When we see a word such as this, we can automatically assume we already know what is being communicated based on our current understanding of the word and the particular context in which it is being used.  We may have an image of two people hugging, or we might have an image of someone accepting an idea or a challenge of some kind.

In the Bible, when this word is used in Hebrews concerning heroes of the faith, it has a little more depth to it than the descriptions we just read.

Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

When I read this passage, I cannot help but notice the fact that these heroes of the faith died not having received but having seen promises afar off (on their way, if you will). Despite not seeing them manifest in the natural present tense, they still believed and embraced them as though they were real.

How do we know that they embraced them?

Because they took ownership of them as possessing them, they confessed them as having them, and it produced a certain result among others when they did so.

They were misunderstood for their seemingly unrealistic approach to something promised but not yet manifested.

The result was that they became strangers and pilgrims on this earth.  In other words, they were misunderstood and rejected by what their current culture would have deemed normal.

The dictionary defines Embrace in the verb tense this way: accept or support (a belief, theory, or change) willingly and enthusiastically.  The people described to us as heroes of the faith in Hebrews did this very thing.

Hebrews reveals this factual reality to us and then goes through a list of examples of faith in action on the part of many of the heroes who have names in Scripture and demonstrated what embracing a promise really looks like.  Then, it closes out the chapter with something amazing.

Hebrews 11:38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

Of whom the world was not worthy!  That just runs against the grain of reasoning in the natural, don’t you think?  It is when someone embraces what God spoke as a promise, even when it cannot be seen in the natural world, and confesses it as though they already have it that it manifests a person the world is not worthy of.  Someone willing to be misunderstood for their faith in Jesus and what He accomplished and how the promises of God are yes and amen in Him is someone this world is not worthy of.

Embracing what God has spoken and is still speaking to you is the separating work of God in your life. When we are set apart by faith, this is the hallmark of holiness, and it is strange to both the religious and worldly-minded. What we embrace matters. What are you embracing?  Embracing begins with believing.  Believing begins with the truth God has declared through His Son Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.  If you do not know what you’ve been promised by God through Jesus, how will you embrace the promise that is meant to be yours?  If you believe it and embrace it, you will confess it and you will be thought of as being weird or strange.  But you will be someone this world isn’t worthy of.