Exploits and endurances of faith.
The last two specific examples here cited are connected with the entrance of Israel into Canaan under Joshua.
1. The fall of Jericho. (Verse 30) That stronghold was not reduced as the result of a long siege. It was not successfully assaulted with engines of war. The only means employed were processions, trumpets, and shouts. But the Israelites did not doubt that the word of Jehovah would be fulfilled; and, as the Divine reward of their faith, which they had shown in a sevenfold or perfect manner in "compassing Jericho about seven days," the wall fell down fiat.
2. The safety of Rahab. (Verse 31) Rahab had been a heathen woman, and at one time a woman of abandoned character; but she is now known to the world only as a heroine of faith. The object of her faith was the God of Israel himself, and his purpose to procure Canaan for the chosen people. The ground of it was the miraculous passage of the Red Sea, and the overthrow of the Amorites. Its fruit was seen in her determination at whatever risk to befriend the two scouts, as being Jehovah's servants. And the reward of Rahab's faith lay in her preservation amid the general destruction, and the honor which she received in becoming an ancestress of the Messiah.—In this chapter the author had begun at the beginning of Genesis; and he has been turning over the Old Testament Scriptures almost page by page, and finding everywhere noble specimen-deeds of faith. But the time would fail him were he to continue as he began. Although the galleries of Hebrew history are crowded with portraits of spiritual heroes, our inspired guide tells us that we may not linger any longer over individual pictures. He will permit us only a very hurried walk through the exhibition; for he is anxious to introduce us to the masterpiece of the whole—the portrait of "Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). What a splendid sentence, or group of sentences, this in verses 32-38! How rhetorically resonant, and how spiritually triumphant! These verses may be said themselves to form "one great, magnificent picture, full of figures individually striking, and admirably disposed with regard to one another" (Dr. Lindsay).
I. SUMMARY OF DEEDS DONE THROUGH FAITH. (Verses 32-34) The men of faith are all workers or soldiers.
1. Six famous heroes are mentioned by name (verse 32). These are, four eminent judges; David, the illustrious king; and saintly Samuel, the first of "the prophets."
2. There follows a condensed and. vivid description of the achievements of the heroes of faith (verses 33, 34). The preacher may verify every one of these references from those great eras of Jewish history which extended in succession from the time of Joshua to the age of the Maccabees.
II. SUMMARY OF SUFFERINGS BORNE THROUGH FAITH. (Verses 35-38) For the workers and soldiers of faith are also sufferers. Each expression in this eloquent. epitome may be amply vindicated from the same eras of Hebrew history, and especially from the later periods, the time of the prophets, of the Captivity, and. of the restoration. It is evident that the apostle has here prominently in view the sufferings of Judas Maccabaeus and his brave compatriots in the days of that monster of cruelty, Antiochus Epiphanes. The parenthesis in verse 38, while it is in itself a sweetly beautiful exclamation, also sums up the character of the men of faith in a weighty monograph. Their persecutors condemned them as unworthy of living in the world; but, instead of that, the world was not worthy of them. These godly exiles and martyrs were "the salt of the earth." Their lives decked humanity, even in its periods of gross darkness, with a coronal of spiritual light. The apostle's design in this chapter is to convince his readers that in trusting Christ, and daring and bearing all things for him, they are exercising the very same principle that made "the elders" of the Jewish nation the men they were. The apostle stops at the time of the Maccabees. But it is for us to remember that the exploits and endurances of faith have been as great—in some respects greater (John 14:12)—in New Testament times than in the ages before Christ. We are prone to draw oftentimes too sharp a line between what we call "sacred history" and "profane history," and we sometimes forget that the living God is as really present in the one as in the other. Reflect then, in closing, upon the triumphs of faith:
Perfection through the promise.
In discoursing upon this confessedly difficult text, we shall not discuss the various interpretations that have been given to it, but simply unfold what we ourselves humbly judge to be its meaning. Consider—
I. THE PROMISE. (Hebrews 11:39) That is, the fulfillment of the promise, or the promised blessing. The apostle can refer in this expression only to the great substantive promise of the Old Testament dispensation, that of the coming of the Messiah. It is the promise of "the seed of the woman" (Genesis 3:15) and the seed of Abraham (Genesis 22:18); the promise of the setting up of the kingdom of heaven by the "Child born" (Isaiah 9:6, Isaiah 9:7), and of the "pouring out of God's Spirit upon all flesh" (Joel 2:28).
