To speak about escaping the edge, of the sword was to direct men's thoughts to the way in which Elijah escaped threatened assassination in 1 Kings 19:1 ff and Elisha in 2 Kings 6:31 ff. What had immediately preceded this, The cross. So there sprung forth from Abraham an innumerable host of people. God on his part rewarded them, but rejected those who showed no faith (4-7; cf. Observe, [1.] It remains. None of the patriarchs entered into the full possession of the promises that God had made to Abraham. (1.) But they voted to banish him. That is the repetition of the word and over and over, where you find, "and, and, and, and," which in the grammatical structure indicates a continued deliberate action, no hesitation, just the movement, continued and deliberate. In Exodus 33:9-11 we read of how he went into the Tabernacle; "and the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." From them, by this son, sprang a numerous progeny of illustrious persons, as the stars of the sky (; Hebrews 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. Thus the cross and heavenly glory must go together. It did not make sense. (1.) There is an unwritten saying of Jesus: "The world is a bridge. If it be not the truth, it would be the height of presumption indeed. Yet who beforehand would have anticipated either? It was ordered that they should compass the walls about once a day for seven days together and seven times the last day, that the priests should carry the ark when they compassed the walls about, and should blow with trumpets made of rams' horns, and sound a longer blast than before, and then all the people should shout, and the walls of Jericho should fall before them. A most searching and practical question, the very unseen hinge in God Himself on which not Christianity only, but all blessing, turns for heaven and earth, at least as far as the fallen creation is concerned. Men of faith and yet men who were tortured for their faith.Not accepting deliverance. Which in this particular case was forty years old. Christianity. The meaning is, that spiritual guides shall give an account of their own behaviour in watching over other souls; for it is a work that calls for much jealousy over self, patience with others, painstaking labour, lowliness of mind, and that hearty love which can bear all, endure all, believe all. 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 next point proved is the indisputable superiority of the Melchisedec priesthood to that of Aaron, of which the Jews naturally boasted. If we follow the world's standards we may well have ease and comfort and prosperity; if we follow God's standards we may well have pain and loss and unpopularity. He was a miracle child. 4. (1.) He owed his life to this princess; and to refuse such kindness from her would look not only like ingratitude to her, but a neglect of Providence, that seemed to intend his advancement and his brethren's advantage. As a result Amram put away his wife, not because he did not love her, but because he would spare her the sorrow of seeing her children killed. We hear of sanctification often, but even what is thus spoken of throughout is rather in connection with separation to God and the work of Christ, than the continuous energy of the Holy Ghost, except, as far as I remember, in one practical passage "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." 'Ye are come unto Mount Zion,' the dwelling-place of the living God, from whose lips there will steal into the ears and the hearts of those who keep near Him, gracious words of consolation, so thrilling, so soothing, so enlightening, so searching, so encouraging, that they which hear them shall say, 'Speak yet again, that I may be blessed.' God has to do something, raise him from the dead or something, because I and the lad will go and we will come again. [2.] Jacob had the precedency and the principal blessing, which shows that it is grace and the new birth that exalt persons above their fellows and qualify them for the best blessings, and that it is owing to the sovereign free grace of God that in the same family one is taken and another left, one loved and the other hated, since all the race of Adam are by nature hateful to Godthat if one has his portion in this world, and the other in the better world, it is God who makes the difference; for even the comforts of this life are more and better than any of the children of men deserve. Women received their dead raised to life again ( Hebrews 11:33-35 ): This is the first section. 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. The favourite thought is "development;" and so they hold a development or genesis of matter, not a creation: matter continually progressing, in various forms, until at last it has progressed into these wise men of our day. Many legends gathered around his name. That's the thing. The wilderness generations 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. [3.] It looked as if his judges had eliminated Socrates and as if Pilate had crushed Christ; but the verdict of the future reversed the verdict of the moment. The difficulties of Sarah's faith, which were very great. We cannot think of Enoch without thinking of the different attitudes to death. "Others, who had run together into caves near by, to keep the Sabbath day secretly, being discoveredwere all burnt together" ( 2Ma_6:11 ). Thus another and a higher priesthood was incontestably acknowledged by the father of the faithful. He had parted with him to God, and God gave him back again. 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. When the apostle Paul, speaks of "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem," he means the scene of future heavenly blessedness; whereas when John speaks of the new Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, he means, not where but what we are to be. If that religion had been destroyed, what would have happened to the purposes of God? It raised him above the fear of the king's wrath. James was beheaded by Herod. But it has pleased God to single two instances out of many of the faith of this patriarch, besides what has been already mentioned in the account of Abraham. Genesis 4:2-7; Genesis 5:21-24; Genesis 6:8-14). And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you (Exodus 13:18-19). There is no indication why God preferred the gift of Abel to the gift of Cain. In the end he says a great thing. "So Mattathias and his sons fled into the mountains, and left all that they ever had in the city" ( 1Ma_2:28 ). 