Daily Manna · Day 333 · November 29
God Not Ashamed
“Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”
Think of a guest list where one name has been quietly left off. Nobody did it out of spite, but everybody who notices understands why. Some people are simply awkward to be seen with.
That is why this verse says something stranger than the comfort people usually take from it. It does not say God approves of everything the people in this chapter did. Read the whole of Hebrews 11. The list includes Abraham, who lied about his wife twice. It includes Samson, the strongman who lost everything to a woman and a haircut. It includes Jephthah, a judge who made a terrible vow, and Rahab, a prostitute in Jericho. Nor does the chapter claim they were proved right in their lifetimes. Verse thirteen is blunt: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises." They died still waiting. The writer says they "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth," and he adds that if they had wanted to go back to the country they came from, they had every chance.
What the verse does give them is a title: "God is not ashamed to be called their God." That echoes what God said to Moses from the burning bush: "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." He joins His own name to a list of unfinished people, in public, for good. They are not the names left off the list. He has written His own name next to theirs.
Then comes the proof, and it is the part I would not have thought to include: "for he hath prepared for them a city." Nobody builds a city for people he is embarrassed by. God shows that He is not ashamed of them by building something for them.
So bring Him the part of your story you usually leave out when you tell it, and name it to Him this morning. He is not ashamed to be called your God either. Then go and be unashamed of someone else where people can see it. Eat with the friend whose situation has become awkward, in front of the people who are watching.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 333 is Calves of the Stall (Malachi 4:2).