CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Hebrews 11:7. Righteousness which is by faith.—Which is according to faith. “Faith in this writer never becomes the same as mystic oneness with Christ, but means general belief in the unseen. And ‘righteousness’ is not ‘justification,’ but faith manifested by obedience. Throughout this chapter righteousness is the human condition which faith produces, not the Divine gift which faith receives” (Farrar).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Hebrews 11:7-12
Expressions of Faith.—The series of illustrations of faith is in some sense historical; but there is an evident selection to suit a definite purpose. Three persons are introduced in this paragraph; and it is evident that they illustrate faith, or living in the power of the invisible, as it may gain expression—
(1) in the calamities of life;
(2) in the commonplaces of life;
(3) in the surprises of life.
I. Faith finding expression in the calamities of life.—Noah was placed in circumstances which he had no share in bringing about, and over which he had no control. He had to suffer for the sins of others. And he had only a Divine intimation of what he was to do. He saw nobody; perhaps did not even hear a voice. He felt the direction put into his mind. But he believed; he acted upon his faith. There was no outward sign of the judgment falling. The long years must pass before it would fall. Nevertheless he went on preparing the ark, and testifying for God, and for the coming judgment which would express the Divine condemnation. We are all placed under disabilities, and come into the strain of calamities, over which we have no control, and with which we are not directly related. If there be in us the life of faith, we accept God’s will concerning us in the very midst of the disabilities, and simply, cheerfully do it; and in doing it honour God, and plead for righteousness with our fellow-men.
II. Faith finding expression in the commonplaces of life.—Where we shall live, what shall be our occupation, where we shall seek our friendships, what shall be our daily doing, make up the commonplace of life. And it may seem as if that was precisely the sphere for a man’s own judgment and enterprise. What can he want with faith in these every-day things? They call for his decisions and his skill. That there is a noble and spiritual way of doing our commonplace duties, and meeting our commonplace obligations, is shown to us in the patriarch Abraham. He did not go where he wanted to go; he went where God wanted him to go. He did not do what he wanted to do; he did what God wanted him to do. He believed the Divine voice in his soul, and followed it. He cherished the promise for his race, and quietly bore the limitations and burdens which God laid on the present. It is a sweet mystery of faith that it can thus bring spiritual considerations to bear on the simplest relations of every-day life and duty, so that we may win the righteousness of common life. We can be the children of faithful Abraham.
III. Faith finding expression in the surprises of life.—It is strange to find Sarah selected to illustrate faith, seeing that a marked feature of her story is her incredulity. That, however, was only a passing weakness. She came to share her husband’s faith. She is selected because the promise of God to her was a distinct surprise; and her having a son in her old age represents what we may call the surprises of life, the things we do not think of or anticipate, or even desire. Sometimes delightful surprises; sometimes doubtful surprises; sometimes trying surprises. Faith may find expression in them; it can find God working in them, and can try to meet the claims of them, and to learn the lessons of them. They may seem to the ordinary human view puzzle-pieces that fit nowhere. Faith finds their fittings, or trusts God to show their places in due time. Faith then is a real and practical power on daily life. It is no great acquisition for great occasions. It is an abiding force, making real to us God, and His word and promise; and so it becomes our sufficient help to bear the disabilities, do the duties, and meet the surprises of life.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Hebrews 11:7. Faith in God’s Word.—The basis of faith is our recognition of something as the word and will of God concerning us. Noah acted; the action was the expression of his faith, and it was based upon a warning that he had, which he recognised to be a warning sent from God, and bearing direct relation to him. It is our recognition of a thing as the word of God, and the word of God to us, which brings responsibility, and gives exercise to faith, which really is our response to that word. It is conceivable that a man may recognise something as the word of God which is not the word of God, or not meant for him; but the recognition equally brings responsibility in that case; and the man, though actually wrong, is right in so far as he acts up to the light as he apprehends it. It may be said, Then a man is better off who simply leaves God’s words alone, and makes no personal recognition of them. The answer is, That this he cannot do. By the law and condition of his very being, he is open and sensitive to communications from God. He must deal with them. He must be judged as a moral being, by the ways in which he has dealt with them. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
Persistency in the Obedience of Faith.—An act of faith may be comparatively easy. To maintain a series of acts of faith implies difficulty. To sustain a series of acts, amid changes and opposition, for many years—in the case of Noah, for one hundred and twenty years—implies a truly sublime moral triumph. “We can only admire the loyalty and the faith which kept him going quietly on amid the jeers and scoffs of the thoughtless multitudes who watched his work and listened to his word. Here is no common man. Here is the surprising thing—the man stood in the world’s eye all through those years. He lived among the people whom he warned. The religion that is worth anything can stand the strain of common-place, every-day life and relations.”
