Hebrews 11 11 20 commentary

HEBREWS 11 11-20 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
11 By faith Abraham, even though he was past
age--and Sarah herself was barren--was enabled
to become a father because he considered him
faithful who had made the promise.
1. BAR ES, "Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive
seed - The word “herself” here - αᆒτᆱ autē - implies that there was something
remarkable in the fact that “she” should manifest this faith. Perhaps there may be
reference here to the incredulity with which she at first received the announcement that
she should have a child; Gen_18:11, Gen_18:13. Even “her” strong incredulity was
overcome, and though everything seemed to render what was announced impossible,
and though she was so much disposed to laugh at the very suggestion at first, yet her
unbelief was overcome, and she ultimately credited the divine promise. The apostle does
not state the authority for his assertion that the strength of Sarah was derived from her
faith, nor when particularly it was exercised. The argument seems to be, that here was a
case where all human probabilities were against what was predicted, and where,
therefore, there must have been simple trust in God. Nothing else but “faith” could have
led her to believe that in her old age she would have borne a son.
When she was past age - She was at this time more than ninety years of age;
Gen_17:17; compare Gen_18:11.
Because she judged him faithful who had promised - She had no other ground of
confidence or expectation. All human probability was against the supposition that at her
time of life she would be a mother.
2. CLARKE, "Through faith also Sara - Her history, as far as the event here is
concerned, may be seen Gen_17:19, and Gen_21:2. Sarah at first treated the Divine
message with ridicule, judging it to be absolutely impossible, not knowing then that it
was from God; and this her age and circumstances justified, for, humanly speaking, such
an event was impossible: but, when she knew that it was God who said this, it does not
appear that she doubted any more, but implicitly believed that what God had promised
he was able to perform.
3. GILL, "Through faith also Sarah herself,.... Some copies add "being barren";
and so read the Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions; which is a circumstance
which makes her faith appear the greater: but it is a question whether the apostle speaks
of the faith of Sarah, or of Abraham; some think he speaks of Abraham's faith; and that it
was through his faith that Sarah conceived; and observe, that the last clause may be

rendered, "because he judged him faithful", &c. and the rather, because the apostle, both
before and after, is speaking of Abraham's faith, Heb_11:8. And in Heb_11:12 mention is
made only of one, even of Abraham; and in Rom_4:17 only notice is taken of Abraham's
faith, respecting this matter; nor is Sarah's faith observed in the history of it, but her
diffidence: but why may not Sarah be joined with Abraham, in this commendation, as
well as Isaac and Jacob? and though, at first, she distrusted, yet she afterwards feared,
and believed: other women are mentioned in this catalogue of believers; and they share
in the same grace and privileges as men: and Sarah, being a believer, as well as Abraham,
received strength to conceive seed: sometimes "strength" itself signifies seed, as in
Pro_31:3 and so to receive strength is to receive seed; which the female does from the
male; hence that saying of the Jews (t), the male does not receive strength from another,
but the female ‫כח‬ ‫מקבלת‬ "receiveth strength" from another; but here it is to be understood
of receiving power from God to retain seed, received from men, and conceive by it;
which Sarah, in her circumstances, without the interposition of the almighty power, could
never have done. The nymph Anobret is so called, in imitation of this conception of
Sarah's; or as she is called in the Phoenician language, ‫ענברת‬ ‫חן‬, which signifies "conceiving
by grace": as this conception must be entirely ascribed to the power and grace of God:
and was delivered of a child when she was past ageand was delivered of a child when she was past ageand was delivered of a child when she was past ageand was delivered of a child when she was past age; of bearing and bringing forth children, being
ninety years of age, Gen_17:17. Now though the conception, bearing, and bringing forth of
children are things natural, ordinary, and common, yet here was a particular promise respecting
this matter; and there were great difficulties in nature attending it, and such as to reason were
insuperable; but these were got over, through the power and grace of God, and which is ascribed
to faith in the faithfulness of a promising God:
because she judged him faithful who had promisedbecause she judged him faithful who had promisedbecause she judged him faithful who had promisedbecause she judged him faithful who had promised; that she should have a son at the time of life;
See Gill on Heb_10:23.
4. HE RY, "In the midst of the story of Abraham, the apostle inserts an account of the
faith of Sarah. Here observe,
1. The difficulties of Sarah's faith, which were very great. As, (1.) The prevalency of
unbelief for a time: she laughed at the promise, as impossible to be made good. (2.) She
had gone out of the way of her duty through unbelief, in putting Abraham upon taking
Hagar to his bed, that he might have a posterity. Now this sin of hers would make it more
difficult for her to act by faith afterwards. (3.) The great improbability of the thing
promised, that she should be the mother of a child, when she was of sterile constitution
naturally, and now past the prolific age.
2. The actings of her faith. Her unbelief is pardoned and forgotten, but her faith
prevailed and is recorded: She judged him faithful, who had promised, Heb_11:11. She
received the promise as the promise of God; and, being convinced of that, she truly
judged he both could and would perform it, how impossible soever it might seem to
reason; for the faithfulness of God will not suffer him to deceive his people.
3. The fruits and rewards of her faith. (1.) She received strength to conceive seed. The

strength of nature, as well as grace, is from God: he can make the barren soul fruitful, as
well as the barren womb. (2.) She was delivered of a child, a man-child, a child of the
promise, and comfort of his parents' advanced years, and the hope of future ages
5. JAMISO , "also Sara herself — though being the weaker vessel, and though at
first she doubted.
was delivered of a child — omitted in the oldest manuscripts: then translate, “and
that when she was past age” (Rom_4:19).
she judged him faithful who had promised — after she had ceased to doubt, being
instructed by the angel that it was no jest, but a matter in serious earnest.
6. CALVI , "Through faith also, Sarah herself, etc. That women may know that
this truth belongs to them as well as to men, he adduces the example of
Sarah; which he mentions in preference to that of others, because she
was the mother of all the faithful.
But it may seem strange that her faith is commended, who was openly
charged with unbelief; for she laughed at the word of the angel as
though it were a fable; and it was not the laugh of wonder and
admiration, for otherwise she would not have been so severely reproved
by the angel. It must indeed be confessed, that her faith was blended
with unbelief; [219] but as she cast aside her unbelief when reproved,
her faith is acknowledged by God and commended. What then she rejected
at first as being incredible, she afterwards as soon as she heard that
it came from God, obediently received.
And hence we deduce a useful doctrine, -- that when our faith in some
things wavers or halts, it ceases not to be approved of God, provided
we indulge not the spirit of unbelief. The meaning then is, that the
miracle which God performed when Isaac was born, was the fruit of the
faith of Abraham, and of his wife, by which they laid hold on the power
of God.
Because she judged him faithful, etc. These reasons, by which the power
and character of faith are set forth, ought to be carefully noticed.
Were any one only to hear that Sarah brought forth a child through
faith, all that is meant would not be conveyed to him, but the
explanation which the Apostle adds removes every obscurity; for he
declares that Sarah's faith was this, -- that she counted God to be
true to his word, that is, to what he had promised.
There are two clauses to this declaration; for we hence learn first,
that there is no faith without God's word, for of his faithfulness we
cannot be convinced, until he has spoken. And this of itself is
abundantly sufficient to confute the fiction of the sophists respecting
implicit faith; for we must ever hold that there is a mutual relation

between God's word and our faith. But as faith is founded chiefly,
according to what has been already said, on the benevolence or kindness
of God, it is not every word, though coming from his mouth, that is
sufficient; but a promise is necessary as an evidence of his favor.
Hence Sarah is said to have counted God faithful who had promised. True
faith then is that which hears God speaking and rests on his promise.
7. BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, “Sara
Faith triumphing over physical incapacity
I.
THE DIFFICULTIES OF FAITH IN THIS CASE: The desired good was contrary to
1. Nature.
2. Experience.
3. Personal worthiness.
II. THE BASIS OF THIS FAITH. Grounded entirely on God’s will. The removal of the
difficulty may be
1. The subject of distinct promise.
2. Necessary for obedience to certain commands.
3. The secret purpose of God, which faith leaves Him to fulfil, if so He pleases.
III. THE RESULT OF THIS FAITH.
1. Itself a source of victorious power.
2. Rewarded by God with victorious power. (C. New.)
Sarah’s faith
I. THE PERSON BELIEVING. A woman, weak in sex, may be strong in faith.
1. Many times the word doth not work presently: Sarah laugheth at first, but
afterwards believeth. Some that belong to the purposes of grace may stand out for a
while against the ways of God, till they are fully convinced; as Sarah laughed till she
knew it to be a word not spoken in jest, but a promise made in earnest.
2. Usually before the settling of faith there is a conflict. “Shall I have a child who am old,
my lord being old also?” Reason opposeth against the promise. So it is usual when we
come to settle the heart in the belief of any promise. Look, as when the fire beginneth to
be kindled we see smoke first before flame, so it is here before our comforts be
established, we are full of doubts; so that doubtings are a hopeful prognostic—it is a sign
men mind their condition.
3. With great indulgence, God hideth the defects of His children and taketh notice of
their graces.
II. THE COMMENDATION OF HER FAITH. From the influence of her faith.
1. “She received strength to conceive seed.” Learn hence
(1) That though bringing forth of children be according to the course of nature,
yet God hath a great hand in it.
(2) Let us improve it spiritually.
(3) Faith hath a great stroke in making way for blessings. “By faith she received strength

