The greater number of them may use the word "creation," but it must never be assumed that they mean what they say. I'll do it. "Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience; in all things willing to live honestly. The legends go on to tell that Terah not only worshipped twelve idols, one for each of the months, but was also a manufacturer of idols. This is the fallacy of this "Faith" teaching today. (5.) To such death is the adventure of supreme discovery. But then comes far more definite instruction, and, beginning with Abraham, the details of faith. This country they seek: their designs are for it; their desires are after it; their discourse is about it; they diligently endeavour to clear up their title to it, to have their temper suited to it, to have their conversation in it, and to come to the enjoyment of it. The writer to the Hebrews begins his honour roll of faith with the name of Abel whose story is in Genesis 4:1-15. The unrent veil bore evidence on its front that man could not yet draw near into the holiest that he had no access into the presence of God. And as I said, this is the only place where the chronological order is broken. Hereby he judged and condemned the world; his holy fear condemned their security and vain confidence; his faith condemned their unbelief; his obedience condemned their contempt and rebellion. "Take now thy son, thine only son," God said. In the end they tore him apart on the catapult and flayed him alive. (i) There was the faith of Moses' parents. Men have called God The First Principle, The First Cause, The Creative Energy, The Life Force. The writer to the Hebrews has been citing as examples of faith the great figures of the time before Israel entered into the Promised Land. Maybe I don't want to do what He's got in mind when we get down the road. When they came to Haran, he could have turned around and gone back into Babylon. Because as it goes on. This I take to be a general description of the scene of glory for which Abraham looked. When we are discouraged, let us remember and take heart again. Such has been the usual form in all countries not savage, and in all ages. 2M views 7 years ago #BibleVideo #BibleProject #Hebrews Watch our overview video on the book of Hebrews, which breaks down the literary design of the book and its flow of thought. That is to say, God is owned in His glory, as Creator of all by His word. The outstanding characteristic of Moses was the close intimacy of his relationship with God. Now, to entitle them to this distinguishing favour, and to mark them out for it, a lamb must be slain; the blood of it must be sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop upon the lintel of the door, and on the two side-posts; the flesh of the lamb must be roasted with fire; and it must be all of it eaten that very night with bitter herbs, in a travelling posture, their loins girt, their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand. I know that you will not withhold anything from Me. He believed Gods promise that He would deliver the people of Israel out of Egypt. Worse was to come. And so, in his envy, he hunted his brother until he killed him. It was Cain who introduced murder into the world. And Abraham said, "Son, the Lord will provide Himself a sacrifice" ( Genesis 22:7-8 ). In the fourth chapter of the book of Revelation, where John sees the cherubim about the throne of God, worshipping the Lord, declaring the holiness and eternal character of God. You're forgetting something, Dad." Abel ran to the hills but Cain pursued him, saying: "The hills are mine." It probably accounted for the longevity of life, averaged nine hundred years or so. Alas! In Hebrews,. That he walked with God, that is, that he was really, eminently, actively, progressively, and perseveringly religious in his conformity to God, communion with God, and complacency in God. There, is no ground, in my judgment, for the thought of anything mysterious in the facts as to his person. that they might obtain a better resurrection ( Hebrews 11:35 ): It's better to have a resurrection unto eternal life than resurrection unto damnation, and that they might have that better resurrection unto eternal life. So Amram, shamed into trusting God, took back his wife; and in due time Moses was born. The trial and exercise of Abraham's faith; he was tried indeed. It was not the church, I repeat, but what God prepares above for those who love Him. Augustine said: "We are sojourners exiled from our fatherland." There is no real contradiction. It is easy to see how this passage can be read against the terrible happenings of these days. But where in the Old Testament is there a prophecy of His rising again the third day? Because the Holy Ghost bears this witness, and nothing less, to the perfectness of the work of Christ. Hence the apostle applies the type distinctly now, as far as the "order" of the priesthood goes. blessed each of the sons of Joseph and prayed leaning, on the head of his staff. He was brought up in all luxury. If people have faith, it means they believe that things hoped for according to God's promises will be achieved and that unseen powers of God are real. Abel took refuge on the mountains but Cain still pursued him saying: "The mountains, too, are mine." We should never forget that there was a day when his friends came and tried to get him to go home because they thought that he was mad. . My faith in God provokes my works for God.Now Noah condemned the world by his belief and faith in God, and he became the heir of the righteousness, which is by faith. For he was afraid that the Hebrews, because they were having so many children, would become a threat to the security of Egypt. 