Now, they all died in faith not having received the promise. 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. They trusted Gods promise that they would have a son and through him a multitude of descendants, even though they were both past the age when they might normally expect to have children (11-12; cf. There are also house () and people () of Israel, and Israel of God, and Israel according to the flesh. Here was a great trial of their faith. So there sprung forth from Abraham an innumerable host of people. does not express eternity (which would be , or some such form of words) but "for continuance." 3. He was looking for the kingdom of God and confessing that, "I'm not permanent here. My spirit moves out of this old tent into the new house, a building of God not made with hands that is eternal in the heavens. That those who obtain this favour from God must expect the envy and malice of the world. (i) There are those who have thought of death as mysterious and inexplicable. He had to pay an alien tax. And Abraham answered: "Let thine own ear hear what thine own mouth has spoken!". He prophesied that they should be blessed; but, as Isaac did before, so now Jacob prefers the younger, Ephraim; and though Joseph had placed them so, that the right hand of his father should be laid on Manasseh, the elder, Jacob wittingly laid it on Ephraim, and this by divine direction, for he could not see, to show that the Gentile church, the younger, should have a more abundant blessing than the Jewish church, the elder. It is quite evident, on the contrary, that this is not only not the truth which all recognize when stated, but altogether inconsistent with the Bible, with all books, and with all experience. He does not reason from the singular circumstance that there was no incense, any more than sacrifice. Observe, [1.] But see what it cost to enable it to come! It is the assembly composed of certain individuals that make it up, regarded either as brethren, as in the second chapter ("In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee"), or as the church of the first-born ones, as in Hebrews 12:1-29, persons who drew their title from Christ the first-born Heir. 13. lest the destroying of the firstborn should touch them. Of course, he had two steps. The trial and exercise of Abraham's faith; he was tried indeed. His blood must be sprinkled; it must be applied to those who have the saving benefit of it. Now looking at that a little more closely, God made the world out of things that do not appear.We know that the universe, the worlds, are made up of atoms which are invisible. 11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Cain tilled the ground and brought to God an offering of the fruits of the ground; Abel was a flock-master and brought to God an offering from his flocks. He blessed them; that is, he resigned them up to God in covenant; he recommended God and religion to them; he prayed for them, and prophesied concerning them, what would be the condition, and the condition of their descendants: we have the account of this in Gen. xxvii. Not of course that one denies that He has His own proper place, for all is perfect as to each person of the Trinity and all else, but never to this end. Faith sets to its seal that God is true, and thereby settles and satisfies the soul. The one is what may be called the objective glory; the other is the subjective condition of those that compose the bride, the Lamb's wife. Christ accounts himself reproached in their reproaches; and, while he thus interests himself in their reproaches, they become riches, and greater riches than the treasures of the richest empire in the world; for Christ will reward them with a crown of glory that fades not away. "He taketh away the first." ". Keats said that he had been "half in love with easeful death." They had never known so great and frequent and constant trial. 4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. And, finally, he sums up the superiority of Christ in this, that "they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: but he, because of his continuing for ever, hath the priesthood intransmissible." She protected them and enabled them to make their escape; and in return, when Jericho was taken she and her family were saved from the general slaughter. (2.) The next instance is the faith of Rahab, 1. Who this Rahab was. There is nothing here below so difficult for the natural mind; and for the simple reason that man can never rise above that which is caused. The moon arose in the east and the stars came out. Now after the apostle has given this account of the faith of others, with Abraham, he returns to him again, and gives us an instance of the greatest trial and act of faith that stands upon record, either in the story of the father of the faithful or of any of his spiritual seed; and this was his offering up Isaac: 1. If, therefore, when you find the word "testament" anywhere else in the authorized version, you turn it into "covenant" in my opinion you will not do amiss. We wonder just what will happen to us if we take God at his word and act on his