The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 336

Vers. 13, 14.-77ie Christian's condition in this world. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises," etc. By "these all'' we understand Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob. They died in faith. 'l'heir faith, though at times it was sorely tried, continued unto death. And their death was according to or consistent with their faith. They departed this life still believing in the promises, and anticipatin,; their fulfilment in the life beyond. We take what is said of the patriarchs in these two verses as descriptive of the Christian's condition in this world. I. THE CHRISTIAN DOES NOT REALIZE ms GREAT HOPES HERE, BUT ANTICIPATES THEIR REALIZATION HEREAFTER, 'l'he patriarchs "all died in faith, not havin~ received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar." They did not inherit Canaan. 'rhe promises of God to them were not fulfilled in this life. The hopes which those promises awakened were not realized when they died. But our text teaches: 1. 'l'hat they firmly believed in the blessings promised to them. By faith they saw them from afar. 2. They anticipated the possession of these blessings. They "greeted them," "From afar," says Delitzsch, "they saw the promises in the reality of their fulfilment; from afar they greeted them as the wanderer greets his longed-for home, even when he only comes in sight of it at a. distance, drawing to himself as it were magnetically and embracing with inward love that which is yet afar off. The exclamation, 'I have waited for thy salvation, 0 Lord' (Gen. xlix. 18), is such a greet- ing of salvation from afar." " 'l'he image is that of sailors who, catching a glimpse of the shores they wish to reach, salute them from e. distance." Cowper expresses the idea. He spee.ks of " The savage rock, . . . That hides the sea.mew in his hollow clefts Above the reach of man. His hoary he11d, Conspicuous many a league, the mariner, Bound homeward, and in hope already there, Greets with three cheers exulting." Such was the attitude of the patriarchs to the blessings promised unto them by the Lord, And in this respect Christians to some extent resemble them. The hig:hest and brightest hopes of the Christian are not attained here. 'l'his world is the scene of the pursuit rather than the att.ainment of the divinest satisfactions. Is there any one whose brightest and best hopes have been realized in this world? Is our life as good and glad and great a thing as we pictured it in our early days ? Are we as true and pure, as brave and noble, as we hoped and expected to be? Verily, we have not attained; we are not satisfied; we have not received the promised blessings. But these lilessings still beckon us onward. We long and hope for the realization of them. Dr. Martineau profoundly and truly says, "So far as we a.re religious, we are in a state of aspiration and unsatisfied desire ...• In disappointment ever renewed, in thoughts and affections ever transcending aij our possibilities, consist all the noble unrest, the progres- sive goodness, the immortal capacities of our nature, remlering it the creator of poetry and the moral creature of God." We anticipate the fruition of our hopes hereafter. "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I aw:\ke, with thy likeness." II. THE CHRISTIAN IS NOT A RESIDENT HERE, BUT A SOJOURNER-A PILGRIM. "Confessed that they were pilgrims on the earth" (cf. Gen. xxiii. 4; x.lvii. 9), All men are pilgrims in this wor!J. David, in the height of his power, confes,eu this (1 Chron. xxix. 15). Whether they will or not, ~very man is moving ever onward from the seen to the unseen, from the temporal to the eternal. 8omu are unwilliug pilgrims, If they could they _would be citizens here, not sojourner,. But if they 328 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [011, :u. 1--40.