3. As to the outer man also, we must learn to what we are called now. He has set His mind upon making us, patterns of His holiness. She said to her father: "What hast thou done? But I am also interested that I have that faith that will see me through the hardships, the sufferings, the testings. It was said that 80,000 Jews were killed and 10,000 sold into captivity. (i) They lived for ever as strangers. How Abraham lived in Canaan, not as heir and proprietor, but as a sojourner only. This is just the closing practical word of the epistle to the Hebrews. The trial and exercise of Abraham's faith; he was tried indeed. He chose "rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward." If they were thinking of the land from which they had come out, they would have had time to return. "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, in virtue of the blood of the everlasting covenant, perfect you in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight "through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for the ages of the ages. But this time is not yet come. He made them both heads of different tribes, as if they had been his own immediate sons. He ordered the Jews to eat meats which were unclean and to sacrifice to the Greek gods. Their condition: Strangers and pilgrims. He prayed for them, that they might both be blessed of God. When God judges, he will overcome; and it is plain that the destruction of sinners is of themselves. Therefore it is well to stand clear of all men's schemes and thoughts, ever rising up more and more presumptuously, because they mainly consist of some slight in one way or another on the word of God. What he did by his faith: He made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones. Hebrews 11:22. That, if our persons and offerings be accepted, it must be through faith in the Messiah. The next instance of faith is that of the Israelites, under Joshua their leader, before the walls of Jericho. In Luke's gospel, the sixteenth chapter, Jesus said, "There was a certain rich man, who fared sumptuously every day, and there was a poor man that was brought daily and laid at his gate, covered with sores, and the dogs would come and lick his sores. Because he lives, he has a permanent priesthood, always interceding for his own, and thus he is able completely to save those who trust in him. The book As in Adam has this sentence: "The business of life, the way to life, consists in getting over fences, not in lying down and moaning on the hither side." That is, he sought carefully with tears the blessing given to Jacob; but there was no room left for repentance, simply in the sense of change of mind; for, I suppose, the word here has that sense, which sometimes, no doubt, it has. That he should love men and suffer and die for them is something that staggers us into sheer incredulity. He was possessed of a true justifying righteousness; he was, and, [2.] Another story tells that, after he had been forewarned by God, Noah made a bell of plane wood, about five feet high, and that he sounded it every day, morning, noon and evening. It became God to give Him to die; for such was our estate by sin that nothing short of His atoning death could deliver us; but, having delivered us, God would make us to be heavenly. Sometimes, not always, the countenance is the index of the mind. Because as it goes on. 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. If I know what Christ's redemption has accomplished for all who believe, I must know that God has given me this. (i) It is belief in God against the world. [3.] 2. I'll do it. He was the scourge of the Philistines. As the proof of this, God has prepared for them a city, a happiness suitable to the relation into which he has taken them. 11:8-10 It was by faith that Abraham, when he was caned, showed his obedience by going out to a place which he was going to receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was to go. (3.) It was at that moment that the faith of Moses communicated itself to the people and drove them on when they might well have turned back. 2. A true believer is desirous, not only to be in covenant with God, but in communion with the people of God; and is willing to fare as they fare. It seemed as if everything went against them. I don't have time to tell about Gideon [now we're in the book of Judges], Barak, Samson, Jephthae ( Hebrews 11:32 ); These are all men from the book of Judges who became judges of Israel and who through their faith delivered the children of Israel from their enemies.Going on from the book of Judges to. In itself it does not say how Enoch died. Who ever in his senses built a great hulk of a ship on dry land far from the sea? A greater trial was never put upon any creature. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do, thy will, O God." From this practical lessons of great value are drawn. After the children of Israel entered the land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua, he allowed each tribe to go to its own home. They had not received the promises, that is, they had not received the things promised, they had not yet been put into possession of Canaan, they had not yet seen their numerous issue, they had not seen Christ in the flesh. