‘ By faith we understand (know in our minds) that the worlds (the ages) have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which appear.'
So it is by faith that we accept that the world which endures through the ages was created by God; that it was His word that framed things as we know them; and that matter, and things as they are, were not made up of things which can be seen, but were His creation out of what was invisible, and were His handywork.
It is through His revelation in the Scriptures that we know that God lies behind all, that there is an invisible creative power behind all things, God's powerful creative word, on which all must continue to rely. And that all that we see, and touch, and feel was made by Him. For we have this declared in God's revelation of Himself in Genesis 1. And it is by this that we know that the world has meaning and must also therefore come to a satisfactory conclusion.
And now having laid the foundation of faith in God, as the Creator and Sustainer and Goal of the Universe (see Hebrews 1:2-3), he will go on to describe how chosen men and women of God have responded to their Creator's word throughout history. He does it by selecting positive acts of faith from the past as revealed in the Scriptures and in tradition. But before he does so he first selects two examples which demonstrate from the very beginning that for those who had faith, even in the beginning, their future is in God's hands, and that life and death are also in His hands. Whether those who have faith die, or whether they are transformed while yet alive, their future is secure with God.