Hebrews 11:16 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

But now they desire a better country,— This made them carry their thoughts still further; and since they did not enjoy Canaan, nor see how Canaan could answer their expectations, they desired and expected a better country, that is, an heavenly. They had opportunities enough of returning to their own country, had they thought that the promises made to them were to be fulfilled in that country; but since they were persuaded of the truth of what was promised, and did so sincerely embrace it, and yet declared themselves strangers and sojourners here, they must expect a better country, that is, a heavenly, in which they might receive their reward. They knew that God cannot lie or deceive; they knew that God is a rewarder of them that seek him; and yet Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, notwithstanding the particular promises made to them, received nothing here which could in this sense be called a reward. They had not any possession in Canaan; no, not a place to set a foot on, that they could call their own; Acts 7:5. Could any thing be more obvious, than to turn their thoughts upon some place very different from that they lived in?—a better place of abode, wherein they might be made happy? None of them met with any such place here, and therefore they expected and desired a heavenly city,—a place of sure reward; and they had the more reason to expect this, because God called himself their God:—Wherefore God does not make them ashamed, in being called their God. It may be said, that their reward, or the good things promised them, were all things of this world; (see Genesis 12:3.) but to be called any one's God, or exceeding rich reward, must imply some advantages or privileges more than those worldly ones. There was therefore something more than the things of this world promised by God to Abraham, when he was pleased to call himself the God of Abraham. It is added, for he hath prepared them a city. Neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, had any place in Canaan which they could claim as their own, except a burying-place bought with their money; and if their posterity four hundred years afterwards had possession of Canaan, yet the patriarchs themselves were no more than travellers, and lived in tents: to be therefore their God, or their exceeding great reward, must imply something which did not happen to them upon earth; therefore it was something in a future state, which they expected, and really believed that they should have.