commands and promises. The doctrine follows: "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost." Mattathias and his sons and those like-minded took to the hills; and once again the phrases used to describe their life there were in the mind of the writer to the Hebrews and he has echoes of them over and over again. He is showing us the efficacy of Christ's death. The blessed fruits and rewards of Noah's faith. Abraham lived till Isaac was seventy-five years old, and Jacob fifteen. Where sin has abounded, grace has superabounded. The grace of God is absolutely free, in taking some of the worst of men, and making them the best. To mount Zion. The actings of his faith here mentioned, and they are two:. Accordingly observe the change of expression. (Hebrews 9:15). His righteousness was relative, resulting from his adoption, through faith in the promised seed. The promise was that in Isaac his seed would grow and grow until he became a mighty nation in which all others would be blessed. As the result of enduring the cross, having despised the shame, the word for sitting down here has a remarkably beautiful shade of meaning different from what is given in all the other occurrences. Here he is in the midst of a great revival. The Romans will do the last sad offices. 2), exceedingly fair, as in Acts 7:20, asteios to Theovenustus Deofair to God. A new covenant shows that the other must have thereby become old, and therefore is decaying and ready to vanish away. It was by faith that Jacob, when he was dying. The actings of their faith during this imperfect state of things. He was brought before Antiochus and ordered to eat swine's flesh, being threatened with the direst penalties if he refused. VIII. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. The whole list is of men who faced incredible odds for God. That is the way in which so many people would like to sacrifice to God; but only the dearest and the best is good enough for him. We have yet another instance of the faith of Moses, in keeping. When the aeroplane has reached that point it cannot go back. Thus, before he enters on the subject of the sacrifices at length, he takes notice of the covenants, and thence he draws a conclusion from the well-known prophecy in Jeremiah, where God declares that the days were coming when He would make a new covenant. 'It was therefore a crisis after the most painful accumulation of evils that weighed on the heart of Israel. O Lord our Lord how excellent is Thy name in all the earth. Without hesitation they choose God ( Daniel 3:1-30). As Sarah said: "Who would have said that Sarah would suckle children?" I. Christ's priesthood shows the Old Testament law needed a change (11-22) II. He received his son. In this great example observe. [2.] The thing which is pleasant at the moment may bring pain in the long run; the thing which hurts like fury at the moment may bring joy in the long run. To what then are we come? A true believer is desirous, not only to be in covenant with God, but in communion with the people of God, and is willing to cast in his lot with them, and to fare as they fare. She was a Canaanite, a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, and had but little help for faith, and yet she was a believer; the power of divine grace greatly appears when it works without the usual means of grace. (1.) Josephs eminent position in Egypt did not make him regard it as his home: in faith he looked to Gods 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. After this chapter on faith, only the rhetorical culmination (12) and closing matters (13) remain. No argument could be more distinct or conclusive. An old scholar who was dying turned to his friends: "Do you realize," he said, "that in an hour or two I will know the answers for which we have been searching all our lives?" Which of these two most commends itself as the unforced meaning of the passage it is for the reader to judge. He made them both heads of different tribes, as if they had been his own immediate sons. 22.By faith Joseph, etc. But when the Lord was talking to Abraham concerning his son that He was going to give to him, Abraham said, "O Lord, let Ishmael live before thee!" "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king." As is usually the case, legend adds many a detail to this story. As far as the soul is concerned, Christ would not go up to heaven until sin was abrogated before God. It was on Mount Moriah where the cross was placed upon which Jesus died. All right, "Take now thy son, thine only son." will deliver to us and when. We see by faith what cannot be seen by our eyes; we grasp by faith what cannot be grasped with our hands. God gave witness to the righteousness of his person, by testifying his acceptance of his gifts. As the proof of this, God has prepared for them a city, a happiness suitable to the relation into which he has taken them. These are the things of which the writer to the Hebrews is thinking; and these are things which we do well to remember. Mattathias, moved to uncontrollable wrath, seized a sword and slew his apostate countryman and