CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Hebrews 11:4. More excellent.—Because Abel made it the offering of himself. It is the offering of the man himself, through his sacrifice, that God accepts. Dead yet speaketh.—Philo says, “Abel—which is most strange—has both been slain and lives.”
Hebrews 11:6. Believe that he is.—The two absolutely fundamental truths of universal religion are:
(1) God exists;
(2) God is moral Governor of the universe, and as such rewards the pious, and punishes the ungodly.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Hebrews 11:4-6
The Construction of Religion.—The direct association of Abel’s offering with his “faith” gives the true key to the old Scripture narrative, which in fact records the beginning of religion, which, properly regarded, is man’s effort to meet the conditions into which sin has brought him, and to recover the relations which sin has disturbed. Man needs worship; sinful man needs a religion.
I. Man’s efforts to construct a religion.—The result of incoming sin on the human family was not immediate and absolute loss of the thought and knowledge of God; for Abel and Cain knew of God, and recognised God’s relation to their prosperity. The result of incoming sin was disharmony between man’s spirit and man’s body, and the body no longer remained, what it was designed to be, the medium and servant of man the spirit. The body now claimed separate and independent rights, and even to dominate the spirit. In Abel we see the harmony of body and spirit; in Cain, the disharmony. God does not pass by that first instance of disharmony. He testifies His approval of Abel and disapproval of Cain. And in that instance, in that verdict, God establishes for all time the law that acceptable worship must have in it the reality, though it need not have the perfection, of harmony between soul and body. The beginning of the construction of religion was bringing an offering to express thankfulness and to ensure the Divine favour. It is important to notice the difference between the spirit of Adam and the spirit of these sons. Sin had brought in the distinction between “mine” and “thine” in relation to God. Adam saw all to be God’s. Abel and Cain made gifts, of what was theirs, to God. A religion is only wanted, and is only possible, where there has come about a breaking of the harmony. Religions are, essentially, human endeavours, more or less Divinely guided, to recover lost fellowship, to restore lost relations.
II. God indicating what are the essentials of a right religion.—It were a vain thing for man to construct a religion if God held aloof, and was in no way interested in his effort. If God concerned Himself with it, He must indicate what features of man’s effort He approved and what He disapproved. And this is precisely the significance of His acceptance and rejection of these different, and differently inspired, offerings. Man made distinct advance in the construction of a religion when he knew what God approved. An offering like Abel’s, offered in the spirit of Abel, is acceptable to Him. Then what are the essential features of Abel’s offering, and wherein lies its distinction from Cain’s. “Possibly Cain just took some of his fruits as a man would who performs a duty in which he is not very deeply interested. Possibly Abel selected with care, chose out the fattest and best, as a man would who wanted to make a really acceptable gift, one that would worthily express his thankfulness and love. The Mohammedan legend embodies this idea in an exaggerated form. It says that Cain’s offering was a sheaf of the very worst of his wheat, but Abel’s a fat lamb, the very best of his flock. It is better, however, only to say that the light feeling of the one and the intense feeling of the other gave God a basis for further discriminating between them. Abel’s was a personally religious act; Cain’s was a formal duty done. Cain’s bringing his offering was an expression of natural religion; Abel’s was an expression of personal piety. God could receive both, if both were sincere, but the smile of His special favour must rest on Abel. The point of distinction may even be stated more sharply. The one—Cain—offered a gift to God. The other—Abel—offered himself to God by means of a gift. And the opportunity was taken for sealing, once and for ever, the truth that the only offerings God can accept are gifts which carry to Him the givers themselves.” “Every man, then, wanting a religion, it is remarkable that the first idea men light upon is always the same. The first notion of religion is universally that which is seen in Cain and Abel. Men bring a gift to please the Deity and secure His favour. Cain and Abel did not merely bring their offerings as expressions of their thankfulness for temporal prosperity. The story clearly indicates that they looked for the Divine acceptance of themselves, in some sense, for the sake of their gift. Cain was angry because he did not, by his gift, secure the Divine favour for himself. But no mere gift can ever secure God’s acceptance. ‘The Lord looketh on the heart.’ Abel’s gift of a lamb was, in itself, no more acceptable than Cain’s corn and fruits. Abel’s humble, earnest, grateful, trusting heart can receive God’s favour. From Cain’s formalities God’s favour must be withheld. Thus in the very first ages of the world was forcibly presented the law which our Divine Lord expressed so plainly: ‘They that worship the Father must worship Him in spirit and in truth.’ Not sacrifices, not temples, not services, not prayers, not good deeds, not steadfast morality, not generous giving, can, of themselves, ever gain Divine favour. The Spirit-God asks for spirit-worship. Because man is a spirit it is beneath his dignity to offer, and it is beneath the dignity of God, the great Spirit, to accept, other than spirit-worship.”