to conceive seed.” Means can do nothing without God, and God will do nothing without
faith (Mat_13:58).
2. From the effect of this influence—“And was delivered of a child”—I observe hence
(1) Every promise received by faith will surely be seconded with performance.
(2) Faith is the best midwife. By faith Sarah was delivered of a child.
3. From the application of her faith. “When she was past age.” There were two
difficulties—she was naturally barren (Gen_11:30) and she was now ninety years of
age, and it ceased to be with her “after the manner of woman”; and therefore here lay
the excellency of her faith, that she could believe that she should be the mother of a
mighty nation. Barren I say she was by natural constitution, and now no better than
dead, having so long outlived the natural time of bearing children. Learn hence—
That no difficulty or hindrance should cause a disbelief of the promise. The reasons,
are two—partly from God, that maketh the promise; partly from faith, that receiveth
the promise.
(1) From God’s nature. God is not tied to the order of second causes, much less to
the road of common probabilities; He will turn nature upside down rather than
not be as good as His word.
(2) From the nature of faith, which is to guide the soul when reason and sense faileth.
III. THE GROUND OF HER FAITH. Because she judged Him faithful that had
promised. Hence observe
1. Wherever we put forth faith we must have a promise, otherwise it is but fancy, not
faith. It is not a ground of expectation barely what God is able to do, but what God
will do. As the two pillars of Solomon’s house were called Jachin and Boaz (1Ki_7:21)
—the one signifies “Strength,” and the other “He will establish it.”
2. In closing with the promise, we should chiefly give God the honour of His faithfulness.
(1) Because God valueth this most, He standeth much of His truth. Heaven and
earth shall pass away before one jot or tittle of His word shall pass Mat_5:18).
The monuments of His power shall be defaced to make good His truth
(Psa_138:2). “Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy name.” All other
attributes give way to this.
(2) Because this giveth support and relief to the soul in waiting Heb_10:23). “Let us hold
fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised.” God
hath promised no more than He is able to perform; His word never exceeded His power.
(T. Manton, D. D.)
Faith triumphing over difficulties
I. FAITH MAY BE SORELY SHAKEN AND TOSSED AT THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF
DIFFICULTIES LYING IN THE WAY OF THE PROMISE, WHICH YET AT LAST IT
SHALL OVERCOME. And there be many degrees of its weakness and failure herein. As
1. A mere recoiling, with some disorder in the understanding, unable to apprehend
the way and manner of the accomplishment of the promise.
2. It ariseth to a distrust of the event of the promises or their accomplishment, because
of the difficulties that lie in the way.
3. When there is for a season an actual prevalency of unbelief. So it was with the apostle
Peter, when he denied his Master, who yet was quickly recovered. It is therefore our duty

(1) To watch that our faith be not surprised or shaken by the appearance of
difficulties and oppositions.
(2) Not to despond utterly on any degree of its failure, for it is in its nature, by the use of
means, to recover its vigour and efficacy.
II. ALTHOUGH GOD ORDINARILY WORKETH BY HIS CONCURRING BLESSING ON
THE COURSE OF NATURE, YET HE IS NOT OBLIGED THEREUNTO. Yet
III. IT IS NO DEFECT IN FAITH, NOT TO EXPECT EVENTS AND BLESSINGS
ABSOLUTELY ABOVE THE USE OF MEANS UNLESS WE HAVE A PARTICULAR
WARRANT FOR IT; as Sarah had in this case.
IV. THE DUTY AND USE OF FAITH ABOUT TEMPORAL MERCIES ARE TO BE
REGULATED BY THE GENERAL RULES OF THE WORD, WHERE NO ESPECIAL
PROVIDENCE DOTH MAKE APPLICATION OF A PROMISE.
V. The mercy here spoken of, concerning a son unto Abraham by Sarah his wife, WAS
ABSOLUTELY DECREED, AND ABSOLUTELY PROMISED; YET GOD
INDISPENSABLY REQUIRES FAITH IN THEM FOR THE FULFILLING OF THAT
DECREE, and the accomplishment of that promise.
VI. THE FORMAL OBJECT OF FAITH IN THE DIVINE PROMISES IS NOT THE
THINGS PROMISED IN THE FIRST PLACE, BUT GOD HIMSELF IN HIS ESSENTIAL
EXCELLENCIES OF TRUTH, OR FAITHFULNESS AND POWER.
VII. EVERY PROMISE OF GOD HATH THIS CONSIDERATION TACITLY ANNEXED
TO IT, “IS anything too hard for the Lord?” There is no Divine promise, but when it
comes unto the trial, as unto our closing with it, no promise of the new covenant, but we
apprehend as great a difficulty and improbability of its accomplishment unto us, as
Sarah did of this.
VIII. Although the truth, veracity, or faithfulness of God be in a peculiar manner the
immediate object of our faith, yet IT TAXES IN THE CONSIDERATION OF ALL OTHER
DIVINE EXCELLENCIES FOR ITS ENCOURAGEMENT AND CORROBORATION.
(John Owen, D. D.)
Faith counting all things possible:
That which is elsewhere made characteristic of Abraham is in this one place ascribed to
Sarah. It may have been in the mind of the apostle to suggest to his readers, at this point
of his appeal, the thought that “in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female.”
Woman, no less than man, needs, and is capable of, the grace of faith. The soul’s life of
woman, redeemed and glorified by the gospel, is a life of faith, in every submission, and
in every effort, and in every heroism, of the soul’s life of man. “Through faith Sarah also
herself”—Sarah in her proper sphere, as Abraham in his—became the inheritor of that
privilege of blessing, from which sprang a vast nation, to be the trustee of God’s oracles,
and the country, on earth, of Christ Himself. This is that example of faith—and it is
instructive to remember it—to which the explicit testimony is attached, “He believed in
the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness.” It was not that first exercise of
faith, which triumphed over the attractions of home, and reconciled the patriarch
Abraham to a life of exile and wandering. It was not that third exercise of faith, which
triumphed over the love of offspring, and enabled the father to give back by his own act
the precious life of his child into the hand of Him whose very promise that obedience
seemed to be defeating. Neither of these self-devotions is connected in the sacred records
with the faith that “justifies.” It is the mental act—it is the looking up into that clear
night-sky, and responding, in heart, to the Voice which says, “Count those stars—so shall
thy seed be”—it is this, the most elementary and the most entirely secret “taking God at

His word”—it is that particular state of the mind, which has no action at all in it—which
is altogether, and from first to last, mental—just the standing instead of sinking under
God’s disclosure and God’s promise—it is this which God looks at. All else is
consequence, natural consequence: the obedience which leaves the home—the obedience
which sacrifices the son—all this is but the expression in action of the mind’s mind and
the soul’s soul.
1. What Abraham believed was a physical impossibility. Over that difficulty his faith
triumphed. The impossibility presented to our faith is not physical but spiritual. We
have to believe, not in the suspension of what we call “ laws of nature”—in other
words, of God’s ordinary methods of procedure in regard to suns and stars, to water
and earth, to disease and infection, to life and death—but in certain other things,
which, to eyes spiritually enlightened, are at least as difficult. We have to believe in
the actual forgiveness of things actually done. We have to believe that that black
hateful thing done or said yesterday—even though it had fever in its breath and
corruption in its influence—can be, shall be, obliterated in the blood of Jesus Christ,
God’s own Son, shed, outpoured, for that very purpose. We have to believe in the
power of sanctification through the Eternal Spirit. We have to believe that that bad
habit, formed in boyhood, weakly yielded to in manhood, still predominant, can by
the grace of God—shall by the grace of God—be vanquished in us, burnt out of us,
sothat we shall be more than conquerors through Him that loved us. These are the
improbabilities, the impossibilities- not physical perhaps, but worse than physical—
worse, because invisible, worse, because entering into a nature more intricate, more
sensitive, more suffering, than any most thrilling fibre, most throbbing nerve, of this
body—which we Christians, not by guess-work, but by proof—not by wishing or
willing, but by receiving and embracing on the authority of God the Creator, God the
Redeemer, God the Sanctifier—have to apprehend, to realise, and to live by. This, this
is faith.
2. There is one peculiarity in the instance before us, and that is the connection which it
indicates between spiritual faith and physical consequence. Other Scriptures tell of the
rewards and recompenses of faith in a world out of sight. But this passage says, Because
of a faith in Him who had promised, “therefore sprang there even of one, and him as
good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by
the seashore innumerable.” You may say, The promise was of a supernatural birth. The
promise was physical. It looked not beyond earth, and the consequences were “in the like
material.” God makes not these sharp distinctions between the life that is and the life
that shall be. “Godliness,” St. Paul tells us, “hath promise” of both. And though we would
not so read that text as though it offered riches and pleasures and honours to the
righteous, whose very faith counts all these gifts not only precarious but perilous; still it
certainly says that God’s gifts to His own are not all future: there is a reward for His
people here; there is a supernatural offspring, there is a birth, not of accident, not of
circumstance, not of the self-will, but all of grace, which turns the thing that is into a
foretaste and promise of the thing that shall be: there is a love, and there is a happiness,
and there is a home, which derives all its lustre from the ideal and antitype of these out
of sight: by faith man and woman, born again of water and of the Spirit, receive back, the
second time, out of God’s fulness, that which before had been grasped eagerly out of the
hand of Nature and of the Fall—and, so receiving, find in each thing a grace and a beauty
unseen, unfelt before—find in Faith itself, not the opposite, but the complement, of sight,
and enjoy twice over the thing that God created, and the thing that God redeemed and
that God sanctifies. (Dean Vaughan.)

