Hebrews 11: Summary and Commentary

Verse 1

11:1-40 In presenting readers with a long catalog of faith-filled heroes, ch 11 builds up overwhelming evidence that the life of faith is the only real way to live for God. The writer repeats the phrase by faith to drive this main message into the minds and hearts of his hearers. The examples follow a pattern: (a) the phrase by faith, (b) the name of the person, (c) the event or action which demonstrated faith, and (d) the outcome.

11:1 Before presenting the list of examples, the author defines what faith is: It is acting on what God has revealed about his will and character. • The reality that grounds our faith is the God who fulfills his promises.

Verse 2

11:2 earned a good reputation: Scripture speaks favorably about their lives of faith (see also 11:39).

Verse 3

11:3 That the entire universe was formed at God’s command is a basic belief of Jewish and Christian theology (see Gen 1:1-3). God created everything that we now see. A life of faith understands that, by analogy, God’s promises are real and will be called into reality by God himself, even if they are unseen at present.

Verse 4

11:4 Abel: See Gen 4:3-5. • evidence that he was a righteous man: Cp. Heb 10:38. • he still speaks to us: The story of his faith challenges us, and his blood bears witness to his righteousness and to the injustice of his murder (see 12:24).

Verse 5

11:5 Enoch was taken up to heaven and thus did not face a normal death (see Gen 5:21-24). • “he disappeared, because God took him”: Gen 5:24.

Verse 6

11:6 it is impossible to please God without faith: The author alludes to 10:38, which quotes Hab 2:4. • Faith must include believing that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. In life’s difficulties, readers are challenged to trust in God and to anticipate the fulfillment of his promises.

Verse 7

11:7 The story of Noah (see Gen 6:1–9:17) further demonstrates that faith involves obedience in the face of the unseen. • things that had never happened before: Namely, the flood. Noah’s faith condemned the rest of the world by bearing witness to God’s reality and his desire for holiness.

Verse 8

11:8 Abraham obeyed: See Gen 12:1-2. He, too, acted in the face of what he could not yet see, since he went without knowing where he was going.

Verse 9

11:9-10 he lived there by faith: Abraham himself did not experience the inheritance of the land of promise. Rather, he was like a foreigner, living in tents (see Gen 12:10–13:18). • so did Isaac and Jacob: This life of faith was continued in the next two generations: They received the same promise and hoped in God, but did not experience what God had promised. • city with eternal foundations: Abraham did not settle in the Canaanite cities but followed the will of God in faithful obedience, anticipating a heavenly city.

Verse 12

11:12 this one man who was as good as dead: Abraham was very old, yet he became the source for a whole nation. Faith involves believing that God is able to answer his promises seemingly out of nothing. • like the stars . . . and the sand: See Gen 22:17. God fulfilled the promise (Exod 1:7).

Verse 13

11:13-16 The author pauses to point out general principles evident in the lives he has highlighted thus far.

11:13 Abraham’s family lived in the land of promise as foreigners and nomads (see Gen 23:4; cp. 1 Chr 29:15; Ps 39:12; 1 Pet 2:11).

Verse 14

11:14-16 Abraham’s family was obviously not longing for the country they came from, since if that had been the case, they could have gone back. Their posture of faith demonstrates a longing for a better place. Their hope was ultimately in God, who rewarded their faith by preparing a heavenly . . . city for them.

Verse 17

11:17-31 Great examples of faith take the reader from Abraham’s family to Rahab. These examples build up evidence that faith is the only appropriate response to God.

11:17-19 Abraham offered Isaac: See Gen 22:1-18. God never intended for Abraham to offer his son but was testing Abraham’s faith, which he expressed through his obedience.

Verse 19

11:19 Abraham reasoned: The resurrection of Isaac was the only answer to Abraham’s dilemma. In Gen 22:5, Abraham expressed confidence that Isaac would return with him.

Verse 20

11:20 Isaac promised blessings: See Gen 27:27-40; the only part of the story that can be considered a blessing for Esau is that he would eventually shake off his subservience to his brother. Esau was later blessed by Jacob’s riches (Gen 33:8-11).

Verse 21

11:21 Jacob passed the ritual blessing on to Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen 48:8-22). • bowed in worship: Gen 47:31. The phrase as he leaned on his staff comes from the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

Verse 22

11:22 Joseph’s prophecy and command (see Gen 50:24-25) showed faith that God would keep his promises.

Verse 23

11:23 Moses’ parents: See Exod 2:1-2. • unusual (or attractive, or beautiful): This word refers to something of superior quality. Their insight that Moses was extraordinary led them to act by faith in God. • the king’s command: Exod 1:22.

Verse 24

11:24-25 Moses, when he grew up: See Exod 2:11-15. Moses took a public stand with the people of Israel rather than continuing to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, who had adopted him (Exod 2:3-10). Therefore, he chose to share the oppression of God’s people, as the readers of this letter were being called to do (see Heb 10:32-34).

Verse 26

11:26 the treasures of Egypt: The New Kingdom of Egypt (about 1550–1069 BC) was an era of phenomenal wealth and political power. Moses evidently had a greater reward in mind.

Verse 27

11:27 Like his forefather Abraham, Moses acted in faith by leaving the land of Egypt, with which he was familiar, and walked into an unknown future (Exod 2:15). • not fearing the king’s anger: Rather than watching the king, he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible—God.

Verse 28

11:28 Moses commanded . . . the Passover: See Exod 12:1-27. The first Passover (Exod 12:28-30) initiated the Exodus (Exod 12:31-42, 50-51) and instituted the annual Passover observance as a memorial (Exod 12:43-49; 13:1-16). • to sprinkle blood: The sprinkling of the blood of sacrifices under the old covenant was parallel to the sprinkling of Christ’s blood (see Heb 9:12-14, 18-22).

Verse 29

11:29 The rescue through the Red Sea (see Exod 13:17–14:21) constitutes the greatest moment of deliverance in Israel’s history. The people’s fear and accusation at the time (Exod 14:10-12) do not obviously exemplify faith, but the people went forward when told to do so despite their fear. The episode demonstrates that obedience is central to faith.

Verse 30

11:30 The conquest of Jericho (Josh 5:13–6:27) offers another example of great faith, as the people acted in obedience to God’s unusual instructions.

Verse 31

11:31 Rahab the prostitute (Josh 2; 6:25) showed faith in the power of the God of Israel by protecting the spies who came to her home (cp. Jas 2:25). As a result, she and her family were not destroyed but joined the community of Israel. In fact, Rahab was an ancestor of Jesus (Matt 1:5).

Verse 32

11:32-40 In a rapid series of examples, the author gives an overview of other faithful people through the rest of the old covenant era. In 11:32-35a, the outcome of faith is deliverance and victory. In 11:35b-38, however, faith brought severe persecution and even martyrdom. The result for both groups was that God honored them with a good reputation because of their faith (11:39).

11:32 How much more do I need to say? The author makes a transition to his concluding summary, which begins with six heroes of faith from the time of the judges and the united monarchy. Gideon defeated the Midianites with torches and jars (Judg 7:7-25). Barak routed Sisera and the Canaanites (Judg 4:8-16). Samson, though weak in moral fiber, was used by God to fight the Philistines on behalf of Israel (Judg 13–16). Jephthah won victory over the Amorites and Ammonites (Judg 10:6–12:7). David, the only king in the group, loved God and, for the most part, led an exemplary life of faith (1 Sam 16—1 Kgs 1). Samuel was an important transitional leader between the judges and the monarchy; he heard God’s voice and obeyed his will (1 Sam 1–15). • The statement all the prophets includes Elijah, Elisha, and the “writing prophets” from Isaiah to Malachi. The prophets often exhibited great faith in the face of hostility.

Verse 33

11:33 overthrew kingdoms: During the time of the judges and the reign of David, Israel defeated many of their enemies. David and Solomon and a few others ruled with justice (see 2 Sam 8:15; 1 Kgs 10:9). • shut the mouths of lions: See Dan 6:1-23.

Verse 34

11:34 quenched the flames of fire: See Dan 3:16-30. • escaped death by the edge of the sword: E.g., Elijah and Jeremiah (see 1 Kgs 19:2; 2 Kgs 1:1-18; Jer 26:10-16; 38:1-13).

Verse 35

11:35 Elijah and Elisha both brought women’s loved ones back again from death (see 1 Kgs 17:17-24; 2 Kgs 4:17-37). • But others were tortured: Faith does not always have a positive outcome in this life. The author might be alluding to the 170s and 160s BC, when many Jews suffered and died rather than forsake their faith (see, e.g., 1 Maccabees 1:20-64).

Verse 37

11:37 According to tradition, the prophet Jeremiah died by stoning and the prophet Isaiah was sawed in half.

Verse 38

11:38 too good for this world: Their hope was in God more than in the pleasures and comforts of this world.

Verse 39

11:39-40 The way to live as God’s people under the new covenant is to live as all these people did under the old covenant: by faith in God’s promises, enduring any difficulties faced in this world. • earned a good reputation: God has borne witness to their faithfulness (see also 11:2). • yet none of them received all that God had promised: They all died prior to Christ’s promised coming; the something better began with Christ’s sacrificial work (8:3–10:18) and anticipates the future culmination of God’s plan for his people. • would not reach perfection: See study notes on 5:9; 7:11. Jesus has fulfilled God’s goal of bringing his people into relationship with him.

Verse 1

Here we have, I. A definition or description of the grace of faith in two parts. 1. It is the substance of things hoped for. Faith and hope go together; and the same things that are the object of our hope are the object of our faith. It is a firm persuasion and expectation that God will perform all that he has promised to us in Christ; and this persuasion is so strong that it gives the soul a kind of possession and present fruition of those things, gives them a subsistence in the soul, by the first-fruits and foretastes of them: so that believers in the exercise of faith are filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Christ dwells in the soul by faith, and the soul is filled with the fullness of God, as far as his present measure will admit; he experiences a substantial reality in the objects of faith. 2. It is the evidence of things not seen. Faith demonstrates to the eye of the mind the reality of those things that cannot be discerned by the eye of the body. Faith is the firm assent of the soul to the divine revelation and every part of it, and sets to its seal that God is true. It is a full approbation of all that God has revealed as holy, just, and good; it helps the soul to make application of all to itself with suitable affections and endeavours; and so it is designed to serve the believer instead of sight, and to be to the soul all that the senses are to the body. That faith is but opinion or fancy which does not realize invisible things to the soul, and excite the soul to act agreeably to the nature and importance of them.