These points may be impressed. Religion is not sentiment, and yet it goes with sentiment. Religion is not acts, and yet it can express itself in acts. Religion is heart-feeling; it is the devotion of a man’s self to God; it is seen in the Divine Man, who “offered Himself without spot to God.”
(This topic might also have been treated as “The Power of Faith in Human Worship.”)
Special Study of Cain.—
1. In Cain we have sin putting on its outward evil forms: heart-wrong showing itself in outward wrong-doing—wrong to others, wrong to society. The difficulty we have with sin is that it never will keep in the heart-sphere; it will persist in coming out and showing what a terrible heart-evil it is, by manifesting in social relationships what a terrible life-evil it is.
2. In Cain we also see the beginning of contentions about religious matters; and we may learn that religious contentions are always about the externals of religion, never about the inner spirit of piety; about men’s beliefs, not about their soul-lovings and soul-trustings. It is assumed that all the Churches and all the sects will be happy together in heaven. They will, but only on the deep ground of their common piety, their common “life in Christ,” which will there take the place of religion. Before men sinned in Eden, and after they have been wholly delivered from sin in Paradise, worship may be required, but not religion, which is entirely relative to man’s sinful condition.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Hebrews 11:4. Posthumous Eloquence.—The eloquence of life and the eloquence after life are nearly one, the latter for the most part a prolonged reverberation. The life may be still a living epistle, not dependent upon monumental marble, nor the book memoirs. There are, however, special values attaching to the echoes of the life after it has closed on earth.
1. Speaketh through the charitable memoirs of men, kindred, friends, the Church, the community—by word, work, example.
2. Speaketh in testimony and vindication of the truths, the cause for which the life stood as an exponent. A completed argument, the peroration, the most forcible part and the most lasting in impression.
3. Pre-eminently Christian faith gives posthumous power to the life. “By it he [Abel], being dead, yet speaketh.” Agnosticism, infidelity, pessimism, worldliness, selfishness, in any form not only winds up in despair, but leaves no echo that men care to listen to. Christian faith, as the soul of the Christian’s life, is immortal and perennial in influence and fruitfulness. It reappears in children and children’s children. It adds continually to the witnesses summoned by the Church in her vindication, adds undying elements to the Church’s endless pilgrim song.—J. S. K.
The Witness of Abel’s Faith.—The reference is not to any imaginary continued presence of Abel, nor need it be to the statement in Genesis 4:10, that the voice of Abel’s blood cried from the ground. The argument of the writer requires that the continued witness of Abel should be the witness of Abel’s faith. He speaks by his faith to those who should come after him, exhorting and encouraging them to follow his example. That example of faith remains upon the holy records, and affords admonition and instruction to succeeding ages.
The Contrast of Cain and Abel.—In the two men, Cain and Abel, we have the types of the two classes into which the world has ever been divided. In Abel we have the soul struggling for restored harmony, seeking to gain its restored rights. In bringing his offering he conquered so far as to make his bodily gift express his soul’s gratitude, dependence, and faith. As he stood before God with his offering, body and soul were in harmony. But in Cain the harmony is wholly wanting. His body and soul were not together. The bodily gift indeed was offered, but it spoke nothing in behalf of the soul.—Age of Great Patriarchs.
Hebrews 11:5. Death and Translation.—Death requires to be spoken of with care and precision. There is the natural death of the animal which man shares in so far as he too is an animal. But as a being inbreathed with the Divine Spirit, and made a living soul, translation from one bodily organ to another must be thought of as the Divine idea for man, as was realised and illustrated in Enoch. Death for the living soul, in the animal body, is the necessity introduced by human sin.
