no< so much from /ear 0
The Worthy Fruits of Faith HEBREWS XI. in the Fathers of Old Time.
so much from /ear 0/ PJiarnoh, a.fi from a revulsion of feeling in finding God's people insensible to their high destiny, and from disappointment at not liaving been able to inspire them with tliose hopes for which lie had sacrificed all his earthly prospects. This accounts for his Strange reluctance and despondency when commissioned by God to go and arouse the people (Exodus 3. 15 ; 4. 1, lU-12).
escaped . . . sivord—.So Jephthah (Judges 12. 3) ; and so David escaped Saul's sword (1 .Samuel 18. 11; 19. 10, 12) ; Elijah
(1 Kings 19. 1, &c. ; 2 Kings 6. 14). owt of ivenkness . . . made strong— Samson (Judges 16. 28; 15. 19), Hezekiah (Isaiah 37. and 38.) Milton says of the martyrs, "They shook the powers of darkness with the irresistible power of weakness." valiant in light—Barak (Judges 4. 14, 15). And the Maccabees, the sons of Matthias, Judas, Jonathan, and Simon, who delivered the Jews froia their cruel oppressor, Antiochus of Syria, armies—lit., camps referring to Judges 7. 21. But the reference may be to the Maccabees having put to flight the Syrians and other foes. 35. Women received their dead raised— as the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17. 17, &c. ; 22). The .Shunammite (2 Kings 4. 17, &c. ; .35). The two oldest MSS. read, "They received women of aliens by raising their dead.'' 1 Kings 17. 24 shows that the raising of the widow's son by Elijah, led her to the faith, so that he thus took her Into fellowship, an alien though she was. Christ, in Luke 4.26, makes especial mention of the fact that Eliseeiiij Itim . . . invisible—as though he had not to do with men, but only with God, ever before his eyes by faith, tliough invisible to the bodily eye (Romans 1. 20; 1 Timothy 1. 17; 6. 16). Hence he feared not the wrath of visible man; the characteristic of faith (v. 1 ; Luke 12. 4, 5). 88. kept Greek, "hathkept," the Passover being, in Paul's day, still observed. His faith here was his belief in the invisible God's promise that the destroying angel sliould pass over, and not touch the inmates of the blood-sprinkled houses (Exodus 12. 23). "He acquiesced in the bare word of God where thethingitselfwasnotapparent." [Calvin.] the flrst-l3on\— Greek "neuter;" both of man and beast. 89. tliey—Moses and Israel. Red Sea—called so from its red sea-weed, or rather from Edom (meaning red), whose country adjoined it. wKlcli . . . assaying to do Greek, "of which (Red Sea) the Egyptians having made experiment." Rashness awA presumption mistaken by many for jah was sent to an alien from Israel, a woman of Sarepta. Thus Paul may quote this as an instance of Elijah's faith, that at God's command he went to a Gentile city of Sidonia (contrary to Jewish prejudices), and there, as the fruit of faith, not only raised her dead son, but received her as a convert into the family of QoH, as Vulgate reads. Still, English Version may be the right reading, and Greek, " but ;" in contrast to those raised again to life, tortured —" broken on the wheel." Eleazar (2 Maccabees 6. 18, end faith; with similar rash presumption many rush into eternity. The same thing when done by the believer, and when done by the unbeliever, is not the same thing. [Bengel.] What was faith in Israel, was presumption in the Egyptians, were droiviied Greek, "were swallowed up," or " engulfed." They sank in the sands as much as in the waves of the Red Sea. Cf. Exodus 15. 12, "the earth swallowed them." 30. The soundings of trumpets, though one were to sound for ten thousand years, cannot throw down walls, hnt faith can do all things. [ChrysosTOM.] seven days—whereas sieges often last for years. 31. Rahab showed her " faith " in her confession, Joshua 2. 9,
19. 20, 30). The sufferer -n'as stretched on an instrument like a drum-head, and scourged to death, not accepting deliverance—when offered to them. So the seven brothers, 2 Maccabees 7. 9, 11, 14, 29, 36; and Eleazar, 2 Maccabees 6.21,28,30, "Though I might have been delivered from death, I endure these severe pains, being beaten." a better resurrection — than that of the women's children "raised to life again;" or, than the resurrection which their foes could give them by delivering them from death (Daniel 12. 2; Luke 20. 35; Philippians 3. 11). The fourth of the brethren (referring to Daniel 12. 2)said to King Antiochus, "To be put to death by men, is to be chosen to look onward for the hopes which are of God, to be raised up again by Him; but for thee there is no resurrection to
11, " I know that Jehovah hath given j'ou the land; Jehovah your God, is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath." tlie liarlot—her former life adds to the marvel of her repentance, faith and preservation (Matthew 21. 31,
32). believed not—Greek, " were disobedient," viz., to the will of God manifested by the miracles wrought in behalf of Israel (Joshua 2. 8-11). received—in her house (Joshua life." The writer of 2 Maccabees expressly disclaims inspira-
2. 1, 4, 6). -witli peace—peaceably ; so that they had nothing to fear in her house. Thus Paul, quoting the same examples (v. 17, 31) for the power of faith, as James (2. 21, 2.5; see my notes there) does for justification by Mwfcs evidenttion, which prevents our mistaking Paul's allusion here to it as If it sanctioned the Apocrypha as inspired. In quoting Daniel, he quotes a book claiming inspiration, and so tacitly sanctions that claim. 36. others—of a different class of confessors for the truth (the Greek is difl'ereiit from that for " others," v. 35, allot, heteroi). trial—testing their /ai'/A. imprisonment—as Hanani (2 Chronicles 16.