Hebrews 11:8-10. The Illusiveness of Life.—God promised Canaan to Abraham, and yet Abraham never inherited Canaan: to the last he was a wanderer there (see Acts 7:5). But Abraham never complained of being deceived. He does not even seem to have expected fulfilment. His faith appears to have consisted in disbelieving the letter, almost as much as in believing the spirit, of the promise. So we get this principle—God’s promises never are fulfilled in the sense in which they seem to have been given. Life is a deception; its anticipations, which are God’s promises to the imagination, are never realised. They who know life best, and have trusted God most to fill it with blessings, are ever the first to say that life is a series of disappointments. And in the spirit of the text we have to say, that it is a wise and merciful arrangement which ordains it thus.
I. The deception of life’s promise.—The promise to Abraham was not delayed; it never was fulfilled. Abraham died a stranger and pilgrim in the land. In the later years of David, and earlier years of Solomon, the promise may seem to have been fulfilled. But Scripture distinctly said of the old heroes, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises.” Those who believe that the Jews will be restored to their native land expect it on the express ground that Canaan has never been actually and permanently theirs. And such is life’s disappointment.
1. Our senses deceive us; we begin life with delusion.
2. Our natural anticipations deceive us—natural in contradistinction to extravagant expectations.
3. Our expectations, resting on revelation, deceive us. The world’s history has turned round two points of hope,—one, the first; the other, the second coming of the Messiah. In the first the promise of the letter was unfulfilled; the second has disappointed many generations. There are two ways of considering this aspect of life,—one is the way of sentiment; the other is the way of faith. The sentimental way is trite enough. Life is a bubble, a dream, a delusion, a phantasm. The saints accepted the fact, but they did not mournfully moralise over it, because they knew that the promise itself had a deeper meaning.
II. What is the meaning of this delusiveness?—
1. It serves to allure us on. Life is an education. God leads us on, through life’s unsatisfying and false reward, ever educating: Canaan first; then the hope of a Redeemer; then the millennial glory. Observe the beautiful result which comes from this indestructible power of believing in spite of failure.
2. This non-fulfilment of promise fulfils it in a deeper way. Life is not deception, but illusion. Distinguish between illusion and delusion. The reward we get is not the reward for which we worked, but a deeper one—deeper and more permanent. The merchant labours all his life, and the hope which leads him on is perhaps wealth. At sixty years of age he attains wealth; but is that the reward of sixty years of toil? No! a reward deeper than he dreamed of. Habits of perseverance, a character trained by industry—that is his reward. He was carried on from year to year by, if he were wise, illusion; if he were unwise, delusion; but he reaped a more enduring substance in himself. This is what God does. His promises are true, though illusive—far truer than we at first take them to be. We look for a mean, low, sensual happiness, all the while He is leading us on to a spiritual blessedness—unfathomly deep. This is the life of faith. We live by faith, not by sight. We do not preach that all is disappointment—the dreary creed of sentimentalism; but we preach that nothing here is disappointment, if rightly understood. God has no Canaan for His own, no milk and honey for the luxury of the senses; for the city which hath foundations is built in the soul of man. He in whom God-like character dwells has all the universe for his own. If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.—F. W. Robertson.
