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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 11:16

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But now they desire a better [country,] that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

16. But now ] “But, as the case now is.”

they desire ] The word means, “they are yearning for,” “they stretch forth their hands towards.”

is not ashamed to be called their God ] Rather, “is not ashamed of them, to be called their God” (Gen 28:13; Exo 3:6-15.)

he hath prepared for them a city ] The “inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us” (1Pe 1:4). This digression is meant to shew that the faith and hopes of the Patriarchs reached beyond mere temporal blessings.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly – That is, at the time referred to when they confessed that they were strangers and sojourners, they showed that they sought a better country than the one which they had left. They lived as if they had no expectation of a permanent residence on earth, and were looking to another world. The argument of the apostle here appears to be based upon what is apparent from the whole history, that they had a confident belief that the land of Canaan would be given to their posterity, but as for themselves they had no expectation of permanently dwelling there, but looked to a home in the heavenly country. Hence, they formed no plans for conquest; they laid claim to no title in the soil; they made no purchases of farms for cultivation; they lived and died without owning any land except enough to bury their dead. All this appears as if they looked for a final home in a better country, even a heavenly.

Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God – Since they had such an elevated aim, he was willing to speak of himself as their God and Friend. They acted as became his friends, and he was not ashamed of the relation which he sustained to them. The language to which the apostle evidently refers here is what is found in Exo 3:6, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. We are not to suppose that God is ever ashamed of anything that he does. The meaning here is, that they had acted in such a manner that it was fit that he should show toward them the character of a Benefactor, Protector, and Friend.

For he hath prepared for them a city – Such as they had expected – a heavenly residence; Heb 11:10. There is evidently here a reference to heaven, represented as a city – the new Jerusalem – prepared for his people by God himself; compare the notes on Mat 25:34. Thus, they obtained what they had looked for by faith. The wandering and unsettled patriarchs to whom the promise was made, and who showed all their lives that they regarded themselves as strangers and pilgrims, were admitted to the home of permanent rest, and their posterity was ultimately admitted to the possession of the promised land. Nothing could more certainly demonstrate that the patriarchs believed in a future state than this passage. They did not expect a permanent home on earth. They made no efforts to enter into the possession of the promised land themselves. They quietly and calmly waited for the time when God would give it to their posterity, and in the meantime for themselves they looked forward to their permanent home in the heavens.

Even in this early period of the world, therefore, there was the confident expectation of the future state; compare the notes on Mat. 22:3l-32. We may remark, that the life of the patriarchs was, in all essential respects, such as we should lead. They looked forward to heaven; they sought no permanent possessions here; they regarded themselves as strangers and pilgrims on the earth. So should we be. In our more fixed and settled habits of life; in our quiet homes; in our residence in the land in which we were born, and in the society of old and tried friends, we should yet regard ourselves as strangers and sojourners. We have here no fixed abode. The houses in which we dwell will soon be occupied by others; the paths in which we go will soon be trod by the feet of others; the fields which we cultivate will soon be plowed and sown and reaped by others. Others will read the books which we read; sit down at the tables where we sit; lie on the beds where we repose; occupy the chambers where we shall die, and from whence we shall be removed to our graves. If we have any permanent home, it is in heaven; and that we have, the faithful lives of the patriarchs teach us, and the unerring word of God everywhere assures us.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 16. But now they desire a better] They all expected spiritual blessings, and a heavenly inheritance; they sought God as their portion, and in such a way and on such principles that he is not ashamed to be called their God; and he shows his affection for them by preparing for them a city, to wit, heaven, as themselves would seek no city on earth; which is certainly what the apostle has here in view. And from this it is evident that the patriarchs had a proper notion of the immortality of the soul, and expected a place of residence widely different from Canaan. Though to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the promises were made in which Canaan was so particularly included, yet God did not give them any inheritance in that country, no, not so much as to set a foot on; Ac 7:5. Therefore, if they had not understood the promises to belong to spiritual things, far from enduring, as seeing him who is invisible, they must have considered themselves deceived and mocked. The apostle therefore, with the highest propriety, attributes their whole conduct and expectation to faith.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: having deserted this world, as strangers in it, they sought, desired, and hoped for with the greatest earnestness and fervency, a city in the country of heaven, Heb 11:10, in comparison with which they contemned and despised all others; a country where there is perfection of life, and fulness of glory: it excelleth all others as far as heaven doth earth, 2Ti 4:18; 1Pe 1:4. The state, society, enjoyments, and place, they longed for, were all heavenly, Phi 3:20,21; nothing lower than this world would satisfy them.

Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: faith having carried them thus estranged from this world to the grave, endearing to them the promises, and engaging of them for heaven only, therefore God did not disdain them, he did not think it any disrepute to him to own them his, but esteemed it an honour and reputation to him, took np his joy and delight in them: see him owning them when dead, Exo 3:6,15; Mt 22:31,32; surnaming himself by them, and adopting them as his own, as Jacob did Josephs sons, Gen 48:5,6; so that though they are dead as to their bodies, yet they are alive as to their souls, and are owned by God in his name and title, and are assured, as to their dust, of a resurrection; for he will do it, giving them that rest that they never had in their pilgrimage.

For he hath prepared for them a city; that heavenly state and place which they sought for, Heb 11:10, which infinitely transcended Cannan, and the Jerusalem in it, of which they were denizens while here, Eph 2:19; Phi 3:20; the pleasant, peaceful, rich, and glorious metropolis of the living God, Heb 12:22; 13:14; which shall make abundant amends for all their sorrows, sufferings, and restless wanderings on earth, where they shall enjoy pleasures, riches, honours, and rest for evermore, 1Pe 1:4.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

16. Proving the truth that theold fathers did not, as some assert, “look only for transitorypromises” [Article VII, Book of Common Prayer].

nowas the case is.

is not ashamedGreek,“Is not ashamed of them.” Not merely once did God callhimself their God, but He is NOWnot ashamed to have Himself called so, they being alive andabiding with Him where He is. For, by the law, God cannot come intocontact with anything dead. None remained dead in Christ’s presence(Luk 20:37; Luk 20:38).He who is Lord and Maker of heaven and earth, and all things therein,when asked, What is Thy name? said, omitting all His other titles, “Iam the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”[THEODORET]. Not only isHe not ashamed, but glories in the name and relation to Hispeople. The “wherefore” does not mean that God’s goodpleasure is the meritorious, but the gracious, consequenceof their obedience (that obedience being the result of His Spirit’swork in them in the first instance). He first so “called”Himself, then they so called Him.

forproof of His being”their God,” namely, “He hath prepared (in Hiseternal counsels, Mat 20:23;Mat 25:34, and by the progressiveacts of redemption, Joh 14:2)for them a city,” the city in which He Himself reigns, so thattheir yearning desires shall not be disappointed (Heb 11:14;Heb 11:16).

a cityon its garnitureby God (compare Re21:10-27).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

But now they desire a better country,…. Which is not to be understood of the then present time, in which the apostle wrote; for the patriarchs, of whom he speaks, were not then on earth, nor in any third place between heaven and earth; they were then in heaven; and though there are indeed in heaven desires after perfect happiness, in soul and body; yet this intends the desires of these saints when on earth, and which are common to all believers in the present state of things; who, as the patriarchs desired a better country than Chaldea, or even Canaan itself, so they desire a better country than this world; and such is heaven: it is on high; here are no noxious and pestilential vapours, no mists or fogs beclouding, no storms and tempests, but it is full of light and glory; having the delightful breezes of divine love, and the comfortable gales of the blessed Spirit; here is no heat of persecution, nor coldness, nor chills of affection; here is plenty of most delicious fruits, no hunger nor thirst; and here are riches, which are solid, satisfying, durable, safe and sure: many are the liberties and privileges here enjoyed; here is a freedom from a body subject to diseases and death, from a body of sin and death, from Satan’s temptations, from all doubts, fears, and unbelief, and from all sorrows and afflictions; the inhabitants of it are the spirits of just men made perfect, angels, God, Father, Son, and Spirit, and Christ in human nature; upon all which accounts it is abundantly the better country, and as it is explained,

that is, an heavenly; an inheritance in heaven, an house eternal in the heavens, the kingdom of heaven; and it is no wonder that it should be desired by such who know it, and the nature of it: the word denotes a vehement desire; and it is such, that the saints desire to depart from this world, and go unto it; which shows that they are weaned from this, and have seen something glorious in another. Remarkable is the saying of Anaxagoras u who, when one said to him, hast thou no regard to thy country? answered, I have, and that the greatest, pointing with his fingers towards heaven; and, says Philo the Jew w, the soul of every wise man has heaven for his country, and the earth as a strange place:

wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; their covenant God and Father; [See comments on Heb 8:10], even though he is the God of the whole earth;

for he hath prepared for them a city; in his council and covenant, and by his Son; [See comments on Heb 11:10]. This proves that he is not ashamed of the relation he stands in to them, since he has made a provision for them to dwell with him to all eternity.

