Hebrews 11:11 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Hebrews 11:11

Comments

Sara, Abraham's wife, did not believe in the promise that she would conceive Isaac at first. She had been barren for many years, and despite the prayers of her and Abraham the Lord had not yet answered them and given them a child together. But when Abraham was ninety-nine the Lord had promised Abraham that Sarah would bear a child (Genesis 17:15-16), and again not long afterwards God appeared to Abraham and Sarah in the plains of Mamre and repeated this promise (Genesis 18:10). Sarah had laughed in disbelief when she heard this promise, but then when challenged about this she had apprehensively denied having laughed. In Hebrews however, this is graciously passed over; her unbelief is not mentioned because later she came right and she believed.‘She judged him faithful who had promised.’ That is the first thing, the principal thing. Her faith was operating once again. She considered God faithful. The word is variously translated in the New Testament. The Greek word has an element of determination it, determination in the sense of coming to a conclusion, and leading your soul to accept that truth. She not only considered that if God had promised, then it must come to pass; she so reflected upon this that she determined that it should be so. She would not consider any other outcome: that is how faith operates. It must be so; God has promised and it is not possible that it could be otherwise. ‘He is God’, she said to herself. ‘Now I know that and I remember that God has promised.’If man keeps a promise, he may break it because he didn’t mean it and he lacks integrity, or he may break it because he is weak and he cannot do what he intended to do. But God cannot fail in either of these ways. He has perfect integrity, he knows all things when he makes a promise, and it is impossible that he cannot keep it. He will never fail through inability, because he is all-powerful. When Sara reflected on this, it was obvious that it must come to pass. He is the Creator of all things I see. He is the giver of life and the sustainer of life. There is nothing too hard for him as he told my husband Abraham. And of course she had witnessed so much evidence of these things in deliverances and blessings in her own life. Now Sarah wouldn’t necessarily have known the purpose of God in making her wait so long for that child of promise, for the heir through whom the Saviour of the world would come. She may have – they were brilliant people.

Application

We can think of so many things in our own lives. If it is in the word of God and it is promised, it will be kept. If God promises to sustain us and to use us as his instruments and if we keep the terms, then those promises will be kept. If you are a seeker after Christ, you sometimes wonder, ‘Yes, I repented, and I asked Christ to bless me and to make me his own, but will he hear me? Is his promise to me?’ Well, the terms of the Scripture are unconditional. If you are sincere in your heart, and you believe in Christ, and you repent of your sin, then he will forgive you and bless you. He is bound to keep his promise. Set your mind to work when faith is overwhelmed. Who has promised? Have I been reading the Scripture? Do I keep a note of the great promises of God? I think of his attributes, I think of all the evidences since I was saved in my life of answered prayer. Do you remember them? Do you reflect on them and think about them? I know that he has a purpose.

Christian people, believers in the Lord, should promote gratitude and trust and faith but you see a number of principles in the experience of Sarah. God renewed her faith. She had to exercise it and she did and she trusted God, who had promised. If God is going to use us in his service and bring people into the kingdom through our instrumentality, then faith is required. You might say that the miracle of conception special conception did not take place with Abraham and Sarah until faith was being exercised, until they trusted him.

Questions

Why did God keep them waiting so long for a child? I remember years ago that this was something that puzzled me. ‘What a strange thing for God to do’, I thought rather irreverently. ‘What a curious thing that God should keep them waiting until they were 90 and 100 years old before the promised child came. Why was that? I used to think that maybe it was just a refining of their faith. Well no doubt that was a part of it, but only a small part in a way. God had a purpose, and he kept that purpose secret, but it is obvious now, with hindsight. It was to show future generations that the calling of the Jews for that dispensation, and the coming of Christ ultimately, were special acts of God. They could not have happened in the ordinary course of events. It wasn't enough as far as God was concerned for Abraham and Sarah to have a child in the ordinary course of events. That child, and the line flowing from that child, would be a nation that was selected as a demonstration of God's power and to bring in the Saviour. Isaac was to be a child in fulfilment of the promise, a child given by supernatural intervention, not a child conceived and born in the natural way as Ishmael. In this way he is a type of everyone who is born ‘not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God’ (John 1:13).

Does God still speak to his people today? Now God did not communicate to Abraham in a way whereby Abraham could have been mistaken. He appeared to him, God does not deal with people in this way today. Now we have the complete and perfect revelation of his word. We have all the truth revealed. God does deal with individuals but in a different way. He may remind us of things we already know. He may move our consciences. He may remind us very keenly of our duties or are calling in some situation, but he no longer reveals to us authoritative truth in a personal manner or great things because they're all in the word. This is final and all sufficient for us.

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Hebrews 11:11 Commentary and Bible Study