II. An account of the honour it reflects upon all those who have lived in the exercise of it (Heb 11:2): By it the elders obtained a good report - the ancient believers, who lived in the first ages of the world. Observe, 1. True faith is an old grace, and has the best plea to antiquity: it is not a new invention, a modern fancy; it is a grace that has been planted in the soul of man ever since the covenant of grace was published in the world; and it has been practiced from the beginning of the revelation; the eldest and best men that ever were in the world were believers. 2. Their faith was their honour; it reflected honour upon them. They were an honour to their faith, and their faith was an honour to them. It put them upon doing the things that were of good report, and God has taken care that a record shall be kept and report made of the excellent things they did in the strength of this grace. The genuine actings of faith will bear to be reported, deserve to be reported, and will, when reported, redound to the honour of true believers.

III. We have here one of the first acts and articles of faith, which has a great influence on all the rest, and which is common to all believers in every age and part of the world, namely, the creation of the worlds by the word of God, not out of pre-existent matter, but out of nothing, Heb 11:3. The grace of faith has a retrospect as well as prospect; it looks not only forward to the end of the world, but back to the beginning of the world. By faith we understand much more of the formation of the world than ever could be understood by the naked eye of natural reason. Faith is not a force upon the understanding, but a friend and a help to it. Now what does faith give us to understand concerning the worlds, that is, the upper, middle, and lower regions of the universe? 1. That these worlds were not eternal, nor did they produce themselves, but they were made by another. 2. That the maker of the worlds is god; he is the maker of all things; and whoever is so must be God. 3. That he made the world with great exactness; it was a framed work, in every thing duly adapted and disposed to answer its end, and to express the perfections of the Creator. 4. That God made the world by his word, that is, by his essential wisdom and eternal Son, and by his active will, saying, Let it be done, and it was done, Psa 33:9. 5. That the world was thus framed out of nothing, out of no pre-existent matter, contrary to the received maxim, that "out of nothing nothing can be made," which, though true of created power, can have no place with God, who can call things that are not as if they were, and command them into being. These things we understand by faith. The Bible gives us the truest and most exact account of the origin of all things, and we are to believe it, and not to wrest or run down the scripture-account of the creation, because it does not suit with some fantastic hypotheses of our own, which has been in some learned but conceited men the first remarkable step towards infidelity, and has led them into many more.

Verse 4

The apostle, having given us a more general account of the grace of faith, now proceeds to set before us some illustrious examples of it in the Old Testament times, and these may be divided into two classes: - 1. Those whose names are mentioned, and the particular exercise and actings of whose faith are specified. 2. Those whose names are barely mentioned, and an account given in general of the exploits of their faith, which it is left to the reader to accommodate, and apply to the particular persons from what he gathers up in the sacred story. We have here those whose names are not only mentioned, but the particular trials and actings of their faith are subjoined.

I. The leading instance and example of faith here recorded is that of Abel. It is observable that the Spirit of God has not thought fit to say any thing here of the faith of our first parents; and yet the church of God has generally, by a pious charity, taken it for granted that God gave them repentance and faith in the promised seed, that he instructed them in the mystery of sacrificing, that they instructed their children in it, and that they found mercy with God, after they had ruined themselves and all their posterity. But God has left the matter still under some doubt, as a warning to all who have great talents given to them, and a great trust reposed in them, that they do not prove unfaithful, since God would not enroll our first parents among the number of believers in this blessed calendar. It begins with Abel, one of the first saints, and the first martyr for religion, of all the sons of Adam, one who lived by faith, and died for it, and therefore a fit pattern for the Hebrews to imitate. Observe,

1. What Abel did by faith: He offered up a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, a more full and perfect sacrifice, pleiona thusian. Hence learn, (1.) That, after the fall, God opened a new way for the children of men to return to him in religious worship. This is one of the first instances that is upon record of fallen men going in to worship God; and it was a wonder of mercy that all intercourse between God and man was not cut off by the fall. (2.) After the fall, God must be worshipped by sacrifices, a way of worship which carries in it a confession of sin, and of the desert of sin, and a profession of faith in a Redeemer, who was to be a ransom for the souls of men. (3.) That, from the beginning, there has been a remarkable difference between the worshippers. Here were two persons, brethren, both of whom went in to worship God, and yet there was a vast difference. Cain was the elder brother, but Abel has the preference. It is not seniority of birth, but grace, that makes men truly honourable. The difference is observable in their persons: Abel was an upright person, a righteous man, a true believer; Cain was a formalist, had not a principle of special grace. It is observable in their principles: Abel acted under the power of faith; Cain only from the force of education, or natural conscience. There was also a very observable difference in their offerings: Abel brought a sacrifice of atonement, brought of the firstlings of the flock, acknowledging himself to be a sinner who deserved to die, and only hoping for mercy through the great sacrifice; Cain brought only a sacrifice of acknowledgment, a mere thank-offering, the fruit of the ground, which might, and perhaps must, have been offered in innocency; here was no confession of sin, no regard to the ransom; this was an essential defect in Cain's offering. There will always be a difference between those who worship the true God; some will compass him about with lies, others will be faithful with the saints; some, like the Pharisee, will lean to their own righteousness; others, like the publican, will confess their sin, and cast themselves upon the mercy of God in Christ.

2. What Abel gained by his faith: the original record is in Gen 4:4, God had respect to Abel, and to his offering; first to his person as gracious, then to his offering as proceeding from grace, especially from the grace of faith. In this place we are told that he obtained by his faith some special advantages; as, (1.) 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.) God gave witness to the righteousness of his person, by testifying his acceptance of his gifts. 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. (3.) By it he, being dead, yet speaketh. He had the honour to leave behind him an instructive speaking case; and what does it speak to us? What should we learn from it? [1.] That fallen man has leave to go in to worship God, with hope of acceptance. [2.] That, if our persons and offerings be accepted, it must be through faith in the Messiah. [3.] That acceptance with God is a peculiar and distinguishing favour. [4.] That those who obtain this favour from God must expect the envy and malice of the world. [5.] That God will not suffer the injuries done to his people to remain unpunished, nor their sufferings unrewarded. These are very good and useful instructions, and yet the blood of sprinkling speaketh better things than that of Abel. [6.] That God would not suffer Abel's faith to die with him, but would raise up others, who should obtain like precious faith; and so he did in a little time; for in the next verse we read,

II. Of the faith of Enoch, Heb 11:5. He is the second of those elders that through faith have a good report. Observe,

1. What is here reported of him. In this place (and in Gen 5:22, etc.) we read, (1.) That he walked with God, that is, that he was really, eminently, actively, progressively, and perseveringly religious in his conformity to God, communion with God, and complacency in God. (2.) 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. (3.) That before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. He had the evidence of it in his own conscience, and the Spirit of God witnessed with his spirit. 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.

2. What is here said of his faith, Heb 11:6. It is said that without this faith it is impossible to please God, without such a faith as helps us to walk with God, an active faith, and that we cannot come to God unless we believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. (1.) He must believe that God is, and that he is what he is, what he has revealed himself to be in the scripture, a Being of infinite perfections, subsisting in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Observe, The practical belief of the existence of God, as revealed in the word, would be a powerful awe - band upon our souls, a bridle of restraint to keep us from sin, and a spur of constraint to put us upon all manner of gospel obedience. (2.) That he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. Here observe, [1.] By the fall we have lost God; we have lost the divine light, life, love, likeness, and communion. [2.] God is again to be found of us through Christ, the second Adam. [3.] 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. [4.] Those who would find God in these ways of his must seek him diligently; they must seek early, earnestly, and perseveringly. Then shall they seek him, and find him, if they seek him with all their heart; and when once they have found him, as their reconciled God, they will never repent the pains they have spent in seeking after him.

III. The faith of Noah, Heb 11:7. Observe,

1. The ground of Noah's faith - a warning he had received from God of things as yet not seen. He had a divine revelation, whether by voice or vision does not appear; but it was such as carried in it its own evidence; he was forewarned of things not seen as yet, 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. This secret warning he was to communicate to the world, who would be sure to despise both him and his message. God usually warns sinners before he strikes; and, where his warnings are slighted, the blow will fall the heavier.

2. The actings of Noah's faith, and the influence it had both upon his mind and practice. (1.) Upon his mind; it impressed his soul with a fear of God's judgment: he was moved with fear. Faith first influences our affections, then our actions; and faith works upon those affections that are suitable to the matter revealed. If it be some good thing, faith stirs up love and desire; if some evil thing, faith stirs up fear. (2.) His faith influenced his practice. 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. 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. His faith silenced all objections, and set him to work in earnest.

3. The blessed fruits and rewards of Noah's faith. (1.) Hereby himself and his house were saved, when a whole world of sinners were perishing about them. 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. We often say, "It is good to be akin to an estate;" but surely it is good to be akin to the covenant. (2.) Hereby he judged and condemned the world; his holy fear condemned their security and vain confidence; his faith condemned their unbelief; his obedience condemned their contempt and rebellion. Good examples will either convert sinners or condemn them. There is something very convincing in a life of strict holiness and regard to God; it commends itself to every man's conscience in the sight of God, and they are judged by it. This is the best way the people of God can take to condemn the wicked; not by harsh and censorious language, but by a holy exemplary conversation. (3.) Hereby he became an heir of the righteousness which is by faith. [1.] He was possessed of a true justifying righteousness; he was heir to it: and, [2.] This his right of inheritance was through faith in Christ, as a member of Christ, a child of God, and, if a child, then an heir. His righteousness was relative, resulting from his adoption, through faith in the promised seed. As ever we expect to be justified and saved in the great and terrible day of the Lord, let us now prepare an ark, secure an interest in Christ, and in the ark of the covenant, and do it speedily, before the door be shut, for there is not salvation in any other.

IV. The faith of Abraham, the friend of God, and father of the faithful, in whom the Hebrews boasted, and from whom they derived their pedigree and privileges; and therefore the apostle, that he might both please and profit them, enlarges more upon the heroic achievements of Abraham's faith than of that of any other of the patriarchs; and in the midst of his account of the faith of Abraham he inserts the story of Sarah's faith, whose daughters those women are that continue to do well. Observe,

1. The ground of Abraham's faith, the call and promise of God, Heb 11:8. (1.) This call, though it was a very trying call, was the call of God, and therefore a sufficient ground for faith and rule of obedience. The manner in which he was called Stephen relates in Act 7:2, Act 7:3, The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia - And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I will show thee. This was an effectual call, by which he was converted from the idolatry of his father's house, Gen 12:1. This call was renewed after his father's death in Charran. Observe, [1.] The grace of God is absolutely free, in taking some of the worst of men, and making them the best. [2.] God must come to us before we come to him. [3.] In calling and converting sinners, God appears as a God of glory, and works a glorious work in the soul. [4.] This calls us not only to leave sin, but sinful company, and whatever is inconsistent with our devotedness to him. [5.] We need to be called, not only to set out well, but to go on well. [6.] He will not have his people take up that rest any where short of the heavenly Canaan. (2.) The promise of God. 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. Observe here, [1.] God calls his people to an inheritance: by his effectual call he makes them children, and so heirs. [2.] This inheritance is not immediately possessed by them; they must wait some time for it: but the promise is sure, and shall have its seasonable accomplishment. [3.] The faith of parents often procures blessings for their posterity.