Faith, sense, and reason:
It is the nature of faith to believe God upon His bare word, and that against sense in
things invisible, and against reason in things incredible. Sense corrects imagination,
reason corrects sense, but faith corrects both. (J. Trapp.)
Therefore sprang there even of one
The increase of the Church
I. WHEN GOD IS PLEASED TO INCREASE HIS CHURCH IN NUMBER, IT IS ON
VARIOUS ACCOUNTS A MATTER OF REJOICING UNTO ALL BELIEVERS, and a
subject of their daily prayers, as that which is frequently promised in the word of truth.
This blessing of a numerous posterity is variously set forth, illustrated, and heightened.
1. From the root of it. It was one, one man, that is, Abraham. Unto him alone was the
great promise of the blessing Seed now confined. And he, though but one, was heir of
all the promises.
2. From the consideration of the state and outward condition of that one, when he
became the spring of this numerous posterity: “of him as good as dead.” His body
naturally was as useless unto the end of the procreation of such a posterity as if it had
been dead.
II. GOD OFTENTIMES BY NATURE WORKS THINGS ABOVE THE POWER OF
NATURE IN ITS ORDINARY EFFICACY AND OPERATIONS. So by weak and dead
means He often produceth mighty effects. (John Owen, D. D.)
8. PI K 11-12, “In the verses which are now to be before us the apostle calls
attention to the marvelous power of a God-given faith to exercise itself in the
presence of most discouraging circumstances, persevere in the face of the most
formidable obstacles, and trust God to do that which unto human reason seemed
utterly impossible. They show us that this faith was exercised by a frail and aged
woman, who at first was hindered and opposed by the workings of unbelief, but who
in the end relied upon the veracity of God and rested upon His promise. They show
what an intensely practical thing faith is: that it not only lifts up the soul to Heaven,
but is able to draw down strength for the body on earth. They demonstrate what
great endings sometimes issue from small beginnings, and that like a stone thrown
into a lake produces ever-enlarging circles on the rippling waters, so faith issues in
fruit which increases from generation to generation.
The more the 11th verse of our present chapter be pondered, the more evident
will it appear the faith there spoken of is of a radically different order from that
mental and theoretical faith of cozy-chair dreamers. The "faith" of the vast
majority of professing Christians is as different from that described in Hebrews 11
as darkness is from light. The one ends in talk, the other was expressed in deeds.
The one breaks down when put to the test, the other survived every trial to which it
was exposed. The one is inoperative and ineffectual, the other was active and
powerful. The one is unproductive, the other issued in fruits to the glory of God. Ah,
is it not evident that the great difference between them is, that one is merely human,
the other Divine; one merely natural, the other altogether supernatural? This it is

which our hearts and consciences need to lay hold of and turn into earnest prayer.
That which has just been pointed out ought to deeply exercise both writer and
reader. It ought to search us through and through, causing us to seriously and
diligently weigh the character of our "faith." It is of little use to be entertained by
interesting articles, unless they lead to careful self-examination. It is of little profit to
be made to wonder at the achievements of the faith of those O.T. saints, unless we
are shamed by them, and made to cry mightily unto God for Him to work in us a
"like precious faith." Unless our faith issues in works which mere nature cannot
produce, unless it is enabling us to "overcome the world" (1 John 5:4) and triumph
over the lusts of the flesh, then we have grave cause to fear that our faith is not "the
faith of God’s elect" (Titus 1:1). Cry with David, "Examine me, O Lord, and prove
me; try my reins and my heart" (Ps. 26:2).
It is not that any Christian lives a life of perfect faith―only the Lord Jesus ever
did that. o, for in the first place, like all the other spiritual graces, it is subject to
growth (2 Thess. 1:3), and full maturity is not reached in this life. In the second
place, faith is not always in exercise, nor can we command its activities: He who
bestowed it, must also renew it. In the third place, the faith of every saint falters at
times: it did in Abraham, in Moses, in Elijah, in the apostles. The flesh is still in us,
and therefore the reasonings of unbelief are ever ready (unless Divine grace subdue
them) to oppose the actings of faith. We are not then urging the reader to search in
himself for a faith that is perfect, either in its growth, its constancy or its
achievements. Rather are we to seek Divine aid and make sure whether we have any
faith which is superior to what has been acquired through religious education;
whether we have a faith which, despite the strugglings of unbelief, does trust the
living God; whether we have a faith which produces any fruit which manifestly
issues from a spiritual root.
Having spoken of Abraham’s faith, the apostle now makes mention of Sarah’s.
"Observe what a blessing it is when a husband and wife are both partners of faith,
when both in the same yoke draw one way. Abraham is the father of the faithful,
and Sarah is recommended among believers as having a fellowship in the same
promises, and in the same troubles and trials. So it is said of Zachariah and
Elizabeth, ‘And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the
commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless’ (Luke 1:6). It is a mighty
encouragement when the constant companion of our lives is also a fellow in the same
faith. This should direct us in the matter of choice: she cannot be a meet help that
goeth a contrary way in religion. Religion decayeth in families by nothing so much
as by want of care in matches" (T. Manton).
"Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was
delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful who
had promised" (verse 11). There are five things upon which our attention needs to
be focused. First, the impediments of her faith: these were, her barrenness, old age,
and unbelief. Second, the effect of her faith: she "received strength to conceive."
Third, the constancy of her faith: she trusted God unto an actual deliverance or
birth of the child. Fourth, the foundation of her faith: she rested upon the veracity

of the Divine Promiser. Fifth, the fruit of her faith: the numerous posterity which
issued from her son Isaac. Let us consider each of these separately.
"Through faith also Sarah herself." The Greek is just the same here as in all the
other verses, and should have been rendered uniformly "By faith" etc. The word
"also" seems to be added for a double purpose. First to counteract and correct any
error which might suppose that women were debarred the blessings and privileges
of grace. It is true that in the official sphere God has prohibited them from
occupying the place of rule or usurping authority over the men, so that they are
commanded to be silent in the churches (1 Cor. 14:34), are not permitted to teach (1
Tim. 2:12), and are bidden to be in subjection to their husbands (Eph. 5:22). But in
the spiritual sphere all inequalities disappear, for "there is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in
Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28), and therefore the believing husband and the believing
wife are "heirs together of the grace of life."
In the second place, this added "also" informs us that, though a woman, Sarah
exercised the same faith as had Abraham. She had left Chaldea when he did,
accompanied him to Canaan, dwelt with him in tents. ot only so, but she
personally acted faith upon the living God. ecessarily so, for she was equally
concerned in the Divine revelation with Abraham, and was as much a party to the
great difficulties of its accomplishment. The blessing of the promised seed was
assigned to and appropriated by her, as much as to and by him; and therefore is she
proposed unto the Church as an example (1 Pet. 3:5, 6). "As Abraham was the
father of the faithful, or of the church, so she was the mother of it, so as that the
distinct mention of her faith was necessary. She was the free woman from whence
the Church sprang: Galatians 4:22, 23. And all believing women are her daughters:
1 Peter 3:6" (John Owen).
"By faith also Sarah herself received strength." The word "herself" is emphatic:
it was not her husband only, by whose faith she might receive the blessing, but by
her own faith that she received strength, and this, notwithstanding the very real and
formidable obstacles which stood in the way of her exercising it. These, as we have
pointed out, were three in number. First, she had not borne any children during the
customary years of pregnancy: as Genesis 11:30 informs us, "Sarah was barren";
"Sarah, Abram’s wife, bare him no children" (Gen. 16:1). Second, she was long past
the age of childbearing, for she was now "ninety years old" (Gen. 17:17). Third, the
workings of unbelief interposed, persuading her that it was altogether against
nature and reason for a woman, under such circumstances, to give birth unto a
child. This comes out in Genesis 18. There we read of three men appearing unto
Abraham, one of whom was the Lord in theophanic manifestation. Unto him He
said, "Sarah thy wife shall have a son." Upon hearing this "Sarah laughed within
herself."
Sarah’s laughter was that of doubting and distrust, for she said, "I am waxed
old." At once the Lord rebukes her unbelief, asking "Is there anything too hard for
the Lord! At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life,
and Sarah shall have a son." Solemn indeed is the sequel. "Then Sarah denied,

saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And He said, ay; but thou didst laugh"
(verse 15). It is always a shame to do amiss, but a greater shame to deny it. It was a
sin to give way to unbelief, but it was adding iniquity unto iniquity to cover it with a
lie. But we deceive ourselves if we think to impose upon God, for nothing can be
concealed from His all-seeing eye. By comparing Hebrews 11:11 with what is
recorded in Genesis 18, we learn that after the Lord had reproved Sarah’s unbelief,
and she began to realize that the promise came from God, her faith was called into
exercise. Because her laughter came from weakness and not from scorn, God smote
her not, as He did Zacharias for his unbelief (Luke 1:20).
Varied are the lessons which may be learned from the above incident. Many times
the Word does not take effect immediately. It did not in Sarah’s case: though
afterward she believed, at first she laughed. It was only when the Divine promise
was repeated that her faith began to act. Let preachers and Christian parents, who
are discouraged by lack of success, lay this to heart. Again; see here that before faith
is established often there is a conflict: "shall I have a child who am old?"―reason
opposed the promise. Just as when a fire is kindled the smoke is seen before the
flame, so ere the heart rests upon the Word there is generally doubting and fear.
Once more; observe how graciously God hides the defects of His children: nothing is
said of Rahah’s lie (Heb. 11:31), of Job’s impatience (James 5:11), nor here of
Sarah’s laughing, "Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in
love" (Eph. 5:1, 2)!
Let us next consider what is here ascribed unto the faith of Sarah: "she received
strength to conceive seed." She obtained that which previously was not in her: there
was now a restoration of her nature to perform its normal functions. Her dead
womb was supernaturally vivified. In response to her faith, the Omnipotent One did
for Sarah what He had done to Abraham in response to his trusting of Him: "I have
made thee a father of many nations, before Him, whom he believed, even God, who
quickeneth the dead" (Rom. 4:17). "All things are possible with God"; yes, and it is
also true that "All things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23): how
blessedly and strikingly does the incident now before us illustrate this! O that it may
speak unto each of our hearts and cause us to long after and pray for an increase of
our faith. What is more glorifying to God than a confident looking unto Him to
work in and through us that which mere nature cannot produce.
"By faith also Sarah herself received strength." Christian reader, this is recorded
both for thine instruction and encouragement. Faith worked a vigor in Sarah’s body
where it was not before. Is it not written "But they that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength" (Isa. 40:31)? Do we really believe this? Do we act as though we
did? The writer can bear witness to the veracity of that promise. When he was in
Australia, editing this Magazine, keeping up with a heavy correspondence, and
preaching five and six times each week, when it was over one hundred in the shade,
many a time has he dragged his weary body into the pulpit, and then looked unto
the Lord for a definite reinvigoration of body. ever did He fail us. After speaking
for two hours we generally felt fresher than we did when we arose at the beginning
of the day. And why not? Has not God promised to "supply all our need"? Of how
many is it true that "they have not, because they (in faith) ask not" (James 4:2).

