CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Hebrews 11:37. Sawn asunder.—The traditional mode of Isaiah’s death. Tempted.—I.e. severely tested. A conjecture has been made that the word should be ἐπρήσθησαν, they were burned, instead of ἐπειράσθησαν. But it may mean that every effort was made to induce them to apostatise. Illustrate from the efforts to induce the last of the seven Maccabean brothers to apostatise. See 2 Maccabees 7.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Hebrews 11:32-40
A Summary of the Triumphs of Faith.—The list given abundantly illustrates how faith may be shown in
(1) doing;
(2) bearing; and
(3) suffering. But the faith which the writer presents in every case found its expression in the material spheres, in outward and earthly relations. It is true that we can learn from them, and be inspired by them to show a similar faith in those similar earthly spheres in which we too have to take our place and part. And yet it must be seen that an altogether higher faith—a spiritual faith bearing relation to spiritual things—is required of us. And in its application to us the persuasion of the writer is this—If faith in these lower ranges gained for them such splendid triumphs, what triumphs ought our higher faith, in the higher range, to gain for us?” The ancient worthies persevered in their faith, although the Messiah was known to them only by promise. We are under greater obligations to persevere; for God has fulfilled His promise respecting the Messiah, and thus placed us in a condition better adapted to perseverance than theirs. So much is our condition preferable to theirs, that we may even say, without the blessing which we enjoy, their happiness could not be completed” (Hebrews 11:40).
I. The sublime decision of persecuted believers in primitive times.—
1. The dangers with which they were threatened.
2. The determination with which they were sustained.
II. The various considerations which this heroism suggests.—
1. Thankfulness for religious liberty afforded to us.
2. Excitement; their faith and constancy should stimulate us.
3. Expectation.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Hebrews 11:32. What to find in Scripture and Christian History.—The apostle having given us a classis of many eminent believers, whose names are mentioned, and the particular trials and actings of their faith recorded, now concludes his narrative with a more summary account of another set of believers, where the particular acts are not ascribed to particular persons by name, but left to be applied by those who are well acquainted with the sacred story; and, like a Divine orator, he prefaces this part of his narrative with an elegant expostulation—“What shall I say more? Time would fail me”: as if he had said, “It is in vain to attempt to exhaust this subject. Should I not restrain my pen, it would soon run beyond the bounds of an epistle; and therefore I shall but just mention a few more, and leave you to enlarge upon them.” Observe—
1. After all our researches into the Scriptures, there is still more to be learned from them.
2. We must well consider in Divine matters what we should say, and suit it well to the time.
3. 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 thereof were not then so fully revealed.
4. And we should lament it, that now, in gospel times, when the rule of faith is more clear and perfect, the number of believers should be so small, and their faith so weak.—Matthew Henry.
Hebrews 11:35. The Better Resurrection.—This chapter is the roll-book of a noble army. Human history records the triumphs of knowledge and courage and energy; the Divine history records the triumphs of faith. Among the “cloud of witnesses” are two groups mentioned in text. The ancient saints were believers in a resurrection to eternal life—a better resurrection. One kind of resurrection was a restoration to the life of this world. There is another and superior resurrection—to the life of the eternal world. “Women received their dead again by resurrection; and others, that they might obtain a better resurrection, were tortured, not accepting deliverance.”
I. Consider the better resurrection.—This is more to be desired than the resurrection of loved ones to us here.
1. Think of the place of it. Better than Bethany or Jerusalem—soon to be the marching-ground of Roman armies. Here the curse, the pain, the disease, the torturing agonies, and the depressions which cloud the soul. The place of the better resurrection is described, “There shall be no more curse, no night, need no candle,” etc.
2. The company in the place. In this world our dearest friends become at times more dear to us. In that heavenly world we shall have the best at their best. No distrust or selfishness, but deep and true love.
3. The essence of this eternal love. Its entire freedom from sin. The presence of sin in our nature is at the root of every other evil, and deliverance from suffering in heaven is connected with perfect deliverance from sin. This is an ideal which it never entered into man’s heart to conceive, and which the gospel alone has taught us.