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself, and all the people, saying, "This [is] the blood of the covenant which God hath enjoined unto you. THE ADVENTURE AND THE PATIENCE OF FAITH ( Hebrews 11:8-10 ). I know God will do it. He blessed them; that is, he resigned them up to God in covenant; he recommended God and religion to them; he prayed for them, and prophesied concerning them, what would be the condition, and the condition of their descendants: we have the account of this in Gen. xxvii. Two Horizons Commentary Sale. And so the angel of the Lord said, "Why did Sarah laugh?" And the apostle would that their work of watching might be done with joy, and not groaning for this would be unprofitable for the saints. We often say, "It is good to be akin to an estate;" but surely it is good to be akin to the covenant. Good examples will either convert sinners or condemn them. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. (1.) If the law could show little mercy in such a case, the grace of God views all sin as intolerable. Hebrews 11:22. That before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God." What is here said of his faith, Hebrews 11:6. Above all things, he is the God of the gallant adventurer. Strengthened by the LORD, may you abound in all things in Christ to the glory and the praise and the honor of our God, our Savior, and our Lord. The difficulties of Sarah's faith, which were very great. Now after the apostle has given this account of the faith of others, with Abraham, he returns to him again, and gives us an instance of the greatest trial and act of faith that stands upon record, either in the story of the father of the faithful or of any of his spiritual seed; and this was his offering up Isaac: By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son, Hebrews 11:17. For if he were on earth, he should not even be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: who serve the representation and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was oracularly told when about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern that was shown to thee in the mountain. Enoch had the testimony that he pleased God. such is his condescension, such is his love to them; therefore let them never be ashamed of being called his people, nor of any of those that are truly so, how much soever despised in the world. What can you do but be true to a heritage like that?". God promised Abraham that the place he was called to he should afterwards receive for an inheritance, after awhile he should have the heavenly Canaan for his inheritance, and in process of time his posterity should inherit the earthly Canaan. He was said to be the first man skilled in tailoring and in sewing and that he instructed men how to cut out skins in the proper shape to make garments. The apostle argues that, just as the blood of the beast was brought into the holiest of all, while the body of the same animal was taken outside the camp and burnt, so this too must be made good in our portion. A strange mystery is the simple act of faith. [2.] That the word ( ) in this connection means "testator" appears to me beyond just question. The call of Abraham is told with dramatic simplicity in Genesis 12:1. God meant to have His will done, and thereby a people for Himself capable of enjoying His presence and His nature, where no question of sin or fall could ever enter. (1.) I know that you will not withhold anything from Me. The occasion of its first observance was extraordinary: it was in the same night that God slew the first-born of the Egyptians; but, though the Israelites lived among them, the destroying angel passed over their houses, and spared them and theirs. Then you may bless God that He has so blessed you, and given you to know as true of yourself that which, if not so known, effectually prevents one from having the full joy and bearing the due witness as an unworldly and simple-hearted servant of Christ here below. It was the more urgent to insist on it, because the Jews, like others, would like to have been settled in rest here and now. Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence he also received him in a figure ( Hebrews 11:17-19 ). Apply it to Christ's death as the testator, and nothing can be plainer or more forcible. It is extraordinary how Rahab became imprinted on the memory of Israel. The mean looks and sounds well, but is utterly false for the Christian. There is no indulgence of human curiosity. If He tells me to get out, I want Him to tell me where to go. The means prescribed to God to bring down the walls of Jericho. (3.) He believed the message which God sent him. No doubt all will be good and right in its due season then. Nor does it seem so natural for any as the great apostle to inform them of his child and fellow-labourer: "Know that the brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if he come pretty soon, I will see you. What was this "better thing"? The blessed fruits and rewards of Noah's faith. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with reverence, he prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith ( Hebrews 11:7 ). Abraham had faith to obey, believing that God could bring Isaac back to life. He had to go out into the unknown; yet he went. Biblical Commentary Hebrews 11:29 - 12:2 EXEGESIS: THE CONTEXT: Hebrews 11 is the great faith chapter of the Bible, first defining faith (v. 1) and then using well-known Hebrew people to show faith in action. Jewish and eastern legends gathered largely round Abraham's name and some of them must have been known to the writer to the Hebrews. "I've done it! When other men broke God's commandments, Noah kept them; when other men were deaf to God's warnings, Noah listened to them; when other men laughed at God, Noah reverenced him. Now, to entitle them to this distinguishing favour, and to mark them out for it, a lamb must be slain; the blood of it must be sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop upon the lintel of the door, and on the two side-posts; the flesh of the lamb must be roasted with fire; and it must be all of it eaten that very night with bitter herbs, in a travelling posture, their loins girt, their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand. may so far have sensible evidence of what exists now; but it is only God who can tell me that He in the beginning caused to be that which now is. He refused. He does not do it blatantly but with infinite artistry. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers. When clubs had their common meal, those who sat down to it were divided into members and xenoi ( G3581) . They didn't die and enter into the kingdom of God, but they died and went with Abraham, being comforted by the man of faith that God would indeed keep His promise and be faithful to His word. He showed thereby his dependence upon God, and testified his condition here as a pilgrim with his staff, and his weariness of the world, and willingness to be at rest. For without faith it is impossible to please God. Our being brought to God supposes, and is founded on the fact, that our sins are gone perfectly by His one offering; otherwise no madness is greater than indulging such a thought. And here we are favoured with a magnificent picture of Christianity in contrast with Judaism. It is a great privilege to be the offspring of good parents, and often the wicked children of good parents fare the better in this world for their parents' sake, for things present are in the covenant; but they are not the best things, and no man knoweth love or hatred by having or wanting such things. The story is told in Exodus 14:1-31. God often gives his people living comforts in dying moments; and when he does it is their duty, as they can, to communicate them to those about them, for the glory of God, for the honour of religion, and for the good of their brethren and friends. (Exodus 4:22), so also will I make king . They from Italy salute you. The faith of the parents of Moses, which is cited from, There appeared in him something uncommon; the beauty of the Lord sat upon him, as a presage that he was born to great things, and that by conversing with God his face should shine (, whose foundling he was, and her fondling too; she had adopted him for his son, and he refused it. XI. (2.) Before Jesus came, there was no question of it among the Jews. XIV. To put it simply--the secret of his faith was that Moses knew God personally. He realized that the pleasures of sin are not lasting. She answered: "Your father, Terah." One man meets a friend. Faith sets to its seal that God is true, and thereby settles and satisfies the soul. Condemnation, darkness, death. 1. Then he threw the dead body on his back and carried it about because he did not know what to do with it. For he was afraid that the Hebrews, because they were having so many children, would become a threat to the security of Egypt. So, following the family line. (1) Gideon was cowardly at first; God had to coax him to to obey. The way the people act I wouldn't blame Him. It may come from conscience; it may come from some direct word of God to our souls; it may come from the advice or the rebuke of some good and godly man; it may leap out at us from God's Book or challenge us in some sermon. Here consider. If that religion had been destroyed, what would have happened to the purposes of God? All these died before the final unfolding of God's promise and the coming of his Messiah into the world. God had before this tempted or tried the faith of Abraham, when he called him away from his country and father's house,when by a famine he was forced out of Canaan into Egypt,when he was obliged to fight with five kings to rescue Lot,when Sarah was taken from him by Abimelech, and in many other instances. It is the most beautiful adventure in life." For indeed He was a man as really as any other, though infinitely above man. So Abraham began to journey not knowing where he was going. Nicholas Rowe wrote: "Death is the privilege of human nature." (vii) Some have seen death as an adventure. The Lord said, "I'll pass through the land this night and the firstborn in every house will be slain. Their own Psalm, in its grand prophetic sweep, and looking back on the law, pointed to the place in which Christ is now seated above; and where it is of necessity He should be, in order to give Christianity its heavenly character. 2 Chronicles 24:20-22 tells how the prophet Zechariah was stoned by his own people because he told them the truth. "The officers, impatient at the man's boldness, dislocated his hands and feet with racking engines and wrenching them from their sockets, pulled his limbs asunder. To Moses belonged the faith to attempt what appeared to be the most insurmountable fences in the certainty that God would help the man who refused to turn back and insisted on going on. Because His people had no heart for His promises, He imposed a system of law and ordinances that was unjudged in them, which provoked the sin. There is nothing capricious about the usage. (2.) But this trial was greater than all; he was commanded to offer up his son Isaac. Those who would find God in these ways of his must seek him diligently; they must seek early, earnestly, and perseveringly. Without hesitation they choose God ( Daniel 3:1-30). It was God's commandment that once a day for six days and in silence the people should march round it, led by seven priests marching in front of the ark and bearing trumpets of rams' horn. We shall find another use before we have done, which I hope to notice in its place. (iii) Noah's faith was a judgment on others. (2.) 