the king's commissioner with him. It was by faith that Moses, when he grew to manhood, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter and chose rather to suffer evil with the people of God than to enjoy the transient pleasures of sin, for he considered that a life of reproach for the sake of the Messiah was greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he kept his eyes fixed upon his reward. "Be mindful of those in bonds, as bound with them; and of those which suffer adversity." But the really amazing thing is that, according to the Exodus story, Moses not only made these regulations for the night on which the children of Israel were leaving Israel; he also laid it down that they were to be observed annually for all time. The point there is personal glory. Sometimes his stay was strictly limited. To us all is given the tremendous task of helping God make his promises come true. I mean his sins now; not sin as a principle, but in fact, though it be only for faith. In a home one partner became a Christian and the other did not; the children became Christians and the parents did not. Through faith they believed to the point of not accepting deliverance. "Whereupon neither the first [covenant] was dedicated without blood. Second, to see the abode of the wicked so that he might know what the punishment of the evil was like. He only removes obstructions, and maintains our communion with Himself; surely this ought to settle every question for the believer. He put himself into the hand of God, to send him whithersoever he pleased. (ii) We must believe that God is interested. Rightly then we begin with Zion, and thence may we trace the path of glory up to God Himself, and down to the kingdom here below. Because of the order in which it comes that must be what Hebrews 11:27 refers to. The reference is therefore plain and sure. They did not take the opportunity that offered itself for their return. (5.) The severest and final trial of Abraham's faith was giving up the son, in whom all the promises were infolded, to receive him back on a resurrection ground in figure. If Abraham had ever so many sons, this was the only son who could convey to all nations the promised blessing. All our spiritual privileges on earth should quicken us to set out early, and get forward, in our way to heaven. The reproaches of the church of God are the reproaches of Christ, who is, and has ever been, the head of the church. He gave commandment concerning his bones, that they should preserve them unburied in Egypt, till God should deliver them out of that house of bondage, and that then they should carry his bones along with them into Canaan and deposit them there. A woman came in with a dish of meat for the gods. There is no real contradiction. When they offered their sacrifices unto the Lord, the Lord accepted Abel's sacrifice, but He rejected Cain's. The two extremes, offensive to every lover of the vi media of religious rationalism, must be combined in Christianity and the Christian man, if he is to maintain it unimpaired and pure. This leads into the life of faith, which was a great stumbling-block to some of these Christian Jews. With reverence and obedience Noah took God at his word and so in the destruction of the world he was preserved. It is a recompense of reward, because given by a righteous Judge for the righteousness of Christ to righteous persons, according to the righteous rule of the covenant of grace. Implicit faith and obedience are due to God, and to him only. In Luke's gospel, the sixteenth chapter, Jesus said, "There was a certain rich man, who fared sumptuously every day, and there was a poor man that was brought daily and laid at his gate, covered with sores, and the dogs would come and lick his sores. At such a time there is only one thing to do--to obey and to do so without resentment, saying: "God, you are love! Now, I don't know how God's going to do it. If God had reserved the epistle to the Hebrews until after He sent forth His armies and burned up their city, destroying their polity root and branch, it might have been retorted that the Christians valued the Jewish ritual as loner as it was available, and only gave it up when earthly temple and sacrifice and priest were gone. You have the immediate advantage and the eternal advantage to choose. 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. If they were Abraham's children, and not his seed only, surely they would honour Him. These evidently are the elders of olden times. So, Philip went. And we go to the story of Abraham, where God said unto Abraham, "Abraham," and he said, "Here am I." as He will appear to the salvation of His own people. The hardest time of all is the time in between. 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. They saw them afar off. For the martyred saint's blood the earth cried to God for vengeance; but Christ's blood proclaims mercy from God, and the millennial day will be the glorious witness of its depth, and extent, and stability, before the universe. Many legends gathered around his name. 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