2. The exercise of Abraham's faith: he yielded an implicit regard to the call of God. (1.) He went out, not knowing whither he went. He put himself into the hand of God, to send him whithersoever he pleased. He subscribed to God's wisdom, as fittest to direct; and submitted to his will, as fittest to determine every thing that concerned him. Implicit faith and obedience are due to God, and to him only. All that are effectually called resign up their own will and wisdom to the will and wisdom of God, and it is their wisdom to do so; though they know not always their way, yet they know their guide, and this satisfies them. (2.) He sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country. This was an exercise of his faith. Observe, [1.] How Canaan is called the land of promise, because yet only promised, not possessed. [2.] How Abraham lived in Canaan, not as heir and proprietor, but as a sojourner only. He did not serve an ejectment, or raise a war against the old inhabitants, to dispossess them, but contented himself to live as a stranger, to bear their unkindnesses patiently, to receive any favours from them thankfully, and to keep his heart fixed upon his home, the heavenly Canaan. [3.] He dwelt in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 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 had good company with him, and they were a great comfort to him in his sojourning state. Abraham lived till Isaac was seventy-five years old, and Jacob fifteen. Isaac and Jacob were heirs of the same promise; for the promise was renewed to Isaac (Gen 26:3), and to Jacob, Gen 28:13. All the saints are heirs of the same promise. The promise is made to believers and their children, and to as many as the Lord our God shall call. And it is pleasant to see parents and children sojourning together in this world as heirs of the heavenly inheritance.

3. The supports of Abraham's faith (Heb 11:10): He looked for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Observe here, (1.) 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. He contrived the model; he accordingly made it, and he has laid open a new and living way into it, and prepared it for his people; he puts them into possession of it, prefers them in it, and is himself the substance and felicity of it. (2.) Observe the due regard that Abraham had to this heavenly city: he looked for it; he believed there was such a state; he waited for it, and in the mean time he conversed in it by faith; he had exalted and rejoicing hopes, that in God's time and way he should be brought safely to it. (3.) The influence this had upon his present conversation: it was a support to him under all the trials of his sojourning state, helped him patiently to bear all the inconveniences of it, and actively to discharge all the duties of it, persevering therein unto the end.

V. In the midst of the story of Abraham, the apostle inserts an account of the faith of Sarah. Here observe,

1. The difficulties of Sarah's faith, which were very great. As, (1.) The prevalency of unbelief for a time: she laughed at the promise, as impossible to be made good. (2.) She had gone out of the way of her duty through unbelief, in putting Abraham upon taking Hagar to his bed, that he might have a posterity. Now this sin of hers would make it more difficult for her to act by faith afterwards. (3.) The great improbability of the thing promised, that she should be the mother of a child, when she was of sterile constitution naturally, and now past the prolific age.

2. The actings of her faith. Her unbelief is pardoned and forgotten, but her faith prevailed and is recorded: She judged him faithful, who had promised, Heb 11:11. She received the promise as the promise of God; and, being convinced of that, she truly judged he both could and would perform it, how impossible soever it might seem to reason; for the faithfulness of God will not suffer him to deceive his people.

3. The fruits and rewards of her faith. (1.) She received strength to conceive seed. The strength of nature, as well as grace, is from God: he can make the barren soul fruitful, as well as the barren womb. (2.) She was delivered of a child, a man-child, a child of the promise, and comfort of his parents' advanced years, and the hope of future ages. (3.) From them, by this son, sprang a numerous progeny of illustrious persons, as the stars of the sky (Heb 11:12) - a great, powerful, and renowned nation, above all the rest in the world; and a nation of saints, the peculiar church and people of God; and, which was the highest honour and reward of all, of these, according to the flesh, the Messiah came, who is over all, God blessed for evermore.

VI. The apostle proceeds to make mention of the faith of the other patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob, and the rest of this happy family, Heb 11:13. Here observe,

1. The trial of their faith in the imperfection of their present state. 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. Observe, (1.) Many that are interested in the promises do not presently receive the things promised. (2.) 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. The gospel state is more perfect than the patriarchal, because more of the promises are now fulfilled. The heavenly state will be most perfect of all; for there all the promises will have their full accomplishment.

2. The actings of their faith during this imperfect state of things. Though they had not received the promises, yet,

(1.) They saw them afar off. Faith has a clear and a strong eye, and can see promised mercies at a great distance. Abraham saw Christ's day, when it was afar off, and rejoiced, Joh 8:56.

(2.) They were persuaded of them, that they were true and should be fulfilled. Faith sets to its seal that God is true, and thereby settles and satisfies the soul.

(3.) They embraced them. Their faith was a faith of consent. Faith has a long arm, and can lay hold of blessings at a great distance, can make them present, can love them, and rejoice in them; and thus antedate the enjoyment of them.

(4.) They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. Observe, [1.] Their condition: Strangers and pilgrims. They are strangers as saints, whose home is heaven; they are pilgrims as they are travelling towards their home, though often meanly and slowly. [2.] Their acknowledgment of this their condition: they were not ashamed to own it; both their lips and their lives confessed their present condition. They expected little from the world. They cared not to engage much in it. They endeavoured to lay aside every weight, to gird up the loins of their minds to mind their way, to keep company and pace with their fellow-travellers, looking for difficulties, and bearing them, and longing to get home.

(5.) Hereby they declared plainly that they sought another country (Heb 11:14), heaven, their own country. For their spiritual birth is thence, there are their best relations, and there is their inheritance. This country they seek: their designs are for it; their desires are after it; their discourse is about it; they diligently endeavour to clear up their title to it, to have their temper suited to it, to have their conversation in it, and to come to the enjoyment of it.

(6.) They gave full proof of their sincerity in making such a confession. For, [1.] They were not mindful of that country whence they came, Heb 11:15. 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. Note, Those that are once effectually and savingly called out of a sinful state have no mind to return into it again; they now know better things. [2.] They did not take the opportunity that offered itself for their return. They might have had such an opportunity. They had time enough to return. They had natural strength to return. They knew the way. Those with whom they sojourned would have been willing enough to part with them. Their old friends would have been glad to receive them. They had sufficient to bear the charges of their journey; and flesh and blood, a corrupt counsellor, would be sometimes suggesting to them a return. But they stedfastly adhered to God and duty under all discouragements and against all temptations to revolt from him. So should we all do. We shall not want opportunities to revolt from God; but we must show the truth of our faith and profession by a steady adherence to him to the end of our days. Their sincerity appeared not only in not returning to their former country, but in desiring a better country, that is, a heavenly. Observe, First, The heavenly country is better than any upon earth; it is better situated, better stored with every thing that is good, better secured from every thing that is evil; the employments, the enjoyments, the society, and every thing in it, are better than the best in this world. Secondly, All true believers desire this better country. True faith draws forth sincere and fervent desires; and the stronger faith is the more fervent those desires will be.

(7.) 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, Heb 11:13. That faith held out to the last. By faith, when they were dying, they received the atonement; they acquiesced in the will of God; they quenched all the fiery darts of the devil; they overcame the terrors of death, disarmed it of its sting, and bade a cheerful farewell to this world and to all the comforts and crosses of it. These were the actings of their faith. Now observe,

3. The gracious and great reward of their faith: God is not ashamed to be their God, for he hath prepared for them a city, Heb 11:16. Note, (1.) God is the God of all true believers; faith gives them an interest in God, and in all his fullness. (2.) He is called their God. He calls himself so: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; he gives them leave to call him so; and he gives them the spirit of adoption, to enable them to cry, Abba, Father. (3.) Notwithstanding their meanness by nature, their vileness by sin, and the poverty of their outward condition, God is not ashamed to be called their 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. Above all, let them take care that they be not a shame and reproach to their God, and so provoke him to be ashamed of them; but let them act so as to be to him for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory. (4.) As the proof of this, God has prepared for them a city, a happiness suitable to the relation into which he has taken them. 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. If he takes them into such a relation to himself, he will provide for them accordingly. If he takes them into such a relation to himself, he will provide for them accordingly. 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. The consideration of this should inflame the affections, enlarge the desires, and excite the diligent endeavours, of the people of God after this city that he has prepared for them.

VII. 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, Heb 11:17. In this great example observe,

1. The trial and exercise of Abraham's faith; he was tried indeed. It is said (Gen 22:1), God in this tempted Abraham; not to sin, for so God tempteth no man, but only tried his faith and obedience to purpose. 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. But this trial was greater than all; he was commanded to offer up his son Isaac. Read the account of it, Gen 22:2. There you will find every word was a trial: "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. Take thy son, not one of thy beasts or slaves, thy only son by Sarah, Isaac thy laughter, the child of thy joy and delight, whom thou lovest as thine own soul; take him away to a distant place, three days' journey, the land of Moriah; do not only leave him there, but offer him for a burnt offering." A greater trial was never put upon any creature. The apostle here mentions some things that very much added to the greatness of this trial. (1.) 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 (Heb 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! (2.) That this Isaac was his only-begotten son by his wife Sarah, the only one he was to have by her, and the only one that was to be the child and heir of the promise. Ishmael was to be put off with earthly greatness. The promise of a posterity, and of the Messiah, must either be fulfilled by means of this son or not at all; so that, besides his most tender affection to this his son, all his expectations were bound up in him, and, if he perished, must perish with him. If Abraham had ever so many sons, this was the only son who could convey to all nations the promised blessing. A son for whom he waited so long, whom he received in so extraordinary a manner, upon whom his heart was set - to have this son offered up as a sacrifice, and that by his own hand; it was a trial that would have overset the firmest and the strongest mind that ever informed a human body.