u Laert. in Vit. Anaxag. p. 92. w De Agricultura, p. 196. Vid. ib. de Confus. Ling. p. 331.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

They desire (). Present middle indicative of , old word for stretching out after, yearning after as in 1Ti 3:1.

Their God ( ). Predicate nominative with the epexegetic infinitive (to be called) used with (is not ashamed).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Now they desire [ ] . Nun now is logical : as the case now stands. For ojregontai desire, see on 1Ti 3:1.

Is not ashamed [ ] . Because they have commended themselves to God by their faith, so that he acknowledges them as his own. Comp. ch. Heb 2:11; Mr 8:28, 38; Rom 1:16; 2Ti 1:8, 16. To be called their God [ ] . Lit. to be surnamed. Comp. Act 4:36; Act 10:5, 18, 32. God was called the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. See Exo 3:6.

For he hath prepared for them a city [ ] . Comp. Mt 25:34; Joh 14:2; Rev 21:2. City is significant, as showing that the fulfillment of God ‘s promise lies in introducing them into the perfection of social life. Comp. Rev 3:12; Rev 21:2, 10; Rev 22:19.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “But now they desire a better country,” (nun de kreittonos oregontai) “But on the other hand now and hereafter continually, without end, they aspire to a better country,” a better place, a better home. The “they” appears to refer to all true obedient believers who have, hold, or possess the “faith” of Abraham, or Abraham kind of faith, Gal 3:6-8; Rom 4:3; Rom 4:16.

2) “That is, an heavenly, (tout estin epouramiou) “That is an heavenly place,” (one better than an earthly) Land, city, and body, Job 19:25-27; Joh 14:1-3; 2Co 5:1-4; 2Co 5:6-8; ; Heb 11:10; Heb 12:22.

3) “Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God,” (dio ouk epaischunetai autos ho theos theos epikaleisthae auton) “Wherefore God is not (at all) ashamed of them, to be called their God,” those who accept him by faith, as Abraham did, (Gen 15:6; ; Rom 4:3; Rom 4:15-16) and follow him thru life in obedient service looking for a new Fatherland, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did; He was not ashamed to call them brethren, Exo 3:15; Heb 2:11; Heb 2:16.

4) “For he hath prepared for them a city,” (hetoimasen gar autois polin) “Because he prepared for them a city,” a permanent dwelling place; It has been in his purpose, intent, or plan from the foundation of the world, in Christ, 1Pe 1:18-21; Eph 1:3-14; Mat 22:31-32.

HEAVEN, WHAT IT IS

A scoffing infidel of considerable talents, being once in the company of a person of slender intellect, but of genuine piety, and supposing, no doubt, that he should obtain an easy triumph in the display of his ungodly wit, put the following question to him: “I understand, sir, that you expect to go to heaven when you die: can you tell me what sort of a place heaven is?” “Yes, sir,” replied the Christian; “heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people; and if your soul is not prepared for it, with all your boasted wisdom, you will never enter there.”

Baxendale’s Anecdotes

HEAVEN DESIRABLE

No one cries when children, long absent from their parents, go home. Vacation morning is a jubilee. But death is the Christian’s vacation morning. School is out. It is time to go home. It is surprising that one should wish life here, who may have life in heaven.

