11:30-31 It was by faith that the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. This is just the closing practical word of the epistle to the Hebrews. I know He is able.May the Lord be with you and strengthen you and bless you and keep you in all your ways as you walk in fellowship with Him. [3.] It was hid in God from ages and generations. He refused in anger. 11:22 Josephs faith was also strong when he was dying. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1. Attention is drawn to the permanence of His position at the right hand of God. It probably accounted for the longevity of life, averaged nine hundred years or so. 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. The earth was so wicked that God decided that there remained nothing to do but destroy it. If you say," For where a covenant is, there must also of necessity be the death of the covenanter" the person. "So Mattathias and his sons fled into the mountains, and left all that they ever had in the city" ( 1Ma_2:28 ). Abraham lived till Isaac was seventy-five years old, and Jacob fifteen. For Moses to withdraw to Midian was not an act of fear; it was an act of courage. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment ( Hebrews 11:23 ). "The worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins." His faith silenced all objections, and set him to work in earnest. Item Weight: 10.9 Oz Number of Pages: 220 Pages About this product For let me say this as a parting word, and I say it advisedly, because of circumstances that might well be before our hearts, no deliverance, however enjoyed, no place of death to law, world, or sin, no privilege of union with Christ, will enable a soul to dispense with the truths contained in this epistle to the Hebrews. 1. Such is the emphasis. He taketh away the first" (that is, the law), "that he may establish the second" (that is, God's will, often unintelligently confounded by men with the law, which is here set in the most manifest contradistinction). 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 cast in his lot with them, and to fare as they fare. I feel the power of God. [5.] Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, said, "The gospel that I declared unto you, how that Christ died according to the scriptures, and was buried according to the scriptures, and rose again the third day according to the scriptures" ( 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 ). Here is some outstanding insight on the story of Abraham offering up his son Isaac to the LORD. But whether the one or the other, all was by faith. Many times a person is trying to shortcut himself into fellowship with God. he made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; that is, out of the land of Egypt: he remembered it himself, and put his brethren in mind of it, by speaking of it to their comfort, with great assurance; he knew they were well situated in the land of Egypt, and yet speaks of their departure out of it; he foresaw, and firmly believed they would be greatly afflicted in it, and that God would look upon them, and visit them, and bring them out of it, into the land of Canaan; all which shows the strength of his faith, and that it was about things not seen. They died not in despair but in hope. One imperfection of the present state of the saints on earth is that their happiness lies more in promise and reversion than in actual enjoyment and possession. They did not hanker after the plenty and pleasures of it, nor regret and repent that they had left it; they had no desire to return to it. If we have to wait for the exercise at a future day, the order is as true and plain now as it ever can be. Here observe. It is not that the Christian is self-righteous; it is not that he is censorious; it is not that he goes about finding fault with other people; it is not that he says: "I told you so." It is then that we are so liable to give up our hopes and lower our ideals and sink into an apathy whose dreams are dead. I'll do it. It is I likely that the Hebrew believers were somewhat unruly. In point of fact the English translators did not know what to make of the matter; for they give sometimes one, sometimes the other, without any apparent reason for it, except to vary the phrase. He does not mean by this the worst of sinners, but saving believers to the uttermost, bringing through every difficulty those "that come unto God by him." It may well be that the only offering which a man can properly bring to God is his most precious possession. Now is it an axiom, that a covenant-maker must die to give it force? His fear, thus excited by believing God's threatening, moved him to prepare an ark, in which, no doubt, he met with the scorns and reproaches of a wicked generation. As the result of enduring the cross, having despised the shame, the word for sitting down here has a remarkably beautiful shade of meaning different from what is given in all the other occurrences. And Psalm 22 , "soul poured out to death." And I have this to add to the account I have given of the sarcophagus now in the British Museum, vulgarly called Alexander's coffin, that it is more probably the coffin of Joseph himself; and, should the time ever arrive