2. When the Messiah was crucified, Judaism was in principle a dead thing: if it was in any sense kept up, it was no more than a decent time before its burial. This is interesting: God is not ashamed to be called their God. The traitors within the camp were silenced and looming defeat was turned into tumultuous victory. Moses knew well that God does not summon his servants to a great task and leave it at that; he goes with them every step of the way. A priest, as such, could no more draw near into the presence of God in the holiest than any of the common people. As is usually the case, legend adds many a detail to this story. "Be mindful of those in bonds, as bound with them; and of those which suffer adversity." Accordingly the epistle to the Hebrews, while it does put the believer in association with Christ, does not, for all this, dissociate him from whatever is good in the saints of God in every age. Such a sight of God will enable believers to endure to the end whatever they may meet with in the way. (3.) I can say, "Well, God, I don't understand, but You've got a reason and a plan," and I endure as seeing Him who is invisible. Account en lijsten Retourzendingen en bestellingen . At that moment Moses might have gone on but his people were not ready. Rebecca and Jacob are not to be justified in the indirect means they used to obtain this blessing, but God will be justified in overruling even the sins of men to serve the purposes of his glory. 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. "With all three the significant thing was their firm conviction that death cannot frustrate God's purposes" ( Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary, note on Hebrews 11:20-22). They went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, they were in want, they were oppressed, they were maltreated--the world was not worthy of them--they wandered in desert places and on the mountains, they lived in caves and in holes of the earth. There are two kinds of sacrifice to which we are now called. Of course, he had two steps. 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 didn't build any cities. 11:1-3 Faith means that we are certain of the things we hope for, convinced of the thing we do not see. They had time enough to return. 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. (1.) has remembered in marg. But mark another striking and instructive feature of this chapter. (2.) When Joshua sent out spies to spy out the situation in Jericho, they found a lodging in the house of Rahab, a harlot. Tucked into the New Testament after Galatians and the Corinthian correspondence, the Epistle to the Ephesians casts a warm, quieting glow when compared to the strident character of Galatians and the . 11:20-22 It was by faith that Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in the things concerning the future. It is easy to argue: "Why should I refuse the pleasure of the moment for an uncertain future?" 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. 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. One of the tragedies of life is the number of people who turn back just a little too soon. The devil instructed him in this in a dream." Let us hold fast the profession of our hope [for so it should be] without wavering (for he is faithful that promised); and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." I am looking for my permanent home. This is a different way of looking at His session there. . The thought in the mind of all these men was the same: "God's promise is true, for he never breaks a promise. This proves that the city of the heavenly Jerusalem does not mean the church, because here they are certainly distinguished from each other, which therefore completely settles all the argument that is often founded on Abraham's looking for a heavenly city. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.". By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. (iv) Noah was righteous through faith. They are imprisoned, thrown to the lions, crucified, burned." So Amram, shamed into trusting God, took back his wife; and in due time Moses was born. The great artist or composer is driven by the thought of the performance he has never yet given and the wonder he has never yet produced. The point which the writer to the Hebrews wishes to make is that all three men died without having entered into the promise that God had made, the promise of the Promised Land and of greatness to the nation of Israel. V. In the midst of the story of Abraham, the apostle inserts an account of the faith of Sarah. It was by faith that Rahab, the harlot, did not perish with the disobedient because she had welcomed the scouts in peace. By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned." In a wicked and corrupt generation Enoch walked with God and so when the end came to him, there was no shock or interruption. None but a heavenly Priest would suffice for the counsels He has in hand. II. There is no sanction here, of course, of the vulgar and outrageous error that pastors give an account of the souls of their flock. XI. Nothing but stupid, obstinate, unbelieving prejudice, after the appearance of the Lord Jesus, could have suggested any other application of the Psalm. 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! [2.] If the one figured the imposed measure of man's responsibility, which can only but most justly condemn him, in the other we behold the mountain of God's grace after all was lost. Are they both true of you? 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. In Jesus' name. 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. And where thou art a stranger thou must not open thy mouth. To the end of their days they were nomads, never living a settled life in a settled land. It was only through that finished work of Christ where was the door open as He preached to the souls in prison and led them from their captivity. Reason is ever drawing conclusions; God is, and reveals what is. And he knew that God having given him by a miracle, could also by a miracle sustain him until the promise of God was fulfilled through Isaac.Continuing down through history. It is not a question of the law, which a Jew might naturally conceive to be the standard of the will of God now as of old for Israel. Thank You, Lord for the unchanging promises upon which our souls are anchored this evening through Jesus Christ. This, he maintains, has always been so; it is no novelty he is preaching. Legend had it that down in Egypt Jeremiah was stoned to death by his fellow-countrymen. What was the necessity for a new covenant if the old one would do as well? When we come to it straight from God's presence, no task can ever defeat us. Greek Interlinear Layout for Hebrews 11:39 (TR KJV) Line-By-Line Order: Verse-Reference. We may be fully assured of his existence, of his providence, and of his gracious and powerful presence with us. In this phrase there is no allusion whatever to the church; nor indeed anywhere in the Hebrews is there any reference to its distinctive portion in union with its Head. In all the covenants of scripture the man that makes it has never to die for any such end. The preservation and safe passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, when there was no other way to escape from Pharaoh and his host, who were closely pursuing them. 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