2. The actings of Abraham's faith in so great a trial: he obeyed; he offered up Isaac; he intentionally gave him up by his submissive soul to God, and was ready to have done it actually, according to the command of God; he went as far in it as to the very critical moment, and would have gone through with it if God had not prevented him. 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? little thinking that he was to be the lamb; but Abraham knew it, and yet he went on with the great design.

3. The supports of his faith. they must be very great, suitable to the greatness of the trial: He accounted that God was able to raise him from the dead, Heb 11:19. His faith was supported by the sense he had of the mighty power of God, who was able to raise the dead; he reasoned thus with himself, and so he resolved all his doubts. It does not appear that he had any expectation of being countermanded, and prevented from offering up his son; such an expectation would have spoiled the trial, and consequently the triumph, of his faith; but he knew that God was able to raise him from the dead, and he believed that God would do so, since such great things depended upon his son, which must have failed if Isaac had not a further life. Observe, (1.) God is able to raise the dead, to raise dead bodies, and to raise dead souls. (2.) The belief of this will carry us through the greatest difficulties and trials that we can meet with. (3.) It is our duty to be reasoning down our doubts and fears, by the consideration of the almighty power of God.

4. The reward of his faith in this great trial (Heb 11:19): he received his son from the dead in a figure, in a parable. (1.) He received his son. He had parted with him to God, and God gave him back again. 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.) He received him from the dead, for he gave him up for dead; he was as a dead child to him, and the return was to him no less than a resurrection. (3.) This was a figure or parable of something further. It was a figure of the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ, of whom Isaac was a type. It was a figure and earnest of the glorious resurrection of all true believers, whose life is not lost, but hid with Christ in God. We come now to the faith of other Old Testament saints, mentioned by name, and by the particular trials and actings of their faith.

VIII. Of the faith of Isaac, Heb 11:20. Something of him we had before interwoven with the story of Abraham; here we have something of a distinct nature - that by faith he blessed his two sons, Jacob and Esau, concerning things to come. Here observe,

1. The actings of his faith: He blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. 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. 27. Observe, (1.) Both Jacob an

Verse 32

The apostle having given us a classis of many eminent believers, whose names are mentioned and the particular trials and actings of their faith recorded, now concludes his narrative with a more summary account of another set of believers, where the particular acts are not ascribed to particular persons by name, but left to be applied by those who are well acquainted with the sacred story; and, like a divine orator, he prefaces his part of the narrative with an elegant expostulation: What shall I say more? Time would fail me; as if he had said, "It is in vain to attempt to exhaust this subject; should I not restrain my pen, it would soon run beyond the bounds of an epistle; and therefore I shall but just mention a few more, and leave you to enlarge upon them." Observe, 1. After all our researches into the scripture, there is still more to be learned from them. 2. We must well consider in divine matters what we should say, and suit it as well as we can to the time. 3. We should be pleased to think how great the number of believers was under the Old Testament, and how strong their faith, though the objects thereof were not then so fully revealed. And, 4. We should lament it, that now, in gospel times, when the rule of faith is more clear and perfect, the number of believers should be so small and their faith so weak.

I. In this summary account the apostle mentions,

1. Gideon, whose story we have in Jdg 6:11, etc. He was an eminent instrument raised up of God to deliver his people from the oppression of the Midianites; he was a person of mean tribe and family, called from a mean employment (threshing wheat), and saluted by an angel of God in this surprising manner, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of war. Gideon could not at first receive such honours, but humbly expostulates with the angel about their low and distressed state. The angel of the Lord delivers him his commission, and assures him of success, confirming the assurance by fire out of the rock. Gideon is directed to offer sacrifice, and, instructed in his duty, goes forth against the Midianites, when his army is reduced from thirty-two thousand to three hundred; yet by these, with their lamps and pitchers, God put the whole army of the Midianites to confusion and ruin: and the same faith that gave Gideon so much courage and honour enabled him to act with great meekness and modesty towards his brethren afterwards. It is the excellency of the grace of faith that, while it helps men to do great things, it keeps them from having high and great thoughts of themselves.

2. Barak, another instrument raised up to deliver Israel out of the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, Judges 4, where we read, (1.) Though he was a soldier, yet he received his commission and instructions from Deborah, a prophetess of the Lord; and he insisted upon having this divine oracle with him in his expedition. (2.) He obtained a great victory by his faith over all the host of Sisera. (3.) His faith taught him to return all the praise and glory to God: this is the nature of faith; it has recourse unto God in all dangers and difficulties, and then makes grateful returns to God for all mercies and deliverances.

3. Samson, another instrument that God raised up to deliver Israel from the Philistines: his story we have in Judges 13, 14, 15, and 16, and from it we learn that the grace of faith is the strength of the soul for great service. If Samson had not had a strong faith as well as a strong arm, he had never performed such exploits. Observe, (1.) By faith the servants of God shall overcome even the roaring lion. (2.) True faith is acknowledged and accepted, even when mingled with many failings. (3.) The believer's faith endures to the end, and, in dying, gives him victory over death and all his deadly enemies; his greatest conquest he gains by dying.

4. Jephthah, whose story we have, Judges 11, before that of Samson. He was raised up to deliver Israel from the Ammonites. As various and new enemies rise up against the people of God, various and new deliverers are raised up for them. In the story of Jephthah observe, (1.) The grace of God often finds out, and fastens upon, the most undeserving and ill-deserving persons, to do great things for them and by them. Jephthah was the son of a harlot. (2.) The grace of faith, wherever it is, will put men upon acknowledging God in all their ways (Jdg 11:11): Jephthah rehearsed all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh. (3.) The grace of faith will make men bold and venturous in a good cause. (4.) Faith will not only put men upon making their vows to God, but paying their vows after the mercy received; yea, though they have vowed to their own great grief, hurt, and loss, as in the case of Jephthah and his daughter.

5. David, that great man after God's own heart. Few ever met with greater trials, and few ever discovered a more lively faith. His first appearance on the stage of the world was a great evidence of his faith. Having, when young, slain the lion and the bear, his faith in God encouraged him to encounter the great Goliath, and helped him to triumph over him. The same faith enabled him to bear patiently the ungrateful malice of Saul and his favourites, and to wait till God should put him into possession of the promised power and dignity. The same faith made him a very successful and victorious prince, and, after a long life of virtue and honour (though not without some foul stains of sin), he died in faith, relying upon the everlasting covenant that God had made with him and his, ordered in all things and sure; and he has left behind him such excellent memoirs of the trials and acts of faith in the book of Psalms as will ever be of great esteem and use, among the people of God.

6. Samuel, raised up to be a most eminent prophet of the Lord to Israel, as well as a ruler over them. God revealed himself to Samuel when he was but a child, and continued to do so till his death. In his story observe, (1.) Those are likely to grow up to some eminency in faith who begin betimes in the exercise of it. (2.) Those whose business it is to reveal the mind and will of God to others had need to be well established in the belief of it themselves.

7. To Samuel he adds, and of the prophets, who were extraordinary ministers of the Old Testament church, employed of God sometimes to denounce judgment, sometimes to promise mercy, always to reprove sin; sometimes to foretell remarkable events, known only to God; and chiefly to give notice of the Messiah, his coming, person, and offices; for in him the prophets as well as the law center. Now a true and strong faith was very requisite for the right discharge of such an office as this.

II. Having done naming particular persons, he proceeds to tell us what things were done by their faith. He mentions some things that easily apply themselves to one or other of the persons named; but he mentions other things that are not so easy to be accommodated to any here named, but must be left to general conjecture or accommodation.

1. By faith they subdued kingdoms, Heb 11:33. Thus did David, Joshua, and many of the judges. Learn hence, (1.) The interests and powers of kings and kingdoms are often set up in opposition to God and his people. (2.) God can easily subdue all those kings and kingdoms that set themselves to oppose him. (3.) Faith is a suitable and excellent qualification of those who fight in the ways of the Lord; it makes them just, bold, and wise.

2. They wrought righteousness, both in their public and personal capacities; they turned many from idolatry to the ways of righteousness; they believed God, and it was imputed to them for righteousness; they walked and acted righteously towards God and man. It is a greater honour and happiness to work righteousness than to work miracles; faith is an active principle of universal righteousness.

3. They obtained promises, both general and special. It is faith that gives us an interest in the promises; it is by faith that we have the comfort of the promises; and it is by faith that we are prepared to wait for the promises, and in due time to receive them.

4. They stopped the mouths of lions; so did Samson, Jdg 14:5, Jdg 14:6, and David, Sa1 17:34, Sa1 17:35, and Daniel, Dan 6:22. Here learn, (1.) The power of God is above the power of the creature. (2.) Faith engages the power of God for his people, whenever it shall be for his glory, to overcome brute beasts and brutish men.

5. They quenched the violence of the fire, Heb 11:34. So Moses, by the prayer of faith, quenched the fire of God's wrath that was kindled against the people of Israel, Num 11:1, Num 11:2. So did the three children, or rather mighty champions, Dan 3:17-27. Their faith in God, refusing to worship the golden image, exposed them to the fiery furnace which Nebuchadnezzar had prepared for them, and their faith engaged for them that power and presence of God in the furnace which quenched the violence of the fire, so that not so much as the smell thereof passed on them. Never was the grace of faith more severely tried, never more nobly exerted, nor ever more gloriously rewarded, than theirs was.

6. They escaped the edge of the sword. Thus David escaped the sword of Goliath and of Saul; and Mordecai and the Jews escaped the sword of Haman. The swords of men are held in the hand of God, and he can blunt the edge of the sword, and turn it away from his people against their enemies when he pleases. Faith takes hold of that hand of God which has hold of the swords of men; and God has often suffered himself to be prevailed upon by the faith of his people.

7. Out of weakness they were made strong. From national weakness, into which the Jews often fell by their unbelief; upon the revival of their faith, all their interest and affairs revived and flourished. From bodily weakness; thus Hezekiah, believing the word of God, recovered out of a mortal distemper, and he ascribed his recovery to the promise and power of God (Isa 38:15, Isa 38:16), What shall I say? He hath spoken it, and he hath also done it. Lord by these things men live, and in these is the life of my spirit. And it is the same grace of faith that from spiritual weakness helps men to recover and renew their strength.

8. They grew valiant in fight. So did Joshua, the judges, and David. True faith gives truest courage and patience, as it discerns the strength of God, and thereby the weakness of all his enemies. And they were not only valiant, but successful. God, as a reward and encouragement of their faith, put to flight the armies of the aliens, of those who were aliens to their commonwealth, and enemies to their religion; God made them flee and fall before his faithful servants. Believing and praying commanders, at the head of believing and praying armies, have been so owned and honoured of God that nothing could stand before them.

