Jehovah sees. Hebrews 11:22. [1.] How easily we even forget that we are not Jews but Christians! He was big enough and brave enough to wait until God said: "Now is the hour.". 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. There were two specially famous interpretations of the death of Enoch. As they began to multiply more rapidly than the Egyptians, he could foresee the day when they would be stronger and overthrow the Egyptians and make the Egyptians their slaves. Verse Only. On the seventh day the priests were to blow upon the trumpets, after the city had been encircled seven times, and the people were to shout with all their might, "and the wall of the city will fall down flat." Those who by faith walk with God in a sinful world are pleasing to him, and he will give them marks of his favour, and put honour upon them. By that hope, then, "we draw nigh unto God. How that Cain, being a farmer, brought the fruit of the ground unto the Lord. Hence the right hand of the throne is introduced, but, besides, "of the Majesty in the heavens." A priest, as such, could no more draw near into the presence of God in the holiest than any of the common people. As Barrie made Peter Pan say: "To die will be an awfully big adventure." It was said that 80,000 Jews were killed and 10,000 sold into captivity. He could know nothing of the mystery of the church, Christ's body, nor of her bridal hopes; but he did look for what is called here the "heavenly Jerusalem," that city "whose maker and builder is God." The next instance of faith is that of the Israelites, under Joshua their leader, before the walls of Jericho. Those with whom they sojourned would have been willing enough to part with them. 2. Seneca said: "The first essential of the worship of the gods is to believe that there are godsand to know those gods who preside over the world, because they control the universe with their power, and work for the safety of the whole human race, while they still remember each individual person." 4 by faith abel offered to god a better sacrifice than cain, through which he Isaac has to have children, because God has to keep His word. Before developing these, the apostle refers to the tabernacle itself in which these sacrifices were offered. 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." Moses had the faith he had because he knew God in the way he did. (2.) (Verses 1-7.). Of this we saw somewhat inHebrews 10:1-39; Hebrews 10:1-39. Time and again in the early Church it happened. The reference here I cannot but regard as exclusively to the two houses of Israel. He does not do it blatantly but with infinite artistry. (7.) If they were Abraham's children, and not his seed only, surely they would honour Him. He is the same unchangingly and evermore, as He has ever been. Lord, we thank You for the gift of faith, that you've given to each man a measure of faith. He worshipped idols and tried to compel Isaiah to take part in his idolatry and to approve of it. He that possesses the one must not eschew the other. (3.) To Abraham God's promise never came fully true; and yet he never abandoned his faith. This made the hidden children of the Israelites cry, too, and so they were discovered and killed. Publisher: Abingdon Press Publication Year: 1997 Format: Trade Paperback Language: English Item Height: 0.2in. W. S. Gilbert wrote in The Yeomen of the Guard: Robert Burns wrote of the early death of Highland Mary: There are those who have seen only the grim terroriser and despoiler in death. Their rashness was great, and their ruin was grievous. 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. that is, of a great and severe judgment, such as the world had never yet seen, and of which, in the course of second causes, there was not yet the least sign. Isaac has not yet had any children. Consequently, when He comes again to them that look for Him, it is simply to bring them into all the eternal results of that great salvation. Who ever walked in faith as He? The lamb sacrificed for the house. (2.) He only recognized that work of the spirit, the son of promise, Isaac. They went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, they were in want, they were oppressed, they were maltreated--the world was not worthy of them--they wandered in desert places and on the mountains, they lived in caves and in holes of the earth. 1. On these things I need not now dwell farther than to characterize all, from Abraham inclusively, as the patience of faith. The Stoics were wise; they held that a man should not throw his life away by needlessly provoking the wrath of a tyrant. The gracious Lord gives and designs that we should take His own place both in heaven and here. As a result Amram put away his wife, not because he did not love her, but because he would spare her the sorrow of seeing her children killed. And the writer probably was in his mind just taking from the beginning the men of the Old Testament who by faith their lives were made outstanding.Now here's what they did through faith. Accordingly it is shown that such an one becomes an adversary of the Lord, and God will deal with him as such. He was regarded with hatred and suspicion and contempt. Hereby himself and his house were saved, when a whole world of sinners were perishing about them. They really mar the sense, because they draw attention not to the truth in itself so much as its application to us, which is not the point in Hebrews 9:1-28, but rather ofHebrews 10:1-39; Hebrews 10:1-39. The first is the story of Eleazar, the aged priest ( 4Ma_5:1-38 ; 4Ma_6:1-35 ; 4Ma_7:1-23 ). Nowhere does the apostle give the smallest occasion for such a thought. The fact is, that love of uniformity may mislead some, as love of variety misled our English translators too often. 