II. THE DISADVANTAGEOUS POSITION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS IN RELATION TO IT. "These all," whose names appear in this chapter, are honorably mentioned in Scripture for their exploits and endurances as believers. The promise had been constantly made to them, and they "had seen it, and greeted it from afar" (Hebrews 11:13). But:
1. They "received not the promise." (Hebrews 11:39) Successive generations of godly men hoped for the advent through the weary centuries, and passed away before the Messiah had been born, or the true sacrifice offered, or the way into the holiest made manifest, or the great gift of the Spirit bestowed. They continued to the end of their lives under the temporal and preparatory economy—the dispensation of law and ceremony and shadow.
2. They were "not made perfect." (Hebrews 11:40) Old Testament believers, while on earth, did not obtain the clear knowledge of gospel doctrine which we possess who have received "the Spirit of truth;" and they did not attain to the high level of spiritual happiness which is within our reach, now that Christ has sent us "the Comforter." And even in heaven, as this passage seems to imply, their knowledge and joy did not become full until the realization of the promise, through the finished work of the Lord Jesus. There is, of course, no warrant in Scripture for the patristic and Romish doctrine of the limbus patrum. The souls of Old Testament saints, after they departed this life, did not experience a dreamy sort of existence in some dreary under-world until the time of Christ's ascension. Abel and Abraham, Moses and David, passed at once from earth to glory. This is true; and yet it would appear, from the apostle's language in the verse before us, that these ancient heroes had to hope and wait for their perfection in knowledge and blessedness, until the death and resurrection and exaltation of the Son of God. Although safe in heaven, they continued to long and pray, as they had done on earth, for the coming of "the fullness of the time." Just as the entire humanity of the believer shall not be "made perfect" until the morning of the general resurrection, so even "the spirits of just men" (Hebrews 12:23) under the Jewish economy were not "made perfect" until the accomplishment of Christ's atoning work, at the beginning of the Christian era.
III. THE CORRESPONDING ADVANTAGE ENJOYED BY NEW TESTAMENT BELIEVERS. God has "provided some better thing concerning us" (Hebrews 11:40). That is, we have received the fulfillment of the great gospel promise. Christ has come. He has achieved our redemption. He has sent to the Church his Holy Spirit. He has given us a completed Bible. He has founded a dispensation which is evangelical and spiritual, catholic and permanent. He has opened heaven over the world; and we see the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. Nor is this earthly life of higher privilege the only advantage which we possess. For at death the believer's spirit now goes at once to be with Christ—a blessing which, prior to the advent, was in some mysterious sense denied to Old Testament saints. His soul has not to wait for its beatification. Immediately after death it is "made perfect." In the presence of the glorified Christ, nothing whatever is wanting to complete its blessedness, except only the resurrection of the body.
IV. THE PERFECTION AND UNITY OF THE CHURCH SINCE THE ADVENT. (Hebrews 11:40) When the promise of an accomplished salvation was fulfilled to the Church on earth, its fulfillment brought long-looked-for perfection to the Church in heaven. The coming of Christ, while it may be said to have cut the world's history in twain, was at the same time the meeting-place of the two great dispensations of religion, and of the universal Church of God. The centuries circle round the cross, and in it the Church of all ages finds its unity. The fulfillment of the promise in the earthly work of Christ raised both the Church militant and the Church triumphant to a much loftier level than either had occupied before. The ancient heroes of faith could not have attained their new position except in connection with our accession of privilege. And thus all the saints who are now gathered in heaven, whether nurtured at first in the Jewish Church or in the Christian, have alike been "made perfect," and form one undivided society. It follows, too, that believers of all nations who are presently on earth are in real union with this united society of glorified spirits. The Church militant and the Church triumphant constitute "one army of the living God."
CONCLUSION. Although "the elders" labored under great disadvantage, as regards the extent of their privileges, compared with the Christian Hebrews of the first century and with us, their confidence in the promise was vigorous and persistent, valiant and victorious. They cherished this faith while on earth, and they continued to cling to it in heaven until it became changed to sight. How shameful, then, will it be to us, if we allow our faith to decline! For God has already largely fulfilled his promise of salvation. The first advent is now matter of history. Christendom presents to our view an ever-accumulating mass of Christian evidence. Our encouragement to perseverance is much greater than any which Jewish believers enjoyed under the old covenant. How miserably infatuated, therefore, shall we be if we allow our faith and hope in the Lord Jesus and in the second advent to fail, or even to vacillate!
HOMILIES BY W. JONES