9. Women received their dead raised to life again, Heb 11:35. So did the widow of Zarepath (Kg1 17:23), and the Shunamite, Kg2 4:36. (1.) In Christ there is neither male nor female; many of the weaker sex have been strong in faith. (2.) Though the covenant of grace takes in the children of believers, yet it leaves them subject to natural death. (3.) Poor mothers are loth to resign up their interest in their children, though death has taken them away. (4.) God has sometimes yielded so far to the tender affections of sorrowful women as to restore their dead children to life again. Thus Christ had compassion on the widow of Nain, Luk 7:12, etc. (5.) This should confirm our faith in the general resurrection.

III. The apostle tells us what these believers endured by faith. 1. They were tortured, not accepting deliverance, Heb 11:35. They were put upon the rack, to make them renounce their God, their Saviour, and their religion. They bore the torture, and would not accept of deliverance upon such vile terms; and that which animated them thus to suffer was the hope they had of obtaining a better resurrection, and deliverance upon more honourable terms. This is thought to refer to that memorable story, 2 Macc. 7, etc. 2. They endured trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, and bonds and imprisonment, Heb 11:36. They were persecuted in their reputation by mockings, which are cruel to an ingenuous mind; in their persons by scourging, the punishment of slaves; in their liberty by bonds and imprisonment. Observe how inveterate is the malice that wicked men have towards the righteous, how far it will go, and what a variety of cruelties it will invent and exercise upon those against whom they have no cause of quarrel, except in the matters of their God. 3. They were put to death in the most cruel manner; some were stoned, as Zechariah (Ch2 24:21), sawn asunder, as Isaiah by Manasseh. They were tempted; some read it, burnt, 2 Macc. 7:5. They were slain with the sword. All sorts of deaths were prepared for them; their enemies clothed death in all the array of cruelty and terror, and yet they boldly met it and endured it. 4. Those who escaped death were used so ill that death might seem more eligible than such a life. Their enemies spared them, only to prolong their misery, and wear out all their patience; for they were forced to wander about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented; they wandered about in deserts, and on mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth, Heb 11:37, Heb 11:38. They were stripped of the conveniences of life, and turned out of house and harbour. They had not raiment to put on, but were forced to cover themselves with the skins of slain beasts. They were driven out of all human society, and forced to converse with the beasts of the field, to hide themselves in dens and caves, and make their complaint to rocks and rivers, not more obdurate than their enemies. Such sufferings as these they endured then for their faith; and such they endured through the power of the grace of faith: and which shall we most admire, the wickedness of human nature, that is capable of perpetrating such cruelties on fellow creatures, or the excellency of divine grace, that is able to bear up the faithful under such cruelties, and to carry them safely through all?

IV. What they obtained by their faith. 1. A most honourable character and commendation from God, the true Judge and fountain of honour - that the world was not worthy of such men; the world did not deserve such blessings; they did not know how to value them, nor how to use them. Wicked men! The righteous are not worthy to live in the world, and God declares the world is not worthy of them; and, though they widely differ in their judgment, they agree in this, that it is not fit that good men should have their rest in this world; and therefore God receives them out of it, to that world that is suitable to them, and yet far beyond the merit of all their services and sufferings. 2. They obtained a good report (Heb 11:39) of all good men, and of the truth itself, and have the honour to be enrolled in this sacred calendar of the Old Testament worthies, God's witnesses; yea, they had a witness for them in the consciences of their enemies, who, while they thus abused them, were condemned by their own consciences, as persecuting those who were more righteous than themselves. 3. They obtained an interest in the promises, though not the full possession of them. They had a title to the promises, though they received not the great things promised. This is not meant of the felicity of the heavenly state, for this they did receive, when they died, in the measure of a part, in one constituent part of their persons, and the much better part; but it is meant of the felicity of the gospel-state: they had types, but not the antitype; they had shadows, but had not seen the substance; and yet, under this imperfect dispensation, they discovered this precious faith. This the apostle insists upon to render the faith more illustrious, and to provoke Christians to a holy jealousy and emulation; that they should not suffer themselves to be outdone in the exercise of faith by those who came so short of them in all the helps and advantages for believing. He tells the Hebrews that God had provided some better things for them (Heb 11:40), and therefore they might be assured that he expected at least as good things from them; and that since the gospel is the end and perfection of the Old Testament, which had no excellency but in its reference to Christ and the gospel, it was expected that their faith should be as much more perfect than the faith of the Old Testament saints; for their state and dispensation were more perfect than the former, and were indeed the perfection and completion of the former, for without the gospel-church the Jewish church must have remained in an incomplete and imperfect state. This reasoning is strong, and should be effectually prevalent with us all.

Verse 2

For—So high a description of faith is not undeserved; for . . . [ALFORD].

by it—Greek, "in it": in respect to . . . in the matter of," it, "or, as Greek more emphatically, "this."

the elders—as though still living and giving their powerful testimony to the reasonableness and excellence of faith (Heb 12:1). Not merely the ancients, as though they were people solely of the past; nay, they belong to the one and the same blessed family as ourselves (Heb 11:39-40). "The elders," whom we all revere so highly. "Paul shows how we ought to seek in all its fulness, under the veil of history, the essential substance of the doctrine sometimes briefly indicated" [BENGEL]. "The elders," as "the fathers," is a title of honor given on the ground of their bright faith and practice.

obtained a good report—Greek, "were testified of," namely, favorably (compare Heb 7:8). It is a phrase of Luke, Paul's companion. Not only men, but God, gave testimony to their faith (Heb 11:4-5, Heb 11:39). Thus they being testified of themselves have become "witnesses" to all others (Heb 12:1). The earlier elders had their patience exercised for a long period of life: those later, in sharper afflictions. Many things which they hoped for and did not see, subsequently came to pass and were conspicuously seen, the event confirming faith [BENGEL].

Verse 3

we understand—We perceive with our spiritual intelligence the fact of the world's creation by God, though we see neither Him nor the act of creation as described in Gen. 1:1-31. The natural world could not, without revelation, teach us this truth, though it confirms the truth when apprehended by faith (Rom 1:20). Adam is passed over in silence here as to his faith, perhaps as being the first who fell and brought sin on us all; though it does not follow that he did not repent and believe the promise.

worlds—literally, "ages"; all that exists in time and space, visible and invisible, present and eternal.

framed—"fitly formed and consolidated"; including the creation of the single parts and the harmonious organization of the whole, and the continual providence which maintains the whole throughout all ages. As creation is the foundation and a specimen of the whole divine economy, so faith in creation is the foundation and a specimen of all faith [BENGEL].

by the word of God—not here, the personal word (Greek, "logos," Joh 1:1) but the spoken word (Greek, "rhema"); though by the instrumentality of the personal word (Heb 1:2).

not made, &c.—Translate as Greek, "so that not out of things which appear hath that which is seen been made"; not as in the case of all things which we see reproduced from previously existing and visible materials, as, for instance, the plant from the seed, the animal from the parent, &c., has the visible world sprung into being from apparent materials. So also it is implied in the first clause of the verse that the invisible spiritual worlds were framed not from previously existing materials. BENGEL explains it by distinguishing "appear," that is, begin to be seen (namely, at creation), from that which is seen as already in existence, not merely beginning to be seen; so that the things seen were not made of the things which appear," that is, which begin to be seen by us in the act of creation. We were not spectators of creation; it is by faith we perceive it.

Verse 4

more excellent sacrifice—because offered in faith. Now faith must have some revelation of God on which it fastens. The revelation in this case was doubtless God's command to sacrifice animals ("the firstlings of the flock") in token of the forfeiture of men's life by sin, and as a type of the promised bruiser of the serpent's head (Gen 3:15), the one coming sacrifice: this command is implied in God's having made coats of skin for Adam and Eve (Gen 3:21): for these skins must have been taken from animals slain in sacrifice: inasmuch as it was not for food they were slain, animal food not being permitted till after the flood; nor for mere clothing, as, were it so, clothes might have been made of the fleeces without the needless cruelty of killing the animal; but a coat of skin put on Adam from a sacrificed animal typified the covering or atonement (the Hebrew for atone means to cover) resulting from Christ's sacrifice. The Greek is more literally rendered [KENNICOTT] by WYCLIFFE, "a much more sacrifice"; and by Queen Elizabeth's version "a greater sacrifice." A fuller, more ample sacrifice, that which partook more largely and essentially of the true nature and virtue of sacrifice [ARCHBISHOP MAGEE]. It was not any intrinsic merit in "the firstling of the flock" above "the fruit of the ground." It was God's appointment that gave it all its excellency as a sacrifice; if it had not been so, it would have been a presumptuous act of will-worship (Col 2:23), and taking of a life which man had no right over before the flood (Gen 9:1-6). The sacrifice seems to have been a holocaust, and the sign of the divine acceptance of it was probably the consumption of it by fire from heaven (Gen 15:17). Hence, "to accept" a burnt sacrifice is in Hebrew "to turn it to ashes" (Psa 20:3, Margin). A flame seems to have issued from the Shekinah, or flaming cherubim, east of Eden ("the presence of the Lord," Gen 4:16), where the first sacrifices were offered. Cain, in unbelieving self-righteousness, presented merely a thank offering, not like Abel feeling his need of the propitiatory sacrifice appointed on account of sin. God "had respect (first) unto Abel, and (then) to his offering" (Gen 4:4). Faith causes the believer's person to be accepted, and then his offering. Even an animal sacrifice, though of God's appointment, would not have been accepted, had it not been offered in faith.

he obtained witness—God by fire attesting His acceptance of him as "righteous by faith."

his gifts—the common term for sacrifices, implying that they must be freely given.

by it—by faith exhibited in his animal sacrifice.

dead, yet speaketh—His blood crying front the ground to God, shows how precious, because of his "faith," he was still in God's sight, even when dead. So he becomes a witness to us of the blessed effects of faith.

Verse 5

Faith was the ground of his pleasing God; and his pleasing God was the ground of his translation.

translated— (Gen 5:22, Gen 5:24). Implying a sudden removal (the same Greek as in Gal 1:6) from mortality without death to immortality: such a CHANGE as shall pass over the living at Christ's coming (Co1 15:51-52).

had this testimony—namely of Scripture; the Greek perfect implies that this testimony continues still: "he has been testified of."

pleased God—The Scripture testimony virtually expresses that he pleased God, namely, "Enoch walked with God." The Septuagint translates the Hebrew for "walked with God," Gen 6:9, pleased God.