Hebrews 11:8. Following an Invisible but a Present Guide.—Abraham is the one man of his age who stands in the sharpest contrast with the men around him. His ideas were different from theirs. He saw more than they could see. He ordered his life upon considerations which were quite foreign to them. Their sphere was “the seen and temporal”; his sphere was the “unseen and eternal.” To them God was a name; to him God was the only reality. In Him Abraham, consciously and willingly, “lived and moved and had his being.” Other tribes migrated, moving southwards, upon the impulsion of natural race instincts. Abraham led his tribe to the south-west under a conscious Divine leading. He went where he knew that God would have him go. “He went out, not knowing whither he went,” but well knowing that all his movements were in the direction of the Divine wisdom, and well assured that all his wants would be supplied from the Divine bounty. Abraham differed from all the men of his time in the keenness of his sense of God, and the quickness of his response to every revelation of the will of God. He is the father of a race whose supreme racial peculiarity is its sensitiveness to the presence and to the claim of God. But it may be asked, How could Abraham, more than any other man, know for certain that what he heard was really the voice of the living God? The answer may be, That no man can know anything for certain that belongs to the spiritual spheres, but some men are much more sensitive to spiritual impressions than others; and every man is responsible for his beliefs, and for his conduct in relation to his belief.—Revelation by Character.
Hebrews 11:9. Expectant Tent-dwellers.—Tent-dwelling was a stage and a variety in the housing of humanity, but it was in no sense a finality. It properly belonged to a time when the various races were restlessly moving in search of permanent settlements. So there was hope of the fixed house even in the movable tent. Man’s first habitations were the spaces round trunks of trees, the lower leafy branches being drawn down and fastened to the ground as slanting roofs. Then pyramidal bowers were made, distinct from the tree trunks, but of tree branches; these developed into and suggested the form of tents, which developed into the sloping roofed hut or house of wood or stone.
Hebrews 11:10. The Way to the City.—We have here an object for faith, and faith for the object; or we have the city and the way to it.
I. The City.—Let us thank God for that word—or these—“a country”; “a better country, that is, an heavenly.” How do these familiar terms fill up for us the dim and vast obscure! They make a home for our wandering thoughts; they give an answer to our wondering inquiries.
(1) The city is very ancient;
(2) very strong and stable;
(3) it is all built by God. To set face towards this city is the noblest attitude a man can assume; to look for it as Abraham did is the highest exercise of faith; and to journey to it through all discouragements is the supreme wisdom, and will bring us, through God’s goodness, within its everlasting gates.
II. The way to the city.—It is to “look for” it, to expect it. It is the way of faith. Without faith, showing itself by a life-long looking, we have no interest in the place. A whole city for a look, only it must be the look of the whole soul, continued through the whole life, until the city appears. There are those who would be willing enough to think themselves into a celestial city. But that is not the way. Others would be very willing to buy themselves into it. It cannot be discerned by knowledge; it cannot be won by strength or by merit. The unseen city can be won by looking, only it must be the whole soul acting in faith, rising in desire, answering to the word and assurance of God in reference to the life to come.—Alexander Raleigh, D.D.
The Hope of Abraham.—Abraham is spoken of as the “Friend of God” and the “Father of the Faithful.” Fixing attention on these two titles of nobility, and measuring his rank by these, note that—
I. Abraham was a wanderer, a homeless man, a sojourner in the land of promise.—And this not on account of poverty, nor because he had no real estate. (The land of Canaan was in a sense his own.) Possibly the homelessness of Abraham may be explained by the fact that the Canaanite was then in the land, and would not let him settle. It may be thought that his keeping to a wandering life shows him to have been a mere barbarian. Or perhaps he regarded it as a wrong thing to lead a settled life in towns and cities. Or perhaps the nature of his property, flocks and herds, necessitated this constant migration for food. None of these suggestions are satisfactory. He “looked for,” expected, a city. Abraham was not wandering in search of a city upon earth; he lived in quiet expectation of a city. It was the “patience of hope” that rendered Abraham indifferent to the walled cities of the Canaanites around him, whose antiquity was of ancient days, and whose defence was the munitions of rocks. Nothing so effectively breeds indifference to present objects as the hope of better things to come. But what sort of a city did he look for, in contempt of those around him? It had foundations, permanent ones. Its builder and maker was God. The foundations of His structures are laid deep in His decrees, and the cement has been growing hard from all eternity. We call the city “heaven.”
