Alcibiades that brilliant but wild young man of Athens used to say to Socrates: "Socrates, I hate you, for every time I meet you, you show me what I am." Hallo Bestemming kiezen Alle. She was a Canaanite, a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, and had but little help for faith, and yet she was a believer; the power of divine grace greatly appears when it works without the usual means of grace. . This supposes the people of God not actually settled in the land, but still pilgrims and strangers on the earth; and the epistle to the Hebrews, we have already seen, looks emphatically and exclusively at the people of God as not yet passed out of the wilderness; never as brought into the land, though it might be on the verge; just entering, but not actually entered. blessed each of the sons of Joseph and prayed leaning, on the head of his staff. I've given you this land unto your seed forever. These are the statements of men who believe in God, but not in a God who cares. The third point is how to walk with God, and this again is by faith. In this great example observe. Such a sight of God will enable believers to endure to the end whatever they may meet with in the way. But he did not mean what so many people think he meant. when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones: As Joseph was dying, he showed his faith like his father, Jacob, by calling his sons to him and telling them about the future when they would leave Egypt and return to Canaan. Legend tells that with Enoch the Angel of Death made a compact of friendship. It might paint the mental picture of the extraordinary healing of Hezekiah after he had turned his face to the wall to die ( 2 Kings 20:1-7). 11:8-10 It was by faith that Abraham, when he was caned, showed his obedience by going out to a place which he was going to receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was to go. 2. Still worse was to come. [3.] 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. He is "minister of the holies and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not of man." Time will fail me if I try to recount the story of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, or Jephthah, of David. So Abraham took the ram, and offered it on the altar. Moses by faith chose the path of suffering affliction over the path of ease and glory, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, because. Verse Only. The Jews themselves found the story puzzling and elaborated it in order to find a reason for God's rejection of Cain and for Cain's murder of Abel. Cain took the earth and everything stationary; Abel took everything moveable. For a similar reason we never find life treated in the epistle, nor righteousness. Israel's danger was very great; an enraged enemy with chariots and horsemen behind them; steep rocks and mountains on either hand, and the Red Sea before them. "So Mattathias and his sons fled into the mountains, and left all that they ever had in the city" ( 1Ma_2:28 ). The account of this we have in Exodus 12:13-23. When the fire, an emblem of God's justice, consumed the offering, it was a sign that the mercy of God accepted the offerer for the sake of the great sacrifice. 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. All their lives the patriarchs were men who had no settled place that they could call home. Every one of them refused what the world calls greatness and staked everything on God--and history proved them right. But would a Jew infer hence that it was only the city of David he was speaking of? The seventh brother they roasted alive in a gigantic frying pan. We see the trees that are bowing in its force. So Amram, shamed into trusting God, took back his wife; and in due time Moses was born. VI. He prayed for them, that they might both be blessed of God. If it was rejected, it was because sin lies at your door." This is the meaning of the phrase, not that He will sit there throughout all eternity. When does it first appear? The reproaches of the church of God are the reproaches of Christ, who is, and has ever been, the head of the church. 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. He was heir to the kingdom. And the apostle shows that we need not only a perfect pattern in the walk of faith, but chastenings by the way. In other words, the example speaks to us today of Abel, who offered his sacrifice to God through faith. It is doubtless a great blessing to be joined to the visible church of God in profession and privilege, but more to be so in spirit and truth. I know that you will not withhold anything from Me. (5.) To some extent this story has fallen into disrepute. Interesting statement, especially from a scientific standpoint. (2.) He told Noah his purpose of judgment and instructed him to build an ark in which he and his family and the representatives of the animal creation might be saved. Then he adds: "And to myriads of angels, the general assembly" for such is the true way to divide the verse "and to the church of the firstborn," etc. SOJOURNERS AND STRANGERS ( Hebrews 11:13-16 ). Compare alsoEphesians 2:1-22; Ephesians 2:1-22. They died not in despair but in hope. But now ours is the victory. Interesting prophecy. ", The Arabs have a different legend. 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. 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? Centuries after this Judas Maccabaeus and his men were facing the city of Caspis, so secure in its strength that its defenders laughed in their safety. The apostle does not dwell on the detailed application of His Melchisedec priesthood, as to the object and character of its exercise. The phrase used for wrought righteousness is the description of David in 2 Samuel 8:15. The phrase about quenching the violence of fire goes straight back to the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego in Daniel 3:19-28. 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. God was pleased in this extraordinary manner to slight and dismantle it, in order to magnify himself, to terrify the Canaanites, to strengthen the faith of the Israelites, and to exclude all boasting. 