Verse 6

without—Greek, "apart from faith": if one be destitute of faith (compare Rom 14:23).

to please—Translate, as ALFORD does, the Greek aorist, "It is impossible to please God at all" (Rom 8:8). Natural amiabilities and "works done before the grace of Christ are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ; yea, rather, for that they are not done as God hath willed them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin" [Article XIII, Book of Common Prayer]. Works not rooted in God are splendid sins [AUGUSTINE].

he that cometh to God—as a worshipper (Heb 7:19).

must believe—once for all: Greek aorist tense.

that God is—is the true self-existing Jehovah (as contrasted with all so-called gods, not gods, Gal 4:8), the source of all being, though he sees Him not (Heb 11:1) as being "invisible" (Heb 11:27). So Enoch; this passage implies that he had not been favored with visible appearances of God, yet he believed in God's being, and in God's moral government, as the Rewarder of His diligent worshippers, in opposition to antediluvian skepticism. Also Moses was not so favored before he left Egypt the first time (Heb 11:27); still he believed.

and . . . is—a different Greek verb from the former "is." Translate, "is eventually"; proves to be; literally, "becomes."

rewarder—renderer of reward [ALFORD]. So God proved to be to Enoch. The reward is God Himself diligently "sought" and "walked with" in partial communion here, and to be fully enjoyed hereafter. Compare Gen 15:1, "I am thy exceeding great reward."

of them—and them only.

diligently seek—Greek, "seek out" God. Compare "seek early," Pro 8:17. Not only "ask" and "seek," but "knock," Mat 7:7; compare Heb 11:12; Luk 13:24, "Strive" as in an agony of contest.

Verse 7

warned of God—The same Greek, Heb 8:5, "admonished of God."

moved with fear—not mere slavish fear, but as in Heb 5:7; see on Heb 5:7; Greek, "reverential fear": opposed to the world's sneering disbelief of the revelation, and self-deceiving security. Join "by faith" with "prepared an ark" (Pe1 3:20).

by the which—faith.

condemned the world—For since he believed and was saved, so might they have believed and been saved, so that their condemnation by God is by his case shown to be just.

righteousness which is by faith—Greek, "according to faith." A Pauline thought. Noah is first called "righteous" in Gen 6:9. Christ calls Abel so, Mat 23:35. Compare as to Noah's righteousness, Eze 14:14, Eze 14:20; Pe2 2:5, "a preacher of righteousness." Paul here makes faith the principle and ground of his righteousness.

heir—the consequence of sonship which flows from faith.

Verse 8

From the antediluvian saints he passes to the patriarchs of Israel, to whom "the promises" belonged.

called—by God (Gen 12:1). The oldest manuscripts and Vulgate read, "He that was called Abraham," his name being changed from Abram to Abraham, on the occasion of God's making with him and his seed a covenant sealed by circumcision, many years after his call out of Ur. "By faith, he who was (afterwards) called Abraham (father of nations, Gen 17:5, in order to become which was the design of God's bringing him out of Ur) obeyed (the command of God: to be understood in this reading), so as to go out," &c.

which he should after receive—He had not fully received even this promise when he went out, for it was not explicitly given him till he had reached Canaan (Gen 12:1, Gen 12:6-7). When the promise of the land was given him the Canaanite was still in the land, and himself a stranger; it is in the new heaven and new earth that he shall receive his personal inheritance promised him; so believers sojourn on earth as strangers, while the ungodly and Satan lord it over the earth; but at Christ's coming that same earth which was the scene of the believer's conflict shall be the inheritance of Christ and His saints.

Verse 9

sojourned—as a "stranger and pilgrim."

in—Greek, "into," that is, he went into it and sojourned there.

as in a strange country—a country not belonging to him, but to others (so the Greek), Act 7:5-6.

dwelling in tabernacles—tents: as strangers and sojourners do: moving from place to place, as having no fixed possession of their own. In contrast to the abiding "city" (Heb 11:10).

with—Their kind of dwelling being the same is a proof that their faith was the same. They all alike were content to wait for their good things hereafter (Luk 16:25). Jacob was fifteen years old at the death of Abraham.

heirs with him of the same promise—Isaac did not inherit it from Abraham, nor Jacob from Isaac, but they all inherited it from God directly as "fellow heirs." In Heb 6:12, Heb 6:15, Heb 6:17, "the promise" means the thing promised as a thing in part already attained; but in this chapter "the promise" is of something still future. However, see on Heb 6:12.

Verse 10

looked for—Greek, "he was expecting"; waiting for with eager expectation (Rom 8:19).

a city—Greek, "the city," already alluded to. Worldly Enoch, son of the murderer Cain, was the first to build his city here: the godly patriarchs waited for their city hereafter (Heb 11:16; Heb 12:22; Heb 13:14).

foundations—Greek, "the foundations" which the tents had not, nor even men's present cities have.

whose builder and maker—Greek, "designer [Eph 1:4, Eph 1:11] and master-builder," or executor of the design. The city is worthy of its Framer and Builder (compare Heb 11:16; Heb 8:2). Compare Note, see on Heb 9:12, on "found."

Verse 11

also Sara herself—though being the weaker vessel, and though at first she doubted.

was delivered of a child—omitted in the oldest manuscripts: then translate, "and that when she was past age" (Rom 4:19).

she judged him faithful who had promised—after she had ceased to doubt, being instructed by the angel that it was no jest, but a matter in serious earnest.

Verse 12

as good as dead—literally, "deadened"; no longer having, as in youth, energetic vital powers.

stars . . . sand— (Gen 22:17).

Verse 13

Summary of the characteristic excellencies of the patriarchs' faith

died in faith—died as believers, waiting for, not actually seeing as yet their good things promised to them. They were true to this principle of faith even unto, and especially in, their dying hour (compare Heb 11:20).

These all—beginning with "Abraham" (Heb 11:8), to whom the promises were made (Gal 3:16), and who is alluded to in the end of Heb 11:13 and in Heb 11:15 [BENGEL and ALFORD]. But the "ALL" can hardly but include Abel, Enoch, and Noah. Now as these did not receive the promise of entering literal Canaan, some other promise made in the first ages, and often repeated, must be that meant, namely, the promise of a coming Redeemer made to Adam, namely, "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Thus the promises cannot have been merely temporal, for Abel and Enoch mentioned here received no temporal promise [ARCHBISHOP MAGEE]. This promise of eternal redemption is the inner essence of the promises made to Abraham (Gal 3:16).

not having received—It was this that constituted their "faith." If they had "received" THE THING PROMISED (so "the promises" here mean: the plural is used because of the frequent renewal of the promise to the patriarchs: Heb 11:17 says he did receive the promises, but not the thing promised), it would have been sight, not faith.

seen them afar off— (Joh 8:56). Christ, as the Word, was preached to the Old Testament believers, and so became the seed of life to their souls, as He is to ours.

and were persuaded of them—The oldest manuscripts omit this clause.

embraced them—as though they were not "afar off," but within reach, so as to draw them to themselves and clasp them in their embrace. TRENCH denies that the Old Testament believers embraced them, for they only saw them afar off: he translates, "saluted them," as the homeward-bound mariner, recognizing from afar the well-known promontories of his native land. ALFORD translates, "greeted them." Jacob's exclamation, "I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord" (Gen 49:18) is such a greeting of salvation from afar [DELITZSCH].

confessed . . . were strangers—so Abraham to the children of Heth (Gen 23:4); and Jacob to Pharaoh (Gen 47:9; Psa 119:19). Worldly men hold fast the world; believers sit loose to it. Citizens of the world do not confess themselves "strangers on the earth."

pilgrims—Greek, "temporary (literally, 'by the way') sojourners."

on the earth—contrasted with "an heavenly" (Heb 11:16): "our citizenship is in heaven" (Greek: Heb 10:34; Psa 119:54; Phi 3:20). "Whosoever professes that he has a Father in heaven, confesses himself a stranger on earth; hence there is in the heart an ardent longing, like that of a child living among strangers, in want and grief, far from his fatherland" [LUTHER]. "Like ships in seas while in, above the world."

Verse 14

For—proof that "faith" (Heb 11:13) was their actuating principle.

declare plainly—make it plainly evident.

seek—Greek, "seek after"; implying the direction towards which their desires ever tend.

a country—rather as Greek, "a fatherland." In confessing themselves strangers here, they evidently imply that they regard not this as their home or fatherland, but seek after another and a better.

Verse 15

As Abraham, had he desired to leave his pilgrim life in Canaan, and resume his former fixed habitation in Ur, among the carnal and worldly, had in his long life ample opportunities to have done so; and so spiritually, as to all believers who came out from the world to become God's people, they might, if they had been so minded, have easily gone back.

Verse 16

Proving the truth that the old fathers did not, as some assert, "look only for transitory promises" [Article VII, Book of Common Prayer].

now—as the case is.

is not ashamed—Greek, "Is not ashamed of them." Not merely once did God call himself their God, but He is NOW not ashamed to have Himself called so, they being alive and abiding with Him where He is. For, by the law, God cannot come into contact with anything dead. None remained dead in Christ's presence (Luk 20:37-38). He who is Lord and Maker of heaven and earth, and all things therein, when asked, What is Thy name? said, omitting all His other titles, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" [THEODORET]. Not only is He not ashamed, but glories in the name and relation to His people. The "wherefore" does not mean that God's good pleasure is the meritorious, but the gracious, consequence of their obedience (that obedience being the result of His Spirit's work in them in the first instance). He first so "called" Himself, then they so called Him.

for—proof of His being "their God," namely, "He hath prepared (in His eternal counsels, Mat 20:23; Mat 25:34, and by the progressive acts of redemption, Joh 14:2) for them a city," the city in which He Himself reigns, so that their yearning desires shall not be disappointed (Heb 11:14, Heb 11:16).

a city—on its garniture by God (compare Rev. 21:10-27).