H. W. Beecher

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

16. Wherefore God is not ashamed, etc. He refers to that passage, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Exo 3:6.) It is a singular honor when God makes men illustrious, by attaching his name to them; and designs thus to have himself distinguished from idols. This privilege, as the Apostle teaches us, depends also on faith; for when the holy fathers aspired to a celestial country, God on the other hand counted them as citizens. We are hence to conclude, that there is no place for us among God’s children, except we renounce the world, and that there will be for us no inheritance in heaven, except we become pilgrims on earth; Moreover, the Apostle justly concludes from these words, — “I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob,” that they were heirs of heaven, since he who thus speaks is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(16) They confess themselves but sojourners (Heb. 11:13), and thus make it plain that they are still seeking their true home (14); and yet, if. they had sought nothing more than an earthly home, there is one already, which was once theirs, and to which they might return (15); hence it is no earthly but a heavenly-country that they desire. This is the general current of thought in these verses, presenting a very close analogy to the argument of Heb. 3:7 to Heb. 4:11; here, as there, words which otherwise might appear to have but an earthly reference are seen to have a higher and a spiritual import. In Heb. 11:8-9 we have before us only the land of inheritance, but in Heb. 11:10 the heavenly rest; and in Heb. 11:13 words which as read in Genesis might seem to refer to a wandering life in the land of Canaan are taken as a confession of sojourning upon earth. It is not necessary to suppose that the desires and yearnings of the fathers expressed themselves in the definite forms which later revelation has made familiar; in all that is essential the hope existed, whilst the mode of the fulfilment was unknown. Through faith the patriarchs were willing to connect their whole life and that of their children with waiting at Gods bidding for the fulfilment of a promisewandering and sojourning until Gods own time should come when He would grant a home in a country of their own. And yet each of these servants of God recognised that relation to God in which lay the foundation of the promise to him to be personal and abiding. If these two thoughts be united, it will be easy to see how each one for himself would be led to regard the state of wandering in which he spent his life as an emblem of a state of earthly waiting for an enduring home; the sojourning in the land was a constant symbol of the sojourning upon earth. Hence (see the passages quoted in Heb. 11:13) the same language is used from age to age after Canaan is received as an inheritance. (Comp. Heb. 4:9; and see Exo. 3:15, and Mat. 22:31-32.)

But now.See Heb. 8:6; the meaning is not at this present time, but as the case stands in truth.

Wherefore God is not ashamed.Rather, Wherefore God is not ashamed of them (compare Heb. 2:11). Because of this lofty desire, or rather, because of the faith and love towards Him in which the desire was founded, and of which therefore the longing for a heavenly country was the expression, God is not ashamed of them, to be called (literally surnamed) their God (Gen. 17:7; Gen. 26:24; Gen. 28:13; Exo. 3:6; et al.). That He is not ashamed of them He has shown, for He prepared for them a city. Before the desire existed the home had been provided. (Comp. Mat. 25:34.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

16. Now In accepting the inheritance of Canaan, they read a title clear to a better a heavenly country. And outside of the fleshly Israel there have been faithful souls belonging to the true Israel. Anaxagoras, the Athenian philosopher, (as Laertius tells us,) being asked, “Care you not for your country?” replied, “Speak gently, for I care ardently for my country,” pointing towards heaven. And Plato said, “Man is a heavenly plant, not an earthly.”

God is not ashamed The God of the universe condescends to be God to these immigrant pilgrims. All the stars of limitless astronomy, lifeless things as they are, are not as dear to God as one faithful human soul.

Their God His title of honour is not merely that he was, but that he ever is, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

For In proof that he is specially their God.

Prepared a city The heavenly counterpart of which, the earthly is type and earnest.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Heb 11:16. But now they desire a better country, This made them carry their thoughts still further; and since they did not enjoy Canaan, nor see how Canaan could answer their expectations, they desired and expected a better country, that is, an heavenly. They had opportunities enough of returning to their own country, had they thought that the promises made to them were to be fulfilled in that country; but since they were persuaded of the truth of what was promised, and did so sincerely embrace it, and yet declared themselves strangers and sojourners here, they must expect a better country, that is, a heavenly, in which they might receive their reward. They knew that God cannot lie or deceive; they knew that God is a rewarder of them that seek him; and yet Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, notwithstanding the particular promises made to them, received nothing here which could in this sense be called a reward. They had not any possession in Canaan; no, not a place to set a foot on, that they could call their own; Act 7:5. Could any thing be more obvious, than to turn their thoughts upon some place very different from that they lived in?a better place of abode, wherein they might be made happy? None of them met with any such place here, and therefore they expected and desired a heavenly city,a place of sure reward; and they had the more reason to expect this, because God called himself their God:Wherefore God does not make them ashamed, in being called their God. It may be said, that their reward, or the good things promised them, were all things of this world; (see Gen 12:3.) but to be called any one’s God, or exceeding rich reward, must imply some advantages or privileges more than those worldly ones. There was therefore something more than the things of this world promised by God to Abraham, when he was pleased to call himself the God of Abraham. It is added, for he hath prepared them a city. Neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, had any place in Canaan which they could claim as their own, except a burying-place bought with their money; and if their posterity four hundred years afterwards had possession of Canaan, yet the patriarchs themselves were no more than travellers, and lived in tents: to be therefore their God, or their exceeding great reward, must imply something which did not happen to them upon earth; therefore it was something in a future state, which they expected, and really believed that they should have.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Heb 11:16 . ] the logical: but now . Comp. Heb 8:6 .