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." The actings of his faith: He blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. 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). (2.) Those with faith look beyond what they see. "By the which will" (not man's, which is sin, but God's) "we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.". We have yet another instance of the faith of Moses, in keeping the passover and sprinkling of blood, Hebrews 11:28. First let us take the things that can be explained against the Old Testament background. This was an effectual call, by which he was converted from the idolatry of his father's house, ; Genesis 12:1. (1.) 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. (7.) 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. SOJOURNERS AND STRANGERS ( Hebrews 11:13-16 ). They died in the faith of those promises; not only lived by the faith of them, but died in the full persuasion that all the promises would be fulfilled to them and theirs, Hebrews 11:13. Now, the faith of Isaac thus prevailing over his unbelief, it has pleased the God of Isaac to pass by the weakness of his faith, to commend the sincerity of it, and record him among the elders, who through faith have obtained a good report. "Inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest: (for those priests were made without an oath" no oath ushers in the sons of Aaron "but he with an oath by him that said as to him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:) by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better covenant.". By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned." Envy leads to bitterness; bitterness to hatred; and hatred to murder. He dwelt in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. Seneca wrote: "The wise man will never provoke the wrath of mighty men; nay, he will turn aside from it; in just the same way as sailors in sailing will not deliberately court the danger of the storm." The mean looks and sounds well, but is utterly false for the Christian. and of Elisha ( 2 Kings 4:8 ff.) For what did the Jews wait in hope? Steven was stoned to death. There it was written, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible ( Hebrews 11:27 ). All our spiritual privileges on earth should quicken us to set out early, and get forward, in our way to heaven. They were not mindful of that country whence they came. It was not only that there had been at the beginning such a priest, but that fact became the form of a glorious anticipation which the Holy Ghost holds out for the latter day. If I can only just come to the realization that all things are working together for good to those who love God and that God has a purpose, and when I can see God then I can endure. They had begun and it never struck them to turn back. If he takes to himself the title of their God, he will fully answer it, and act up to it; and he has prepared that for them in heaven which will fully answer this character and relation, so that it shall never be said, to the reproach and dishonour of God, that he has adopted a people to be his own children and then taken no care to make a suitable provision for them. When they came to Haran, he could have turned around and gone back into Babylon. In calling and converting sinners, God appears as a God of glory, and works a glorious work in the soul. God is able to raise this boy up from the dead if necessary to keep His promise to me, "Through Isaac shall thy seed be called. [2.] (3.) These all died in faith, the "Faith Message" had not reached them yet. That is the repetition of the word and over and over, where you find, "and, and, and, and," which in the grammatical structure indicates a continued deliberate action, no hesitation, just the movement, continued and deliberate. With all this Christianity is contrasted. Their deliverance was very glorious. He was put upon it after he had received the promises, that this Isaac should build up his family, that in him his seed should be called (; Hebrews 11:18), and that he should be one of the progenitors of the Messiah, and all nations blessed in him; so that, in being called to offer up his Isaac, he seemed to be called to destroy and cut off his own family, to cancel the promises of God, to prevent the coming of Christ, to destroy the whole world, to sacrifice his own soul and his hopes of salvation, and to cut off the church of God at one blow: a most terrible trial! God said, "Let the waters above the firmament be divided from the waters beneath the firmament." And this heavy water blanket in the atmosphere no doubt accounted for the discoveries in the geological stratas of asparagus ferns sixty or seventy feet tall. Moses in his day and generation shared in the sufferings of Christ, choosing the loyalty that led to suffering rather than the ease which led to earthly glory. Its wonder is that both Abraham and Sarah were ninety years old, long past the age of begetting or bearing a child; and yet, according to the old story, that promise was made and came true. But a good point may be made by contrasting the idea which an Egyptian had when he arranged that his body should be embalmed, with the idea that Joseph had in arranging for the preservation of his bones. It is human to fear to miss the chance; but it is great to wait for the time of God--even when it seems like throwing a chance away. It often happens that simply by being himself the Christian passes judgment on other people. 