.
It comes when we have died to self and completely committed our lives to Him in covenant faithfulness, living out in obedience the words He gave the lord Jesus to give to us.
It comes to us when we keep the creed of the Messiah Jesus to love God with all our hearts, mind, and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:28-32).
“By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and through it he being dead still speaks” (Hebrews 11:4, NKJV). I want to note several significant things about this verse:
First, Yehovah Himself testifies about Abel’s offerings.
Second, Abel had to build an altar to Yehovah where he brought his sacrifices. He offered not only unspotted lambs for the sacrifice but the fat of those lambs as well. “Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat” (Genesis 4:4).
What does the fat signify here? The book of Leviticus says of the fat, “The priest shall burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma; all the fat is Yehovah’s” (Leviticus 3:16).
The fat was the part of the sacrifice that caused a sweet aroma to rise. This part of the animal caught flame quickly and was consumed; the fat here serves as a type of prayer or fellowship that’s acceptable to Yehovah. It represents our ministry to Yehovah, our God, and Father in the secret closet of prayer. Yehovah Himself states that such intimate worship rises to Him like a sweet-smelling savor.
The Bible’s first mention of this kind of worship is by Abel. That is why Abel is listed in Hebrews 11’s ‘Hall of Faith.’ He’s a type of servant who was in fellowship with Yehovah, offering Him the best of all he had. As Hebrews declares, Abel’s example lives on today as a testimony of true, living faith: “He being dead still speaks” (Hebrews 11:4).
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