] elsewhere in the N. T. only 1Ti 3:1 ; 1Ti 6:10 .

] wherefore, sc . on account of their seeking after the heavenly country.

] Epexegesis to : God is not ashamed of them, namely, to be called their God . Reference to Exo 3:6 : , . Comp. ibid . Heb 11:15-16 .

The . . . presupposes the idea of an intimate communion of God with the patriarchs. Comp. also Mat 22:31 f.; Mar 12:26 f.; Luk 20:37 f. The fact instanced in proof of this communion is added in the concluding words: ] for He has prepared for them a city. By the is again meant, as Heb 11:10 , the heavenly Jerusalem . , however, may equally well signify: He has prepared it for them, that they may one day possess the same as a dwelling (Schlichting, Grotius, Owen, Calov, Bhme, de Wette, Delitzsch, Hofmann), as: He has already conferred it upon them as a possession (so Braun and Bleek).

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 2324
THE CHRISTIANS DESIRE

Heb 11:16. Now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.

WHEREVER the Gospel is faithfully declared, it is generally known that we are to be saved by the same faith as that which dwelt in our father Abraham: but it is not so generally understood, that we are to walk in the steps of Abraham; and that, in the most self-denying acts of his life, he was intended to be an example to us [Note: Rom 4:12.]. But in its fruits, as well as in its object, our faith must resemble his. Now, amongst his most eminent virtues we must reckon his superiority to the world, in that he willingly left his own country to sojourn in the land of promise, as in a strange land; and continued, with Isaac and Jacob, to the very end of his days, to walk as a pilgrim and a sojourner there, in the assured hope and expectation of a better country, which he had in view [Note: Heb 11:8-10.]. Both he and his family had opportunities in abundance to return to their own land, if they had been so disposed: but they knew themselves to be under the Divine guidance and direction; and regarded nothing in comparison of Gods favour, and the ultimate possession of that recompence to which they had respect.

In them, then, we may see,

The character of every true Christian

The Christian seeks a better portion than this world can give him
[He is in the world, and performs the duties of his station, like others: and, as to external appearance, he differs not materially from the sober part of mankind. He does not make an unnecessary parade of his religion; nor does he affect needless singularities: but he moves quietly and unostentatiously in the sphere which God has assigned him. But, in the spirit of his mind, he is widely different from every unconverted man. His affections are set on things above, and not on things below [Note: Col 3:2.]. He sees the emptiness and vanity of all earthly things: he has weighed them in a balance, and found them wanting in every respect. He has seen how uncertain they are, both in the acquisition and enjoyment; how wholly unsatisfying to a. spiritual mind; and how soon they pass away. Heavenly things, on the contrary, he has found to be every way worthy of his pursuit: and he has determined, through grace, to disregard every thing in comparison of them. He has learned to regard this world as a mere wilderness; a land through which he is passing to his own native country [Note: conveys this precise idea, ver. 14.]; the country where his Father dwells, and which is the place of his ultimate abode. The conduct of the patriarchs gives, in this respect, a just idea of the Christian. They dwelt in tents, and not, like those around them, in cities: and thus they shewed to all, and indeed avowed [Note: Confessed, ver. 13.], that they were travelling towards a better land. Thus the Christian takes not up his rest in any thing here below; but shews, by the whole of his spirit and conduct, that he is indeed looking for a better country, that is, an heavenly.]