ially, shows that in maintaining justification by faith alone, he means not a dead faith, but "faith which worketh by love " {Galatians 5. 6). 33. tlie time—suitable for the length of an Epistle. He accumulates collectively some out of many examples of faith. Gedeon—put before Barak, not chronologically, but as being more celebrated. Just as Samson for tlie same reason is put before Jephthae. The mention of Jephthae as an example of "faith," makes
10), imprisoned by Asa. Micalah, the son of Inilali, by Ahab (1 Kings 22. 26, 27). 37. stoned—as Zechariah, son of Jehoiada (2 Chronicles 24. 20-22; Matthew 2.3. 35). sawn asunder—as Isaiah was said to have been by Manasseh ; but see my Introduction to Isaiah, tempted by their foes, in the midst of their tortures, to renounce their faith ; the most bitter aggravation of them. Or else, by those of their own household, as Job was [Estius] ; or by the fiery darts of Satan, as Jesus was in his last trials. [Glassius.] Probably it included all three; they were templed iu every possible way, by friends and foes, by luiman and Satanic agents, by caresses and afflictions, by words and deeds, to forsake God, but In vain, through the power of faith, sword— " they died In the murder of thi; sword." In D. 34 the contrary Is given as an cll'ect of faith, "they escaped the edge of the sword." Both alike are marvellous etl'ects of faith. It both a(^c<)mplishes great tilings and sutlers great things, without counting it su Herlng, [Chryhostom.] UrIJuh was so slain by .lehoiakim (Joro-
It unlikely he sacrificed the life of his daughter for a rash vow. David, the warrior king and prophet, forms the transition from warrior chiefs to the "prophets," of whom ".Samuel" is mentioned as the first. 33. siibdncd kiu<;doms—as David did (2 Samuel 8. 1, &c.); so also Gideon subdued Mldian (Judges 7). tvronglit righteousness—as Samuel did (1 Samuel 8. 0 ; 12. 3-213 ; 1.5. 33; and David, 2 Samuel 8. 15). obtained promises—as " the prophets" (v. 32) did; for through them the promises were given {cf. Daniel 9. 21). [ISengei..] Rather, "obtained the fulfilment of promises," which had been previously the object of their /rtrt/i (Joshua 21. 15; 1 Kings 8. .50). Indeed, Gideon, Barak, Ac, also obtained the things which God promised. Not "llie promises," which are still future
(u. 1.3, 39). stopped the moutlis of lions—Note the words, "because ho believed in his God." Also Samson (Judges niiiih 26. 23) ; and the prophets in Israel (I JCIngs 1!). 10). in slieep-sltlns-as Elijah (1 Kings 19. 13, LXX.) Tliey were white ; as the "goat-skins" were black (cf. Zechariah 13.4). tormented Greek, "In evil state. SH. Of whom tlie world was not worthy—.So far fr<!m their being unworthy of living In the world, as their exile In deserts,
14, 6), David (1 Samuel 17. 34-37), Benalali (2 Samuel 2:j. 20). 34. Q,uenclied the violence of lire—(Daniel 3.27.) Not merely "quenched the fire," but " quenched the power (so the Greek) of the fire." Daniel 3. and (>. record t he last miracles of the Old Testament. So the martyrs of the Ri-forinatlon, though not escaping the ftrc, were (hlivered from Us having powareally or lastingly to hurt them.
&c., might seem to imply, " the world was not worthy of them." The world. In shutting them out, shut out frulu