4. Think also of the security of this state. The resurrections of earth were a return to a world of change and death—to part again. Once to be raised to this world is twice to die. In heaven the last fight is over. “O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end.”
5. The presence to which it introduces. The best of these other resurrections brought their subjects into the earthly presence of the Son of God, but this into His heavenly fellowship.
II. The higher faith required for this resurrection.—
1. It needs more of the patience of faith. The faith of the sisters of Bethany demanded one great effort, and the battle was gained. But ours cannot be so compressed. “Till the heavens be no more.” This needs patience. The scorn of unbelievers, taunts of the materialist, the murmurs of our hearts, are well-nigh unbearable.
2. The sanctified imagination of faith. There is an imagination of faith, not unbridled, nor unscriptural, which has formed for itself a true and real world beyond death, which gives substance to things hoped for, and thereby helps to the evidence of things not seen.
3. It needs more of the spiritual insight of faith. It must seek to live as seeing Him who is invisible. It must rest on the nature of God Himself, and the life He infuses into the soul. Christ Himself must be known to us in His ever-living spiritual power.
III. Some of the ways in which we may strengthen ourselves in this higher faith.—
1. The first thought is addressed to the reason. Here are men tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Can you imagine that the self-devotion of the noble army of martyrs was founded on delusion? They loved truth more than life. They believed in a better resurrection.
2. To the heart. “Their dead.” God intended that our deepest heart affections should be the helpers of our highest hopes, and the instinctive guarantees of a life to come.
3. To our spirit. Certainty comes from union with the dying and risen and living Son of God. There is a spring of immortality ready to rise up in every heart that will admit Him who is the true God and eternal life. The martyr’s spirit descends upon him when the fire is kindled, and the Christian’s willingness to depart comes when his Master calls.—J. Ker, D.D.
Hebrews 11:39. What Men of Faith gain and fail to gain.—It is an absolute law in all earthly relations that gain and loss go together. “There are no gains without pains.” To reach the higher is to leave the lower. If faith puts us into the atmosphere of God, it puts us out of the atmosphere of the world. But the gain always more than compensates for the loss.
Hebrews 11:40. The Material draws on to the Spiritual.—The spiritual is climactic; it absolutely satisfies man. The material can never be presented under any conceivable form that satisfies. Man would not be his spiritual self if it did. In the old time perfection was only reached by the faith realisation of the spiritual.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 11
Hebrews 11:34. Power of Faith.—Julius Palmer, in Queen Mary’s days, had life and preferment offered him, if he would recant his faith in Christ. His answer was, that he had resigned his living in two places for the sake of the gospel, and was now ready to yield his life on account of Christ.—William Hunter, when urged by Bonner to recant, replied, he could only be moved by the Scriptures, for he reckoned the things of earth but dross for Christ; and when the sheriff offered him a pardon at the stake, if he would renounce his faith, he firmly rejected it.—Antonius Riceto, a Venetian, was offered his life, and considerable wealth, if he would concede but a little; and when his son with weeping entreated him to do so, he answered, that he resolved to lose both children and estate for Christ.—The Prince of Condé, at the massacre of Paris, when the king assured him that he should die within three days if he did not renounce his religion, told the monarch that his life and estate were in his hand, and that he would give up both rather than renounce the truth.—Bradford said to his fellow-sufferer at the stake, “Be of good comfort, for we shall this night have a merry supper with the Lord.”—Sanders, in similar circumstances, said, “Welcome the cross of Christ, welcome everlasting life!”—Elizabeth Folks, embracing the stake, cried, “Farewell world, farewell faith and hope, and welcome love!”—Algerius, an Italian martyr, thus wrote from his prison, a little before his death: “Who would believe that in this dungeon I should find a paradise so pleasant; in a place of sorrow and death, tranquillity and hope and life; where others weep, I rejoice.”—Wishart, when in the fire which removed him from the world, exclaimed, “The flame doth torment my body, but no whit abates my spirits.”—In ancient history there is a story told of a valiant captain whose banner was almost always first in the fight, whose sword was dreaded by his enemies, for it was the herald of slaughter and of victory. His monarch once asked to see the sword. He took it, quietly examined it, and sent it back with this message: “I see nothing wonderful in the sword. I cannot understand why any man should be afraid of it.” The captain sent back another message: “Your majesty has been pleased to examine the sword, but I did not send the arm that wielded it; if you had examined that, and the heart that guided the arm, you would have understood the mystery.” We look at men and see what great things they have done, and we cannot understand it. But we only see the sword; we do not see God, whose arm wields it.—C. H. Spurgeon.