In this he is distinguished from all other persons whatsoever
[Others may be weary of the world through disappointment and vexation; or they may feel an indifference towards some things that are in it. But there is no man, except the Christian, that is uniformly and universally dead to the world, at the same time that he has every opportunity to enjoy it. No person, but the true Christian, compares the two worlds together, so as to give a deliberate and determined preference to that which is above. The glories of the eternal world are seen by none but him, and therefore are coveted by him alone. Others, in their judgment indeed, will acknowledge the superior excellence of the eternal world: (in truth, there is no man so stupid and brutish as to entertain a doubt of it:) but in their hearts they do not love it; and in their lives they do not seek it. The true Christian, on the contrary, does seek it above all. And in this there is no difference to be found between saints of any country, or any age. The mind of the Patriarchs is the mind of every Christian under heaven. The same sentiment prevails among the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the learned and the unlearned, the healthy and the dying. There may be a difference in many points both of faith and practice: but in this there is none. Every individual that is truly converted to God will say, I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were [Note: Psa 39:12.].]

If the Christian be exalted in his character above others, so also is he in,

II.

The high honour conferred upon him

God is, by way of eminence, his God

[Jehovah is the God of all the universe: there is not a creature in heaven, earth, or hell, that is not subject to his controul. But he is in a peculiar manner the God of those who consecrate themselves to him, and endeavour to walk according to his will. This is particularly declared in reference to the point before us; a separation, in mind and spirit, from the unbelieving world. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God; and they shall be my people [Note: 2Co 6:16-18.]. See what God was to Abraham: how he conversed with him as a friend; admitted him to the closest fellowship; heard and answered his prayers; protected him from every enemy; and finally admitted him to his beatific presence in heaven. Thus will he do to all, who, like Abraham, endeavour to maintain a constant fellowship with him. Yea, whatever God himself possesses, even all his own infinite perfections, shall be employed in behalf of the believing soul, as much as if there were not another creature in the universe to engage his attention. Thus will he do, I say, in this life: and, in the life to come, he has prepared for the heavenly-minded Christian a city, a fixed habitation, a habitation suited to him, and worthy of God himself.]

Nor will God be ashamed to avow himself his God

[God would be utterly ashamed to acknowledge a worldling as standing in such a relation to him; just as we should to acknowledge as our friend and favourite a notorious robber, or an abandoned prostitute. The worldling does rob God in ten thousand respects. He robs him of his heart, his time, his service [Note: Mal 3:8.]: and commits whoredom and adultery, as the Scripture expresses it, with every base thing which solicits his regards [Note: Jam 4:4.]. How is it possible that God should approve of such base proceedings, or profess himself the friend of such worthless creatures? Our Lord tells us, that of those who are ashamed of him, he will be ashamed, when he shall come in the glory of his Father with his holy angels [Note: Mar 8:38.]. He will turn from them with indignation, saying, Depart from me; I never knew you. But of a faithful servant, neither God the Father, nor the Lord Jesus Christ, will ever be ashamed. On the contrary, both the Father and the Son will come to him, and make their abode with him [Note: Joh 14:23.]. Indeed, God rather loves to be called his God, and chooses to be designated by that very name. When Moses asked of God, by what name he should make him known to the children of Israel, God replied, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel; the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you. This is my name for ever; and this is my memorial unto all generations [Note: Exo 3:15.]. Individual believers indeed are not, nor can be, mentioned in Scripture, as these patriarchs are: but it is as true of one as of another: and God will put no difference between one and another, any further than the fidelity of each individual shall justify a distinction in his behalf.]

Address
1.

Those who set their hearts on earthly things

[How unlike are you to the saints of former days! Compare your life, or rather your spirit, with that of the persons mentioned in my text. Do not mistake, as though their call was peculiar, and nothing resembling it is given to you. I know you are not called to go out from your country, and to dwell in tents: but you are called to desire a better country, and that supremely; yea, and not only to desire it, but to seek it; to seek it with your whole hearts. And is there not just occasion for you to seek it? Compare the present with the future world: can you doubt which should have the preference in your esteem? You cannot. Why, then, do you not act agreeably to your convictions? Do you not know, that you can never have any hope of heaven if you do not desire it: you can never possess it, if you do not labour for it? I must further say, that, if you will not be the Lords people, you can have, no hope that he will give himself to you as your God. You are afraid, perhaps, that your names will be cast out as evil if you renounce the world, and live m it as pilgrims and sojourners. To be ridiculed as righteous overmuch is, in your eyes, too formidable an evil to be encountered. But, if you are ashamed to be called Gods servants, will not he be ashamed to be called your God? No doubt he will: and I wish you to consider this, ere it be too late. Without a surrender of yourselves to him, you can never hope that he will give himself to you.]