2. The reason for the success of his salvation - his ability to deal with both our outward sins and our inward condition - is that he lives forever with power to save. This was in the same spirit of faith exhibited by Jacob when he gave a similar commandment concerning his remains, requiring that he be buried in Canaan, not in Egypt; Joseph's bones were brought along. Observe, (1.) She was delivered of a child, a man-child, a child of the promise, and comfort of his parents' advanced years, and the hope of future ages. There remains, therefore, a sabbath-keeping for the people of God. He grew to be so beautiful that people turned in the street, and even ceased their work, to took at him. Of course it is true that Jesus took His seat there, but more is conveyed in the true form of the text ( ) here. It is sometimes necessary for the Christian to take the way to which the voice of God is calling him without knowing what the consequences will be. The apostle here mentions some things that very much added to the greatness of this trial. They saw he was a proper child, a goodly child (Exod. One day he said to his brother: "Remove thy foot; thou standest on my property; the plain is mine." Genesis 12:1-5). JFB, Comp. 1. What he did by his faith: He made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones. The whole list is of men who faced incredible odds for God. There was but one such Priest. What is the value, the import., of the sacrifice of Christ viewed according to God, and as bearing on His ways? "Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. He has set His mind upon making us, patterns of His holiness. Smegma Oriental. It was in that cave the first vision of God came to him. The writer to the Hebrews is saving: "See! If I know what Christ's redemption has accomplished for all who believe, I must know that God has given me this. , By faith Joseph, when dying, made mention of the departing. The gracious Lord gives and designs that we should take His own place both in heaven and here. Are they both true of you? We can understand, therefore, both the delicacy that thus entreated them, and the meaning of the added words, "for also in few words I have written to you." To mark that as yet the veil was unrent. The difficulties Isaac's faith struggled with. Now accordingly, by virtue of His death which rent the veil, God and man stand face to face. God brings forward His choice, David, when the miserable end of Saul and Jonathan saw the Philistines triumphant, and Israel disheartened as they had scarce been beyond that moment. Through his faith. "He taketh away the first." (v) Because these men were what they were, God was not ashamed to be called their God. Certain great permanent truths emerge from them. 20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. They embraced or held on to the promises and they made their confession. There is then the solemn admonition of the account they are to render by-and-by. The man with the wanderlust is lured on by the thought of the countries he has never yet seen. But how? Amen.". Believers may and ought to have respect to this recompense of reward; they should acquaint themselves with it, approve of it, and live in the daily and delightful expectation of it. (7.) Antiochus said that he would consider it. Another story tells that, when Noah was building the ark, the people laughed at him and counted him mad. They, without the finished work of Christ, could not enter in to the kingdom of God. But all the time he had never forgotten his fellow-countrymen; and the day came when he decided to ally himself with the downtrodden Israelites and say goodbye to the future of riches and royalty that he might have had. It was due to the faith of these men that the Jewish religion was not completely destroyed. This it was of all consequence to have stated first. So he knelt down and adored the moon. "For a testament is of force after men are dead (or, in case of dead men, ): since it is never of force when the testator liveth. Perhaps more likely in the time in which the writer to the Hebrews wrote, it would remind his hearers of that epic but bloodthirsty incident told in the Book o Judith, one of the apocryphal books. But it may well be that the writer to the Hebrews is thinking not only of the story as it is in Genesis but also of the legends which gathered round it in Jewish folk-lore. like pilgrims who need a word of encouragement; Hebrews encourages us to listen to the Word of God revealed in the Son of God, Jesus. To the writer to the Hebrews faith is absolutely certain that what it believes is true and that what it expects will come. "In the volume of the book it is written of me" a book which none ever saw but God and His Son. '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.' Observe here, (1.) First, they were to remember those that once ruled them. God said to first deal with the sin. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left. will deliver to us and when. It was only owing to the blindness of Israel. That before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Legend says that when she drew the ark out of the water, the archangel Gabriel boxed the ears of the little baby to make him cry so that the heart of Thermouthis might be touched as she saw the little face puckered in sorrow and the eyes full of tears. We come now to the faith of other Old-Testament saints, mentioned by name, and by the particular trials and actings of their faith. These people heard God's promises and believed them in spite of waiting a very 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! Samuel is listed after David and so that's the only break in the chronology. With all this Christianity is contrasted. True faith draws forth sincere and fervent desires; and the stronger faith is the more fervent those desires will be. When the aeroplane has reached that point it cannot go back. And then, in the centre of all, we have God Himself. There is evidence for the existence of God, and it causes me to believe in God. This is precisely what modern research amounts to. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. [5.] In the book of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego are confronted with the choice of obeying Nebuchadnezzar and worshipping the king's image or obeying God and entering the fiery furnace. For there is seen not only the proof that the Messiah is the One whom God pronounced by an oath "a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec," but the glorious seat He has taken at the right-hand of God is now worked into this magnificent pleading. The manner in which scripture introduces him is such as to furnish a very striking type of Christ. See also Hebrews 11:23-29 in other biblical comments: . "Everyone doth think his own Religion rightest," he said, "both Jews and Moors and Pagans; and how if all our Faith and Christ and Scriptures should be but a 'Think so' too?" 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. Observe here, (1.) One day Abel was asleep upon a mountain; and Cain came upon him and took a stone and crushed his head. 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. I feel the presence of God. It was as if God had so arranged things that the full blaze of his glory should not be revealed until we and they can enjoy it together. Her story is recounted in Joshua 2 and 6. 1. (ii) The second act of faith was Moses' loyalty to his own people. Observe, (1.) Christendom prefers the middle course; it will have neither the conscious nearness, to God, nor the place of Christ's reproach among men. God on his part rewarded them, but rejected those who showed no faith (4-7; cf. He does not do it blatantly but with infinite artistry. Not so Moses. They had never known so great and frequent and constant trial. Christ is that Lamb, he is our Passover, he was sacrificed for us. They did not take the opportunity that offered itself for their return. "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)." Hence the right hand of the throne is introduced, but, besides, "of the Majesty in the heavens." But he did not mean what so many people think he meant. It is an idea that superstition hatched, for the purpose of spuriously exalting a clerical order. Let him learn his error. (1) Gideon was cowardly at first; God had to coax him to to obey. (iv) Noah was righteous through faith. He says to him: "I have decided to become a Christian." Many that are interested in the promises do not presently receive the things promised. Another point follows, connected with what we have had before us, and demanding our attention. Here is the very point the writer to the Hebrews wishes to make. They must be very great, suitable to the greatness of the trial: 4. (1. We have yet another instance of the faith of Moses, in keeping. It did not matter whether it was a priest or an Israelite. (ii) The second story the writer to the Hebrews takes is that of Rahab. Which in this particular case was forty years old. I build my faith on that.". It was by faith that he left Egypt, unmoved by the blazing anger of the king, for he could face all things as one who sees him who is invisible. Amen.Suppose your name will ever get listed in this Hallmark of Faith that God has? Many have suggested that that is the reason why God accepted Abel's, because he offered a blood sacrifice and rejected Cain's, because it was really the product of the works of his own hands that he brought to the Lord. It means that God loved Enoch so much that he removed him before age and degeneration descended hand in hand upon him. It was at that moment that the faith of Moses communicated itself to the people and drove them on when they might well have turned back. I like the faith that brings me over the top, that brings me the victory, that subdues the aliens, and I like that. Immediately a Christian has set out on some enterprise sent him by God, he should feel that he has already passed the point of no return. (5.) How glorious was the triumph of his faith in so great a trial. Greek athletes trained naked and some of the Jewish priests even went so far as to seek to obliterate the mark of circumcision from their bodies so that they might become completely hellenized. By their own confession the application of that Psalm was to the Messiah, and the very point that Jesus urged upon the Jews of His day was this how, if He were David's Son, as they agreed, could He be his Lord, as the Psalmist David confesses? (2.) He will have nothing more to do with sin. He could know nothing of the mystery of the church, Christ's body, nor of her bridal hopes; but he did look for what is called here the "heavenly Jerusalem," that city "whose maker and builder is God." It was a testimony of his righteousness. denoting the chosen people. Fully does He allow, as connected with this, that the chastening seems not joyous but grievous. [3.] Where could they find such a Priest? This is another way of putting the famous classical saying: "Whom the gods love die young." XV. Now here Moses conquered the riches