Substance and Evidence

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." This sentence rests its whole weight on two nouns, substance and evidence, and neither of them describes a feeling.

The Greek word behind substance is hupostasis. It is built from two smaller words meaning under and standing, so it describes what stands underneath a weight and holds it up, like the foundation under a house. The word behind evidence is elenchos, a word for proof, the kind that settles a case in court and leaves the other side with nothing more to say. So in this verse faith is the solid ground under what we hope for, and the proof of what we cannot yet see.

Then the chapter spends thirty-nine more verses showing what that looks like in real people. "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." By faith Noah "prepared an ark to the saving of his house." By faith Abraham "obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." Further down the chapter comes a line people rarely put on a wall: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off." They died without receiving what they were promised. At the end the chapter says the same about the whole list: they all, "having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise."

Yet its last verse gives the reason: "God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." Abel is waiting, and so are Noah and Abraham. What they are waiting for is what you are waiting for, and God means to bring it to them and to you together. That is what stands underneath you on a morning when nothing you prayed for has arrived. It holds because God promised it, and your grip on it was never what kept it standing.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 290 is Mercy as High as Heaven (Psalm 103:11).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two