Hebrews 11:8-19 - Homiletics

Faith of the Hebrew Pilgrim Fathers.

What Anglo-Saxon could look without emotion on the granite boulder at New Plymouth—"the corner-stone of a nation"—upon which the Pilgrim Fathers of New England stepped ashore from the Mayflower? And, in like manner, what Jew can think but with enthusiasm of those three glorious names—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? The verses before us were well fitted to stir the hearts' blood of the Hebrews to whom this treatise was addressed. And they should stir ours too; for these patriarchs are the Pilgrim Fathers of all the men of faith. We shall consider the passage chiefly in connection with Abraham, the father of the faithful. In his spiritual life there were at least four great crises—four occasions upon which his faith was severely tried, and came forth victorious. The apostle introduces his reference to each of these with the expression which is the refrain of the whole chapter—" By faith" ( Hebrews 11:8 , Hebrews 11:9 , Hebrews 11:11 , Hebrews 11:17 ).

I. ABRAHAM 'S FAITH WAS SHOWN IN HIS EMIGRATION . ( Hebrews 11:8 ) It was a hard command which he received, to leave his native country, and to cast himself upon the bare promise of God for another home. He had to break the ties which bound him to the scenes of his youth. He was at first ignorant as to what country he was going. His long journey would expose him to hardships and dangers. Yet Abraham did not hesitate to obey. He gathered his flocks together, and set out with his household caravan. It was impossible that he could have comprehended the large plan of Providence, of which only one little corner was unfolded in his call; but the precept and the promise were sufficient to determine his action. So he put his hand trustfully into the great hand of God, and allowed him to guide his feet. Abraham's emigration was the first link in the golden chain of the triumphs of his faith. It teaches us such lessons as these—that personal religion

II. ABRAHAM 'S FAITH WAS SHOWN IN HIS LIFELONG PILGRIMAGE . ( Hebrews 11:9 , Hebrews 11:10 , Hebrews 11:13-16 ) When he arrived in Canaan, the patriarch found that he was not to receive immediate possession of the land. Indeed, while he lived, it remained stilt but "the land of promise." He dwelt in tents. He did not build any walled city. The only piece of ground which he ever acquired was a burying-place. But his view of the meaning of the covenant expanded with his spiritual experience. Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob, gradually learned that the promise of an inheritance in the literal Canaan was in their own case an illusion. Yet they did not conclude that it had been a delusion. They learned to understand the promises spiritually, and were persuaded that God would fulfill his word even to themselves, in a deeper way than at first they had dreamed. So they steadfastly maintained their faith; and, viewing Canaan as a type of heaven, "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Abraham was content to feel always from home in this world. Although he became immensely wealthy, he continued spiritually a pilgrim. His maxim was not that of sense, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush; "rather, as a prince of the men of faith," he looked for the city which hath the foundations." The fatherland for which he longed was not the place of his birth, else he could easily have recrossed the Euphrates ( Hebrews 11:15 ). "The heirs of the promise" sought their home in heaven. And so, "These all died in faith," is the epitaph common to all the monuments in Patriarchs ' Corner of the abbey church of the Old Testament. And because they so died, God condescended to take one of his great Bible-names from those Hebrew Pilgrim Fathers—"The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

III. ABRAHAM 'S FAITH WAS SHOWN DURING HIS PROTRACTED CHILDLESSNESS . ( Hebrews 11:11 , Hebrews 11:12 ) This severe trial Sarah shared with him. If the faith of Abraham forms, as it were, the magnificent frontispiece of the volume of Jewish history, Sarah's faith occupies the positron of the vignette upon the title-page ( Isaiah 51:2 ). The time came when the birth of a child to them was, humanly speaking, doubly impossible; and yet God said that the covenant would not be fulfilled in the line of Ishmael. Had it not been for their faith, accordingly, Sarah's son Isaac would never have been born; and the promise could not have been realized that Abraham should have a posterity—both natural and spiritual—numerous as the stars in the Eastern sky, or as the sand-grains upon the shore of ocean.

IV. ABRAHAM 'S FAITH WAS SHOWN IN THE SACRIFICE OF HIS SON . ( Hebrews 11:17-19 ) This extraordinary event was the final strain to which his faith was subjected. It was a dreadful ordeal, and one from which even most good men would have recoiled with horror. The patriarch was commanded to offer up the most precious of all sacrifices. He was to perform a deed abhorrent to the most sacred human affection. He was required to put to death the heir of the Divine promise, and thus appear to destroy the hopes which clustered round him. Yet by faith Abraham sustained this last and crowning trial. His submission was entire. His obedience was perfect. The apostle says definitely that he "offered up Isaac;" for the sacrifice was completely accomplished in the patriarch's will before the angel stayed his hand. And what was the faith which comforted his heart and nerved his arm, at this unparalleled crisis of his spiritual life? Abraham accounted that "God is able to raise up, even from the dead." He was sure that Isaac would be restored to life again, rather than that the promise should fail. Isaac's resurrection would not be a greater miracle than his birth had been. And, the apostle adds, the patriarch really did receive Isaac from the dead, figuratively speaking ( Hebrews 11:19 ). An achievement so sublime evinced that complete self-consecration and submission to God's will which belongs only to perfect faith, and thus certifies Abraham's right to the lofty title of "father of the faithful."

APPLICATION .

1. Are we ready to obey any call of God, whether relating to our outer life or to our soul-life?

2. Do we feel ourselves to be "strangers and pilgrims on the earth," or could we take an eternity of our present life, provided our material circumstances were comfortable?

3. Have we the faith which can laugh at impossibilities rather than disbelieve the Divine promise?

4. Have we unreservedly consecrated to God our soul, our life, our all? Happy is each heart that can "make melody to the Lord" in the words of the hymn—

"The God of Abraham praise,

At whose supreme command

From earth I rise, and seek the joys

At his right hand.

I all on earth forsake,—

Its wisdom, fame, and power;

And him my only Portion make,

My Shield and Tower."

(Olivers)