Hebrews 11:8 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Hebrews 11:8

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Abraham was the father of a nation of Israel, the greatest man possibly of the Old Testament. He was the father not only of a literal nation, but also the father of all the faithful whether they were descended from him or not. He was the example to all who come to God by faith and trust in a free salvation and who seek to live in obedience to his word. Abraham was called; the salvation of Abraham was God's initiative. He did not deserve it. His family, and probably he himself also, were idolaters and living in Ur of the Chaldees and it was there that God called Abraham. Stephen begins his wonderful sermon in Acts 7, ‘The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran [Haran], and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee’. The impression made upon him was of the glory of God, and of his attributes: his eternity, his infinity, his invincible, limitless power, his holiness and his purity and his loving kindness and his mercy. The personal God was revealed and impressed upon the soul and the heart of Abraham. As a result, all those idols and those idols shrines shrank in his estimation to trivial blasphemy. They were nothing, they had no power. Even the myths that described the gods behind the shrines spoke of sinful and wicked gods who attacked each other and deceived each other. The true God was one God, a God of majesty and power, a God of glory and holiness. This was the truth, this was reality. This was the God who we longed for and must seek and find and know for himself.God took him out of Ur and led him to the land of Canaan, the land of promise, on a journey that was in two stages. First of all, he travelled northeast, something like 700 - 750 miles to Haran and then from there he went on another 400 - 500 miles south to Shechem the very north of the region the land of Canaan, the place of the Canaanites, and it was a few years between the two journeys. Some people say, the fact that Abraham stopped in haran for some years – Terah his father was with him and it was only after the death of his father and a further call from God that he moved on – suggests that he was disobedient, but there is no note of that in the Scriptures. He was first called in Ur of the Chaldees. That vast city has been excavated; many of the artefacts are displayed in the British Museum. The city was one of the most advanced places on earth in its day, with drainage and great privacy in the houses all the windows facing onto internal courtyards, beautifully arranged. There were banks, schools, and there was certainly security. It was in those days an advanced civilisation and Abraham was called to leave it all and go out into the unknown. There would be enemies, there would be nothing like the level of civilisation and sophistication that he was used to. He had no idea the nature of the territory into which he would go, but he obeyed God and he went because he had had such a revelation of God and he believed in him.

Application

When you come to Jesus Christ, because God has shown you the truth of the gospel, you do not just wait for something to happen to you, you respond as Abraham, the father of the faithful did: he obeyed, he acted. The command for us is to repent of our sin to kneel before the Lord, to own our shame, our sinfulness, and our rebellion, and to trust with our whole heart in Christ and his redemption. Some people say, ‘You mustn't do that; you must just wait’, and that is quite wrong. In the Scripture the great call is to turn to the Lord; we are not passive in this. Salvation is passive only in the sense that it is all of God because we would never repent and seek him, if the Holy Spirit did not work in our hearts, regenerating us, inclining our mind and our wills. But the way in which the Holy Spirit works to prepare us, to enable us to come is very remarkable. He is so discreet; he keeps at a distance. The Puritans used to illustrate it this way: a mother takes a little child and encourages the child to walk. She does it so discreetly. The idea is that the child must think that he or she is walking all by himself. The parent does as little as possible so that the child thinks that he or she is accomplishing it himself. The Holy Spirit inclines our wills, opens our minds, convicts our hearts, so that we freely come but it is all his doing. But from our point of view, we are personally consciously convinced and we respond, and so it was with Abraham long ago. He was moved to obey and he set out on that journey.

There is a personal call from God to your heart, a call to come to Christ and trust in him. Like Abraham there is a personal call for every Christian. When that conviction descends upon your soul, you are called to go to a place where God would lead you. My life will henceforth be for him; I will put myself in my Saviour’s hands. I will pray to him to guide me, and lead me, and deny myself as necessary. He now is the great objective of life's journey.

The work of God in the heart of the one who comes to Christ begins with the realisation of the being of God, his personal nature: we who are personal beings are made in his image. He sees me, his eyes are upon me. He is holy and glorious, and I am sinful and cut off from him. These things are borne into my soul, and I am deeply affected by them. I may fear him. I may love him. I may feel the insecurity and the danger of my position, that I am a sinner under judgement. I will certainly be convicted about my sin and my rebellion against him. And I shall understand the amazing loving kindness of God that he should make a way of salvation for me, that the Second Person of the Trinity equal with the Father should come and suffer and die for sinners and stand in our place.

Questions

Why did God deal with a nation in Old Testament times, many of whom never exercised personal faith in him? Israel, the nation of which Abraham was the father, was intended by God in olden times to be a mighty demonstration of the power of God. He took that nation and he became their God and their guide. The majority of people were unworthy of his special care of them and his blessings upon them, but nevertheless there was this wonderful demonstration of the power of God in raising up, protecting, guiding, and dealing with them as a nation. Israel would be a demonstration to all mankind of the havoc wreaked by sin back in the Garden of Eden, the entrance of death into the world, and the depraved and the fallen nature that came into man. Not that the Jewish people were any worse than other people, but through the record of Scripture we see that no matter what God does to human beings materially and however much he blesses them and whatever privileges he gives them, they will not live for him, serve him, and honour him. Constantly the children of Israel turned aside and disobeyed. So it is not in order to see them as a nation condemned and discredited that these things are recorded, but to demonstrate what all mankind is like.

Because God has allowed this, if any end up in the Day of Judgement condemned and rejected by God, it will not be possible for them to say, ‘But God, if only you had done this for me and done that for me and revealed yourself to me, and given me miracles, then I would have turned to you and trusted you.’ ‘Oh no,’ the justice of God will reply, ‘there was a whole nation, down through the centuries, of millions of people who were given every possible benefit and revelation, but no matter what privileges they received they would not worship him and yield to him.’ Israel reveals that man is a rebel and is fundamentally against God. So among other things the children of Israel were a demonstration of human unbelief, but they were also a vehicle of revelation. God did give them privileges and a training in spiritual things and taught them how to recognise prophets and how to discern the revelation of God. And so it was that as revelation was given little by little, down the decades and centuries, the children of Israel preserved it most carefully. They may not have obeyed it, but they preserved it most carefully, and also that nation was appointed for the birth of the Saviour of mankind.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Hebrews 11:8 Commentary and Bible Study