Verse 17

offered up—literally, "hath offered up," as if the work and its praise were yet enduring [ALFORD]. As far as His intention was concerned, he did sacrifice Isaac; and in actual fact "he offered him," as far as the presentation of him on the altar as an offering to God is concerned.

tried—Greek, "tempted," as in Gen 22:1. Put to the proof of his faith. Not that God "tempts" to sin, but God "tempts" in the sense of proving or trying (Jam 1:13-15).

and—and so.

he that had received—rather as Greek, "accepted," that is, welcomed and embraced by faith, not merely "had the promises," as in Heb 7:6. This added to the difficulty in the way of his faith, that it was in Isaac's posterity the promises were to be fulfilled; how then could they be fulfilled if Isaac were sacrificed?

offered up—rather as Greek, "was offering up"; he was in the act of offering.

his only-begotten son—Compare Gen 22:2, "Take now thy son, thine only son." EUSEBIUS [The Preparation of the Gospel, 1.10, and 4.16], has preserved a fragment of a Greek translation of Sanchoniatho, which mentions a mystical sacrifice of the PhÅ“nicians, wherein a prince in royal robes was the offerer, and his only son was to be the victim: this evidently was a tradition derived from Abraham's offering, and handed down through Esau or Edom, Isaac's son. Isaac was Abraham's "only-begotten son" in respect of Sarah and the promises: he sent away his other sons, by other wives (Gen 25:6). Abraham is a type of the Father not sparing His only-begotten Son to fulfil the divine purpose of love. God nowhere in the Mosaic law allowed human sacrifices, though He claimed the first-born of Israel as His.

Verse 18

Of whom—rather as Greek "He (Abraham, not Isaac) TO whom it was said" [ALFORD]. BENGEL supports English Version. So Heb 1:7 uses the same Greek preposition, "unto," for "in respect to," or "of." This verse gives a definition of the "only-begotten Son" (Heb 11:17).

in Isaac shall thy seed be called— (Gen 21:12). The posterity of Isaac alone shall be accounted as the seed of Abraham, which is the heir of the promises (Rom 9:7).

Verse 19

Faith answered the objections which reason brought against God's command to Abraham to offer Isaac, by suggesting that what God had promised He both could and would perform, however impossible the performance might seem (Rom 4:20-21).

able to raise him—rather, in general, "able to raise from the dead." Compare Rom 4:17, "God who quickeneth the dead." The quickening of Sarah's dead womb suggested the thought of God's power to raise even the dead, though no instance of it had as yet occurred.

he received him—"received him back" [ALFORD].

in a figure—Greek, "in a parable." ALFORD explains, "Received him back, risen from that death which he had undergone in, under, the figure of the ram." I prefer with BISHOP PEARSON, ESTIUS, and GREGORY OF NYSSA, understanding the figure to be the representation which the whole scene gave to Abraham of Christ in His death (typified by Isaac's offering in intention, and the ram's actual substitution answering to Christ's vicarious death), and in His resurrection (typified by Abraham's receiving him back alive from the jaws of death, compare Co2 1:9-10); just as on the day of atonement the slain goat and the scapegoat together formed one joint rite representing Christ's death and resurrection. It was then that Abraham saw Christ's day (Joh 8:56): accounting God was able to raise even from the dead: from which state of the dead he received him back as a type of the resurrection in Christ.

Verse 20

Jacob is put before Esau, as heir of the chief, namely, the spiritual blessing.

concerning things to come—Greek, "even concerning things to come": not only concerning things present. Isaac, by faith, assigned to his sons things future, as if they were present.

Verse 21

both the sons—Greek, "each of the sons" (Gen 47:29; Gen 48:8-20). He knew not Joseph's sons, and could not distinguish them by sight, yet he did distinguish them by faith, transposing his hands intentionally, so as to lay his right hand on the younger, Ephraim, whose posterity was to be greater than that of Manasseh: he also adopted these grandchildren as his own sons, after having transferred the right of primogeniture to Joseph (Gen 48:22).

and worshipped—This did not take place in immediate connection with the foregoing, but before it, when Jacob made Joseph swear that he would bury him with his fathers in Canaan, not in Egypt. The assurance that Joseph would do so filled him with pious gratitude to God, which he expressed by raising himself on his bed to an attitude of worship. His faith, as Joseph's (Heb 11:22), consisted in his so confidentially anticipating the fulfilment of God's promise of Canaan to his descendants, as to desire to be buried there as his proper possession.

leaning upon the top of his staff— Gen 47:31, Hebrew and English Version, "upon the bed's head." The Septuagint translates as Paul here. JEROME justly reprobates the notion of modern Rome, that Jacob worshipped the top of Joseph's staff, having on it an image of Joseph's power, to which Jacob bowed in recognition of the future sovereignty of his son's tribe, the father bowing to the son! The Hebrew, as translated in English Version, sets it aside: the bed is alluded to afterwards (Gen 48:2; Gen 49:33), and it is likely that Jacob turned himself in his bed so as to have his face toward the pillow, Isa 38:2 (there were no bedsteads in the East). Paul by adopting the Septuagint version, brings out, under the Spirit, an additional fact, namely, that the aged patriarch used his own (not Joseph's) staff to lean on in worshipping on his bed. The staff, too, was the emblem of his pilgrim state here on his way to his heavenly city (Heb 11:13-14), wherein God had so wonderfully supported him. Gen 32:10, "With my staff I passed over Jordan, and now I am become," &c. (compare Exo 12:11; Mar 6:8). In Kg1 1:47, the same thing is said of David's "bowing on his bed," an act of adoring thanksgiving to God for God's favor to his son before death. He omits the more leading blessing of the twelve sons of Jacob; because "he plucks only the flowers which stand by his way, and leaves the whole meadow full to his readers" [DELITZSCH in ALFORD].

Verse 22

when he died—"when dying."

the departing—"the exodus" (Gen 50:24-25). Joseph's eminent position in Egypt did not make him regard it as his home: in faith he looked to God's promise of Canaan being fulfilled and desired that his bones should rest there: testifying thus: (1) that he had no doubt of his posterity obtaining the promised land: and (2) that he believed in the resurrection of the body, and the enjoyment in it of the heavenly Canaan. His wish was fulfilled (Jos 24:32; Act 4:16).

Verse 23

parents—So the Septuagint has the plural, namely, Amram and Jochebed (Num 26:59); but in Exo 2:2, the mother alone is mentioned; but doubtless Amram sanctioned all she did, and secrecy. being their object, he did not appear prominent in what was done.

a proper child—Greek, "a comely child." Act 7:20, "exceeding fair," Greek, "fair to God." The "faith" of his parents in saving the child must have had some divine revelation to rest on (probably at the time of his birth), which marked their "exceeding fair" babe as one whom God designed to do a great work by. His beauty was probably "the sign" appointed by God to assure their faith.

the king's commandment—to slay all the males (Exo 1:22).

Verse 24

So far from faith being opposed to Moses, he was an eminent example of it [BENGEL].

refused—in believing self-denial, when he might possibly have succeeded at last to the throne of Egypt. Thermutis, Pharaoh's daughter, according to the tradition which Paul under the Spirit sanctions, adopted him, as JOSEPHUS says, with the consent of the king. JOSEPHUS states that when a child, he threw on the ground the diadem put on him in jest, a presage of his subsequent formal rejection of Thermutis' adoption of him. Faith made him to prefer the adoption of the King of kings, unseen, and so to choose (Heb 11:25-26) things, the very last which flesh and blood relish.

Verse 25

He balanced the best of the world with the worst of religion, and decidedly chose the latter. "Choosing" implies a deliberate resolution, not a hasty impulse. He was forty years old, a time when the judgment is matured.

for a season—If the world has "pleasure" (Greek, "enjoyment") to offer, it is but "for a season." If religion bring with it "affliction," it too is but for a season; whereas its "pleasures are for evermore."

Verse 26

Esteeming—Inasmuch as he esteemed.

the reproach of Christ—that is, the reproach which falls on the Church, and which Christ regards as His own reproach, He being the Head, and the Church (both of the Old and New Testament) His body. Israel typified Christ; Israel's sufferings were Christ's sufferings (compare Co2 1:5; Col 1:24). As uncircumcision was Egypt's reproach, so circumcision was the badge of Israel's expectation of Christ, which Moses especially cherished, and which the Gentiles reproached Israel on account of. Christ's people's reproach will ere long be their great glory.

had respect unto, &c.—Greek, "turning his eyes away from other considerations, he fixed them on the (eternal) recompense" (Heb 11:39-40).

Verse 27

not fearing the wrath of the king—But in Exo 2:14 it is said, "Moses feared, and fled from the face of Pharaoh." He was afraid, and fled from the danger where no duty called him to stay (to have stayed without call of duty would have been to tempt Providence, and to sacrifice his hope of being Israel's future deliverer according to the divine intimations; his great aim, see on Heb 11:23). He did not fear the king so as to neglect his duty and not return when God called him. It was in spite of the king's prohibition he left Egypt, not fearing the consequences which were likely to overtake him if he should be caught, after having, in defiance of the king, left Egypt. If he had stayed and resumed his position as adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, his slaughter of the Egyptian would doubtless have been connived at; but his resolution to take his portion with oppressed Israel, which he could not have done had he stayed, was the motive of his flight, and constituted the "faith" of this act, according to the express statement here. The exodus of Moses with Israel cannot be meant here, for it was made, not in defiance, but by the desire, of the king. Besides, the chronological order would be broken thus, the next particular specified here, namely, the institution of the Passover, having taken place before the exodus. Besides, it is Moses' personal history and faith which are here described. The faith of the people ("THEY passed") is not introduced till Heb 11:29.

endured—steadfast in faith amidst trials. He had fled, not so much from fear of Pharaoh, as from a revulsion of feeling in finding God's people insensible to their high destiny, and from disappointment at not having been able to inspire them with those hopes for which he had sacrificed all his earthly prospects. This accounts for his strange reluctance and despondency when commissioned by God to go and arouse the people (Exo 3:15; Exo 4:1, Exo 4:10-12).

seeing him . . . invisible—as though he had not to do with men, but only with God, ever before his eyes by faith, though invisible to the bodily eye (Rom 1:20; Ti1 1:17; Ti1 6:16). Hence he feared not the wrath of visible man; the characteristic of faith (Heb 11:1; Luk 12:4-5).

Verse 28

kept—Greek, "hath kept," the Passover being, in Paul's day, still observed. His faith here was his belief in the invisible God's promise that the destroying angel should pass over, and not touch the inmates of the blood-sprinkled houses (Exo 12:23). "He acquiesced in the bare word of God where the thing itself was not apparent" [CALVIN].

the first-born—Greek neuter; both of man and beast.

Verse 29

they—Moses and Israel.

Red Sea—called so from its red seaweed, or rather from Edom (meaning "red"), whose country adjoined it.

which . . . assaying to do—Greek, "of which (Red Sea) the Egyptians having made experiment." Rashness and presumption mistaken by many for faith; with similar rash presumption many rush into eternity. The same thing when done by the believer, and when done by the unbeliever, is not the same thing [BENGEL]. What was faith in Israel, was presumption in the Egyptians.

were drowned—Greek, "were swallowed up," or "engulfed." They sank in the sands as much as in the waves of the Red Sea. Compare Exo 15:12, "the earth swallowed them."