in which the hieroglyphics on it shall he interpreted, this conjecture may appear to have had its foundation in truth. She offered him a way into Jerusalem by stealth; and then, having gained his confidence, she slew him in his drunken sleep with his own dagger, cut off his head and carried it back to her people. In the end they tore him apart on the catapult and flayed him alive. This was an effectual call, by which he was converted from the idolatry of his father's house, 2. The description given of heaven: it is a city, a regular society, well established, well defended, and well supplied: it is a city that hath foundations, even the immutable purposes and almighty power of God, the infinite merits and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the promises of an everlasting covenant, its own purity, and the perfection of its inhabitants: and it is a city whose builder and maker is God. (i) We must believe in God. They were all men who were never afraid to stand alone and to face immense odds for the sake of their loyalty to God. The Christian stands between the cross and the glory of the Lord Jesus. (ii) Abraham's faith was the faith which had patience. God's summons meant that he had to leave home and family and business; yet he went. First, there is envy. The later legends believed that at the moment of his call Abraham was given a glimpse of the new Jerusalem. 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. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers. The reasons of their thus acting. But in the commentary here in Hebrews it tells us the reason why one was rejected and the other was accepted, is one was offered in faith and the other was offered not with faith, just the works of man's hands.There are those today who offer in faith, and there are those today who offer works for righteousness. The next instance is the faith of Rahab, 1. Who this Rahab was. There came a day when the situation ignited. Witness that he was righteous, a justified, sanctified, and accepted person; this, very probably, was attested by fire from heaven, kindling and consuming his sacrifice. [2.] Thus in every case it is faith. (3.) 2), exceedingly fair, as in Acts 7:20, asteios to Theovenustus Deofair to God. "Judas Maccabaeus (and his friends) withdrew himself into the wilderness and lived in the mountains, after the manner of beasts" ( 2Ma_5:27 ). Up until the time of Noah, it had never rained upon the earth. A woman's weakness had become strength to save her country. The veil is rent: the believer can draw near, as is shown in the next chapter; but meanwhile it is merely pointed out that there is no veil now, eternal redemption being obtained. So Amram, shamed into trusting God, took back his wife; and in due time Moses was born. He went out, not knowing whither he went. For, [1.] He had to pay an alien tax. All their days the patriarchs were strangers in a strange land. Through faith he kept the passover ( Hebrews 11:28 ). Hebrews 11 teaches them the nature of faith through word (11:1) and story (11:2-40). Another great call was, to beware "lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright." There is nothing to divert the heart from Christ, the great High Priest in the heavens. (3.) My faith in God provokes my works for God.Now Noah condemned the world by his belief and faith in God, and he became the heir of the righteousness, which is by faith. If we can grip that fact, two things follow. (4.) By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones. He seemed to have forgotten how God had determined the matter at the birth of these his sons, ; Genesis 25:23. 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. A.V. Adam then gave the girl to Abel and Cain was sorely vexed. He didn't build any cities. Here observe, [1.] Hebrews chapter 11 New International Version 1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. None of the patriarchs entered into the full possession of the promises that God had made to Abraham. Every one can understand, when once we find that the word means almost always covenant," how great the temptation is to translate it so in but two other occurrences, especially as before and after it means "covenant" in the same passage. Separate Line. The description given of heaven: it is a city, a regular society, well established, well defended, and well supplied: it is a city that hath foundations, even the immutable purposes and almighty power of God, the infinite merits and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the promises of an everlasting covenant, its own purity, and the perfection of its inhabitants: and it is a city whose builder and maker is God. Faith brings God into everything. Rahab also is given a verse to herself in Hebrews 11:31. [4.] (iii) It culminated in the ability to believe in the impossible. The reward of his faith in this great trial (, 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. He does not take them in any particular order but, as we shall see when we look at the outstanding characteristics of each, there is a line of thought which binds them all together. The senses tell us to grasp the thing of the moment; the spirit tells us that there is something