Ah, dear reader, "Bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto
all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come" (1
Tim. 4:8): "profitable" for the body, as well as for the soul. While we strongly
reprobate much that is now going on under the name of "Faith-Healing," yet we
have as little patience with the pretended hyper-sanctity which disdains any looking
unto God for the supply of our bodily needs. In this same chapter which we are now
commenting upon, we read of others who "out of weakness were made strong"
(verse 34). Sad it is to see so many of God’s dear children living far beneath their
privileges. True, many are under the chastening hand of God. But this should not be
so: the cause should be sought, the wrong righted, the sin confessed, restoration
both spiritual and temporal diligently sought.
We do not wish to convey the impression that the only application unto us of these
words, "By faith also Sarah herself received strength," has reference to the reviving
of the physical body: not so, though that is, undoubtedly, the first lesson to be
learned. But there is a higher signification too. Many a Christian feels his spiritual
weakness: that is well, yet instead of this hindering, it should bestir to lay hold of the
Lord’s strength (Isa. 27:5). In the final analysis, it is nothing but lack of faith which
so often allows the "flesh" to hinder us from bringing forth the Gospel-fruits of
holiness. Despair not of personal frailty, but go forward in the strength of God: "Be
strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might" (Eph. 6:10): turn this into
believing prayer for Divine enablement. "Though thy beginning was small, yet thy
latter end should greatly increase" (Job 8:7).
Does the reader still say, "Ah, but such an experience is not for me; alas, I am so
unworthy, so helpless; I feel so lifeless and listless." So was Sarah! Yet, "by faith"
she "received strength." And, dear friend, faith is not occupied with self, but with
God. "Abraham considered not his own body" (Rom. 4:19), nor did Sarah. Each of
them looked away from self, and counted upon God to work a miracle. And God did
not fail them: He is pledged to honor those who honor Him, and nothing honors
Him more than a trustful expectation. He always responds to faith. There is no
reason why you should remain weak and listless. True, without Christ you can do
nothing; but there is an infinite fullness in Him (John 1:16) for you to draw from.
Then from this day onwards, let your attitude be "I can do all things through Christ
which strengtheneth me" (Phil. 4:13). Apply to Him, count upon Him: "my son, be
strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 2:1).
"And was delivered of a child." The "and" here connects what follows with each
of the preceding verbs. It was "by faith" that Sarah "received strength," and it was
also "by faith" that she was now "delivered of a child." It is the constancy and
perseverance of her faith which is here intimated. There was no abortion, no
miscarriage; she trusted God right through unto the end. This brings before us a
subject upon which very little is written these days: the duty and privilege of
Christian women counting upon God for a safe issue in the most trying and critical
season in their lives. Faith is to be exercised not only in acts of worship, but in the
ordinary offices of our daily affairs. We are to eat and drink in faith, work and sleep
in faith; and the Christian wife should be delivered of her child by faith. The danger
is great, and if in any extremity there is need of faith, much more so where life itself

is involved. Let us seek to condense from the helpful comments of the Puritan
Manton.
First, we must be sensible what need we have to exercise faith in this case, that we
may not run upon danger blindfold; and if we escape, then to think our deliverance
a mere chance. Rachel died in this case; so also did the wife of Phineas (1 Sam. 4:19,
20): a great hazard is run, and therefore you must be sensible of it. The more
difficulty and danger be apprehended, the better the opportunity for the exercise of
faith: 2 Chronicles 20:12, 2 Corinthians 1:9. Second, because the sorrows of travail
are a monument of God’s displeasure against sin (Gen. 3:16), therefore this must
put you the more earnestly to seek an interest in Christ, that you may have remedy
against sin. Third, meditate upon the promise of 1 Timothy 2:15, which is made
good eternally or temporally as God sees fit. Fourth, the faith you exercise must be
the glorifying of His power and submitting to His will. This expresses the kind of
faith which is proper to all temporal mercies: Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst save
me―it is sufficient to ease the heart of a great deal of trouble and perplexing fear.
"And was delivered of a child." As we have pointed out in the last paragraph, this
clause is added to show the continuance of Sarah’s faith and the blessing of God
upon her. True faith not only appropriates His promise, but continues resting on the
same till that which is believed be actually accomplished. The principle of this is
enunciated in Hebrews 3:14 and Hebrews 10:36. "For we are made partakers of
Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end"; "Cast not
away therefore your confidence." It is at this point so many fail. They endeavor to
lay hold of a Divine promise, but in the interval of testing let go of it. This is why
Christ said, "If ye have faith and doubt not, ye shall not only do this" etc. Matthew
21:21―"doubt not," not only at the moment of pleading the promise, but during the
time you are awaiting its fulfillment. Hence also, unto "Trust in the Lord with all
thine heart" is added "and lean not unto thine own understanding" (Prov. 3:5).
"When she was past age." This clause is added so as to heighten the miracle which
God so graciously wrought in response to Sarah’s faith. It magnifies the glory of His
power. It is recorded for our encouragement. It shows us that no difficulty or
hindrance should cause a disbelief of the promise. God is not tied down to the order
of nature, nor limited by any secondary causes. He will turn nature upside down
rather than not be as good as His word. He has brought water out of a rock, made
iron to float (2 Kings 6:6), sustained two million people in a howling wilderness.
These things should arouse the Christian to wait upon God with full confidence in
the face of the utmost emergency. Yea, the greater the impediments which confront
us, faith should be increased. The trustful heart says, Here is a fit occasion for faith;
now that all creature-streams have run dry is a grand opportunity for counting on
God to show Himself strong on my behalf. What cannot He do! He made a woman
of ninety to bear a child―a thing quite contrary to nature―so I may surely expect
Him to work wonders for me too.
"Because she judged Him faithful who had promised." Here is the secret of the
whole thing. Here was the ground of Sarah’s confidence, the foundation on which
faith rested. She did not look at God’s promises through the mist of interposing

obstacles, but she viewed the difficulties and hindrances through the clear light of
God’s promises. The act which is here ascribed unto Sarah is, that she "judged" or
reckoned, reputed and esteemed, God to be faithful: she was assured that He would
make good His word, on which He had caused her to hope. God had spoken: Sarah
had heard; in spite of all that seemed to make it impossible that the promise should
be fulfilled in her case, she steadfastly believed. Rightly did Luther say, "If you
would trust God, you must learn to crucify the question How." "Faithful is He that
calleth you, who also will do" (1 Thess. 5:24): this is sufficient for the heart to rest
upon; faith will cheerfully leave it with Omniscience as to how the promise will be
made good to us.
"Because she judged Him faithful who had promised." Let it be carefully noted
that Sarah’s faith went beyond the promise. While her mind dwelt upon the thing
promised, it seemed unto her altogether incredible, but when she took her thoughts
off all secondary causes and fixed them on God Himself, then the difficulties no
longer disturbed her: her heart was at rest in God. She knew that God could be
depended upon: He is "faithful"―able, willing, sure to perform His word. Sarah
looked beyond the promise to the Promiser, and as she did so all doubting was
stilled. She rested with full confidence on the immutability of Him that cannot lie,
knowing that where Divine veracity is engaged, omnipotence will make it good. It is
by believing meditations upon the character of God that faith is fed and
strengthened to expect the blessing, despite all apparent difficulties and supposed
impossibilities. It is the heart’s contemplation of the perfections of God which causes
faith to prevail. As this is of such vital practical importance, let us devote another
paragraph to enlarging thereon.
To fix our minds on the things promised, to have an assured expectation of the
enjoyment of them, without the heart first resting upon the veracity, immutability,
and omnipotency of God, is but a deceiving imagination. Rightly did John Owen
point out that, "The formal object of faith in the Divine promises, is not the things
promised in the first place, but God Himself in His essential excellencies, of truth, or
faithfulness and power." evertheless, the Divine perfections do not, of themselves,
work faith in us: it is only as the heart believingly ponders the Divine attributes that
we shall "judge" or conclude Him faithful that has promised. It is the man whose
mind is stayed upon God Himself, who is kept in "perfect peace" (Isa. 26:3): that is,
he who joyfully contemplates who and what God is that will be preserved from
doubting and wavering while waiting the fulfillment of the promise. As it was with
Sarah, so it is with us: every promise of God has tacitly annexed to it this
consideration, "Is any thing too hard for the Lord!"
"Wherefore also from one were born, and that too of (one) having become dead,
even as the stars of the heaven in multitude, and as the sand which (is) by the shore
of the sea the countless"
(verse 12). We have quoted the rendering given in the Bagster Interlinear because it
is more literal and accurate than our A.V. The "him" in the English translation is
misleading, for in this verse there is no masculine pronoun: at the most the "one"
must refer to one couple, but personally we believe it points to one woman, Sarah, as
the "born" (rather than "begotten") intimates. We regard this 12th verse as setting

forth the fruit of her faith, namely the numerous posterity which issued from her
son, Isaac. The double reference to the "sand" and the "stars" calls attention to the
twofold seed: the earthly and the heavenly, the natural and the spiritual Israel.
Like the "great multitude which no man could number" of Revelation 7:9, so "as
the stars of the sky for multitude and as the sand which is by the seashore
innumerable" of our present verse, is obviously an hyperbole: it is figurative
language, and not to be understood literally. This may seem a bold and
unwarrantable statement to some of our readers, yet if scripture be compared with
scripture, no other conclusion is possible. The following passages make this clear:
Deuteronomy 1:10, Joshua 11:4, Judges 7:12, 1 Samuel 13:5, 2 Samuel 17:11, 1
Kings 4:20. For other examples of this figure of speech see Deuteronomy 9:1, Psalm
78:27, Isaiah 60:22, John 21:25. Hyperboles are employed not to move us to believe
untruths, but, by emphasis, arrest our attention and cause us to heed weighty
matters. The following rules are to be observed in the employment of them. First,
they are to be used only of such things as are indeed true in the substance of them.
Second, only of things which are worthy of more than ordinary consideration.
Third, set out, as nearly as possible, in proverbial language. Fourth, expressed in
words of similarity and dissimilarity, rather than by words of equality and
inequality (W. Gouge).
But let our final thought be upon the rich recompense whereby God rewarded the
faith of Sarah. The opening "Therefore" of verse 12 points the blessed consequence
of her relying upon the faithfulness of God in the face of the utmost natural
discouragements. From her faith there issued Isaac, and from him, ultimately,
Christ Himself. And this is recorded for our instruction. Who can estimate the fruits
of faith? Who can tell how many lives may be affected for good, even in generations
yet to come, through your faith and my faith today! Oh how the thought of this
should stir us up to cry more earnestly "Lord, increase our faith" to the praise of
the glory of Thy grace: Amen.
12 And so from this one man, and he as good as
dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars
in the sky and as countless as the sand on the
seashore.

