Now this sin of hers would make it more difficult for her to act by faith afterwards. So be believed, notice, he believed that God was able to raise him up really from the dead. After all, the telling fact was before them that, whoever wrote the epistle to the Hebrews, it was not a Christian who wrote the book of Genesis, but Moses; and Moses bears witness to the homage which Abram rendered to Melchisedec by the payment of tithes. he had respect unto the recompense of the reward ( Hebrews 11:26 ). But this essential difference separates between the city for which Abraham looked and the bride so symbolised in the Apocalypse. The faith of Noah, Hebrews 11:7. This is the meaning of the phrase, not that He will sit there throughout all eternity. (1.) Terah said: "That is impossible for they are made of wood and stone." For now, what's interesting is that the first six men suffered serious shortcomings; in spite of their flaws, God honored their faith. Certain great permanent truths emerge from them. 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. Preacher of righteousness . The taking of Jericho was the result of an act of faith. First of all, "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. It is evident that in these we have the two main parts of Christianity. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. All he does is to interpret that will, and to apply it to what was wrought on the cross. In other words, he was an impossible child anyhow. We are not told the details of what preceded the great week when God made the man and the woman. First, in God's counsels it was always before Him to have One more than man though a man to deal with this greatest of all transactions. (3.) This was in the ways of God the necessary moral consequence of his self-abnegation. ), The strength of nature, as well as grace, is from God: he can make the barren soul fruitful, as well as the barren womb. See on Hebrews 11:15. 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. 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. The exercise of Abraham's faith: he yielded an implicit regard to the call of God. The idea being of God asking Abraham to give the most cherished possession that he had to Him. To the writer to the Hebrews faith is absolutely certain that what it believes is true and that what it expects will come. Abraham said: "My father, a woman brought this dish of meat for your gods; they all wanted to have it and the strongest knocked the heads off the rest, lest they should eat it all." He did this. The sword came down upon that home; and unless there had been those who counted Christ dearer than all else, there would be no Christianity today. A stranger thou art in that case and drinkest contempt; And besides this thou wilt have to hear bitter things: 'Come hither, sojourner, and furnish my table. The atonement was at least as real as our sin; and God Himself dealt with Christ as laying sin upon Him, and treating Him, the Great Substitute, as sin before Himself, that at one blow it might be all put away from before His face. For everyone at some time there comes something for which there seems to be no reason and which defies explanation. In Hebrews 6:1-20, we saw that the Spirit of God brings in a most solemn warning for those who turn their back on the power and presence of the Holy Ghost, as bearing witness of Christianity. Where sin has abounded, grace has superabounded. He became one of the greatest of all Egyptian generals; in particular he conquered the Ethiopians when they were threatening Egypt and in the end was married to an Ethiopian princess. When the writer to the Hebrews cites her, the point he desires to make is this--Rahab in face of all the facts believed in the God of Israel. But why should it be "testament" in these two verses alone, and "covenant" in all other places? "For," says he, "there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof (for the law made nothing perfect)." After this chapter on faith, only the rhetorical culmination (12) and closing matters (13) remain. He is declaring that Isaac is going to come back with me.Now Abraham figures God's got a problem, because God has said, "Through Isaac shall thy seed be called." He subscribed to God's wisdom, as fittest to direct; and submitted to his will, as fittest to determine every thing that concerned him. has the idea that God took Enoch to himself when he was still young to save him from the infection of this world. (1.) Great man of faith, marvelous spiritual insights. What was the necessity for a new covenant if the old one would do as well? "Ye are come unto mount Zion," which was the highest Old Testament point of grace on earth. 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. 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. And a lot has been made over that. God calls his people to an inheritance: by his effectual call he makes them children, and so heirs. Bishop Newbigin tells of the negotiations which led to the formation of the United Church of South India. (1.) Separate Line. The writer to the Hebrews is here seeking to inspire new courage and a new sense of responsibility by making his hearers remember their past. The pleasures of sin are and will be but short; they must end in speedy repentance or in speedy ruin. He, too, died faithful. By the fall we have lost God; we have lost the divine light, life, love, likeness, and communion. He does not so much tell them what to remember as by delicate hints compel them to remember for themselves. But they journeyed on in obedience to God. At the end of his course there was a still heavier tax on him. So from one man, and he a man whose body had lost its vitality, there were born descendants, as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, as countless as the sand upon the seashore. (4.) And we go to the story of Abraham, where God said unto Abraham, "Abraham," and he said, "Here am I." 1. 15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. The consequence is, that many have tried (and I remember making efforts of that kind myself, until convinced that it could not succeed) to give , in the English Bible rightly rendered "the testator," the force of the covenanting victim. One day Abel was asleep upon a mountain; and Cain came upon him and took a stone and crushed his head. In the blood of the Lamb, sprinkled on the door-posts of Israel, we see the type of God's judgment of their sins; next, in the passage of the Red sea, the exhibition of His power, which, in the most conspicuous way, saved them, and destroyed for ever their enemies. 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." Fully does He allow, as connected with this, that the chastening seems not joyous but grievous. 2. So Abel devised a scheme whereby they might bring an end to contention. To what then are we come? And if I can see the hand of God in my hour of suffering, if I can see the hand of God in the moment of trial or affliction, then I can endure. Continuing a Gold Medallion Award-winning legacy, this completely revised edition of The Expositor's Bible Commentary series puts world-class biblical scholarship in your hands. We do see by faith. He, too, died faithful. He taketh away the first" (that is, the law), "that he may establish the second" (that is, God's will, often unintelligently confounded by men with the law, which is here set in the most manifest contradistinction). Many that are interested in the promises do not presently receive the things promised. But when the writer to the Hebrews writes of himself in Hebrews 11:32, the masculine grammar of the passage argues against the idea that a woman wrote the letter. 11:32-34 And what more shall I say? Always in this sense in N.T. Demosthenes said: "Envy is the sign of a nature that is altogether evil." [4.] In Jesus' name. It greatly alleviates the evil of suffering when we suffer with the people of God, embarked in the same interest and animated by the same Spirit. 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. They must be very great, suitable to the greatness of the trial: 4. Cain was the elder brother, but Abel has the preference. ( Genesis 22:10-14 ). A woman's weakness had become strength to save her country. This made the hidden children of the Israelites cry, too, and so they were discovered and killed. Now oftentimes as God is leading us, He leads us just one step at a time, and that is our problem. not to sin, for so God tempteth no man, but only tried his faith and obedience to purpose. She answered: "Your father, Terah." W. S. Gilbert wrote in The Yeomen of the Guard: Robert Burns wrote of the early death of Highland Mary: There are those who have seen only the grim terroriser and despoiler in death. When Joseph was near to death he made the Israelites take an oath that they would not leave his bones in Egypt but would take them with them when they went out to possess the promised land, which in due time they did ( Exodus 13:19; Joshua 24:32). Genesis 22:1-18). 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. This leads to another point; for the change of the priesthood imports a change of the law. It is an idea that superstition hatched, for the purpose of spuriously exalting a clerical order. Let men who can see only look there, and what will be found? Christ is that Lamb, he is our Passover, he was sacrificed for us. (b) In Hebrews 11:9 he uses the word paroikein ( G3939) , to sojourn, of Abraham. But then comes far more definite instruction, and, beginning with Abraham, the details of faith. Many Samaritans are believing, being baptized, being filled with the Holy Spirit. 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