Pleasing God.—Enoch, the devout patriarch, the fearless preacher, the fellow-traveller with God, the triumphant saint who did not see death, but took wing at once by the way of translation into heaven. A glorious man, whose name and character and destiny will live in human memory freshly, until the resurrection of the dead. This is the ground of all—that “he pleased God.” He did this not by any special superhuman experiences and endeavours, but just in such a way as we may all imitate. The words may never have been uttered to himself at all, but he had the sense of the words in his heart—the deep joyful assurance of God’s approbation and love—and others, by his life and labours, knew that he was an accepted and a favoured servant and saint of God.
I. The necessity for pleasing God.—There is a God to please, a living God, who takes a living and continual interest in all human things, whose great endeavour, by all this complicated world-work that He carries on, is to nourish and educate human spirits, that they may, like Him, hate the wrong and love the right, and do it. He is pleased always when the least cause for pleasure is presented to Him. Some say that the attempt to please God is an inferior aim, and that the real end we ought to keep in view is, to be right in everything. But let a man try to be right without any regard to God, and how far will he go? God being an infinite, absolute, all-perfect Being, holding in Himself all principles, all relations, all truth, order, and beauty, to please Him must, in the very nature of the case, be to do right. In the epistle to the Hebrews God is spoken of as “Him with whom we have to do.” It is not with the duty, but with God in the duty; not with the care, but with the will of God in the care; not with the man, but with God, the maker, ruler, judge, of the man and of all men, with whom we have to do; and therefore we ought to please Him.
II. The way of pleasing God.—It is not difficult, if only we take the right way of it. He is not a hard master. I believe we have no idea how simple, how natural, how human-like in the best sense, is the pleasure and joy of God in the obedience of His children. Repentance, faith, practical obedience, are the things which please Him. Enoch lived a public life of service, and pleased God in it. We may do so by action or by suffering; by public testimony or by private prayer; in much or little; by strength or weakness; amid applause or scorn, honour or shame; we may walk with God with a simple, joyful, loving heart.
III. The results of pleasing God.—In this way we shall please ourselves as we never can do in any other. There is a kind of self-satisfaction of which the less we have the better. But there is another kind of self-satisfaction which we may and must seek. It is well when a man brings himself up to the bar of his better self. There is something of God in a good man; the enlightened conscience is the echo of the Divine authority and will. And if we please God, we shall ourselves have pleasure in life and the world. He can make our enemies to be at peace with us. In the world we may have tribulation, and yet we may be of good cheer. Come what may in this life, the reward in heaven is always sure. To mortal man the joy of the immortal is not yet revealed; but as the flicker of light on the morning sky is the pledge of the shining sun and the risen day—as the blade above the soil is the earnest of the waving corn-field and the plentiful granary—so are God’s first rewards of service here the fore-tokens and the pre-libations of the joy of heaven.—Alexander Raleigh, D.D.
Pleasing God must be essentially the same thing in all ages and everywhere. God is the same everywhere and to everybody—the same absolutely, and the same relatively in adaptation to their varying conditions.
I. What is the condition on which man can please God?—Simply this—let him be what God designed he should be. None of us can be pleased when our work is spoiled, or turns out to be other than we intended it to be. We are pleased when our work proves to be what we wanted it to be.
II. What is the reward of pleasing God?—We get all the blessing—unlimited, unhindered—that He planned. The Divine expectation of the creature involves the richest blessing of the creature.
Hebrews 11:5-6. The Power of Faith on Human Death.—Why was the narrative of Enoch recorded in the older Scriptures? and why is it recalled to mind here? Physical death then seemed to be an absolutely hopeless thing. Everybody died. It might seem to be the end of all. In a long and unbroken procession men passed away by death. Men are in the hands of fate. They may become careless. They did become careless. They let loose their passions, and said, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” A world of dying men was fast becoming utterly corrupt before God. It was necessary to show that death was not inevitable. The order could be broken. Man is in the hands of God, not of fate. This life on earth is neither the only life nor the true. This, in the early days, could only be shown pictorially, by an incident, by a fact. It is shown in the freeing of Enoch from the universal death-law, on the ground of faith, and of the life which his faith inspired. What then is taught the world by the translation of Enoch?
I. The death-penalty on sin may be remitted.—It was once; it may be again. It is no absolute law for humanity, against which men may kick in vain. In the first age it was remitted. In the prophetic age it was remitted. In the resurrection of Christ it ceased to be a penalty on man, and its power was once and for ever destroyed. For all who are now in Christ death is not death; it is Enoch-translation. The dead in Christ simply “are not”; God takes them.