1. BAR ES, "Therefore sprang there even of one - From a single individual. What
is observed here by the apostle as worthy of remark, is, that the whole Jewish people
sprang from one man, and that, as the reward of his strong faith he was made the father
and founder of a nation.
And him as good as dead - So far as the subject under discussion is concerned, To
human appearance there was no more probability, that he would have a son at that
period of life, than that the dead would have.
So many as the stars in the sky ... - An innumerable multitude. This was agreeable
to the promise; Gen_15:5; Gen_22:17. The phrases used here are often employed to
denote a vast multitude, as nothing appears more numerous than the stars of heaven, or
than the sands that lie on the shores of the ocean. The strength of faith in this case was,
that there was simple confidence in God in the fulfillment of a promise where all human
probabilities were against it. This is, therefore, an illustration of the nature of faith. It
does not depend on human reasoning; on analogy; on philosophical probabilities; on the
foreseen operation of natural laws; but on the mere assurance of God - no matter what
may be the difficulties to human view, or the improbabilities against it.
2. CLARKE, "Him as good as dead - According to nature, long past the time of the
procreation of children. The birth of Isaac, the circumstances of the father and mother
considered, was entirely supernatural; and the people who proceeded from this birth
were a supernatural people; and were and are most strikingly singular through every
period of their history to the present day.
3. GILL, "That is, Abraham: the Arabic version has here a strange interpolation;
"this faith Isaac and Rebecca conceived in mind, and so there were born of one, Esau and
Jacob.''
And him as good as dead; being an hundred years of age; See Gill on Rom_4:19. The
Ethiopic version reads, "the bodies of both were like a dead carcass"; both of Abraham
and Sarah:
so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the
sea shore innumerable; as was promised to Abraham, Gen_15:5 which has been
fulfilled, Isa_10:22 and will still have a further fulfilment, Hos_1:10.
4. HE RY, " The apostle proceeds to make mention of the faith of the other patriarchs,
Isaac and Jacob, and the rest of this happy family, Heb_11:13. Here observe,
1. The trial of their faith in the imperfection of their present state. 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. Observe, (1.) Many that are interested in the promises do
not presently receive the things promised. (2.) One imperfection of the present state of
the saints on earth is that their happiness lies more in promise and reversion than in
actual enjoyment and possession. The gospel state is more perfect than the patriarchal,
because more of the promises are now fulfilled. The heavenly state will be most perfect of
all; for there all the promises will have their full accomplishment.

5. JAMISO , "as good as dead — literally, “deadened”; no longer having, as in youth,
energetic vital powers.
stars ... sand — (Gen_22:17).
6. CALVI , "Therefore sprang there even of one, etc. He now also reminds the
Jews, that it was by faith that they were the descendants of Abraham;
for he was as it were half dead, [220] and Sarah his wife, who had been
barren in the flower of her age, was now sterile, being far advanced in
years. Sooner then might oil be expected to flow from a stone, than a
nation to proceed from them: and yet there sprang from them an
innumerable multitude. If now the Jews are proud of their origin, let
them consider what it was. Whatever they are, everything is doubtless
to be ascribed to the faith of Abraham and Sarah. It hence follows,
that they cannot retain and defend the position they have acquired in
any other way than by faith.
__________________________________________________________________
[216] This is differently connected by Calvin, his version is "by faith
Abraham, when he was called, obeyed, so that he went forth," etc.
Bloomfield by supposing oste understood before exelthein, seems to be
of the same opinion. Beza renders the verb by a gerund, "abiendo," by
departing. This construction is more agreeable to the location of the
words; the other introduces an unnatural transposition. Besides, the
idea is somewhat different. There are thus two things in the verse
stated more directly, as evidences and proofs of faith, -- his
departure from his own country, and his ignorance as to the country
where he was going. His faith was such that he obeyed, so as to leave
his own country, and also to go to a country, of which he knew nothing.
-- Ed
[217] The preposition meta may often be rendered "as well as." See
Matthew 2:3; Luke 11:7, 1 Corinthians 16:11; "dwelling in tents, as
well as Isaac and Jacob, co-heirs to the same promise." It means not
here the same time, says Grotius, but parity as to what is stated. --
Ed
[218] The words, "builder and maker," are rendered by Calvin, "master
builder and maker." The terms seem reversed. The first word means the
maker or worker; and the second, the master-builder or planner. Beza's
version is, "the maker, (artifex) and the founder, (conditor)." The
order is, according to what is very common in Scripture, the effect
mentioned first, then the cause, of the maker first, then the
contriver. The last word, no doubt used in the sense of a worker or
maker, but also in the sense of an architect or planner; but the former

word means a skillful worker or artificer, but not a master-builder. In
order, therefore, to give a sistant meaning to each, the sentence is to
be thus rendered, -- "Whose maker and planner is God;" he not only made
it, but also planned and contrived it. -- Ed.
[219] "The same thing is affirmed of Abraham, Genesis 17:17. The truth
is the first annunciation, that a child would spring from them,
occasioned both in his and Sarah's mind a feeling of incongruity, of
impossibility, that the course of nature should be so reversed.
Subsequent consideration brought both to a full belief in the reality
of the promised blessing." -- Stuart. It is remarkable, that at the
first announcement Abraham laughed, as Sarah did afterward; and not
only so, but he also said, "O that Ishmael might live before thee!"
evidently showing that he did not then believe the promise which had
been made to him. In the following chapter, the 18^th, the promise is
repeated, when Sarah laughed. And in order to confirm them both, they
were reminded of God's power, verse 14. Then faith overcame unbelief.
-- Ed.
[220] Calvin renders tauta adverbially "quidem," "and indeed dead;"
Doddridge "in his repeat;" Macknight, "to these matters;" Stuart "as to
these things." But the word is rendered in Luke 6:23, "in the like
manner;" and this would be the best rendering here. Abraham was like
Sarah, "dead" as to the power of begetting children, -- "Therefore even
from one, and him in a like manner dead, there sprang so many as the
stars," etc. -- Ed
7. Coffman, “And him as good as dead
indicates that not merely Sarah, but Abraham also, was past the time of life when
any children might have been expected of him; and although God, true to his
promise, gave them strength for the birth of Isaac, it was plainly through the
intervention of the divine will. If that was the case, the question arises, how then
could Abraham have later married Keturah and have fathered by her numerous
sons (Gen. 25)? The explanation is that Moses, in giving a history of Keturah and
her sons, did not do so chronologically; but, as the best historians do, he dealt with
the primary line of Isaac first, though Isaac was the last of Abraham's sons.
Keturah was probably one of the many concubines that Abraham owned.
Abraham was a wealthy oriental patriarch who already had "three hundred
eighteen servants" born in his own house (Genesis 14:14Genesis 14:14 ), as early in
his career as the rescue of Lot; and since those were not Sarah's children, they must
have belonged to his concubines. Some commentators, notably Hallet, think
Keturah was among the souls "they had gotten in Haran" (Genesis 12:5Genesis 12:5
); and it has been suggested that Keturah was the mother of Eliezar (Genesis
15:2,3Genesis 15:2,3 ), the apparent heir of Abraham for many years, suggesting
that Eliezar was the oldest of the sons of the concubines. The number of concubines,

though not given, was certainly plural (Genesis 25:6Genesis 25:6 ). The events
relative to Hagar do not contradict the above view. Sarah, earnestly desiring a child,
did not desire one by any of Abraham's concubines, as they were viewed as
Abraham's servants, not hers; it was thus something different when she proposed
that Abraham beget a child by her maid, Hagar, which would thus give her a child
she could emotionally identify with, as being hers. There is an element of speculation
in this explanation; but surely it is preferable to the supposition that when God
rejuvenated Abraham for the birth of Isaac, he revived his powers for such a long
while afterward. If the latter had been the case, why did it not also occur in the case
of Sarah and permit her to bear other children in addition to Isaac? In view of all
this, it would seem that Hallet's view of the problem is correct; and to this also
agrees the comment of Macknight. F20F20
Stars of heaven in multitude ... innumerable
represents that Abraham's posterity should be innumerable, a prophecy which, of
course, has come to pass. The holy writer's making the sands of the seashore an
example of HOW innumerable Abraham's seed should be is easily understood; but
it is amazing that he should also have pressed "the stars of heaven" into the
comparison, since, for ages, people had believed the stars to be numerable and, in
fact, comprising only five or ten thousand, or some such number, in the ancient
view. It must, then, have been by divine inspiration that the author of Hebrews
understood the number of stars as unlimited at such a long time before the
invention of the telescope disclosed such to be indeed the truth. Modern astronomy
has indeed shown the number of stars to be beyond all human calculation, their
numbers being reckoned in terms of billions of billions, with countless other billions
lying beyond the range of the most powerful telescopes. This suggests another bit of
astronomical information provided by Paul's statement that "one star differeth
from another star in glory" (1 Corinthians 15:411 Corinthians 15:41 ), a revealed
truth far in advance of the modern astronomy which has so astoundingly confirmed
it.
13 All these people were still living by faith when
they died. They did not receive the things
promised; they only saw them and welcomed them
from a distance. And they admitted that they were
aliens and strangers on earth.

