Description of the great things which faith (in its widest sense: not here restricted to faith in the Gospel sense) does for us. The exodus of Moses with Israel cannot be meant here, for it was made, not in defiance, but by the desire, of the king. Abraham did obtain the very thing promised ( Hebrews 6:15 ) in part, namely, blessedness in soul after death, by virtue of faith in Christ about to come. 23. parents--So the Septuagint has the plural, namely, Amram and Jochebed ( Numbers 26:59 ); but in Exodus 2:2 , the mother alone is mentioned; but doubtless Amram sanctioned all she did, and secrecy. (20-31) By other Old Testament believers. Works not rooted in God are splendid sins [AUGUSTINE]. Compare Note, "tasted . The fourth of the brethren (referring to Daniel 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." 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." 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. Still, English Version may be the right reading. For--proof that "faith" ( Hebrews 11:13 ) was their actuating principle. [ALFORD]. were drowned--Greek, "were swallowed up," or "engulfed." The nature and power of faith described. 33. subdued kingdoms--as David did ( 2 Samuel 8:1 , &c.); so also Gideon subdued Midian ( Judges 7:1-25 ). . What a difference between God's judgement of a saint, and man's judgment! Worldly Enoch, son of the murderer Cain, was the first to build his city here: the godly patriarchs waited for their city hereafter ( Hebrews 11:16 , 12:22 , 13:14 ). Hebrews is an example of Scripture that gives maturing believers guidance on how to live by faith - how to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord. Thus they being testified of themselves have become "witnesses" to all others ( Hebrews 12:1 ). Compare Exodus 15:12 , "the earth swallowed them.". We were not spectators of creation; it is by faith we perceive it. And the Maccabees, the sons of Matthias, Judas, Jonathan, and Simon, who delivered the Jews from their cruel oppressor, Antiochus of Syria. The world considers that the righteous are not worthy to live in the world, and God declares the world is not worthy of them. Hebrews chapter 11 dives deeply into the writer's application of all the information given so far. 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 ( Daniel 12:2 , Luke 20:35 , Philippians 3:11 ). The good news of salvation and life eternal is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. 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 Genesis 1:1-31 . Isaac, by faith, assigned to his sons things future, as if they were present. 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. 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. Let us look how far our faith has caused the like obedience, when we have been called to lesser acts of self-denial, or to make smaller sacrifices to our duty. By faith we have comfort of the promises; and by faith we are prepared to wait for the promises, and in due time to receive them. For they know not what a saint is, nor the worth of a saint, nor how to use him; they hate, and drive such away, as they do the offer of Christ and his grace. "Eternal life is promised to us, but it is when we are dead: we are told of a blessed resurrection, but meanwhile we moulder in the dust; we are declared to be justified, and sin dwells in us; we hear that we are blessed, meantime we are overwhelmed in endless miseries: we are promised abundance of all goods, but we still endure hunger and thirst; God declares He will immediately come to our help, but He seems deaf to our cries. "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]. Hezekiah (Isaiah 37:1-38:22'). Not only men, but God, gave testimony to their faith ( Hebrews 11:4 Hebrews 11:5 Hebrews 11:39 ). The Lord will make even Babylon fall before the faith of his people, and when he has some great thing to do for them, he raises up great and strong faith in them. whose builder and maker--Greek, "designer [ Ephesians 1:4 Ephesians 1:11 ] and master-builder," or executor of the design. 18. And faith will enable a man to serve God and his generation, in whatever way he may be employed. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony\" (Hebrews 11:1-2). Faith proves to the mind, the reality of things that cannot be seen by the bodily eye. in the matter of," it, "or, as Greek more emphatically, "this." The pleasures of this world are for the most part the pleasures of sin; they are always so when we cannot enjoy them without deserting God and his people. 26. obtained promises--as "the prophets" ( Hebrews 11:32 ) did; for through them the promises were given (compare Daniel 9:21 ) [BENGEL]. DEFINITION OF THE FAITH JUST SPOKEN OF ( Hebrews 10:39 ): EXAMPLES FROM THE OLD COVENANT FOR OUR PERSEVERANCE IN FAITH. 36. others--of a different class of confessors for the truth (the Greek is different from that for "others," Hebrews 11:35 , alloi, heteroi). The reward is God Himself diligently "sought" and "walked with" in partial communion here, and to be fully enjoyed hereafter. . in a figure--Greek, "in a parable." 