hebrews 11:22 commentary

"But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, by the better and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, nor by blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood entered in once into the holies, having obtained eternal redemption." Now, they all died in faith not having received the promise. In the beginning ofHebrews 11:1-40; Hebrews 11:1-40 we are told what faith is. We come now to the faith of other Old-Testament saints, mentioned by name, and by the particular trials and actings of their faith. Who ever in his senses built a great hulk of a ship on dry land far from the sea? Here is the very point the writer to the Hebrews wishes to make. 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." I'm just a transient here. Let us then seek to combine these two things perfect nearness to God, and the place of utter scorn in the presence of man. The trial and exercise of Abraham's faith; he was tried indeed. To the writer of the letter to the Hebrews Moses was pre-eminently the man of faith. He loves the man who is ready to venture for his name. Indeed we may say that the whole epistle to the Hebrews is just this: we start from the foundation of grace up to God Himself in the heavens; and thence springs the certainty that the stream of grace is not exhausted, and that undoubtedly it will issue in unceasing blessing by-and-by for the earth, and for the people of Israel above all, in the day of Jehovah. One day Abraham was left in charge of the shop. XV. All that are effectually called resign up their own will and wisdom to the will and wisdom of God, and it is their wisdom to do so; though they know not always their way, yet they know their guide, and this satisfies them. There is no necessity for considering anything else, but that the Spirit of God, forecasting the future, was pleased to conceal the line of Melchisedec's parentage, or descendants if any, of their birth or death. [5.] What he did once he can do again, for the God of history is the same one as we worship today. Her unbelief is pardoned and forgotten, but her faith prevailed and is recorded: 3. Continues after advertising. On that principle the only true sacrifice to God was a sacrifice of blood. Where sin has abounded, grace has superabounded. He believed the message which God sent him. The story is told in Exodus 2:11-14. A.V. The exercise of Abraham's faith: he yielded an implicit regard to the call of God. One imperfection of the present state of the saints on earth is that their happiness lies more in promise and reversion than in actual enjoyment and possession. These are the statements of men who believe in God, but not in a God who cares. So little was it a question, that our Lord could appeal to its acknowledged meaning, and press the difficulty His person created for unbelief. He accounted the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, ; Hebrews 11:26. I say not absolutely all its great truths. As Chrysostom put it: "The things of God seemed to fight against the things of God, and faith fought with faith, and the commandment fought with the promise." (3.) I'm just passing through. The leading instance and example of faith here recorded is that of Abel. Verse Only. The sheer serenity of the Old Testament statement, so simple and yet so moving, points forward to the Christian attitude. He blessed them; that is, he resigned them up to God in covenant; he recommended God and religion to them; he prayed for them, and prophesied concerning them, what would be the condition, and the condition of their descendants: we have the account of this in Gen. xxvii. 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. See on 1 Timothy 6:14. Redemption was the first thought of God a counsel of His previous to the dealings with man which made the necessity of redemption felt. In this passage the writer to the Hebrews has done as before. They're sort of super saints. Then comes a second exhortation as to their guides, or leading men among the brethren. Maybe I don't want to do what He's got in mind when we get down the road. Abel's sacrifice was of a living creature, Cain's was not; therefore Abel's was the more acceptable. Augustine said: "We are sojourners exiled from our fatherland." We need to be called, not only to set out well, but to go on well. 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. So, Philip went. As a supposed criminal, when the king's wrath was incensed against him for killing the Egyptian (Exodus 2:14-15), where it is said he feared, not with a fear of despondency, but of discretion, to save his life. Because the Holy Ghost bears this witness, and nothing less, to the perfectness of the work of Christ. 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. To us all is given the tremendous task of helping God make his promises come true. I. (iv) These men were able to go on because they were haunted by the things beyond. Force and violence had not yet been used. He believed in the resurrection. (i) It began with sheer incredulousness. It is true that victims were sometimes slain in ratifying a covenant, and thus were the seal of that covenant; but, first, they were not essential; and, secondly and chiefly, , the covenanter or contracting party had in no case to die in order to make the contract valid. no mention of family or ancestors, "having neither beginning of days, nor end of life" neither is recorded in scripture; "but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually. So the writer to the Hebrews says: "Although he died for his faith, he is still speaking to us." The mean looks and sounds well, but is utterly false for the Christian. Apply it to Christ's death as the testator, and nothing can be plainer or more forcible. He tried to introduce this into Palestine. The reward of his faith in this great trial (, He blessed them; that is, he resigned them up to God in covenant; he recommended God and religion to them; he prayed for them, and prophesied concerning them, what would be the condition, and the condition of their descendants: we have the account of this in. The fact is, that love of uniformity may mislead some, as love of variety misled our English translators too often. An instance of his faith in conquering the world. The actings of her faith. On the seventh day the priests were to blow upon the trumpets, after the city had been encircled seven times, and the people were to shout with all their might, "and the wall of the city will fall down flat." 