II. See the marked resemblance between Abraham’s case and our own.—We know that our abode on earth is only for a time; it is not the place of our rest. And of this we are receiving constant admonitions. The feeling of uneasiness, the sense of homelessness, is incompatible with happiness. In order to be happy, you must have a home, either present or in prospect. Earthly homes, in reference to eternity, are nothing worth. Then the more unsatisfactory you find this world, look the more eagerly and steadfastly on that which is to come. Do not, however, imagine that mere expectation is alone required. There is but one path to the city, and that is a narrow one. It is the path of humble, childlike faith. We know from the life of Christ Himself that Abraham desired to see His day, and saw it, and was glad. It was faith in God’s mercy, and that was counted to him for righteousness. It was a firm belief that God would set forth a propitiation for the sins of men, and a hearty acceptance of the pardon thus provided for himself. These are the footsteps of the Father of the Faithful. If, then, you are merely looking forward to the happiness of heaven, without knowing or caring how it is to be obtained, learn from the example of Abraham that you must renounce all sin and self-reliance, and believe in Jesus Christ for the salvation of your souls, if you would look, with any well-grounded hope, for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.—J. A. Alexander, D.D.
Hebrews 11:9-10. The Practical Faith of Abraham.—The record of Abraham’s life sets before us a series of incidents, but each is intended to convince us how truly “faith in God” was the mainspring and moving principle of his whole life. The more prominent of these instances are:
(1) his leaving his native home to go forth as a wanderer into a strange land;
(2) his sojourning in that land hopefully, though he might purchase and possess in it only a grave;
(3) his patience under the promise of an heir which the lapse of long years found unfulfilled;
(4) his acceptance of the Divine will that the son should be born in his old age; and
(5) his simple obedience in going forth to offer his son on Mount Moriah. And such faith is the only basis on which a true religion can be built; it is the only centre round which a religious creed or system or life can gather. No religion can rest securely upon knowledge; for knowledge can never be sure or perfect; it can never reach beyond the probable. To pass out of the sphere of faith is to pass out of the sphere of the creature, and make our claim to the independent rights of the Creator; and so it is to change the very conditions of our being.
Sarah the Princess.—Sarah is the first woman who is fully introduced to us in Holy Scripture. Eve is a kind of ideal of womanhood. Sarah is the first fellow-woman who evidently passed through the common human experiences. The narrative that deals with her is blended with that of her husband. She was the companion of his life-wanderings for probably a hundred years. Only on very few occasions do we find her acting independently. But these cases should be carefully noticed. She is introduced as a wife. She stood in close family relations to Abraham. Her name was changed from Sarai to Sarah. She went with Abraham to Egypt. Explain her deception to save her husband. Eastern kings claimed the right to seize any woman for their harems. Then came the promise of seed in her old age. Sarah wondered how it could be fulfilled, and thought she must aid the fulfilment, so she gave her maid to Abraham as a wife. Tell the story of Hagar and Ishmael. The promise was renewed to Abraham in such a way that Sarah could hear it. Notice Sarah’s domestic virtues. Estimate her laugh. Not wholly the laugh of incredulity. Then comes the visit to Gerar, and a repetition of the deception to save Abraham. This time Sarah suffered a severe rebuke. Buy a veil, and adopt civilised customs. No longer expose your wife thus to rude gaze. Then Isaac was born; and motherly jealousies awoke, which led Sarah to act cruelly. Ishmael was then a youth of twelve. His mocking. Sarah schemed to get authority over Hagar, who had secured wifely rights by giving birth to Ishmael. Isaac’s safety was ensured. There is a tradition that Sarah’s death really came about through hearing that Isaac had been taken off to be sacrificed. Her husband showed profound grief at her death, which took place when she was one hundred and twenty-seven years old.
