• Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”
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Most believers are aware of the faith (Heb. 11) of the “great cloud of witnesses” mentioned in Heb. 12:1, but are you aware of their stand? From James 2:17 & 20, we learn that faith without works is dead, so too, this great cloud of witnesses displayed their faith by their works, and for many of them this was revealed by their stand against sin for God. It is important that we briefly notice this “so great a cloud of witnesses” concerning their stand since more and more “Christians” today oppose those who take stands for truth against sin. You may have noticed these giants of the faith’s great deeds and faith, but please look closely at how many of them also stood against sin for truth.

• – Enoch stood and prophesied against his ungodly generation. Jude 14-15
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• – Noah stood against his wicked generation and was “a preacher of righteousness.” II Pt. 2:5
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• – Abraham stood and fought against Lot’s captors (Gen. 14:14-15) and stood against the King of Sodom (Gen. 14:21-24).
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• – Moses’ parents stood against Pharaoh’s decrees to kill all Jewish male babies (Ex. 1:16, 22), “were not afraid of the king’s commandment” (Heb. 11:23), hid their son for 3 months (Ex. 2:2; Acts 7:20; Hebrews 11:23), and set him in “an ark of bulrushes” by “the river’s brink” as his sister “stood afar off” (Ex. 2:4).
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• – Moses stood against Egypt’s wickedness; “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season”; and “forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.” Heb. 11:24-27
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• – Joshua and Caleb stood against Israel’s rebellion and bad report of God’s Promised Land and were almost stoned to death for it. (Num. 14:6-10) Later, both men stood against the mighty kings of Canaan, claiming land in the name of the Lord.
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• – Rahab stood against her own people who had rejected the Jews’ God and hid the two Hebrew spies from the soldiers of Jericho. Josh. 2:1; Heb. 11:31; James 2:25
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• – The judges, Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, stood and fought against the numerous enemies surrounding Israel. Heb. 11:32
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• – Samuel stood righteous against the sin around him all of his days (I Sam. 2:11-12, 17-18, 26), and he stood against Israel’s demand for a king (I Sam. 8), and Samuel stood against Saul’s multiple times of rebellion (I Sam. 13 & 15).
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• – David stood and fought against “a lion, and a bear” (I Sam. 17:34) to defend his sheep, and stood against the giant Goliath (I Sam. 17), and stood against King Saul (I Sam. 24), and stood against the many wicked nations around him reclaiming Israel’s land, and stood against his own mutinous son Absalom, and stood against even his own sin in repentance (II Sam. 12:7-13; Ps. 51), etc….
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• – Nathan the prophet boldly stood against King David’s sins, revealing them to his face. II Sam. 12:7
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• – Shammah stood against the Philistines, defending “a piece of ground full of lentiles.” II Sam. 23:11-12
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• – Micaiah stood against Ahab multiple times (I Kings 22:8) eventually being cast into prison for it. (I Kings 22:27)
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• – Think of Israel’s many prophets who stood against the wickedness, wicked people, and wicked rulers around them. (Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, etc…)
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• – Daniel stood and “would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank” (Dan. 1:8). And years later, Daniel was still standing (Dan. 8) when he continued to pray to God where anyone could see him as was his habit when it was illegal to pray.
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• – Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah literally stood against King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image and were willing to be thrown into the king’s fiery furnace and die. (Dan. 3)
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• – Peter and John (and the other apostles and disciples of Jesus) stood against the Sanhedrin in Acts 4 as well as many other times throughout their life for Jesus’ sake.
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• – Paul as well as his companions (Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Luke, etc…) repeatedly and consistently stood against sin for truth.
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• – The two witnesses (Rev. 11), the 144,000 “sealed” Jews (Rev. 7), and all Tribulation believers will courageously stand against the beast and the entire world.
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Of course, the most important One Who stood and still stands is Jesus. And Jesus is the main One we all are to keep our eyes on as seen in our text Hebrews 12 (vs.2-3). This is what the author of Hebrews was trying to do throughout the book of Hebrews: move our eyes from the great characters of Scripture to Jesus our true Strength, Savior, and Hero. Although it can be exciting and encouraging to hear and read of “so great a cloud of witnesses” that have stood against sin for truth, Jesus is the only One Who is “the Author and Finisher of our faith,” and Jesus is the One we must meditate upon lest we get tired and quit. (Heb. 12:2-3)