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! 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. Because he looked at the eternal aspect, the eternal reward, the eternal reward of following Jesus Christ. The emissaries of Antiochus tried to persuade a certain Mattathias to set an example by offering sacrifice, for he was a distinguished and influential man. (i) It is belief in God against the world. 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 Lord said, "Go," and he said, "Where?" "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holies by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. ", The next point proved is the indisputable superiority of the Melchisedec priesthood to that of Aaron, of which the Jews naturally boasted. With the apostle Paul ( Phil. There is no sanction here, of course, of the vulgar and outrageous error that pastors give an account of the souls of their flock. There is evidence for the existence of God, and it causes me to believe in God. 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. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should afterward receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he was going ( Hebrews 11:8 ). I know that God's word is faithful. He said, "If your offering is rejected, it is because sin is at the door of your tent. 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. The Pharaoh had commanded that all of the Hebrew boys be thrown into the Nile River--drowned. "Be mindful of those in bonds, as bound with them; and of those which suffer adversity." asked Abraham. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city ( Hebrews 11:16 ). Then comes a total change: God takes up the matter Himself, acting in view of man's sin; but in Jesus, in the very Messiah for whom the Jews were waiting, he has put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and has accomplished this mighty work, as admirably befitting the goodness of God, as it alone descends low enough to reach the vilest man, and yet deliver him with a salvation which only the more humbles man and glorifies God. So Abraham began to journey not knowing where he was going. [2.] In the Old Testament the life of Enoch is summed up in one sentence: "And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him" ( Genesis 5:24). Ishmael was to be put off with earthly greatness. That Moses was born at all was an act of faith; that he was preserved was another. Not only is it because He is the only one capable of being a perfect sacrifice but as verse 22 says, "the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed in blood." . There we find these two facts. 11:20-22 It was by faith that Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in the things concerning the future. The writer to the Hebrews is saving: "See! (3.) So knowing that God's word was to be fulfilled that the land would one day be theirs, some three hundred years later after the death of Joseph, when the children of Israel began their trek from Egypt to the Promise Land, with them they carried the mummy of Joseph to bury it in the land of promise. How Canaan is called the land of promise, because yet only promised, not possessed. God must come to us before we come to him. that is, he praised God for what he had done for him, and for the prospect he had of approaching blessedness; and he prayed for those he was leaving behind him, that religion might live in his family when he was gone. At first it was (ver. There will always be a difference between those who worship the true God; some will compass him about with lies, others will be faithful with the saints; some, like the Pharisee, will lean to their own righteousness; others, like the publican, will confess their sin, and cast themselves upon the mercy of God in Christ. What was the necessity for a new covenant if the old one would do as well? 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. This his right of inheritance was through faith in Christ, as, and, if a child, then an heir. His last words were: "Why fear death? We wonder just what will happen to us if we take God at his word and act on his commands and promises. What, then, is man's actual estate? 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. 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. The last chapter (Hebrews 13:1-25) follows this up with some practical exhortations as to brotherly love continuing; then as to kindness to strangers, or hospitality; finally, as to pity for those in bonds. In this faith of Moses's parents there was a mixture of unbelief, but God was pleased to overlook it. This was why Joseph left instructions about his burial. "And who is the lord of Terah?" The Lord will provide. That's all. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. And the other says despairingly: "You must be mad.". The faith of Abraham, the friend of God, and father of the faithful, in whom the Hebrews boasted, and from whom they derived their pedigree and privileges; and therefore the apostle, that he might both please and profit them, enlarges more upon the heroic achievements of Abraham's faith than of that of any other of the patriarchs; and in the midst of his account of the faith of Abraham he inserts the story of Sarah's faith, whose daughters those women are that continue to do well. "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, in virtue of the blood of the everlasting covenant, perfect you in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight "through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for the ages of the ages. What he did by his faith: He made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones. to the foundations, which became apparent too, too quickly in Solomon's son. (i) We must believe in God. By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, "and was not found, because God had taken him"; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. He did once he can do again, for the Christian attitude was a sacrifice of blood all of letter..., `` if your offering is rejected, it is belief in,... We get down the road these are the statements of men who believe in God, and, if child. 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