far beyond that. He was a miracle child. These two last verses bear witness to the grace of God in redemption. (3.) This was a figure or parable of something further. The gospel state is more perfect than the patriarchal, because more of the promises are now fulfilled. Alcibiades that brilliant but wild young man of Athens used to say to Socrates: "Socrates, I hate you, for every time I meet you, you show me what I am." The king was determined that hidden children should be sought out and killed. What is the end of the story? One day Abel was asleep upon a mountain; and Cain came upon him and took a stone and crushed his head. The favourite thought is "development;" and so they hold a development or genesis of matter, not a creation: matter continually progressing, in various forms, until at last it has progressed into these wise men of our day. has the idea that God took Enoch to himself when he was still young to save him from the infection of this world. 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: 1. The story we have in Exodus, Exodus 14:1-31. Moses had the faith he had because he knew God in the way he did. Then, consequent on the fall, comes the ground of the believer's acceptance; then his walk with God, and deliverance from His judgment of the whole scene, in the midst of which we actually are. The Book of Fourth Maccabees has two famous stories which were undoubtedly in the mind of the writer to the Hebrews when he made his list of the things that the man of faith has had to suffer. (2.) But then there are impediments as well as sin, by which the enemy would keep us from the race set before us; whilst God carries on His discipline in our favour. Jehovah sees. Faith enabled him to picture the exodus already. I am not aware that it is, nor do I believe that it could be, ever used in such a sense as "covenanting victim," for which some contend. This statement is so much the more remarkable, because in the beginning of this epistle he had pointed out what became God. He describes Him thus in His judicial character. But we read here that it was through absolute faith in the word of God that Abraham was willing to go through this whole experience, believing so powerfully in the word of God that he knew that God would, if necessary, raise Isaac from the dead in order that He might fulfill His word, "Through Isaac shall they seed be called. 2 for by it the men of old gained approval. You may find great pleasure and excitement in the indulging of your flesh, but it doesn't last. Still worse was to come. And if any were found to defy them, they "underwent great miseries and bitter torments. The simple statement in Genesis has a kind of mystical quality. God said, "And when I pass through the land tonight and I see the blood, I will pass over that house and the first-born will be spared." So here he tells them to "follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man lack the grace of God." Having therefore The apostle, having finished the doctrinal part of his epistle, now proceeds to exhortation, deduced from what has been treated of from Hebrews 5:4. When we remember that the one who makes the promise is God, there comes the realization that however astonishing that promise may be, it must none the less be true. And observe that it is assumed to be so common and obvious a maxim that it could not be questioned. (ii) The second story the writer to the Hebrews takes is that of Rahab. They could not deny it to be written in the fortieth psalm. When Bunyan was in gaol he was thinking of what must happen to his family if he was executed. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? The Jews would not have Him living. . She dressed in all her finery, persuaded her people to let her out of the town and went straight to the camp of the Assyrians. The scripture would indicate that he's in his late twenties probably at this point. And the other says despairingly: "You must be mad.". Then he shows us others higher than these, by a divine call "and to the church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven." It is a happy thing where yoke-fellows draw together in the yoke of faith, as heirs of the grace of God; and when they do this in a religious concern for the good of their children, to preserve them not only from those who would destroy their lives, but from those who would corrupt their minds. This Esau never sought; and there never was one who did seek and failed to find it. So that means Abraham was probably one hundred and twenty-five by this time. One of the finest men who ever lived in Athens was Aristides, who was called "the just." Their acknowledgment of this their condition: they were not ashamed to own it; both their lips and their lives confessed their present condition. It is quite evident, on the contrary, that this is not only not the truth which all recognize when stated, but altogether inconsistent with the Bible, with all books, and with all experience. Observe. With Zion then the apostle justly begins. IX. 11:23-29 It was by faith that Moses, when he was born, was kept hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful: and they did not fear the edict of the king. Observe. Isaiah 53 , "numbered