Hebrews 11:35. Persecutions of the Faithful.—Literally this reads, “they were bastinadoed,” or beaten to death with batons or sticks, a mode of punishment still used in the East, and which is capable of taking away the life of the real or supposed criminal, if it be continued for a long time. Some have thought this refers to the tortures thus inflicted upon Eleazar by Antiochus, as described in 2 Maccabees 6. Doddridge, from the fact that the Greek verb is used to express the beating of a drum, argues that in this particular kind of punishment all the limbs were put upon the stretch, and then beaten in such a way as to cause intense pain.
Hebrews 11:37. Sheepskins and Goatskins.—Some writers see in this an allusion to the prophets of the Jewish era. Much of a prophet’s life, also, was spent in wandering from place to place. In 2 Kings 1:8 it is obvious that Elijah wore a garment of undressed hair, and a reference to the clothing of the prophets in Zechariah 13:4 indicates that rough skins were their usual dress. We find this remark in Clement’s epistle to the Corinthians: “Let us be imitators of those who went about in sheepskins and goatskins, preaching the coming of Christ.”
Treatment of the Prophets.—In the parable of the wicked husbandman the outrage reaches unto the killing of some of the subordinate messengers; these are true to historical fact, seeing that not a few of the prophets were not merely maltreated, but actually put to death. Thus, if we may trust Jewish tradition, Jeremiah was stoned by the exiles in Egypt, Isaiah sawn asunder by King Manasseh; and we have abundant historical justification of this description, showing that the past ingratitude of the Jews is not painted in colours too dark; of which treatment this passage in the Hebrews is the best commentary. The patience of God under these extraordinary provocations is wonderful, sending as He does, messenger after messenger to win men to Him.—Archbishop Trench.
Dwellers in Caves.—Few of the caves of Western Asia are now occupied as permanent places of abode; they are mostly the resort of shepherds, who make them the stables of their flocks. It not unfrequently occurs at the present day that a people oppressed by war, or the tyranny of their rulers, forsake the towns and villages and take up their abode for a time in these wild and solitary places, in the hope of escaping from their oppressors. Fugitives from the battle-field, leaders of armies, and even princes and royal personages, have repeatedly, in modern as in ancient times, concealed themselves from their pursuers within these dark recesses. Bandits and outlaws have also made these caverns their abode, whence they sallied forth to commit robbery and murder, and in times of persecution on account of religion, men, women, and even children have been forced to abandon their homes and wait for better times in “dens and caves of the earth.” The deacon of the present Armenian Church of Sivas, in Asia Minor, was compelled to leave his home in Divrik, for fear of death on account of his faith, and abode for several months in a cave in the mountains, where he was secretly furnished with provisions.—Van Lennep.
Hebrews 11:39. A Good Report.—As in the motions of the heavens there is one common revolution, which carries the whole frame daily unto one point, from east to west, though each several sphere hath a several cross-way of its own, wherein some move swifter and others with slower motion—so, though saints may have their several corruptions, and these likewise stronger in some than in others, yet, being animated by one and the same Spirit, they all agree in a steady and uniform motion unto Christ. If a stone were placed under the concave of the moon, though there be air and fire and water between, yet through them all it would hasten to its own place; so be the obstacles never so many, or the conditions never so various, through which a man must pass, through terrors and temptations, and a sea and wilderness, and fiery serpents, and sons of Anak; yet if the heart love Christ indeed, having obtained a good report through faith, he concludes that heaven is his home, to which he is hastening, whither Christ the forerunner is gone before.—H. G. Salter.