Moses my servant is dead.
—Joshua 1:2
In Hebrews 11—the Westminster Abbey of the Bible—the writer reels off a memory-jogging list of people whose work had ended and who now watched those who were carrying on where they left off.
With those in mind, chapter 12 begins: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses . . . let us run with perseverance the race marked out before us.”
That great cloud of witnesses—someone called them “a sky full of eyes”—are now spectators. Having done their part, they now watch to see how those who follow them do theirs.
The tormenting fear of every generation is that their faith will die without a successor—that the coming generation will be indifferent to their religious heritage.
Take up the work where the
previous generation called it a day.