1. BAR ES, "These all died in faith - That is, those who had been just mentioned -
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah. It was true of Abel and Noah also that they died in
faith, but they are not included in “this” declaration, for the “promises” were not
particularly entrusted to them, and if the word “these” be made to include them it must
include Enoch also, who did not die at all. The phrase used here, “these all died in faith,”
does not mean that they died in the exercise or possession of religion, but more strictly
that they died not having possessed what was the object of their faith. They had been
looking for something future, which they did not obtain during their lifetime, and died
believing that it would yet be theirs.
Not having received the promises - That is, not having received the “fulfillment”
of the promises; or “the promised blessings.” The promises themselves they “had”
received; compare Luk_24:49; Act_1:4; Act_2:39; Gal_3:14, and Heb_11:33, Heb_11:39.
In all these places the word “promise” is used by metonymy “for the thing promised.”
But having seen them afar off - Having seen that they would be fulfilled in future
times; compare Joh_8:56. It is probable that the apostle here means that they saw “the
entire fulfillment” of all that the promises embraced in the future - that is, the
bestowment of the land of Canaan, the certainty of a numerous posterity, and of the
entrance into the heavenly Canaan - the world of fixed and permanent rest. According to
the reasoning of the apostle here the “promises” to which they trusted included all these
things.And were persuaded of them - Had no doubt of their reality.
And embraced them - This word implies more than our word “embrace” frequently
does; that is, “to receive as true.” It means properly “to draw to oneself;” and then to
embrace as one does a friend from whom he has been separated. It then means to greet,
salute, welcome, and here means a joyful greeting of those promises; or a pressing them
to the heart as we do a friend. It was not a cold and formal reception of them, but a warm
and hearty welcome. Such is the nature of true faith when it embraces the promises of
salvation. No act of pressing a friend to the bosom is ever more warm and cordial.
And confessed that they were strangers - Thus, Abraham said Gen_23:4, “I am a
stranger and a sojourner with you.” That is, he regarded himself as a foreigner; as having
no home and no possessions there. It was on this ground that he proposed to buy a
burial-place of the sons of Heth.
And pilgrims - This is the word - παρεπίδηµος parepidēmos - which is used by
Abraham, as rendered by the Septuagint in Gen_23:4, and which is translated
“sojourner” there in the common English version. The word “pilgrim” means properly “a
wanderer, a traveler,” and particularly one who leaves his own country to visit a holy
place. This sense does not quite suit the meaning here, or in Gen_23:4. The Hebrew
word - ‫תּושׁב‬ towshaab - means properly one who “dwells in a place,” and particularly one
who is a “mere” resident without the rights of a citizen. The Greek word means a “by-
resident;” one who lives by another; or among a people not his own. This is the idea here.
It is not that they confessed themselves to be wanderers; or that they had left their home
to visit a holy place, but that they “resided” as mere sojourners in a, country that was not
theirs. What might be their ultimate destination, or their purpose, is not implied in the
meaning of the word. They were such as reside awhile among another people, but have
no permanent home there.
On the earth - The phrase used here - ᅚπᆳ τᇿς γᇿς epi tēs gēs - might mean merely on the
land of Canaan, but the apostle evidently uses it in a larger sense as denoting the earth in
general. There can be no doubt that this accords with the views which the patriarchs had
- regarding themselves not only as strangers in the land of Canaan, but feeling that the
same thing was true in reference to their whole residence upon the earth - that it was not

their permanent home.
2. CLARKE, "These all died in faith - That is, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob,
continued to believe, to the end of their lives, that God would fulfill this promise; but
they neither saw the numerous seed, nor did they get the promised rest in Canaan.
Strangers and pilgrims - Strangers, ξενοι, persons who are out of their own
country, who are in a foreign land: pilgrims, παρεπιδηµοι, sojourners only for a time; not
intending to take up their abode in that place, nor to get naturalized in that country.
How many use these expressions, professing to be strangers and pilgrims here below,
and yet the whole of their conduct, spirit, and attachments, show that they are perfectly
at home! How little consideration and weight are in many of our professions, whether
they relate to earth or heaven!
3. GILL, "These all died in faith,.... Not all the seed of Abraham, but all the believers
in the preceding verses, excepting Enoch, particularly the three patriarchs, with Sarah;
these died a corporeal death, which is common to all, to the righteous, and to the wicked;
and yet saints die not as other men; they die in faith, having the grace itself, which being
once implanted, can never be lost; and sometimes in the exercise of it, as these believers
did: they died in the faith of their posterity inheriting the land of Canaan, and in the faith
of the promised Messiah, and in the believing views of the heavenly glory; and so to die is
comfortable to themselves, and a confirmation of the truth of religion to others, and is
very precious, desirable, and gainful. It may be rendered, "according to faith"; they died
according to the life of faith they lived, and the doctrine of faith they professed, being the
Lord's both living and dying.
Not having received the promises; the things promised, the land of Canaan, the
Messiah, and the blessings of the Gospel dispensation; they had the promises of these
things, and though they were not fulfilled in their days, they believed they would be
fulfilled, and died in the faith of them:
having seen them afar off; the things themselves in the promise; as Abraham saw the
going forth of his posterity out of Egypt, after they had been afflicted four hundred years,
and saw the day of Christ at a greater distance still, Gen_15:13.
And were persuaded of them, and embraced them; they had a full assurance of
faith, that what was promised would be fulfilled; and they took a kind of possession of
them before hand, as Abraham did of the land of Canaan, by sojourning in it; as did also
Isaac and Jacob; and all of them by faith embraced the Messiah, and dealt with, and laid
hold upon his blood, righteousness, sacrifice, and grace, by which they were saved, as
New Testament saints are.
And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth; for they
sojourned in the land of Canaan, as in a strange land, as the saints do in this world; see
Heb_11:9. And they were pilgrims, travelling through this world to the heavenly country,
and they confessed themselves to be such, Gen_47:9 nor are believers ashamed to own
and confess their mean estate in this world; for it is only with respect to earth, and
earthly things, that they are strangers and pilgrims, and only while they are on earth; and

it is therefore but for a little time that they are so, ere long they will be at home, and
know as they are known.
4. HE RY, "2. The actings of their faith during this imperfect state of things. Though
they had not received the promises, yet,
(1.) They saw them afar off. Faith has a clear and a strong eye, and can see promised
mercies at a great distance. Abraham saw Christ's day, when it was afar off, and rejoiced,
Joh_8:56.
(2.) They were persuaded of them, that they were true and should be fulfilled. Faith
sets to its seal that God is true, and thereby settles and satisfies the soul.
(3.) They embraced them. Their faith was a faith of consent. Faith has a long arm, and
can lay hold of blessings at a great distance, can make them present, can love them, and
rejoice in them; and thus antedate the enjoyment of them.
4.) They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. Observe, [1.] Their
condition: Strangers and pilgrims. They are strangers as saints, whose home is
heaven; they are pilgrims as they are travelling towards their home, though often
meanly and slowly. [2.] Their acknowledgment of this their condition: they were not
ashamed to own it; both their lips and their lives confessed their present condition.
They expected little from the world. They cared not to engage much in it. 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.
5. JAMISO 13-16, "Summary of the characteristic excellencies of the patriarchs’ faith
died in faith — died as believers, waiting for, not actually seeing as yet their good
things promised to them. They were true to this principle of faith even unto, and
especially in, their dying hour (compare Heb_11:20).
These all — beginning with “Abraham” (Heb_11:8), to whom the promises were made
(Gal_3:16), and who is alluded to in the end of Heb_11:13 and in Heb_11:15 [Bengel and
Alford]. But the “ALL” can hardly but include Abel, Enoch, and Noah. Now as these did
not receive the promise of entering literal Canaan, some other promise made in the first
ages, and often repeated, must be that meant, namely, the promise of a coming
Redeemer made to Adam, namely, “the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s
head.” Thus the promises cannot have been merely temporal, for Abel and Enoch
mentioned here received no temporal promise [Archbishop Magee]. This promise of
eternal redemption is the inner essence of the promises made to Abraham (Gal_3:16).
not having received — It was this that constituted their “faith.” If they had “received”
THE THING PROMISED (so “the promises” here mean: the plural is used because of the
frequent renewal of the promise to the patriarchs: Heb_11:17 says he did receive the
promises, but not the thing promised), it would have been sight, not faith.
seen them afar off — (Joh_8:56). Christ, as the Word, was preached to the Old
Testament believers, and so became the seed of life to their souls, as He is to ours.
and were persuaded of them — The oldest manuscripts omit this clause.
embraced them — as though they were not “afar off,” but within reach, so as to draw
them to themselves and clasp them in their embrace. Trench denies that the Old
Testament believers embraced them, for they only saw them afar off: he translates,
“saluted them,” as the homeward-bound mariner, recognizing from afar the well-known
promontories of his native land. Alford translates, “greeted them.” Jacob’s exclamation,
“I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord” (Gen_49:18) is such a greeting of salvation
from afar [Delitzsch].

confessed ... were strangers — so Abraham to the children of Heth (Gen_23:4); and
Jacob to Pharaoh (Gen_47:9; Psa_119:19). Worldly men hold fast the world; believers sit
loose to it. Citizens of the world do not confess themselves “strangers on the earth.”
pilgrims — Greek, “temporary (literally, ‘by the way’) sojourners.”
on the earth — contrasted with “an heavenly” (Heb_11:16): “our citizenship is in
heaven” (Greek: Heb_10:34; Psa_119:54; Phi_3:20). “Whosoever professes that he has a
Father in heaven, confesses himself a stranger on earth; hence there is in the heart an
ardent longing, like that of a child living among strangers, in want and grief, far from his
fatherland” [Luther]. “Like ships in seas while in, above the world.”
6. CALVI , "These all died in faith, etc. He enhances by a comparison the faith
of the patriarchs: for when they had only tasted of the promises, as
though fully satisfied with their sweetness, they despised all that was
in the world; and they never forgot the taste of them, however small it
was either in life or in death. [222]
At the same time the expression in faith, is differently explained.
Some understand simply this that they died in faith, because in this
life they never enjoyed the promised blessings, as at this day also
salvation is hid from us, being hoped for. But I rather assent to those
who think that there is expressed here a difference between us and the
fathers; and I give this explanation, -- "Though God gave to the
fathers only a taste of that grace which is largely poured on us,
though he showed to them at a distance only an obscure representation
of Christ, who is now set forth to us clearly before our eyes, yet they
were satisfied and never fell away from their faith: how much greater
reason then have we at this day to persevere? If we grow faint, we are
doubly inexcusable". It is then an enhancing circumstance, that the
fathers had a distant view of the spiritual kingdom of Christ, while we
at this day have so near a view of it, and that they hailed the
promises afar off, while we have them as it were quite near us; for if
they nevertheless persevered even unto death, what sloth will it be to
become wearied in faith, when the Lord sustains us by so many helps.
Were any one to object and say, that they could not have believed
without receiving the promises on which faith is necessarily founded:
to this the answer is, that the expression is to be understood
comparatively; for they were far from that high position to which God
has raised us. Hence it is that though they had the same salvation
promised them, yet they had not the promises so clearly revealed to
them as they are to us under the kingdom of Christ; but they were
content to behold them afar off. [223]
And confessed that they were strangers, etc. This confession was made
by Jacob, when he answered Pharaoh, that the time of his pilgrimage was
short compared with that of his fathers, and full of many sorrows.
(Genesis 47:9.) Since Jacob confessed himself a pilgrim in the land,