7. warned of God--The same Greek, Hebrews 8:5 , "admonished of God." Worldly men hold fast the world; believers sit loose to it. Faith was the ground of his pleasing God; and his pleasing God was the ground of his translation. 6. without--Greek, "apart from faith": if one be destitute of faith (compare Romans 14:23 ). Chapter 10 ended with both a warning and a word of encouragement. 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 of it were not then so fully made known as now. For--So high a description of faith is not undeserved; for . They waited for His coming; we enjoy Him as having come ( Hebrews 1:1 , 2:3 ). that God is--is the true self-existing Jehovah (as contrasted with all so-called gods, not gods, Galatians 4:8 ), the source of all being, though he sees Him not ( Hebrews 11:1 ) as being "invisible" ( Hebrews 11:27 ). 12. as good as dead--literally, "deadened"; no longer having, as in youth, energetic vital powers. The Bible gives the most true and exact account of the origin of all things, and we are to believe it, and not to wrest the Scripture account of the creation, because it does not suit with the differing fancies of men. 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 ( Genesis 48:22 ). Indeed, Gideon, Barak, &c., also obtained the things which God promised. By faith he was commended as righteous when God gave approval to his gifts. By faith alone we are sure of eternal things that they ARE: but by hope we are confident that WE SHALL HAVE them. Hebrews 4:9; and see Exodus 3:15, and Matthew 22:31-32.) "He acquiesced in the bare word of God where the thing itself was not apparent" [CALVIN]. 14. Compare Hebrews 12:2 , "perfecter (Greek) of our faith." . I think his object in these verses ( Hebrews 11:39 Hebrews 11:40 ) is to warn Hebrew Christians against their tendency to relapse into Judaism. Genesis 32:10 , "With my staff I passed over Jordan, and now I am become," &c. (compare Exodus 12:11 , 6:8 ). on the earth--contrasted with "an heavenly" ( Hebrews 11:16 ): "our citizenship is in heaven" (Greek: Hebrews 10:34 , Psalms 119:54 , Philippians 3:20 ). His beauty was probably "the sign" appointed by God to assure their faith. 28. kept--Greek, "hath kept," the Passover being, in Paul's day, still observed. It is the excellence of the grace of faith, that, while it helps men to do great things, like Gideon, it keeps from high and great thoughts of themselves. Noah's faith influenced his practice; it moved him to prepare an ark. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness … Hence (see the passages quoted in Hebrews 11:13) the same language is used from age to age after Canaan is received as an inheritance. In condemning them, the world condemned itself. Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. He was forty years old, a time when the judgment is matured. translated--( Genesis 5:22 Genesis 5:24 ). Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. is--a different Greek verb from the former "is." Isaac was Abraham's "only-begotten son" in respect of Sarah and the promises: he sent away his other sons, by other wives ( Genesis 25:6 ). The city is worthy of its Framer and Builder (compare Hebrews 11:16 , Hebrews 8:2 ). seen them afar off--( John 8:56 ). They all alike were content to wait for their good things hereafter ( Luke 16:25 ). Compare Genesis 15:1 , "I am thy exceeding great reward." He balanced the best of the world with the worst of religion, and decidedly chose the latter. Where the principle is planted by the regenerating Spirit of God, it will cause the truth to be received, concerning justification by the sufferings and merits of Christ. Israel typified Christ; Israel's sufferings were Christ's sufferings (compare 2 Corinthians 1:5 , Colossians 1:24 ). He first so "called" Himself, then they so called Him. not having received--It was this that constituted their "faith." So he becomes a witness to us of the blessed effects of faith. Christ, in Luke 4:26 , makes especial mention of the fact that Elijah was sent to an alien from Israel, a woman of Sarepta. "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]. 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 ( Romans 1:20 , 1 Timothy 1:17 , 6:16 ). Hence, "to accept" a burnt sacrifice is in Hebrew "to turn it to ashes" ( Psalms 20:3 , Margin). In it, the authormost likely the apostle Paulpresents illustrations from the Old Testament to bear out his opening statement: \"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 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, did not fear the king so as to neglect his duty and not return when God called him. Hebrews 11:13-19 The Promises of Faith. “By faith we understand that the … Faith made him to prefer the adoption of the King of kings, unseen, and so to choose ( Hebrews 11:25 Hebrews 11:26 ) things, the very last which flesh and blood relish. he that cometh to God--as a worshipper ( Hebrews 7:19 ). 