5. Second, there is this strange and eerie thought that Cain had discovered a new sin. The faith of the father, Abraham, passed on to Isaac, who by faith blessed his two sons, Jacob and Esau, and prophesied of the things to come. Genesis 23:4). Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, said that if a man comes to the altar and realizes that his brother has ought against him, he ought to first go to his brother and reconcile their differences and then come and offer your gift unto the Lord ( Matthew 5:23-24 ). God has prescribed means and ways wherein he may be found; to with, a strict attention to his oracles, attendance on his ordinances, and ministers duly discharging their office and associating with his people, observing his providential guidance, and in all things humbly waiting his gracious presence. As, (1.) Moffatt quotes a saying of A. S. Peake: "The courage to abandon work on which one's heart is set and accept inaction cheerfully as the will of God is of the rarest and highest kind and can be created and sustained only by the clearest spiritual vision." They saw them afar off. Christ has obtained redemption, and this is witnessed by the token of the veil rent from top to bottom. Then we hear of "Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant" the pledge of Israel's full and changeless blessing. Abels sacrifice, Enochs daily life and Noahs obedience all pleased God because they arose out of faith. Impossible to rise higher than the Highest, whence therefore the apostle descends, to consequences. If you have and prize one alone, you have only got the half of Christianity yea, of its foundations. He was always an outsider and only on payment a member of the community. The moon arose in the east and the stars came out. '"Jesus taught that prior to His death hell was divided into the two compartments; those who were being comforted by Abraham, Lazarus being comforted in Abraham's bosom, Abraham the father of those who believe. Thermouthis, much to her sorrow, was childless; so she took the baby Moses home, and cared for him as her own son. The gracious and great reward of their faith: he gives them leave to call him so; and he gives them the spirit of adoption, to enable them to cry, (3.) There is an unwritten saying of Jesus: "The world is a bridge. 11:23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. Verse 22. But if so, He was the Priest after the order of Melchisedec, as well as seated at Jehovah's right hand a cardinal truth of Christianity, the import of which the Jews did not receive in their conception of the Messiah. The Christian stands between the cross and the glory of the Lord Jesus. Meanwhile we are told that He has obtained (not a temporary, but) "eternal redemption." May God grant to us to leave behind not a germ of evil but a lovely thing in which the lives of those who come afterwards will find blessing. But this trial was greater than all; he was commanded to offer up his son Isaac. The best way to enjoy our comforts with comfort is to resign them up to God; he will then return them, if not in kind, yet in kindness. (2.) Do I have the faith, the quality of faith that endures? There we have those that compose the church, in allusion to Christ, contrasted with the position of Israel as a nation, because of the nearness which they possess by the grace of Christ known on high. Those who have been marked out must ever remember and acknowledge free and distinguishing grace. Euripides said: "Envy is the greatest of all diseases among men." For there is nothing in this world commensurate to the love of God in being the God of his people; and, if God neither could nor would give his people anything better than this world affords, he would be ashamed to be called their God. Such is a main point, not ofHebrews 4:1-16; Hebrews 4:1-16 only, but of the epistle. Again, we usually in our minds picture Isaac, because of the Sunday school papers that we had, of being maybe eight to ten years old. Hebrews 11:22. Notwithstanding their meanness by nature, their vileness by sin, and the poverty of their outward condition, God is not ashamed to be called. The reason for the success of his salvation - his ability to deal with both our outward sins and our inward condition - is that he lives forever with power to save. He did not dispute with God why he should make an ark, nor how it could be capable of containing what was to be lodged in it, nor how such a vessel could possibly weather out so great a storm. Immediately a Christian has set out on some enterprise sent him by God, he should feel that he has already passed the point of no return. We have the church, but even when the expression "church" occurs, it is the church altogether vaguely, as inHebrews 2:12; Hebrews 2:12, or viewed in the units that compose it not at all in its unity. An old scholar who was dying turned to his friends: "Do you realize," he said, "that in an hour or two I will know the answers for which we have been searching all our lives?" That picture of the sojourner became a picture of the Christian life. Nothing could be more tender and moving than those words of Isaac: My father, here is the wood, here is the fire; but where is the lamb for the burnt-offering? Hebrews 9:1-28 brings us into the types of the Levitical ritual, priesthood and sacrifice. The verb means to finish or close, with life understood. The patriarchs mentioned here likewise looked to the future in faith. Need help streaming? Men spend the greater part of their lives putting limitations on the power of God. And so as Isaac was with his father now, the two of them walking towards Moriah, Isaac said, "Father, here is the wood and we've got the fire, but where is the sacrifice? 