Hebrews 11:14

For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. FOR - Proof that "faith" (Hebrews 11:13) actuated them. DECLARE PLAINLY, [ emfanizousin (G1718)] - make it evident. SEEK, [ epizeetousin (G1934)] - 'seek after:' implying toward what their desires ever tend. A COUNTRY, [ patrida (G3968)] - 'a fatherland.' In confessing themselves strangers here, they evidently regard not this as their fatherland, but seek after a better....

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. An...

Verse 14. _DECLARE PLAINLY THAT THEY SEEK A COUNTRY._] A man's _country_ is that in which he has constitutional rights and privileges; no stranger or sojourner has any such rights in the country where he sojourns. These, by declaring that they felt themselves strangers and sojourners, professed their faith in a heavenly country and state, and looked beyond the grave for a place of happiness. No intelligent Jew could suppose that Canaan was all the _rest_ which God had promised to his people....

FOR THEY THAT SAY SUCH THINGS ... - That speak of themselves as having come into a land of strangers; and that negotiate for a small piece of land, not to cultivate, but to bury their dead. So we should think of any strange people coming among us now - who lived in tents; who frequently changed their residence; who became the purchasers of no land except to bury their dead, and who never spake of becoming permanent residents. We should think that they were in search of some place as their home, and that they had not yet found it. Such people were the Hebrew patriarchs. They lived and acted just as if they had not yet found a permanent habitation, but were traveling in search of one....

EXPOSITION HEBREWS 11:1 NOW FAITH IS THE SUBSTANCE _ _OF THINGS HOPED FOR, THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN. On the senses in which the word ὑπόστασις (translated "substance") may be used, see under Hebrews 1:2. As to the sense intended here, views differ. There are three possible ones, expressed in the text and margin of the A.V., _substance, ground, _and _confidence. _The first is understood by the Fathers generally, the idea being supposed to be that, inasmuch as things not yet experienced, but only hoped for, become real to us by faith, faith is metaphysically their substance, as substantiating them to us. So Theophilus: Οὐσίωσις τῶν μήπω ὄντων ὑπόστασις τῶν μὴ ὑφεστηκότων:_ _and Chrysostom, who

FOR THEY THAT SAY SUCH THINGS,.... That they are strangers and pilgrims on earth: DECLARE PLAINLY THAT THEY SEEK A COUNTRY; heaven, so called, for the largeness of it; it is a good land, a land of uprightness; a pleasant land, a land of rest, though a land afar off; here the Father of Christ, and Christ himself, and all his people dwell: the Syriac version renders it, "their own city"; the place of their nativity, of which they were citizens: the act of "seeking" it supposes some things, with respect to the place where they were, as that they were in a strange land, had no settlement there, nor satisfaction in it, and that they sat loose to the world, and the things of it; and some things respecting the country sought after, as that they were not in it; that it was at a distance from them; that they had some knowledge of it, and of the way to it; that their desires were after it, and th...

This is the Arc de Triomphe erected to the memory of the heroes of faith, whose names are here recorded by the apostle's inspired pen, with a brief mention of some of their most memorable actions. If it had not been for their faith, which moved them to accomplish such valiant deeds, we might not have known anything about them. Hebrews 11:1. _Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,_ Though the «things» are only «hoped for» and «not seen» at present, the eye of faith can see them, and the hand of faith can grasp them. Faith is more mighty than any of our senses, or than all our senses combined. Hebrews 11:2. _For by it the elders obtained a good report._ It is noteworthy that they obtained this «good report» by thei

IV. PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS AND EXHORTATIONS CHAPTER 11 _ 1. Faith in regard to creation and salvation (Hebrews 11:1)_ 2. The patience of faith (Hebrews 11:8) 3. The energy of faith (Hebrews 11:23) Hebrews 11:1 The disastrous effect of unbelief has been pointed out in the earlier part of this epistle (Hebrews 3:12; Hebrews 3:19; Hebrews 4:2) a

Passing now from the men of the primeval world, the writer comes to the patriarchs, and especially to Abraham, who stands out in the OT as the chief example of faith. Abraham showed his faith by his obedience to God's call, and by his refusal to make a permanent settlement in the land of Canaan, even though it had been promised to him. His heart was set on God's ultimate promise of an eternal rest in the heavenly city (Hebrews 11:10). His wife Sarah shared his faith and became a mother in her old age, so that Abraham, when his life seemed as good as ended, became the progenitor of a great people. And as the patriarchs lived in faith, so they died (Hebrews 11:13). They only saw the promises from afar, as the traveller sees the distant city which is his goal; and in their dying words they confessed that they wer

THE CHRISTIAN HOPE (Hebrews 11:1-3)...