Manasseh the evil son of Hezekiah ordered him sawed in two. He went out, not knowing whither he went. What comes in between the two? This is the last thing which Moses records respecting the patriarchs, and it deserves to be particularly noticed; for wealth, luxuries, and honors, made not the holy man to forget the promise, nor detained him in Egypt; and this was an evidence of no small faith. [2.] It was only owing to the blindness of Israel. And I see the evidence of God's existence, and thus, faith. Hereby he judged and condemned the world; his holy fear condemned their security and vain confidence; his faith condemned their unbelief; his obedience condemned their contempt and rebellion. 2M views 7 years ago #BibleVideo #BibleProject #Hebrews Watch our overview video on the book of Hebrews, which breaks down the literary design of the book and its flow of thought. It may come from conscience; it may come from some direct word of God to our souls; it may come from the advice or the rebuke of some good and godly man; it may leap out at us from God's Book or challenge us in some sermon. But in Cain's heart there was still bitter envy. (2.) There were those in the ancient world who believed in the gods, but they believed that they lived out in the spaces between the worlds, entirely unaware of these strange animals called men. (2.) There it was written, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." As those who would follow the faithful steps of Abraham would die and would come into this compartment of hell, Abraham would say, "Don't worry, God's faithful. 2 for by it the men of old gained approval. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt" (Genesis 50:22-26, ESV). This was the very thing that these Jewish Christians were shrinking, from, if not rebelling against. But if so, He was the Priest after the order of Melchisedec, as well as seated at Jehovah's right hand a cardinal truth of Christianity, the import of which the Jews did not receive in their conception of the Messiah. I may not live to see it, death may come to me before that promise becomes a fact; but I am a link in its fulfilment. He, too, died faithful. Hereby he judged and condemned the world; his holy fear condemned their security and vain confidence; his faith condemned their unbelief; his obedience condemned their contempt and rebellion. This is life itself, and to the Hebrews blood always stood for life. The strength of nature, as well as grace, is from God: he can make the barren soul fruitful, as well as the barren womb. He that possesses the one must not eschew the other. The twenty-four elders fall on their faces before the throne and take their crowns and cast them on the glassy sea and they say, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor; for You have created all things, and for Your pleasure they are and were created" ( Revelation 4:11 ). He lives in it and he dies in it; and it is the possession of it which makes him act as he does. It was said that 80,000 Jews were killed and 10,000 sold into captivity. They had not received the promises, that is, they had not received the things promised, they had not yet been put into possession of Canaan, they had not yet seen their numerous issue, they had not seen Christ in the flesh. And for this cause he is mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death, for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, the called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance." 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. We can understand, therefore, both the delicacy that thus entreated them, and the meaning of the added words, "for also in few words I have written to you." Christ brings a new priesthood, not mentioned by Moses (12-14) IV. "Now of the things that are being spoken of this is a summary: We have such an high priest, who is set down on [the] right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the holies, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." (3.) There is no mystery in all creation like the love of God. And Isaac, being in the prime of his youth, could have easily overpowered his Dad and said, "Okay, Dad, that's enough. 22 By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones. The Stoics held that the gods had given men the gift of life and the still greater gift of taking their own lives away. God is the God of all true believers; faith gives them an interest in God, and in all his fullness. They disobeyed the order of the Pharaoh. For without faith it is impossible to please God. (i) It is belief in God against the world. This statement is so much the more remarkable, because in the beginning of this epistle he had pointed out what became God. does not express eternity (which would be , or some such form of words) but "for continuance." The substitutionary lamb preserving the firstborn. Then, the legend tells, the Egyptians struck upon a cruel scheme. XII. God saved his family for his sake; it was well for them that they were Noah's sons and daughters; it was well for those women that they married into Noah's family; perhaps they might have married to great estates in other families, but then they would have been drowned. They did not send an army to oppose him; such was the might of Rome that they did not need to. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left. Here, too, he begins to introduce what a. priest does, that is, the exercise of his functions. BELIEVING THE INCREDIBLE ( Hebrews 11:11-12 ). When he came to pronounce the blessing, he trembled very exceedingly (Genesis 27:33); and he charged Jacob that he had subtly taken away Esau's blessing, Genesis 27:33, Genesis 27:35. That God will not suffer the injuries done to his people to remain unpunished, nor their sufferings unrewarded. A woman's weakness had become strength to save her country. An evil life it is to go from house to house. In Hebrews 11:17, the tense of offered indicates that in purpose and intent, he offered Isaac. Isaac has to have children, because God has to keep His word. I know that God's word is faithful. These are the things of which the writer to the Hebrews is thinking; and these are things which we do well to remember. When Bunyan was in gaol he was thinking of what must happen to his family if he was executed. That God would not suffer Abel's faith to die with him, but would raise up others, who should obtain like precious faith; and so he did in a little time; for in the next verse we read. In the lives of Elijah ( 1 Kings 17:17 ff.) Accordingly we have the third use of the seat Christ has taken. The reward of his faith in this great trial (, He blessed them; that is, he resigned them up to God in covenant; he recommended God and religion to them; he prayed for them, and prophesied concerning them, what would be the condition, and the condition of their descendants: we have the account of this in. [3.] Its force implies that it is not merely what He did once, but what He is also doing still. He was always an outsider and only on payment a member of the community. God is able to raise the dead, to raise dead bodies, and to raise dead souls. The reason for the success of his salvation - his ability to deal with both our outward sins and our inward condition - is that he lives forever with power to save. But Christendom has wholly failed to profit by the call, and is doomed to perish by a judgment yet more solemn and wide-spread than that which swept away the ancient temple. When he dwelt in Mesopotamia, he had a promise to bring him into Canaan; and when he got there, he had a promise of what was higher to lead his heart above. Jewish and eastern legends gathered largely round Abraham's name and some of them must have been known to the writer to the Hebrews. To the writer of the letter to the Hebrews Moses was pre-eminently the man of faith. Further, that this Priest was to be a living one, in some most singular manner to be an undying Priest, was made evident beyond question, because in that Psalm it is said, "He testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." And so as Isaac was with his father now, the two of them walking towards Moriah, Isaac said, "Father, here is the wood and we've got the fire, but where is the sacrifice? 1. Can there be a doubt that Christianity is meant? So, by faith we believe that the worlds were formed by the word of God so that the things that we do see, the things that appear, are made out of things which cannot be seen or do not appear. So Abel, who was a shepherd, took his best lamb to the place of sacrifice; but Cain, who was a tiller of the ground, took the poorest sheaf of corn he could find and laid it on the altar. When the sun was shining, his conduct must have looked like that of a fool. He does not reason from the singular circumstance that there was no incense, any more than sacrifice. The latter is not referred to, because it represents the millennial glory; the former is, because it finds its proper fulfilment in that which is made good in the Christian scheme now. She was a Canaanite, a. 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. He was looking for the kingdom of God and confessing that, "I'm not permanent here. Among the noble army of believing worthies, bravely marshalled by the apostle, Rahab comes in the rear, to show that God is no respecter of persons. Search Results in Other Versions. [5.] Was Isaac his only son? These men had the something beyond--and so may we. Many times a person is trying to shortcut himself into fellowship with God. Always in this sense in N.T. 23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. The supports of his faith. It was therefore necessary that the representations of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. Abraham said, 'They have the law and the prophets; if they will not believe the law and the prophets, neither would they believe, even though one came back from the dead. They endeavoured to lay aside every weight, to gird up the loins of their minds to mind their way, to keep company and pace with their fellow-travellers, looking for difficulties, and bearing them, and longing to get home. Smegma Oriental. Such is the true sense of the passage. He was willing to take his lot with the people of God here, though it was a suffering lot, that he might have his portion with them hereafter, rather than to enjoy all the sensual sinful pleasures of Pharaoh's court, which would be but for a season, and would then be punished with everlasting misery. After all, the telling fact was before them that, whoever wrote the epistle to the Hebrews, it was not a Christian who wrote the book of Genesis, but Moses; and Moses bears witness to the homage which Abram rendered to Melchisedec by the payment of tithes. And a lot has been made over that. The riches and honours of Joseph, as they could not secure him from death, so they did not make him unmindful of it; nor was he afraid of dying, or uneasy about it; nor did his prosperity make him proud, or above speaking to his brethren, nor revengeful to them, nor unthoughtful of their future afflictions; nor did his affluence of temporal things take off his regards to divine promises, nor weaken his faith in them, which is here commended in the following instances; as that at the time of his death. 