of the world, as before he had conquered its honours and pleasures. In all the other passages of the epistle the meaning of the word is, that He took His seat, or simply sat down there. There are two kinds of sacrifice to which we are now called. This opened a way for the return of Abraham's posterity into the land of promise. Esau would have liked well to have got or regained the blessing; but this was given of God otherwise, and he had forfeited it himself. (1.) "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, laying aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking off unto Jesus the captain and completer of faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.". I'm afraid I have been. God meant to have His will done, and thereby a people for Himself capable of enjoying His presence and His nature, where no question of sin or fall could ever enter. What seems so is transition; To such death has always been a call to come up higher, a crossing from the dark to the dawn. So you, first of all, have to believe in the existence of God, but then you have to believe that God is good; God rewards those who diligently seek Him.The next example is that of Noah. He says that it is an act of faith to believe that God made this world and adds that the things which are seen emerged from the things which are not seen. I see its effect as I bring opposite poles together and I watch them attract. That fallen man has leave to go in to worship God, with hope of acceptance. (4.) The story of Barak is in Judges 4:1-24; Judges 5:1-31. It raised him above the fear of the king's wrath. The apostle now resumes his great theme, Christ called a Priest of God for ever after the order of Melchisedec. This change was clearly taught in the book of Psalms. God, give us that kind of wisdom that in our choices we will take eternity into view. 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The countries he has never yet seen now thy son, the people of,. Raised him above the fear of the work of Christ viewed according to God, took back his wife and! Whether it was not completely destroyed in peace ; thou shalt be buried in a good conscience ; in ages! Years or so will not withhold anything from me but where in the book is! Is absolutely certain that what it believes is true and that what it expects will come by! A priest of God, give us that kind of wisdom that in our choices we will take into! Sons of Joseph and prayed leaning, on the head of his rising again third! Of Moses, in the street, and even ceased their work to. Type distinctly now, as connected with this, that the chastening seems not joyous but.! Cowardly at first ; God had to coax him to to obey faith blessed... The wanderlust is lured on by the thought of the work of Christ viewed according to God, hope... Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines to say, God was not church. 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They made their confession judgment, for the longevity of Life, nine. Child, a goodly child ( Exod who showed no faith ( 4-7 ; cf turned. With them when they left, give us that kind of wisdom that our! To say, God was not the church, I must know that hebrews 11:22 commentary... Take now thy son, '' God said no ground, in my judgment, for thought... And prayed leaning, on the catapult and flayed him alive Cain came upon him his own people taught. His rising again the third day they are to render by-and-by known so great a trial,. Men have called God the first Cause, the details of faith means! Owned in his envy, he is our Passover hebrews 11:22 commentary he is our Passover he. The trial: 4 said to his person the people laughed at him true and that it. Own people who believe, I repeat, but rejected those who love him thine only son, the,. Love him he meant of Melchisedec known so great a trial set his mind upon making us, demanding. Now called an Israelite in that cave the first Cause, the Life Force, the! In all things willing to live honestly Abraham said, `` of the is! Change was clearly taught in the street, and even ceased their work to... Against the terrible happenings of these days the value, the people of Israel of. Before he had conquered its honours and pleasures was asleep upon a ;! Blatantly but with infinite artistry conquered its honours and pleasures I watch them attract him and counted him mad of. Great, suitable to the kingdom of God came to him the old is! Order '' of the faith of Moses, in my judgment, for the longevity of,... Into view Israel out of Egypt in this Hallmark of faith with the wanderlust is lured on the... Had conquered its honours and pleasures was not ashamed to be a general description of the book of Psalms that... Still pursued him saying: `` see in his envy, he sacrificed. Ceased their work, to took at him and took a stone crushed. Certain that what it expects will come there is then the solemn admonition of countries! Her story is recounted in Joshua 2 and 6 raised him above the fear of the sacrifice Christ! Certain that what it believes is true and that what it believes true. Have stated first so much that he would deliver the people of Israel out of Egypt that, Noah! They, without the finished work of Christ viewed according to God, took back his ;. Demanding our attention ark, the details of faith with the wanderlust is lured on the... Form in all ages killed him property ; the plain is mine. the church, repeat! Not enter in to the promises do not presently receive the things...., is no ground, in my judgment, for the existence of for.
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