1. God on his part rewarded them, but rejected those who showed no faith (4-7; cf. His third request was to be permitted to see into Paradise so that he might see what the blessed enjoyed. This is natural and pleasant to the flesh, no doubt; but it is precisely what opposes the whole object of God in Christianity, since Christ went on high till He come again, and therefore the path of faith to which the children of God are called. The circumstance of time is taken notice of, when Moses by his faith gained this victory over the world, in all its honours, pleasures, and treasures: When he had come to years (Hebrews 11:24); not only to years of discretion, but of experience, to the age of forty yearswhen he was great, or had come to maturity. For he was looking for [the eternal city of God,] a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. denoting the chosen people. I'm just passing through. (2.) Good examples will either convert sinners or condemn them. O Lord our Lord how excellent is Thy name in all the earth. I pray that I'll never be an embarrassment to God. About the year 170 B.C. as well as done by him, extraordinary. They were to leave the dead to bury their dead; and they did so. It grows old quickly.Moses made the choice, a wise choice indeed. Weary of the world and of life, they have seen it as escape. They gave full proof of their sincerity in making such a confession. On the altar of the burnt offering he offered sacrifices of swine flesh to Zeus; and he turned the Temple chambers into brothels. It is the conviction of the Christian that it is better to suffer with God than to prosper with the world. Bishop Newbigin tells of the negotiations which led to the formation of the United Church of South India. 9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And for this simple reason: no place is given herein to man's importance. 24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; 25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. as He will appear to the salvation of His own people. because God had some better plan for us, that they, without us, should not find all his purposes fulfilled. Above all things, he is the God of the gallant adventurer. When the sun was shining, his conduct must have looked like that of a fool. Thank You, Lord for the unchanging promises upon which our souls are anchored this evening through Jesus Christ. I mean his sins now; not sin as a principle, but in fact, though it be only for faith. Then, the legend tells, the Egyptians struck upon a cruel scheme. 1. Not logic but life convinced him of the gods. 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. Behold, there is a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. That God will not suffer the injuries done to his people to remain unpunished, nor their sufferings unrewarded. He lived there in an ambulatory moving condition, living in a daily readiness for his removal: and thus should we all live in this world. (2.) h T. Bab. Hebrews 11:1. But then comes far more definite instruction, and, beginning with Abraham, the details of faith. Then we hear of "Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant" the pledge of Israel's full and changeless blessing. [4.] to the foundations, which became apparent too, too quickly in Solomon's son. For without faith it is impossible to please God ( Hebrews 11:6 ): So the witness of faith. 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. God's word is true. James was beheaded by Herod. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt" (Genesis 50:22-26, ESV). There was, no doubt, a very heavy moisture blanket around the earth as God divided the waters above the firmament from the waters beneath the firmament. Isaac, Jacob and Joseph were all certain that the promise to Abraham would be fulfilled. Man never did nor could settle it without the word of God. We believe in the wind, though we haven't seen the wind. As Sarah said: "Who would have said that Sarah would suckle children?" 2. Men have called God The First Principle, The First Cause, The Creative Energy, The Life Force. The mean looks and sounds well, but is utterly false for the Christian. 2), exceedingly fair, as in Acts 7:20, asteios to Theovenustus Deofair to God. Noah planted a teak tree and in twenty years it grew to such a size that out of it he was able to build the entire ark. [3.] God will keep His word. At the moment of decision there is the excitement and the thrill; at the moment of achievement there is the glow and glory of satisfaction; but in the intervening time there is necessary the ability to wait and work and watch when nothing seems to be happening. He alludes to several facts, but leaves them. If that religion had been destroyed, what would have happened to the purposes of God? Observe the due regard that Abraham had to this heavenly city: he looked for it; he believed there was such a state; he waited for it, and in the mean time he conversed in it by faith; he had exalted and rejoicing hopes, that in God's time and way he should be brought safely to it. Hebrews 11:1. (3.) The leading instance and example of faith here recorded is that of Abel. (2.). [3.] In this passage the writer lets his mind's eye roam back over the history of his people; and out of it there springs to memory name after name of those who were heroic souls. Observe, [1.] He sacked the Temple. They had looked for advance and triumph and peace and prosperity everywhere; on the contrary, they had come into reproach and shame, partly in their own persons, partly as becoming the companions of others who so suffered. Their acknowledgment of this their condition: they were not ashamed to own it; both their lips and their lives confessed their present condition. He was big enough and brave enough to wait until God said: "Now is the hour.". ; for they were whipped with rods and their bodies were torn to pieces; they were crucified while they were still alive and breathed; they also strangled those women and their sons whom they had circumcised, as the king had appointed, hanging their sons about their necks as if they were upon their crosses. 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