II. There is another world, the spiritual world, into which man the spirit goes.—The first age learned that—learned it from Enoch. Does any man sum up his career thus, “I am born, I grow, I live, I die, and that is all”; what can he do with Enoch? Enoch lives, while he lives, in the spiritual world. Enoch goes into the spiritual world; he does not die. Where is he? Where is Elijah? Where is Christ? “God is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
III. The life that is ruled by other-world considerations escapes death.—Enoch had this testimony, “He pleased God,” in living by faith, not by sight. Then in outward and visible ways he shall illustrate the abiding spiritual truth for the race. He was translated—actually freed from death. All who live by faith, by other-world considerations, are translated through death. “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.”
Hebrews 11:6. Postulates of Prayer.—“For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that seek after Him.” Coming to God is coming with some request; it is prayer. That is declared to be an impossible thing unless two postulates are laid down and fully admitted.
I. Nobody can pray unless he believes that God is.—If he did not so believe, it would never enter into his head to pray. And if a man professes to believe that there is no God, and nevertheless prays, that man is manifestly self-deceived. He does believe in God. Men easily deceive themselves by using terms such as force, law, fate, etc. If in any sense they pray to, or depend on these things, they make them God. The personality of God is the thing men resist, but it is necessary to show that personality in God is precisely relative to prayer in man.
II. Nobody can pray unless he believes that God is the rewarder of them that pray.—No one would attempt what he was absolutely sure was useless. There must be hope in prayer. But to lay down as a fact that God is a rewarder is to go beyond the assertion that He is, and to assert that He has a moral character, and comes into moral relations with His creatures. It is to advance from natural to revealed religion. Grant these two postulates (God is; God is a rewarder), and we will logically raise a whole religious structure for humanity, which shall be in absolute harmony with, and be the manifestly necessary outcome of, those first principles.
Two Primary Truths.—The two fundamental truths of all that can properly be called religion are here adverted to. The first is, a belief that God exists; the second, that He is the moral governor of the universe, i.e. that He rewards those who are pious, and consequently punishes those who are not so. He who denies this, denies all that sanctions religion, and makes it binding upon the consciences of men.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 11
Hebrews 11:4. The Living Power of the Dead.—Some men we only estimate aright when they have passed from mortal scenes. While most of the members of the vegetable kingdom give out such odour as they may have power to give during life, the vernal grass, the woodruff, and others, are not fragrant till they have been taken away from their roots, and have begun to get dry. The rose, the lilac, the daphne, and the acacia pour forth their perfume as a part of their day’s duty. The woodruff, that holds up handfuls of little white crosses in the pleasant woods and shady glens, yields no scent till its life has ebbed—beautiful emblem of those who delight us while they live out of the serene abundance of their kindly hearts, but whose richer value we only begin to know when they are gone away, and of whose white souls we then say inwardly, “He being dead yet speaketh.” So the hay-field that rolls like sea-waves is scentless when we pass it uncut; we hear the measured swish of the scythe, death lays each green head low, and odour rises like mist.—L. H. Grindon.