35. concerning things to come--Greek, "even concerning things to come": not only concerning things present. 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 Phoenicians, 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. by the which--faith. All our spiritual privileges on earth, should quicken us in our way to heaven. Faith gives strength against the sinful, slavish fear of men; it sets God before the soul, shows the vanity of the creature, and that all must give way to the will and power of God. heir--the consequence of sonship which flows from faith. . This view of faith is explained by many examples of persons in former times, who obtained a good report, or an honourable character in the word of God. 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. is not ashamed--Greek, "Is not ashamed of them." The grace of God often fixes upon very undeserving and ill-deserving persons, to do great things for them and by them. Faith believes what it sees not; for if thou seest there is no faith; the Lord has gone away so as not to be seen: He is hidden that He may be believed; the yearning desire by faith after Him who is unseen is the preparation of a heavenly mansion for us; when He shall be seen it shall be given to us as the reward of faith [AUGUSTINE]. Jacob was fifteen years old at the death of Abraham. Noah is first called "righteous" in Genesis 6:9 . "Though the Old Testament worthies attained such eminence by faith, they are not above us in privileges, but the reverse." Christ's people's reproach will ere long be their great glory. The Septuagint translates as Paul here. The soundings of trumpets, though one were to sound for ten thousand years, cannot throw down walls, but faith can do all things [CHRYSOSTOM]. This verse gives a definition of the "only-begotten Son" ( Hebrews 11:17 ). 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 God proved to be to Enoch. with peace--peaceably; so that they had nothing to fear in her house. and--Greek, "but"; in contrast to those raised again to life. All hope presupposes faith ( Romans 8:25 ). said, omitting all His other titles, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" [THEODORET]. . In Hebrews 6:12 Hebrews 6:15 Hebrews 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. What does faith do? . 11. also Sara herself--though being the weaker vessel, and though at first she doubted. The believer's faith endures to the end, and, in dying, gives him victory over death and all his deadly enemies, like Samson. Hebrews 11:4–16 gives examples of figures from the Old Testament who demonstrated faith in God and were blessed as a result. Now faith must have some revelation of God on which it fastens. not accepting deliverance--when offered to them. The Fathers, CHRYSOSTOM, &c., restricted the meaning of Hebrews 11:39 Hebrews 11:40 to this last truth, and I incline to this view. 21. both the sons--Greek, "each of the sons" ( Genesis 47:29 , 48:8-20 ). Just as Samson for the same reason is put before Jephthæ. It is needful for persons to be seriously religious; to despise the world, when most capable of relishing and enjoying it. Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, concerning things to come. Many things which they hoped for and did not see, subsequently came to pass and were conspicuously seen, the event confirming faith [BENGEL]. They sank in the sands as much as in the waves of the Red Sea. 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. had respect unto, &c.--Greek, "turning his eyes away from other considerations, he fixed them on the (eternal) recompense" ( Hebrews 11:39 Hebrews 11:40 ). 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 ( Exodus 12:23 ). (8-19) By Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the Israelites, and Rahab. he that had received--rather as Greek, "accepted," that is, welcomed and embraced by faith, not merely "had the promises," as in Hebrews 7:6 . 30. Implying a sudden removal (the same Greek as in Galatians 1:6 ) from mortality without death to immortality: such a CHANGE as shall pass over the living at Christ's coming ( 1 Corinthians 15:51 1 Corinthians 15:52 ). His wish was fulfilled ( Joshua 24:32 , Acts 4:16 ). as in a strange country--a country not belonging to him, but to others (so the Greek), Acts 7:5 Acts 7:6 . seeing him . Through faith, the future object of Christian hope, in its beginning, is already present. Women received their dead raised--as the widow of Zarephath ( 1 Kings 17:17-24 ). Of whom--rather as Greek "He (Abraham, not Isaac) TO whom it was said" [ALFORD]. trial--testing their faith. tried--Greek, "tempted," as in Genesis 22:1 . Not only is He not ashamed, but glories in the name and relation to His people. Suffering is to be chosen rather than sin; there being more evil in the least sin, than there can be in the greatest suffering. declare plainly--make it plainly evident. 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