hebrews 11:22 commentary

Wherever this blood is applied, the soul receives a whole Christ by faith, and lives upon him. Longfellow wrote: "There is no Death! [6.] However long that hope might be in coming true, its light always shone in their eyes. Preacher of righteousness . The difficulties of Sarah's faith, which were very great. In short, the word in itself may mean either; but this is no proof that it may indifferently or without adequate reason be translated both ways. 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. It is possible that the word "worlds," which is a Hebraistic word, belonging to the Alexandrian Jews particularly, may embrace dispensations; but undoubtedly the material world is included in it. The fruits and rewards of her faith. Another story tells that, when Noah was building the ark, the people laughed at him and counted him mad. And thus, for the child of God, it's the glorious coronation day. There has to be that conformity, but faith has to come first. 24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; 25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. He prayed for them, that they might both be blessed of God. That picture of the sojourner became a picture of the Christian life. The only thing they would offer was a broken toy they could well do without. It is excluded from syllabuses of religious education because it is held to teach an unacceptable view of God. In the Apocalypse of Baruch God says: "I showed it to my servant by night" (4: 4). He was willing to do this for he reckoned that God was able to raise him even from the dead. Hence the apostle takes care to keep up the real link with the past witnesses for God in faith and suffering, not in ordinances. But let not the Gentile boast, no less unbelieving no less arrogant, against true Christianity. They lashed him with whips and tied him to the wheel until he was dislocated and fractured in every limb. a. The real faith and the real courage are those which can take God's side when it seems doomed to defeat. He was heir to the kingdom. (3.) By faith he looked beyond to a higher fulfilment of the promise (8-10; cf. It was a shattering humiliation for a king. 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. Hebrews 11:1. They know that they cannot explain the existence of the world solely by reasoning from the things that can be seen (11:1-3). For he was looking for [the eternal city of God,] a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. See on 1 Timothy 6:14. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. XIII. "I will go home," he said. His purpose utterly failed to secure the blessing for his profane but favourite son. He was brought up in all luxury. Think of the shaking of heaven and earth being a promise! In Numbers 12:7-8 we read of God's verdict on him when there were those who were ready to rebel against him: "with him I speak mouth to mouth." And because they only read the story in a cursory manner, they are confused and they ridicule such a God that would require such a thing of a man. that good portion which shall not be taken away from those who cleave to the Crucified, who is now exalted in heaven? (iv) These men were able to go on because they were haunted by the things beyond. Christ has saved the chief of sinners. He bore up with invincible courage under all danger, and endured all the fatigue of his employment, which was very great; and this by seeing the invisible God. Never in all history has there been such a sadistic and deliberate attempt to wipe out a people's religion. In the first section is pretty much powerful, positive kind of reactions and responses to their faith. Thus, writes William Lincoln, while surrounded by Egypts pomp and splendor, his heart was not there at all, but with his people in their future glory and blessing. BBC, And gave commandment concerning his bones - Genesis 50:25. They stripped him naked and scourged him with whips, while a herald stood by him, saying: "Obey the king's commands," His flesh was torn off by the whips and he streamed down with blood and his flanks were laid open by wounds. When clubs had their common meal, those who sat down to it were divided into members and xenoi ( G3581) . But mark another striking and instructive feature of this chapter. Were it a question of the mystery of Christ the Head, and of the church His body, this would not be proved from the Old Testament, which does not reveal it at all. There are also house () and people () of Israel, and Israel of God, and Israel according to the flesh. They are imprisoned, thrown to the lions, crucified, burned." The greater part of the affections of the Christian are drawn out toward our Saviour by all this scene of sin and sorrow through which we are passing on to heaven. 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?" In the Letter of Aristeas the writer says: "It is a fine thing to live and to die in one's native land; a foreign land brings contempt to poor men and shame to rich men, for there is the lurking suspicion that they have been exiled for the evil they have done." Christ has obtained redemption, and this is witnessed by the token of the veil rent from top to bottom. There is evidence for the existence of God, and it causes me to believe in God. FAITH AND ITS SECRET ( Hebrews 11:23-29 ). At the back of this story lie two great truths. Christianity. The pleasures of this world, and especially those of a court, are too often the pleasures of sin; and they are always so when we cannot enjoy them without deserting God and his people. The fact is, that love of uniformity may mislead some, as love of variety misled our English translators too often. Of this we saw somewhat inHebrews 10:1-39; Hebrews 10:1-39. 3. He that possesses the one must not eschew the other. He was possessed of a true justifying righteousness; he was heir to it: and, [2.] "You mean you're moving your whole family and you don't know where you are going?" It is the fact that there He sat down; but in this place it will be observed that His taking His seat there is the reward of the life of faith. 12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. So, he ordered all of the baby boys to be drowned in the Nile. It is a reward suitable to the price paid for itthe blood of Christ; suitable to the perfections of God, and fully answering to all his promises. How Canaan is called the land of promise, because yet only promised, not possessed. The taking of Jericho was the result of an act of faith. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. This change was clearly taught in the book of Psalms. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God ( Hebrews 11:5 ). She was a Canaanite, a. 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. Here, it is plain, we have the chief lineaments of revealed truth. In this passage the writer lets his mind's eye roam back over the history of his people; and out of it there springs to memory name after name of those who were heroic souls. The word is used of the Jews when they were captives in Babylon and in Egypt. Probably brought some of his produce that he had cultivated, whereas Abel, being a husbandman, brought a lamb unto God as a sacrifice. Then he threw the dead body on his back and carried it about because he did not know what to do with it. The story of Jephthah is in Judges 11:1-40; Judges 12:1-15. Thus it will be observed, at the end of all the moral and experimental dealings with the first man (manifested in Israel), we come to a deeply momentous point, as in God's ways, so in the apostle's reasoning. To put it simply--the secret of his faith was that Moses knew God personally. And gave commandment concerning his bones - Genesis 50:25. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Again the legends help to light up the picture. Thus the power of what Christ had wrought was now brought in for future ends; it was not merely retrospective, but above all in present efficacy while the Jews refuse Christ. In this way he declared his faith that one day his people would inherit the land God promised them (20-22; cf. [2.] with Him in this place of nearness. Genesis 22:1-18). First of all, it is love that calls us to the path that Christ trod; next, it is love that chastens us. Observe, (1.) Another story tells that, after he had been forewarned by God, Noah made a bell of plane wood, about five feet high, and that he sounded it every day, morning, noon and evening. Its petrol supply has reached such a level that there is nothing left but to go on. [4.] Keats said that he had been "half in love with easeful death." That is, he sought carefully with tears the blessing given to Jacob; but there was no room left for repentance, simply in the sense of change of mind; for, I suppose, the word here has that sense, which sometimes, no doubt, it has. There is nothing to divert the heart from Christ, the great High Priest in the heavens. For it is a good thing that the heart be established in grace." It was not that the Christians were foolishly other-worldly, detaching themselves from the life and work of this world; but they always remembered that they were people on the way. When the people of England saw how the storm and the gale had shattered the Spanish Armada, they said: "God did it." And so he journeyed through the land. Women received their dead raised to life again ( Hebrews 11:33-35 ): This is the first section. Redemption was the first thought of God a counsel of His previous to the dealings with man which made the necessity of redemption felt. So, by faith we believe that the worlds were formed by the word of God so that the things that we do see, the things that appear, are made out of things which cannot be seen or do not appear. This leads him, from speaking of Esau's case, to add as a known fact, that afterward, when he desired to have inherited the blessing he was rejected (for he found no place of repentance), though he sought it carefully with tears. His last words were: "Why fear death? Hebrews 10:19-22. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear ( Hebrews 11:3 ). It is not a question of justification here. In point of fact they were reaching out after something better, I mean, the heavenly country. Through faith they believed to the point of not accepting deliverance. Jewish and eastern legends gathered largely round Abraham's name and some of them must have been known to the writer to the Hebrews. The apostle is dealing with the saints as to their walk; and as he had shown how Christ alone had purged the sins of the believer, and how He is on high, as the Priest in the presence of God, to intercede for them in their weakness and dangers; so now, when he is come to the question of the walk of faith, Christ is the leader of that, walk. They were not mindful of that country whence they came, ; Hebrews 11:15. (3.) The Jewish town of Bethulia had determined to surrender in five days' time for its supplies of food and water were at an end. There is no indication why God preferred the gift of Abel to the gift of Cain. (ii) The second story the writer to the Hebrews takes is that of Rahab. Meanwhile Christianity gives the utmost force to every type and truth of God. And gave commandment concerning his bones; and the command was a very strict one when he gave it; he took an oath of his brethren to fulfil it; it was concerning his bones, not his body, which shows that he believed their departure out of Egypt was at a great distance, when his flesh would be consumed, and only his bones left, as it was about two hundred years after his death; it respects the carrying them out of Egypt with them, and burying them in the land of Canaan, when they came there; and this is an instance of his humility, in choosing to lie with his fathers, rather than with the kings, and great men in Egypt, and of his care to prevent idolatry, which he might observe the Egyptians would be prone unto: and this command was a great instance of Joseph's faith, that the children of Israel would return to Canaan, and which might serve greatly to confirm their faith in it; it also shows his belief of the resurrection of the dead, and of his enjoying the heavenly inheritance, signified by the land of Canaan; See Genesis 50:24, the Papists, from hence, plead for the relics of saints; but it should be observed, that it was at the request, and by the command of Joseph, that his bones were preserved, which is not the case of the saints, whose relics are pleaded for; besides, these were the true and real bones of Joseph, whereas the relics of the saints are only pretended; to which may be added, that the bones of Joseph, were ordered to be buried, not to be showed for a sight, much less worshipped, as Popish relics are. They might have had such an opportunity. 