2. This was also a grand point of distinction. The whole list is of men who faced incredible odds for God. He was a good governor but he had an almost abnormal love for all things Greek and saw himself as a missionary for the Greek way of life. To some extent this story has fallen into disrepute. 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. That he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. It became us to have a Priest, "holy, harmless, undefiled, made higher than the heavens.". 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. In Hebrews 11:17, the tense of offered indicates that in purpose and intent, he offered Isaac. 3. He will not have his people take up that rest any where short of the heavenly Canaan. Take each of you offerings in your hand and go, sacrifice to the Lord and he will decide." Faith enabled him to picture the exodus already. We'll get out of here. Men have called God The First Principle, The First Cause, The Creative Energy, The Life Force. They lashed him with whips and tied him to the wheel until he was dislocated and fractured in every limb. Sometimes, not always, the countenance is the index of the mind. There is no sanction here, of course, of the vulgar and outrageous error that pastors give an account of the souls of their flock. She said to her father: "What hast thou done? He ordered the Jews to eat meats which were unclean and to sacrifice to the Greek gods. They might have had such an opportunity. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Here, it is plain, we have the chief lineaments of revealed truth. A greater trial was never put upon any creature. For he was afraid that the Hebrews, because they were having so many children, would become a threat to the security of Egypt. It is a recompense of reward, because given by a righteous Judge for the righteousness of Christ to righteous persons, according to the righteous rule of the covenant of grace. [4.] 2. "But now once in the consummation of the ages," this is the meaning of "the end of the world;" it is the consummation of those dispensations for bringing out what man was. It was not so of old, when the Israelite brought his goat or calf. He had shown the work of Christ and His coming again in glory. God said . The manner in which he was called Stephen relates in Acts 7:2-3, The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in MesopotamiaAnd said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I will show thee. My spirit moves out of this old tent into the new house, a building of God not made with hands that is eternal in the heavens. 2. But surely the meaning is much simpler. The product of his faith: He forsook Egypt, and all its power and pleasures, and undertook the conduct of Israel out of it. The means prescribed to God to bring down the walls of Jericho. They suggested to him that they would bring him dressed meat which was not pork, and that he should eat it pretending that it was pork. When does it first appear? Christ gave up his glory for the sake of mankind; and accepted scourging and shame and a terrible death. The blessing was: "in them let my name be perpetuated, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth" ( Genesis 48:15-16). If that religion had been destroyed, what would have happened to the purposes of God? 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. Behold, there is a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Then comes a second exhortation as to their guides, or leading men among the brethren. These evidently are the elders of olden times. What Abel did by faith: He offered up a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, a more full and perfect sacrifice, pleiona thysian. Hebrews 11 teaches them the nature of faith through word (11:1) and story (11:2-40). Their descendants, when they were in the desert, often wished to go back to the fleshpots of Egypt. In this passage the writer lets his mind's eye roam back over the history of his people; and out of it there springs to memory name after name of those who were heroic souls. His third request was to be permitted to see into Paradise so that he might see what the blessed enjoyed. God revealed to him that it was to be modelled on a bird's belly and was to be constructed of teak wood. but having seen them afar off, they were persuaded of them, and they [held on to them] embraced them, and they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the eaRuth ( Hebrews 11:13 ). (2.) The Jews themselves acknowledge that Psalms 110:1-7 must be fulfilled in Christ, in His quality of Messiah. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace ( Hebrews 11:31 ). Pharaoh's daughter is said to have been his only child, and was herself childless; and having found Moses, and saved him as she did, she resolved to take him and bring him up as her son; and so he stood fair to be in time king of Egypt, and he might thereby have been serviceable to Israel. 