Abel and Enoch

Abel and Enoch

Lived in Faith

With that brief introduction, the author starts to give examples: By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead (Heb. 11:4).
Genesis 4 actually tells us very little about Abel: He brought an offering, and God looked on him with favor (Gen. 4:4). It does not tell us why his offering was better than Cain’s (in ancient Israel, grain was just as legitimate an offering as a lamb was), and it says nothing about faith. Nevertheless, the author of Hebrews assumes that if God was pleased, then Abel must have had faith.
The next example is Enoch: By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: ‘He could not be found, because God had taken him away.’ For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God (Heb. 11:5, quoting Gen. 5:24).
Again, Genesis says little about Enoch, but Jewish legends said that he was taken into heaven, and this is reflected in the author’s comments—that Enoch did not die. God took him because he "walked with God," which our author takes as evidence that he had faith. We do not know exactly what he believed, or what he did.
The readers probably do not need any proof that Enoch had faith, because they already know that Enoch was one of the "good guys." The author is not trying to argue his case with logic here—he is painting a picture, presenting faith not as a strange thing, but as normal for the people of God.
The readers already know that faith is good, but the author is using his skill as an orator to build positive emotions for faith, when the readers already face possibly unpleasant consequences for having faith in Jesus Christ. For Abel, faith meant an early death; for Enoch it meant the opposite. Either way, the people of God need faith.
After these two introductory examples, the author states the lesson he wants to highlight: Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Heb. 11:6). In this little creed, the author reminds us that God rewards the faithful—those who seek him. Although we cannot see him, we have evidence that he exists. In addition to supernatural rewards, faith has natural rewards in the here and now: Faith feels better than fear.