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. he had respect unto the recompense of the reward ( Hebrews 11:26 ). Having therefore The apostle, having finished the doctrinal part of his epistle, now proceeds to exhortation, deduced from what has been treated of from Hebrews 5:4. Hence, therefore, he now introduces us "to the spirits of just men made perfect." We must believe not only that God exists but also that he cares and is involved in the human situation. The greater number of them may use the word "creation," but it must never be assumed that they mean what they say. Interesting statement, especially from a scientific standpoint. But this was the way God commanded them to take, and he loves to do great things by small and contemptible means, that his own arm may be made bare. 2 Chronicles 24:20-22 tells how the prophet Zechariah was stoned by his own people because he told them the truth. First, to die and come back again so that he might know what death was like. One of the tragedies of life is the number of people who turn back just a little too soon. "We, Antiochus," he said, "who are convinced that we live under a divine law, consider no compulsion to be so forcible as obedience to our law." How glorious was the triumph of his faith in so great a trial. Here observe. They watch as those that shall give an account. Isaiah 53 , "numbered with the transgressors in His death." But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." It is a great mercy to be free from wicked laws and edicts; but, when we are not, we must use all lawful means for our security. "Ye are come unto mount Zion," which was the highest Old Testament point of grace on earth. The Christians gained Him in a far more excellent way after the pattern of resurrection, as Abraham at the close received Isaac as it were from the dead. And God provided Himself a sacrifice for our sins, for God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.Now, if we did not have Hebrews to give us a commentary on the story of Abraham, we, too, could be confused at God's demand. He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, whose foundling he was, and her fondling too; she had adopted him for his son, and he refused it. It was due to the faith of these men that the Jewish religion was not completely destroyed. He was put upon it after he had received the promises, that this Isaac should build up his family, that in him his seed should be called (; Hebrews 11:18), and that he should be one of the progenitors of the Messiah, and all nations blessed in him; so that, in being called to offer up his Isaac, he seemed to be called to destroy and cut off his own family, to cancel the promises of God, to prevent the coming of Christ, to destroy the whole world, to sacrifice his own soul and his hopes of salvation, and to cut off the church of God at one blow: a most terrible trial! We translate it, "Jehovah will provide." 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. In Hebrews 10:1-39 he applies the matter to the present state of the believer. Had they been taunted with having no altar, possessing nothing so holy and so glorious in its associations? The trumpet call about being strong in warfare and routing the ranks o the aliens would immediately make men think of the unforgettable glories of the Maccabaean days. It is an excellent thing for persons to be seriously religious when in the midst of worldly business and enjoyments, to despise the world when they are most capable of relishing and enjoying it. So Moses was spared. Implicit faith and obedience are due to God, and to him only. 11:23-29 It was by faith that Moses, when he was born, was kept hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful: and they did not fear the edict of the king. He dwelt in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. He subscribed to God's wisdom, as fittest to direct; and submitted to his will, as fittest to determine every thing that concerned him. They died not in despair but in hope. Jeremiah positively declares that God will make a new covenant. 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. XII. When I start to get weak, and I start to question and I start to say, "Why, God?" Fosdick somewhere says that Nero once condemned Paul, but the years have passed on and the time has come when men call their sons Paul and their dogs Nero. And what is the effect of it? has the idea that God took Enoch to himself when he was still young to save him from the infection of this world. If you believe in Christ at all, such is your portion nothing less. The God with whom we have to do is an invisible God: he is so to our senses, to the eye of the body; and this shows the folly of those who pretend to make images of God, whom no man hath seen, nor can see. A man writes complaining that he was despised "because I am a xenos ( G3581) ". But what at Zion? The word is, "Jehovah has vision." That which to us alone is impossible is always possible with him. Thermouthis, much to her sorrow, was childless; so she took the baby Moses home, and cared for him as her own son. I don't like being led one step at a time. And they believed the promise of God that He would provide salvation, and they died believing that promise of God. The Jews used to lay it down as a primary law for a teacher that he must never promise his pupils what he was unwilling or unable to perform; to do so would be to accustom the pupils thus early to the broken word. In this place (and in Genesis 5:22, &c.) we read, (1.) (Hebrews 9:15). Abraham asked him his age and then said: "You fool to adore a god who is younger than yourself!" The Jew never understood his law until the light of Christ on the cross and in glory shone upon it. Need help streaming? Every one can understand, when once we find that the word means almost always covenant," how great the temptation is to translate it so in but two other occurrences, especially as before and after it means "covenant" in the same passage. (3.) And why? And I have this to add to the account I have given of the sarcophagus now in the British Museum, vulgarly called Alexander's coffin, that it is more probably the coffin of Joseph himself; and, should the time ever arrive in which the hieroglyphics on it shall he interpreted, this conjecture may appear to have had its foundation in truth. 2. Now here Moses conquered the riches of the world, as before he had conquered its honours and pleasures. "Let us go forth therefore unto him without the. 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