which had been promised to him as a perpetual inheritance, it is quite
evident that his mind was by no means fixed on this world, but that he
raised it up above the heavens. Hence the Apostle concludes, that the
fathers, by speaking thus, openly showed that they had a better country
in heaven; for as they were pilgrims here, they had a country and an
abiding habitation elsewhere.
But if they in spirit amid dark clouds, took a flight into the
celestial country, what ought we to do at this day? For Christ
stretches forth his hand to us, as it were openly, from heaven, to
raise us up to himself. If the land of Canaan did not engross their
attention, how much more weaned from things below ought we to be, who
have no promised habitation in this world?
6B. CHARLES SIMEO , “THE PRACTICAL EFFICACY OF FAITH
Heb_11:13 . 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.
THE precepts contained in Scripture may be supposed to admit of a latitude of
interpretation favourable to the views of those who profess to regard them; but the
examples that are recorded there, exhibit a light, which the ingenuity of man in vain
attempts to obscure. Who that reads the history of the patriarchs, and the
commendations bestowed upon them, can doubt the efficacy of faith to produce
obedience, or the nature of that obedience that ought to be produced? After all the
allowance that must of necessity be made for a diversity of situation between them
and us, the principle by which they were actuated remains the same, and its
operation also must be the same, as far as the circumstances in which we are agree
with theirs. It is manifest that the catalogue which is here given us of holy men, was
not recorded merely for the sake of historical information, but for our instruction in
righteousness, and as an incentive to imitate their virtues. The passage before us
relates to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who alone “had opportunity to return to the
country which they had left:” confining therefore our attention to them, we shall
shew,
I. Wherein they excelled―
From the account given of them in the text, we are led to admire,
1. The strength of their faith―

[They were taught to expect a numerous seed, and the possession of the land of
Canaan: and, together with these temporal blessings, others of a far sublimer nature
were promised; namely, a descendant in whom all the nations of the earth should be
blessed; and an everlasting inheritance in heaven ― ― ― These promises they did
not see accomplished: yea, not even the temporal blessings did they receive: for in
the space of two hundred and forty years their posterity in the promised
line amounted to but seventy; and Jacob, after sojourning as a stranger in Canaan,
died in Egypt. But the patriarchs “walked by faith, and not by sight;” and,
notwithstanding all their discouragements and delays, held fast their confidence
even unto death: “they all died in faith.”]
2. Its practical effects―
[Expecting higher blessings than this world could afford, they disregarded the
things of time and sense as of little value ― ― ― They considered themselves as
mere “pilgrims and sojourners on the earth,” and repeatedly “confessed” this to be
their true and proper character [ ote: Gen_23:4Gen_23:4 ; Gen_47:9Gen_47:9 .].
This correspondence between their principles and their practice marked both the
sincerity and efficacy of their faith, and was, in fact, their highest commendation.]
It will be easily seen from hence,
II. Wherein they should be imitated―
We are certainly not required to resemble them in their wandering unsettled kind of
life; but we should imitate them,
1. In the state of their minds―
[We have promises, as they also had; and promises which yet remain to be fulfilled
to us. God has not only assured us of acceptance with him in and through his
beloved Son, but has engaged to send his Holy Spirit into our hearts, for the
carrying on and perfecting his work within us. We meet with many delays and
difficulties, which at times disquiet our minds, and lead us almost to doubt the truth
of the promises themselves: but we should “against hope believe in hope:” yea, we
should “hold fast the rejoicing of our hope firm unto the end.” If God be true to his
word, and able to perform it, “not one jot or tittle of it can ever fail.” Convinced of
this, we should say, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”]

2. In the habit of their lives―
[The name “pilgrims and strangers” was not given to the patriarchs merely on
account of their sojourning in a strange land; for David, after he was established on
his throne, and had subdued all his enemies on every side, assumes the same title
[ ote: 1Ch_29:151Ch_29:15 .]; and the same appellation is given to us also under
the Christian dispensation [ ote: 1Pe_2:111Pe_2:11 .]. Though we are not called to
dwell in moveable habitations, we, as much as the patriarchs themselves, should
answer to the character of pilgrims. We should feel only indifference to the things of
this world ― ― ― We should be daily advancing towards the heavenly world ― ―
― And we should look forward to death as the consummation of all our happiness
― ― ―]
7. BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, “These all died in faith
The attachments and detachments of faith
I.
How FAITH FILLS EYE AND HEART WITH THE FUTURE. AS some traveller topping
the water-shed may see far off the white porch of his home, and wave a greeting to it,
though it be distant, while his heart goes out over all the intervening, weary leagues; or
as some homeward-bound crew catch, away yonder on the horizon, the tremulous low
line that is home, and welcome it with a shout of joy, though many a billow dash and
break between them and it, these men looked across the weary waste, and saw far away;
and as they saw their hearts went out towards the things that were promised, because
they “judged Him faithful that had promised.” And that is the attitude and the act which
all true faith in God ought to operate in us. So, then, here are two things to think about.
One, faith’s vision; the other, faith’s greeting. People say, “Seeing is believing.” I should
be disposed to turn the aphorism right round, and to say, “Believing is seeing.” The sight
that faith gives is solid, clear, certain. If I might so say, the true exercise of faith is to
stereoscope the dim ghost-like realities of the future, and to make them stand out solid
in relief there before us. Well, then, still further, there is suggested that this vision of
faith, with all its blessed clearness and certitude, is not a direct perception of the things
promised, but only a sight of them in the promise. And does that make it less blessed?
Does the astronomer, that sits in his chamber and when he would most carefully observe
the heavens looks downwards on to the mirror of the reflecting telescope that he uses,
feel that he sees the starry lights less really than when he gazes up into the abyss itself
and sees them there? Is not the reflection a better and a more accurate source of
knowledge for him than even the observation direct of the sky would be? And so, if we
look down into the promise, we shall see, glittering there, the starry points which are the
true images adapted to our present sense of reception of the great invisible lights above.
And then, still further, let me remind you that this vision of faith varies in the measure of
our faith. It is not always the same. Refraction brings up sometimes, above the surface of
the sea, a spectral likeness of the opposite shore, and men stand now and then upon our
southern coasts, and for an hour or two, in some conditions of the atmosphere, they see
the low sand-hills of the French or the Belgian coast, as if they were in arm’s length. So

faith, refracting the rays of light that strike from the throne of God, brings up the image,
and when it is strong the image is clear, and when it flags the image “fades away into the
light of common day”; and where there glowed the fair outlines of the far-off land, there
is nothing but a weary wash of waters and a solitary stretch of sea. My brother! do you
see to it that this vision of faith be cultivated by you. Do you choose whether you shall,
like John Bunyan’s man with the muckrake, have your eyes fixed upon the straws and
filth at your feet, or whether you will look upwards and see the crown that is glittering
there just above your head, and ready to drop upon it. “These all in faith saw the
promises.” Yes! And when they saw them they greeted them. Their hands and their
hearts went out, and a glad shout came to their lips as they beheld the fair vision of all
the wonder that should be. And so faith has in it, in proportion to its depth and reality,
this going out of the soul towards the things discerned. They draw us when we see them.
IX. How FAITH PRODUCES A SENSE OF DETACHMENT FROM THE PRESENT.
“They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” A “stranger “ is a
man who, in a given constitution of things—in some country with a settled government,
owes allegiance to another king, and belongs to another polity. A “pilgrim” or a
“sojourner is a man who is only in the place where he now is for a little while. So the one
of the two words expresses the idea of belonging to another state of things, and the other
expresses the idea of transiency in the present condition. But the true Christian
consciousness of being “a stranger and a sojourner” comes, not from any thought that
life is fleeting, but from the better and more blessed operation of the faith which reveals
the things promised, and knits me so closely to them that I cannot but feel separated
from the things that are round about me. Men that live in mountainous countries, when
they come down into the plains, be it Switzerland, or the Highlands, or anywhere else,
pine and fade away, sometimes with the intensity of the “Heinweh,” the homesickness
which seizes them. And we, if we are Christians, and belong to the other order of things,
shall feel that this is not the native soft, nor here the home in which we would dwell.
III. HOW THIS SAME FAITH TRIUMPHS IN THE ARTICLE OF DEATH. “These all
died in faith.” That is a very grand thought as applied to those old patriarchs, that just
because all their lives long God had done nothing for them of what He had promised,
therefore they died believing He was going to do it. So for us the end of life may have a
faith nurtured by disappointments, made more sure of everything because it has
nothing; certain that he calls into existence another world to redress the balance of the
old, because here there has been so much of bitterness and woe. And our end like theirs
may be an end beatified by a clear vision of the things that “ no man hath seen, nor can
see”; and into the darkness there may come for us, as there came of old to another, an
open heaven and a beam of God’s glory smiting us on the face and changing it into the
face of an angel. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
An inscription for the mausoleum of the saints:
“These all died in faith.” Believers constitute a class by themselves—“These.” They are
the people that dwell alone, and shall not be numbered among the nations. Believers are
a class by themselves, even when they die. It is idle to think that we can mark out a spot
in the cemetery where none but saints shall sleep; but yet there is a truth at the bottom of
that folly. There is a separation even in death between the righteous and the wicked. As
for those who died without faith, they died indeed; but as for His people, a glorious
resurrection awaits them.
I. DYING IS FAITH. What does it mean?