Forgetfulness of the Dead.—We shall sleep none the less sweetly, though none be talking about us over our heads. The world has a short memory, and, as the years go on, the list that it has to remember grows so crowded that it is harder and harder to find room to write a new name on it, or to read the old. The letters on the tombstones are soon erased by the feet that tramp across the churchyard.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Missions continued after Death.—The cedar is most useful when dead. It is most productive when its place knows it no more. There is no timber like it. Firm in the grain, and capable of the finest polish, the tooth of no insect will touch it, and Time itself can hardly destroy it. Diffusing a perpetual fragrance through the chambers which it ceils, the worm will not corrode the book which it protects, nor the moth corrupt the garment which it guards. All but immortal itself, it transfuses its amaranthine qualities to the objects around it; and however stately in the forest, or brave on the mountain’s brow, it is more serviceable in Solomon’s palace, and it receives an illustrious consecration when set up as pillars in the Temple, and carved into doorposts and lintels for the house of the Lord. Every Christian is useful in his life, but the goodly cedars are most useful afterwards. Joseph while he lived saved much people alive, and his own lofty goodness was an impressive and elevating pattern to his relenting and admiring brethren. But as an instance of special providence, and an example of untarnished excellence amidst terrible temptations, Joseph dead has spoken to more than Joseph living. The sweet singer of Israel while he lived taught many to handle the harp, and infected not a few with his thankful, adoring spirit. But David being dead yet singeth, and you can hardly name the psalm or hymn or spiritual song of which the lesson was not learnt from the son of Jesse. Paul in his living day preached many a sermon, and made many a convert to the faith of Jesus. But Paul being dead yet preacheth, and they were sermons from his sepulchre which converted Luther, and Zwingle, and most of our modern evangelists. And Luther is dead, but the Reformation lives. Calvin is dead, but his vindication of God’s free and sovereign grace will never die. Knox, Melville, and Henderson are dead, but Scotland still retains a Sabbath and a Christian peasantry, a Bible in every house, and a school in every parish. Bunyan is dead, but his bright spirit still walks the earth in its Pilgrim’s Progress. Baxter is dead, but souls are still quickened by the Saints’ Rest and the Call to the Unconverted. Cowper is dead, but the “golden apples” are still as fresh as when newly gathered in the “silver basket” of the Olney Hymns. Eliot is dead, but the missionary enterprise is young. Henry Martyn is dead, but who can count the apostolic spirits, who, phœnix-wise, have started from his funeral pile? Howard is dead, but modern philanthropy is only commencing its career. Raikes is dead, but the Sabbath schools go on. Wilberforce is dead, but the negro will find for ages a protector in his memory.—Dr. James Hamilton.
Holy Example.—If holy example is, as we so often declare to each other, so beneficial, then it must be counted as worthy of mention among Christian privileges that we have now more holy examples than the Christians of the first century had. Each leaf in ecclesiastical history is illuminated with the noble deeds, words, and sufferings of Christ’s people—an illustrious succession of spectators and heroes. The Christian Church is like a magnificent temple; each pious and illustrious man that enters it lights a new lamp therein; one after another they come, in solemn yet kingly succession, each making the temple appear more glorious, and bringing out its hidden beauties, by the holy example they set before us.—T. R. Stevenson.
Hebrews 11:6. Faith in God.—Faith regards God’s word as more real than man’s acts, as not less real than a star in heaven; and believes that the least promise that God has written will outlive the last pyramid that all the Pharaohs have ever built. When you have a bank-note in your hand, you have no money, nor have you literally books, and clothes, and shoes, and bread, and wine, and all that it can purchase; but you have a promise upon that slip of paper, as real as if you had all the goods that bit of paper can purchase. You do not lay aside God’s word as an obsolete, worthless thing, but you turn it into currency, and treat it as if really fulfilled; for faith is just taking God at His word, and believing the promises just because He says it.—Dr. Cumming.
An Infidel’s Testimony.—Dr. Elliot, who was well acquainted with Colonel Allen, a celebrated infidel in America, visited him at a time when his daughter was sick and near death. He was introduced to the library, where the colonel read to him some of his writings with much self-complacency, and asked, “Is not that well done?” While they were thus employed, a messenger entered, and informed Colonel Allen that his daughter was dying, and desired to speak with him. He immediately went to her chamber, accompanied by Dr. Elliot, who was desirous of witnessing the interview. The wife of Colonel Allen was a pious woman, and had instructed his children in the principles of Christianity. As soon as her father appeared at her bedside, she said to him, “I am about to die: shall I believe in the principles you have taught me, or shall I believe in what my mother has taught me?” He became extremely agitated; his chin quivered, his whole frame shook; and after waiting a few moments, he replied, “Believe what your mother has taught you.”
Enoch.—
Hast thou not seen at break of day
One only star the east adorning,
That never set or paled its ray,
But seemed to sink at once away
Into the light of morning?
From it the sage no portent drew,
It came to light no meteor fires,
But silver shone the whole night through,
On hawthorn hedges steeped in dew,
And quiet village spires.
Like him of old who dwelt beneath
The tents of patriarchal story,
Who passed without the touch of death,
Without dim eye or failing breath,
At once into God’s glory—
The patriarch of one simple spot,
The sire of sons and daughters lowly,
And this the record of his lot,
“He walked with God, and he was not,”
For the Lord took him wholly.
C. F. Alexander.