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. She was a Canaanite, a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, and had but little help for faith, and yet she was a believer; the power of divine grace greatly appears when it works without the usual means of grace. 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. Hence throughout this epistle the utmost stress is laid on His being exalted in heaven Yet there was no excuse for a difficulty on this score. In the city of Jericho there lived a woman whose name was Rahab, who had received the spies that Joshua had sent. A parepidemos was a person who was staying there temporarily and who had his permanent home somewhere else. This true faith makes sin bitter to the soul, even while it receives the pardon and atonement. It is evident that in these we have the two main parts of Christianity. The account is in Exodus 12:12-48. It is doubtless a great blessing to be joined to the visible church of God in profession and privilege, but more to be so in spirit and truth. It looked as if his judges had eliminated Socrates and as if Pilate had crushed Christ; but the verdict of the future reversed the verdict of the moment. Hebrews 11:22 Hebrews 11:24-26. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? So then I believe in the gods and I honour them, because again and again I have experienced their power." VII. He presses a conversation without covetousness, and a spirit of content, founded on our confidence in the Lord's care. These are the things of which the writer to the Hebrews is thinking; and these are things which we do well to remember. "Conscience of sins" means a dread of God's judging one because of his sins. 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. Hereby they declared plainly that they sought another country (. 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. In this passage the writer to the Hebrews is intermingling different periods of history. 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. when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones: As Joseph was dying, he showed his faith like his father, Jacob, by calling his sons to him and telling them about the future when they would leave Egypt and return to Canaan. [Note: Ibid., p. This is just what the believer receives, feeds on, and lives accordingly. It's yours." Accordingly observe the change of expression. But this time is not yet come. Rightly then we begin with Zion, and thence may we trace the path of glory up to God Himself, and down to the kingdom here below. In Ecclesiasticus ( Sir_29:22-28 ) there is a wistful passage: "Better the life of the poor under a shelter of logs. That God will not suffer the injuries done to his people to remain unpunished, nor their sufferings unrewarded. God's summons meant that he had to leave home and family and business; yet he went. Then he threw the dead body on his back and carried it about because he did not know what to do with it. Swinburne best of all caught this mood of world-weariness in The Garden of Proserpine: There are those for whom death is good because it is the end of life. When they offered their sacrifices unto the Lord, the Lord accepted Abel's sacrifice, but He rejected Cain's. Hereby he became an heir of the righteousness which is by faith. The undivided place of Christ is more fully witnessed now, when there are no others to occupy the thought or to distract the heart from Him as seen by faith in glory on high. It was only through that finished work of Christ where was the door open as He preached to the souls in prison and led them from their captivity. The one is what may be called the objective glory; the other is the subjective condition of those that compose the bride, the Lamb's wife. In an age when men disregarded God, for Noah he was the supreme reality in the world. God has to do something, raise him from the dead or something, because I and the lad will go and we will come again. Notwithstanding their meanness by nature, their vileness by sin, and the poverty of their outward condition, God is not ashamed to be called. First, we will use it as such. This is the meaning of the phrase, not that He will sit there throughout all eternity. The sun rose in all its glory and Abraham said: "Surely the sun is God, the Creator!" It was so sure to him that he instructed his sons to carry his bones with them for burial in Canaan. And so they saw the promises. They were persuaded of the truth of the promises. Again the legends help to light up the picture. Hebrews 10:19-22. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should afterward receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he was going ( Hebrews 11:8 ). 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. Here it is the grand truth itself in its own character. He was always an outsider and only on payment a member of the community. He is called their God. ", Having laid this as the first application of faith, the next question is when man fell, how was he to approach God? When the fire, an emblem of God's justice, consumed the offering, it was a sign that the mercy of God accepted the offerer for the sake of the great sacrifice.
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