I. Sarah’s natural disposition.—We require to know this if we would estimate her properly. What we are as Christians very much depends on what we are as men. Sarah was affectionate, but impulsive, jealous, and imperious. In view of our natural dispositions, some of us must be thought of as remarkable triumphs of grace.
II. Sarah’s wifeliness.—This is one of the New Testament points in its mention of her. Sharing cheerfully her husband’s lot; accepting and keeping to her department; showing wifely obedience and deference. A good wife is from the Lord. The wifely mission is a most noble one. The true wife is Sarah’s daughter.
III. Sarah’s motherliness.—A mother’s joy; a mother’s care; a mother’s jealousy. True love is near akin to jealousy, but it must not run into it.
IV. Sarah’s godliness.—The text infers piety. She shared her husband’s religion. She had a religion of her own. Its essence was faith. Not just faith in a promise made to her; but that nobler thing, faith in Him who made her the promise. This is the true and saving faith—faith in God. Her faith was subjected to severe tests. Untested faith is worth but little. Faith won out of conflict and doubt alone is worthy. The very essence of godliness is in this text. What Sarah was in Abraham’s estimation is shown in the pathetic statement concerning her, “Abraham rose up from before his dead.” We can imagine what he had been doing.
So in Sarah there is much to commend. Notice in conclusion:
1. Her God—the “faithful Promiser.”
2. Her faith. “Nothing too hard for the ‘faithful Promiser.’ ”
Sarah.—What is so often said of men may be said also of women; they must be judged in the setting of their age. Early Bible women could not have the trained and restrained characters we expect to find in these days. Sarah the wife of an Arab sheikh. Died aged one hundred and twenty-seven. Her story is subordinate to Abraham’s. She only appears occasionally in the record. Her family relationship to Abraham, other than that of wife, is somewhat uncertain.
I. See the good in Sarah.—
1. Loving companionship. Proved by her husband’s sorrow at the time of her death.
2. Trustful obedience. Seen in the times of perplexity in Egypt and in Gerar.
3. Motherly affection, which easily ran into jealousy.
II. See the frailties in Sarah.—
1. Womanly impatience. She tried to make a fulfilment of God’s promise of a son somehow. She could not wait for God’s time and way.
2. Jealousy. Seen when Hagar had a son, and again when she herself had a Song of Song of Solomon 3. Incredulity. Laughing at the Divine assurance. All her weaknesses belonged to her womanhood. Judged simply as a character, Sarah may possibly be found in every way estimable.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 11
Hebrews 11:9. Sojourners on Earth.—A going away to America is only a journey for a few weeks. Even Australia has become an object for adventurous tourists. The every-day leave-takings of this changeful life, be it in the iron age of railways, or in the age of aeronautic expedition and transit—these sad necessities of earthly existence remind us that this is not our rest, that we are but sojourners here, as in a strange land. Farewells are written everywhere, at home and abroad, in birth, in death, in marriage, on the black-edged paper and the marble tablet, over the hatchment, on the ivy-mantled ruin, everywhere.—S. B. James.
All Things change.—All things that are, are in condition of perpetual flux and change. The cloud-rack has the likeness of bastions and towers, but they are mist, not granite, and the wind is every moment sweeping away their outlines, till the phantom fortress topples into red ruin while we gaze. The tiniest stream eats out its little valley, and rounds the pebble in its widening bed; rain washes down the soil, and frost cracks the cliffs above. So silently and yet mightily does the law of change work, that to a meditative eye the solid earth seems almost molten and fluid, and the everlasting mountains tremble to decay.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Hebrews 11:10. The Celestial City.—A city never built with hands, nor hoary with the years of time—a city, whose inhabitants no census has numbered—a city, through whose streets rush no tides of business, nor nodding hearse creeps slowly with its burden to the tomb—a city, without griefs or graves, without sins or sorrows, without births or burials, without marriages or mournings—a city, which glories in having Jesus for its King, angels for its guards, saints for its citizens, whose walls are salvation, and whose gates are praise.—Guthrie.