Acknowledged Admitted Afar Aliens Blessings Confessed Delight Died Distance Embraced Exiles Faith Foreigners Greeted Heritage Persuaded Pilgrims Possession Promised Promises Receive Received Receiving Saluted Sojourners Strangers Themselves Wanderers Welcomed Witness
11:13 These all died in {g} faith, not having received the {h} promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of [them], and {i} embraced [them], and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
(g) In faith, which they had while they lived, and followed, them even to their grave.
(h) This is the figure metonymy, for the things promised.
(i) For the patriarchs were given to profess their religion by building an altar and calling on the name of the Lord when they received the promises.
11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises. All the patriarchs named. They died without the fulfillment of the promises, either those of a temporal possession or of an innumerable seed.
Having seen them afar off. They beheld them in the future by faith.
Confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. By their whole lives that they were pilgrims. They had no fixed home and were waiting for a country.
11:13 All these - - Mentioned Heb 11:7 - 11. Died in faith - In death faith acts most vigorously. Not having received the promises - The promised blessings. Embraced - As one does a dear friend when he meets him.
11:8-19 We are often called to leave worldly connexions, interests, and comforts. If heirs of Abraham's faith, we shall obey and go forth, though not knowing what may befall us; and we shall be found in the way of duty, looking for the performance of God's promises. The trial of Abraham's faith was, that he simply and fully obeyed the call of God. Sarah received the promise as the promise of God; being convinced of that, she truly judged that he both could and would perform it. Many, who have a part in the promises, do not soon receive the things promised. Faith can lay hold of blessings at a great distance; can make them present; can love them and rejoice in them, though strangers; as saints, whose home is heaven; as pilgrims, travelling toward their home. By faith, they overcome the terrors of death, and bid a cheerful farewell to this world, and to all the comforts and crosses of it. And those once truly and savingly called out of a sinful state, have no mind to return into it. All true believers desire the heavenly inheritance; and the stronger faith is, the more fervent those desires will be. Notwithstanding their meanness by nature, their vileness by sin, and the poverty of their outward condition, God is not ashamed to be called the God of all true believers; such is his mercy, such is his love to them. Let them never be ashamed of being called his people, nor of any of those who are truly so, how much soever despised in the world. Above all, let them take care that they are not a shame and reproach to their God. The greatest trial and act of faith upon record is, Abraham's offering up Isaac, Ge 22:2. There, every word shows a trial. It is our duty to reason down our doubts and fears, by looking, as Abraham did, to the Almighty power of God. The best way to enjoy our comforts is, to give them up to God; he will then again give them as shall be the best for us. Let us look how far our faith has caused the like obedience, when we have been called to lesser acts of self-denial, or to make smaller sacrifices to our duty. Have we given up what was called for, fully believing that the Lord would make up all our losses, and even bless us by the most afflicting dispensations?
Acknowledged Admitted Afar Blessings Confessed Delight Died Distance Earth Embraced End Exiles Faith Far Foreigners Greeted Heritage Persuaded Pilgrims Possession Promised Promises Receive Received Receiving Strangers Themselves Wanderers Welcomed Witness
Acknowledged Admitted Afar Blessings Confessed Delight Died Distance Earth Embraced End Exiles Faith Far Foreigners Greeted Heritage Persuaded Pilgrims Possession Promised Promises Receive Received Receiving Strangers Themselves Wanderers Welcomed Witness