1:20 ), they desired that "Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death." Matthew Henry wrote, Though the grace of faith is of universal use throughout our whole lives, yet it is especially so when we come to die. I, too, will lay my brother in the ground," and he did so. These are very good and useful instructions, and yet the blood of sprinkling speaketh better things than that of Abel. It is our duty to be reasoning down our doubts and fears, by the consideration of the almighty power of God. The writer to the Hebrews uses three vivid Greek words about them. Observe here, (1.) 28 Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. How did he please God? The apostle proceeds to make mention of the faith of the other patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob, and the rest of this happy family, Hebrews 11:13. And they fractured his fingers and his arms and his legs and his elbows." "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. (1.) The prevalency of unbelief for a time: she laughed at the promise, as impossible to be made good. Their acknowledgment of this their condition: they were not ashamed to own it; both their lips and their lives confessed their present condition. [3.] The trial of their faith in the imperfection of their present state. Now he takes two figures from the period of struggle when the children of Israel were winning a place for themselves within Palestine. The first brother refused to eat the unclean things. Wherever this blood is applied, the soul receives a whole Christ by faith, and lives upon him. That he was translated, that he should not see death, nor any part of him be found upon earth; for God took him, soul and body, into heaven, as he will do those of the saints who shall be found alive at his second coming. So Abraham took the ram, and offered it on the altar. Accordingly we find everything about Moses. Let peoples serve you and nations bow down to you." There, is no ground, in my judgment, for the thought of anything mysterious in the facts as to his person. He honours the work of Christ, according to His estimate of its efficacy, as it is only according to His counsels about us for Christ's glory. He had the honour to leave behind him an instructive speaking case; and what does it speak to us? On this subject I refer the reader to the notes on "Genesis 50:25". Yet, he dwelt in it as a stranger. A most searching and practical question, the very unseen hinge in God Himself on which not Christianity only, but all blessing, turns for heaven and earth, at least as far as the fallen creation is concerned. like pilgrims who need a word of encouragement; Hebrews encourages us to listen to the Word of God revealed in the Son of God, Jesus. We now go on to. In Hebrews 6:1-20, we saw that the Spirit of God brings in a most solemn warning for those who turn their back on the power and presence of the Holy Ghost, as bearing witness of Christianity. This is of the deepest importance. But when Cain saw that his offering was rejected and Abel's was accepted, he was angry with the Lord for rejecting his offering. That he would go as far with his people as he could, though he could not go as far as he would. Among other instructions, he told them to return his bones to their homeland, Canaan; he gave a "commandment" (entellomai), meaning an "order" (Thayer 218): And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his fathers house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years. Faith is a great preservative against the sinful slavish fear of men, as it sets God before the soul, and shows the vanity of the creature and its subordination to the will and power of God. . The blessed fruits and rewards of Noah's faith. ", But now, returning from this striking instance of Paul's habit of going off at a word ( ), let us resume the regular course of the apostle's argument. It was accomplished in Christ, exalted as the great Melchisedec in heaven. It was by faith that they crossed the Red Sea as if they were going through dry land and that the Egyptians, when they ventured to try to do so, were engulfed. God saved his family for his sake; it was well for them that they were Noah's sons and daughters; it was well for those women that they married into Noah's family; perhaps they might have married to great estates in other families, but then they would have been drowned. He lived there in an ambulatory moving condition, living in a daily readiness for his removal: and thus should we all live in this world. He is labouring for this, and with divine skill accomplishes it, by the testimonies of their own law and prophets. True faith will show itself in good works, especially towards the people of God. He will have nothing more to do with sin. How can such a consciousness as this be the portion of the Christian? One day Abraham was left in charge of the shop. No other seat was suitable to such a One. And so he made them promise, "Now when you return to the land, I want you to take my bones out of Egypt and take them back to the land." He is showing us the efficacy of Christ's death. to the foundations, which became apparent too, too quickly in Solomon's son. So that it was an offering that was perfectly legitimate, an offering that expressed sort of a communion with God as did the peace offering.
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