Devotion 1: A Pep Talk to Run!
As a teacher, I often get many questions about the “cloud of witnesses” that surrounds us. When people hear or read this verse, it often brings to mind a picture that everyone in Heaven is sitting in an arena and watching us. This thought brings joy to some and terror to others. Hebrews 12:1 reads, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." At first glance, I can understand why people would have those questions.
When we first look at a verse, we realize that this verse starts with “therefore,” which connects the beginning of chapter twelve with the previous chapter. The previous chapter is a list of Old Testament believers who, by faith in the coming Savior, lived their lives for Him. Moreover, we are being encouraged by the faithful men and women of the Old Testament to run the race that is before us with endurance. It isn’t that they are watching us, but we are surrounded with encouragement that they finished the race as they looked forward to Christ, and we can finish the race as we look back to what Christ has done for us. It is as though we are getting a “pep talk” for the building up of believers. Hebrews 12:2 puts the emphasis directly on Jesus. It reads, "Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
We should be motivated by these saints, such as Abel, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, and Moses. We are motivated to run. Why? Because of their confirmed testimony of who Christ is and the fact that they finished the race! John Piper wrote, “The best way to illustrate this, I think, is with Hebrews 11:4, where the writer speaks of Abel and says, ‘And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.’ So Abel is in the cloud of witnesses, and he is witnessing to us by his life through the Scriptures. This is the way all the witnesses of Hebrews 11 are helping us. They have gathered along the sidelines of our race and they hold out their wounds and their joys and give us the best high-fives we ever got: ‘Go for it! You can do it. By faith, you can finish. You can lay the weights down and the sins. By faith, by the assurance of better things hoped for, you can do it. I did it. And I know it can be done. Run. Run!’"