1. Does it not mean that when they came to die, they had not faith to seek, but having
had faith in life, they had faith in death? I will pronounce no opinion upon death-bed
repentance. I would not like to lie upon a sick-bed, much less upon a dyingbed, and
have a Saviour to seek there. The pains and dying strife are usually enough to occupy
a man’s thoughts.
2. They did die, however, although they had faith, for faith is not given to us that we
should escape death, but that we may die in faith.
3. These all persevered to the end.
4. Does it not mean, also, that they never got beyond faith?
5. But then, while they did not get beyond faith, the mercy is that they never got below it.
II. WHAT WAS THE FAITH THAT THEY DIED WITH?
1. They had received a great deal, but they had not received the fulness of the
promises.
2. Yet they saw them. Faith touched their eyes with eye-salve.
3. They were persuaded of them.
4. They embraced them. The Greek word signifies “salutes,” as when we see a friend at a
distance, In the clear atmosphere of Mentone, I have sometimes stood on quite a lofty
mountain, and seen a friend down in the valley, and I have spoken his name; and at first
it was greatly to my astonishment when he replied, “Where are you?” I held a
conversation with him readily. I could not have actually reached him for a long time, but
I saluted him from afar. At times we can see God’s promises afar off, and we salute them.
We are within hail of the glory-land, and we send up rockets in the dark; or, if it be
daylight, we signal to the shore.
III. THE FAITH TO LIVE WITH—the life of faith.
1. We are strangers by nature. Born from above, our life differs from those about us.
“The world knoweth us not.” We are in it, but not of it.
2. We are strangers as to citizenship. Here we are aliens and foreigners, whose privileges
are connected with another city, and not with earth.
3. We are strangers as to pursuits. We are wayfaring men hurrying through this Vanity
Fair. The men of the fair cry, “Buy! buy I “ but they have no wares that we care to
purchase. We buy the truth, and they do not trade in that commodity.
4. We are pilgrims in object. We have not come hither for a pleasure excursion; we are
journeying to the temple to behold the face of our Lord. Our cry is, “Onward! Hinder me
not. I must away to the glory-land, where my home is, where my God is!”
5. We are pilgrims as to continuance. We do not expect to be here long. Do not wonder if
you are found to be strangers as to usage, for the world uses foreigners roughly; and they
that are really of Christ must expect to be misunderstood and misrepresented.
IV. And what is THE FAITH BY WHICH WE ARE ABLE TO ENDURE SUCH A LIFE AS
THIS? Why, it is this faith: “They that say such things declare plainly that they seek a
country.” Our faith is one which we dare to avow. We declare plainly that we seek a
country. We are not ashamed to say that this is not our rest, that we do not expect to find
pleasure here. We are speeding over this stormy sea to the Fair Havens, where we shall
cast anchor for ever. We are not ashamed to say this, however others may ridicule our
hope. And we say it because we believe it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Dying in faith
I. It is the glory of true faith, that it will not leave them in whom it is, THAT IT WILL

NOT CEASE ITS ACTINGS FOR THEIR SUPPORT AND COMFORT IN THEIR DYING;
when the hope of the hypocrite doth perish.
II. THE LIFE OF FAITH DOTH EMINENTLY MANIFEST ITSELF IN DEATH, WHEN
ALL OTHER RELIEFS AND SUPPORTS DO FAIL.
III. THAT IS THE CROWNING ACT OF FAITH, THE GREAT TRIAL OF ITS VIGOUR
AND WISDOM, NAMELY, IN WHAT IT BOTH IN OUR DYING.
IV. HENCE IT IS THAT MANY OF THE SAINTS, BOTH OF OLD AND OF LATE, HAVE
EVIDENCED THE MOST TRIUMPHANT ACTINGS OF FAITH IN THE APPROACH OF
DEATH.
V. The due understanding of the whole Old Testament, with the nature of the faith and
obedience of all the saints under it, depends on this one truth, THAT THEY BELIEVED
THINGS THAT WERE NOT YET ACTUALLY EXHIBITED NOR ENJOYED. This is the
line of life and truth that runs through all their profession and duties; the whole exercise
of their faith and love, without which it was but a dead carcase. It was Christ in the
promise, even before His coming, that was the life of the Church in all ages.
VI. GOD WOULD HAVE THE CHURCH FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD TO
LIVE ON PROMISES NOT ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED. For although we do enjoy the
accomplishment of the great promise of the incarnation of the Son of God, yet the
Church continues still to live on promises which, in this world, cannot be perfectly
fulfilled.
VII. WE MAY RECEIVE THE PROMISES AS TO THE COMFORT AND BENEFIT OF
THEM, WHEN WE DO NOT ACTUALLY RECEIVE THE THINGS PROMISED
(Heb_11:1).
VIII. As OUR PRIVILEGES IN THE ENJOYMENT OF THE PROMISES ARE ABOVE
THEIRS UNDER THE OLD TESTAMENT, SO OUR FAITH, THANKFULNESS, AND
OBEDIENCE, OUGHT TO EXCEL THEIRS ALSO.
IX. No DISTANCE OF TIME OR PLACE CAN WEAKEN FAITH AS UNTO THE
ACCOMPLISHMENT OF DIVINE PROMISES. There are promises still left unto us upon
record that are, it may be, afar off; such as those which concern the destruction of
antichrist, and the glory of the kingdom of Christ in the latter days. The rule of faith
concerning them is given us (Hab_2:3-4).
X. QUIET WAITING FOR THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF PROMISES AT A GREAT
DISTANCE, and which most probably will not be in our days, IS AN EMINENT FRUIT
OF FAITH. He that believeth will not make haste.
XI. This firm persuasion of the truth of God in the accomplishment of His promises unto
us, upon a discovery of their worth and excellency, is the SECOND ACT OF FAITH,
WHEREIN THE LIFE OF IT DOTH PRINCIPALLY CONSIST. (John Owen, D. D.)
Faith triumphant:
This chapter is a little book of martyrs. It discovers the life and death of the holy
patriarchs, and by what means God’s children are brought into possession of that that
they have an interest and right unto upon earth. It is by faith. There is one faith from the
beginning of the world. As there is one Christ, one salvation, so there is one uniform faith
for the saving of our souls. We hope to be saved by Jesus Christ as they were. Then again,
here is implied a continuance and perseverance in faith. Faith first makes a Christian,
and then after, he lives by faith. It quickens the life of grace, and then he leads his life by
that faith. He continues in it till he come to death, which is the period of all, and then he
dies by that faith. “They died in faith.” In the faith of the Messiah, in faith of Canaan, in
faith of heaven. When death closed up the eyes of their bodies, then with the eye of faith

they looked upon Christ, upon God in Christ reconciled to them.
I. THE GRACE OF FAITH, IT IS SUCH A GRACE THAT IT CARRIES A CHRISTIAN
THROUGH ALL THE PASSAGES OF THIS LIFE. It enableth him to hold out to the end,
to suffer those things that he is to suffer, and in the end by it he dies. And when all things
else leave him in death, when riches, friends, honour, and great places leave him, when
his life and senses leave him, yet faith will never leave him till it have put him in full
possession of heaven, and then it ceaseth when it hath done the work it hath to do, which
is to bring us to heaven. What is it to die in faith? To die in faith is to die in the Lord by
faith; and it looks to the time past, present, to come.
1. To the time past. To die in faith is to die in assurance of the forgiveness of sins,
when by faith and repentance we have pulled out the sting of sins past. For faith
looks upon Christ, and Christ hath taken the sting of death in His own, and death
ever since hath been stingless and harmless to His members.
2. For the present. In the present instant of death, to die in faith is to see God reconciled
to us in Christ, and with the eye of Stephen, to see Christ ready to receive our souls
(Act_7:59). This is to die in faith; to see ourselves there with our Head, where we shall be
ere long. Therefore our flesh rests in hope till the resurrection; because God did not
suffer His Holy One to see corruption. This is to die in faith.
3. And for the time to come. To die in faith is by faith to overcome all the horror of death.
Faith seeth the faithfulness of God, that God in Christ hath taken these bodies of ours in
trust. “I know whom I have believed, and He is able to keep that I have committed to
Him” (2Ti_1:12). And then for the pangs of death, which nature trembles at, faith
considers of them as the pangs of child-birth. Now, what is death but the birth to
immortality, the birth of glory? It is a little dark passage to an eternal glorious light. Then
for the parting of two friends, soul and body, faith sees that it is but for a while, and then
that that parting is a bringing in a better joining; for it brings the soul immediately to her
beloved, our Saviour Christ Jesus. And then for friends. Faith sees, indeed, that we shall
part with many sweet friends; but faith saith we shall have better friends. We go to God,
we go to the souls of perfect men, we go to [an] innumerable company of angels
(Heb_12:22), we go to a better company a great deal. And for all the employments we
have here, that we have below, faith sees that there will be exercise in heaven. We shall
praise God with angels and all the blessed and glorious company of heaven. So consider
what you will that is bitter and terrible in death, faith conquers it. It sees an end of it, and
opposeth to it better things; because, notwithstanding death cuts off many comforts, yet
it brings better. And it is the beginning of happiness that shall never end. So, indeed,
faith sees that the day of death is better than the day of birth. When we come into misery,
it is not so good as when we go out of misery, and enter into happiness. This is to die in
faith. This should stir us up, if this be so, to get this grace of faith; above all graces, to get
assurance that we are in Christ Jesus, that so we may live with comfort, and end our days
with comfort and live for ever happy in the Lord. It is only faith that will master this king
of fears—this giant that subdues all the kings of the earth to him. Oh, let us labour,
therefore, to get it while we live, and to exercise it while we live, that we may live every
day by faith. It is not any faith that we can die by. It must be a faith that we have
exercised and tried before. It is a tried, a proved faith, that we must end our days by. For,
alas! when death comes, if we have not learned to live by faith before, how can we end
our days in faith? Let us all labour for this faith; for though it cannot be said of us that we
die rich, or that we die great in the world, perhaps we may die a violent death, as there be
divers diseases that lead the body into distempers. It is no matter how we die
distempered, and in any estate, so it may be said of us we die in a blessed faith. It is said
here, they “all died in faith.” He saith not they all died in feeling. A man may die in faith,

Hebrews 11 11 20 commentary

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Hebrews 11 11 20 commentary