Verse 30

The soundings of trumpets, though one were to sound for ten thousand years, cannot throw down walls, but faith can do all things [CHRYSOSTOM].

seven days—whereas sieges often lasted for years.

Verse 31

Rahab showed her "faith" in her confession, Jos 2:9, Jos 2:11, "I know that Jehovah hath given you the land; Jehovah your God, is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath."

the harlot—Her former life adds to the marvel of her repentance, faith, and preservation (Mat 21:31-32).

believed not—Greek, "were disobedient," namely, to the will of God manifested by the miracles wrought in behalf of Israel (Jos 2:8-11).

received—in her house (Jos 2:1, Jos 2:4, Jos 2:6).

with peace—peaceably; so that they had nothing to fear in her house. Thus Paul, quoting the same examples (Heb 11:17, Heb 11:31) for the power of faith, as James (Jam 2:21, Jam 2:25; see on Jam 2:21; Jam 2:25) does for justification by works evidentially, shows that in maintaining justification by faith alone, he means not a dead faith, but "faith which worketh by love" (Gal 5:6).

Verse 32

the time—suitable for the length of an Epistle. He accumulates collectively some out of many examples of faith.

Gideon—put before Barak, not chronologically, but as being more celebrated. Just as Samson for the same reason is put before JephthÃ&brvbr. The mention of JephthÃ&brvbr as an example of "faith," makes it unlikely he sacrificed the life of his daughter for a rash vow. David, the warrior king and prophet, forms the transition from warrior chiefs to the "prophets," of whom "Samuel" is mentioned as the first.

Verse 33

subdued kingdoms—as David did (Sa2 8:1, &c.); so also Gideon subdued Midian (Jdg. 7:1-25).

wrought righteousness—as Samuel did (Sa1 8:9; 1Sa. 12:3-23; Sa1 15:33); and David (Sa2 8:15).

obtained promises—as "the prophets" (Heb 11:32) did; for through them the promises were given (compare Dan 9:21) [BENGEL]. Rather, "obtained the fulfilment of promises," which had been previously the object of their faith (Jos 21:45; Kg1 8:56). Indeed, Gideon, Barak, &c., also obtained the things which God promised. Not "the promises," which are still future (Heb 11:13, Heb 11:39).

stopped the mouths of lions—Note the words, "because he believed in his God." Also Samson (Jdg 14:6), David (Sa1 17:34-37), Benaiah (Sa2 23:20).

Verse 34

Quenched the violence of fire— (Dan 3:27). Not merely "quenched the fire," but "quenched the power (so the Greek) of the fire." Dan 3:19-30 and Dan 6:12-23 record the last miracles of the Old Testament. So the martyrs of the Reformation, though not escaping the fire, were delivered from its having power really or lastingly to hurt them.

escaped . . . sword—So Jephthah (Jdg 12:3); and so David escaped Saul's sword (Sa1 18:11; Sa1 19:10, Sa1 19:12); Elijah (Kg1 19:1, &c.; Kg2 6:14).

out of weakness . . . made strong—Samson (Jdg 16:28; Jdg 15:19). Hezekiah (Isa. 37:1-38:22). MILTON says of the martyrs, "They shook the powers of darkness with the irresistible power of weakness."

valiant in fight—Barak (Jdg 4:14-15). And the Maccabees, the sons of Matthias, Judas, Jonathan, and Simon, who delivered the Jews from their cruel oppressor, Antiochus of Syria.

armies—literally, "camps" referring to Jdg 7:21. But the reference may be to the Maccabees having put to flight the Syrians and other foes.

Verse 35

Women received their dead raised—as the widow of Zarephath (Kg1 17:17-24). The Shunammite (2Ki. 4:17-35). The two oldest manuscripts read. "They received women of aliens by raising their dead." Kg1 17:24 shows that the raising of the widow's son by Elijah led her to the faith, so that he thus took her into fellowship, an alien though she was. Christ, in Luk 4:26, makes especial mention of the fact that Elijah was sent to an alien from Israel, a woman of Sarepta. Thus Paul may quote this as an instance of Elijah's faith, that at God's command he went to a Gentile city of Sidonia (contrary to Jewish prejudices), and there, as the fruit of faith, not only raised her dead son, but received her as a convert into the family of God, as Vulgate reads. Still, English Version may be the right reading.

and—Greek, "but"; in contrast to those raised again to life.

tortured—"broken on the wheel." Eleazar (2 Maccabees 6:18, end; 2 Maccabees 19:20,30). The sufferer was stretched on an instrument like a drumhead and scourged to death.

not accepting deliverance—when offered to them. So the seven brothers, 2 Maccabees 7:9, 11, 14, 29, 36; and Eleazar, 2 Maccabees 6:21, 28, 30, "Though I might have been delivered from death, I endure these severe pains, being beaten."

a better resurrection—than that of the women's children "raised to life again"; or, than the resurrection which their foes could give them by delivering them from death (Dan 12:2; Luk 20:35; Phi 3:11). The fourth of the brethren (referring to Dan 12:2) said to King Antiochus, "To be put to death by men, is to be chosen to look onward for the hopes which are of God, to be raised up again by Him; but for thee there is no resurrection to life." The writer of Second Maccabees expressly disclaims inspiration, which prevents our mistaking Paul's allusion here to it as if it sanctioned the Apocrypha as inspired. In quoting Daniel, he quotes a book claiming inspiration, and so tacitly sanctions that claim.

Verse 36

others—of a different class of confessors for the truth (the Greek is different from that for "others," Heb 11:35, alloi, heteroi).

trial—testing their faith.

imprisonment—as Hanani (Ch2 16:10), imprisoned by Asa. Micaiah, the son of Imlah, by Ahab (Kg1 22:26-27).

Verse 37

stoned—as Zechariah, son of Jehoiada (Ch2 24:20-22; Mat 23:35).

sawn asunder—as Isaiah was said to have been by Manasseh; but see my Introduction to Isaiah.

tempted—by their foes, in the midst of their tortures, to renounce their faith; the most bitter aggravation of them. Or else, by those of their own household, as Job was [ESTIUS]; or by the fiery darts of Satan, as Jesus was in His last trials [GLASSIUS]. Probably it included all three; they were tempted in every possible way, by friends and foes, by human and satanic agents, by caresses and afflictions, by words and deeds, to forsake God, but in vain, through the power of faith.

sword—literally, "they died in the murder of the sword." In Heb 11:34 the contrary is given as an effect of faith, "they escaped the edge of the sword." Both alike are marvellous effects of faith. In both accomplishes great things and suffers great things, without counting it suffering [CHRYSOSTOM]. Urijah was so slain by Jehoiakim (Jer 26:23); and the prophets in Israel (Kg1 19:10).

in sheepskins—as Elijah (Kg1 19:13, Septuagint). They were white; as the "goat-skins" were black (compare Zac 13:4).

tormented—Greek, "in evil state."

Verse 38

Of whom the world was not worthy—So far from their being unworthy of living in the world, as their exile in deserts, &c., might seem to imply, "the world was not worthy of them." The world, in shutting them out, shut out from itself a source of blessing; such as Joseph proved to Potiphar (Gen 39:5), and Jacob to Laban (Gen 30:27). In condemning them, the world condemned itself.

caves—literally, "chinks." Palestine, from its hilly character, abounds in fissures and caves, affording shelter to the persecuted, as the fifty hid by Obadiah (Kg1 18:4, Kg1 18:13) and Elijah (Kg1 19:8, Kg1 19:13); and Mattathias and his sons (1 Maccabees 2:28, 29); and Judas Maccabeus (2 Maccabees 5:27).

Verse 39

having obtained a good report—Greek, "being borne witness of." Though they were so, yet "they received not the promise," that is, the final completion of "salvation" promised at Christ's coming again (Heb 9:28); "the eternal inheritance" (Heb 9:15). Abraham did obtain the very thing promised (Heb 6:15) in part, namely, blessedness in soul after death, by virtue of faith in Christ about to come. The full blessedness of body and soul shall not be till the full number of the elect shall be accomplished, and all together, no one preceding the other, shall enter on the full glory and bliss. Moreover, in another point of view, "It is probable that some accumulation of blessedness was added to holy souls, when Christ came and fulfilled all things even as at His burial many rose from the dead, who doubtless ascended to heaven with Him" [FLACIUS in BENGEL]. (Compare Note, see on Eph 4:8). The perfecting of believers in title, and in respect to conscience, took place once for all, at the death of Christ, by virtue of His being made by death perfect as Saviour. Their perfecting in soul at, and ever after Christ's death, took place, and takes place at their death. But the universal and final perfecting will not take place till Christ's coming.

Verse 40

provided—with divine forethought from eternity (compare Gen 22:8, Gen 22:14).

some better thing for us— (Heb 7:19); than they had here. They had not in this world, "apart from us" (so the Greek is for "without us," that is, they had to wait for us for), the clear revelation of the promised salvation actually accomplished, as we now have it in Christ; in their state, beyond the grave their souls also seem to have attained an increase of heavenly bliss on the death and ascension of Christ; and they shall not attain the full and final glory in body and soul (the regeneration of the creature), until the full number of the elect (including us with them) is completed. The Fathers, CHRYSOSTOM, &c., restricted the meaning of Heb 11:39-40 to this last truth, and I incline to this view. "The connection is, You, Hebrews, may far more easily exercise patience than Old Testament believers; for they had much longer to wait, and are still waiting until the elect are all gathered in; you, on the contrary, have not to wait for them" [ESTIUS]. I think his object in these verses (Heb 11:39-40) is to warn Hebrew Christians against their tendency to relapse into Judaism. "Though the Old Testament worthies attained such eminence by faith, they are not above us in privileges, but the reverse." It is not we who are perfected with them, but rather they with us. They waited for His coming; we enjoy Him as having come (Heb 1:1; Heb 2:3). Christ's death, the means of perfecting what the Jewish law could not perfect, was reserved for our time. Compare Heb 12:2, "perfecter (Greek) of our faith." Now that Christ is come, they in soul share our blessedness, being "the spirits of the just made perfect" (Heb 12:23); so ALFORD; however, see on Heb 12:23. Heb 9:12 shows that the blood of Christ, brought into the heavenly holy place by Him, first opened an entrance into heaven (compare Joh 3:13). Still, the fathers were in blessedness by faith in the Saviour to come, at death (Heb 6:15; Luk 16:22).

Next: Hebrews Chapter 12