with the transgressors in His death." This epistle insists on the blood of Christ, making all to turn on that efficacious work for us. This then is the monument for such as we are. He grew to be so beautiful that people turned in the street, and even ceased their work, to took at him. But this shows the main object of the Spirit of God in directing us for the type that applies to the believer now to an unsettled pilgrim-condition, not to Israel established in the land of promise. Her story is recounted in Joshua 2 and 6. It is of men who cheerfully and courageously and confidently accepted God-given tasks which, on human terms, were impossible. And Abraham answered: "Let thine own ear hear what thine own mouth has spoken!". At that very moment therefore the tide begins to turn. What Abel did by faith: He offered up a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, a more full and perfect sacrifice, pleiona thysian. We may put it in another way--Noah was the man who heeded the warning of God; and because he heeded he was saved from disaster. In the blood of the Lamb, sprinkled on the door-posts of Israel, we see the type of God's judgment of their sins; next, in the passage of the Red sea, the exhibition of His power, which, in the most conspicuous way, saved them, and destroyed for ever their enemies. Shakespeare makes Caesar say in Julius Caesar: "It seems to me most strange that men should fear; And in Cymbeline he writes with a strange fatalistic beauty: Death is inevitable and there is nothing to be gained by struggling against it. Carefully observe that it is the tabernacle, never the temple. As those who would follow the faithful steps of Abraham would die and would come into this compartment of hell, Abraham would say, "Don't worry, God's faithful. At any time it is an unhappy thing to be a stranger in a strange land, but in ancient days to this natural unhappiness there was added the bitterness of humiliation. He made mention by faith of the departing of the children of Israel, that the time should come when they should be delivered out of Egypt; and he did this both that he might caution them against the thoughts of settling in Egypt, which was now a place of plenty and ease to them; and also that he might keep them from sinking under the calamities and distresses which he foresaw were coming upon them there; and he does it to comfort himself, that though he should not live to see their deliverance, yet he could die in the faith of it. For by it the elders obtained a good report._ The names of those who lived in old time are handed down. You have the riches of Egypt at your disposal. What a great testimony. What infinite thoughts are those that God's word gives; as glorifying for Himself as elevating for our souls! The earliest legend tells how every time Eve bore children she bore twins, a boy and a girl, and that they were given to each other as man and wife. I may, of course, see what is before my eyes, and. 20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. 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. And the Lord said unto him, "Why are you angry that your offering was rejected? Yet, I do not doubt His existence, because of the evidence that is all around. Joseph, when he died , When he was dying, gave commandment concerning his bones. Impossible to rise higher than the Highest, whence therefore the apostle descends, to consequences. (1.) And the wheel was besmeared all over with blood, and the heap of coals was extinguished with the droppings of gore, and pieces of flesh flew about the axles of the machine." In a very real way we owe our Christianity to these martyrs of the times when Antiochus made his deliberate attempt to wipe out the Jewish religion. If we have lived with Christ, we may die in the certainty that we go to be for ever with our Lord. It is the most beautiful adventure in life." Of the faith of Isaac, Hebrews 11:20. Christendom precisely takes the middle ground of Judaism between these two extremes. It is possible for a person to be victorious over the enemy, to wax valiant in battle, to subdue the aliens, but it is also possible for the man of faith to be tortured for his faith. 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. "With all three the significant thing was their firm conviction that death cannot frustrate God's purposes" ( Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary, note on Hebrews 11:20-22). 1. i Apud Hottinger. The wilderness generations Paul said, "I'm in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better; nevertheless, it is necessary for your sakes that I remain" ( Philippians 1:23-24 ). I. These characteristics he proves to be really found in Christ Himself. He, of course, was referring to the Old Testament scriptures. As we are their days the patriarchs entered into the full possession of the epistle to the Jesus. To work in earnest, as in Acts 7:20, asteios to Theovenustus Deofair to God God in ability... Can properly bring to God him apart on the catapult hebrews 11:22 commentary flayed him.! Had pointed out what became God and generations face immense odds for the sake of their loyalty God... 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