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Hence, in Hebrews 8:1-13, the apostle draws his conclusion. I. When they came to Haran, he could have turned around and gone back into Babylon. (v) There was the great act of the crossing of the Red Sea. (2.) That he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. Her story is recounted in Joshua 2 and 6. Now after the apostle has given this account of the faith of others, with Abraham, he returns to him again, and gives us an instance of the greatest trial and act of faith that stands upon record, either in the story of the father of the faithful or of any of his spiritual seed; and this was his offering up Isaac: 1. Than sumptuous fare in the house of strangers. And the apostle shows that we need not only a perfect pattern in the walk of faith, but chastenings by the way. It was by faith that they crossed the Red Sea as if they were going through dry land and that the Egyptians, when they ventured to try to do so, were engulfed. I'm looking for my dwelling with God in His eternal kingdom. 1. Stevenson tells of an old byreman who spent all his days amidst the muck of the byre. as well as done by him, extraordinary. There is danger in goodness, for in its light evil stands condemned. For, before this change came to him it was testified that he pleased God. The lamb sacrificed for the house. Who through faith subdued kingdoms, they wrought righteousness, they obtained promises, they stopped the mouths of lions, [probably referring to Daniel] they quenched the violence of fire, [probably referring to the three Hebrew children delivered from the fiery furnace] they escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness they were made strong, they waxed valiant in fight, and they turned to flight the armies of the aliens. To us all is given the tremendous task of helping God make his promises come true. "For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator." One of the tragedies of life is the number of people who turn back just a little too soon. And he knew that God having given him by a miracle, could also by a miracle sustain him until the promise of God was fulfilled through Isaac.Continuing down through history. His faith was supported by the sense he had of the mighty power of God, who was able to raise the dead; he reasoned thus with himself, and so he resolved all his doubts. They were stoned; they were sawn asunder; they underwent every kind of trial; they died by the murder of the sword. But if not, his will be done." For Moses to withdraw to Midian was not an act of fear; it was an act of courage. And the Lord said, "I will bless Ishmael and make of him a nation, but Sarah is going to bear a child, and through Sarah shall thy seed be called" ( Genesis 17:18-21 ). Now after the apostle has given this account of the faith of others, with Abraham, he returns to him again, and gives us an instance of the greatest trial and act of faith that stands upon record, either in the story of the father of the faithful or of any of his spiritual seed; and this was his offering up Isaac: By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son, Hebrews 11:17. The actings of her faith. . He must believe that God is, and that he is what he is, what he has revealed himself to be in the scripture, a Being of infinite perfections, subsisting in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We do not know the steps of His work, until we come to the preparation of an abode for man. I know that you will not withhold anything from Me. What can you do but be true to a heritage like that?". It so happens that he is the first man in the Bible to be called dikaios ( G1342) , righteous ( Genesis 6:9). ", The Arabs have a different legend. blessed each of the sons of Joseph and prayed leaning, on the head of his staff. They could not understand how it was they should come into greater trouble than before. "For by it the elders obtained a good report." How great a temptation Moses was under. they wandered in deserts, and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth [Elijah]. Sometimes his stay was strictly limited. He didn't build any cities. And here also we consider. Do I have the faith, the quality of faith that endures? He had a divine revelation, whether by voice or vision does not appear; but it was such as carried in it its own evidence; he was. The answer is, by sacrifice. For, [1.] Now people who speak like that make it quite clear that they are searching for a fatherland. The Jewish town of Bethulia had determined to surrender in five days' time for its supplies of food and water were at an end. Genesis 4:2-7; Genesis 5:21-24; Genesis 6:8-14). In Hebrews 6:1-20, we saw that the Spirit of God brings in a most solemn warning for those who turn their back on the power and presence of the Holy Ghost, as bearing witness of Christianity. They only saw them from far away and greeted them from afar, and they admitted that they were strangers and sojourners upon the earth. (1.) We see the leaves that are blowing. For that goodness, for the blessings, for the richness that is ours through Jesus Christ, for the promises and for the hope. If we formed our Christian character practically on such epistles as those to the Ephesians and Colossians alone, depend on it there may not be the hard lines of the law, but there will be very far from the fervent affections which become him who feels the grace of Christ. FAITH AND ITS SECRET ( Hebrews 11:23-29 ). Note, Those that are once effectually and savingly called out of a sinful state have no mind to return into it again; they now know better things. In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. 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. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. These nomads from the desert had no artillery and no siege-engines. But mark another striking and instructive feature of this chapter. (6.) II. "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, in virtue of the blood of the everlasting covenant, perfect you in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight "through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for the ages of the ages. Men the gift of life and the still greater gift of life the... 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