To profit fully from Scripture, we must understand correctly the doctrinal importance of narratives. To that end, we must remember that the chapter divisions and verse divisions in Scripture are not inspired by God.
Hebrews 11:1-12:1 is an important example of this truth. If we do not connect Hebrews 12:1 to all that is in Hebrews 11, we will miss vital truth that God has given us for our profit.
To understand why this is true, note especially how Hebrews 12:1 connects with 11:32-40 (and all that precedes it in Hebrews 11) through the word “wherefore” at the beginning of 12:1:
Hebrews 11:32 And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: 33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: 36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Here, the inspired writer of the book of Hebrews issues two prescriptive mutual exhortations that instruct us that we must profit in our own lives from what God has given us in all of Hebrews 11.
To the extent that we do not profit from the vital connection between Hebrews 12:1 and Hebrews 11:1-40, we will not be fully the holy brethren that we should be.
It is a great mistake to take the position that only what is explicitly stated in the NT (or even in the rest of Scripture) is what matters for us. Rather, this passage vitally teaches us that we must profit from the numerous narrative passages in the OT that God has given us in Scripture, especially all the passages about the prophets who spoke and lived faithfully for God (Heb. 11:32).
What’s more, the writer of Hebrews explicitly tells us that he had much more to say than what he did explicitly talk about in Hebrews 11:
Hebrews 11:32 And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.
Because he said this, we have full biblical warrant to give close attention to the biblical accounts of all those who are mentioned in Hebrews 11:32 to learn what more the writer of Hebrews would have taught us about faith and other closely related truths had he had the time to talk about those truths in Hebrews 11.
Conclusion
We must not allow unsound doctrine about the doctrinal importance of narratives to deprive us of the full profit that the Spirit wants us to receive from them!
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