Those who are endued with patriarchal virtue

[There are some, I trust, who, like the patriarchs, desire, and shew too by their lives that they do desire a heavenly country. Go on, beloved, in your heavenly way; and whatever opportunities be afforded you to go back, regard them not: yea, if even the fiercest opposition be made to you, let it not impede your course one moment. What if people despise, and hate, and persecute you, shall that be suffered to divert you from your purpose? Do you not remember what is said of our Lord, that for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross and despised the shame, and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God [Note: Heb 12:2.]? Do ye, then, walk in his steps; and, like him, in due time you shall inherit the glory prepared for you from the foundation of the world.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

16 But now they desire a better country , that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

Ver. 16. God is not ashamed ] But honoureth them as his confederates, because for his cause they renounced the world. No man ever did or suffered anything for God that complained of a hard bargain.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

16 .] but now (as the case now is: the logical : see 1Co 13:13 note, and our ch. Heb 8:6 ) they desire ( , classical: see many instances in Wetst. on 1Ti 3:1 ) a better (home), that is, a heavenly one (the justification of this assertion, which seems to ascribe N. T. ideas to the O. T. fathers, must be found in such sayings as that of the dying Jacob, Gen 49:18 , which only represent a wide class of their faithful thoughts): wherefore God is not ashamed of them (reff.) to be called (here has a double object, and . For the latter construction also see reff.) their God (viz. in reff. Exod. Thdrt. (not Chrys. as Bleek) says, , , , , . From the present , and especially from the clause which follows, it is probable, as Bleek has well remarked, that the Writer intends not merely to adduce that God did once call Himself their God, but that he is now not ashamed to be so called, they enduring and abiding with Him where He is: in the same sense in which our Lord adduces the same circumstance, Mat 22:31 ff. and [62] . See below): for He prepared for them a city (permanent and eternal, in contrast to the tents in which they wandered. There are two ways of understanding this clause: 1. with Schlichting, Grot., Bhme, De W., Hofmann, Delitzsch, to take the aor. as a pluperfect, “for God had prepared for them a city:” “quia Deus clestem illam patriam et regnum suum Abrahamo, Isaaco, et Jacobo destinavit, propterea se Deum illorum summumque patronum jure et merito appellat,” Schlicht.: 2. with Thl., al., and Bleek, , , , , , . I would adopt a modification of this last. God is not ashamed of them, nor to be called their God: and we find proof of this not only in His thus naming Himself, but in His preparing for them a city: the home for which they yearned: He did not deceive their hopes, but acted as their God by verifying those hopes. Thus, and thus only, does keep its proper emphasis, and the aor. its proper time: they looked for a city : and God refused not to be called their God, for He prepared for them that city, verified those their hopes. And if we ask for the interpretation of , I answer, in the preparation of the way of Christ, and bringing in salvation by Him, of which salvation they in their anticipation of faith were partakers, Joh 8:56 , , ).

[62] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25 , the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified , thus, ‘ Mk.,’ or ‘ Mt. Mk.,’ &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Hebrews

THE FUTURE WHICH VINDICATES GOD

Heb 11:16

THESE are bold words. They tell us that unless God has provided a future condition of social blessedness for those whom He calls His, their life’s experience on earth is a blot on His character and administration. He needs heaven for His vindication. The preparation of the City is the reason why He is not ‘ashamed to be called their God.’ If there were not such a preparation, He had need to be ashamed. Then my text, further, by its first word ‘wherefore,’ carries our thoughts back to what has been said beforehand; and that is, ‘They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly.’ Therefore God ‘is not ashamed of them,’ as the Revised Version has it, with a fuller rendering, ‘to be called their God.’ That is to say, the attitude of the men who look ever forward, through the temporal, to the things unseen and eternal, is worthy of their relation with Him, and it alone is worthy. And if people professing to be His, and professing that He is theirs, do not so live, they would be a disgrace to God, and He would be ashamed to own them for His. So there are two lines of thought suggested by our text; two sets of obligations which are deduced by the writer of this Epistle from that solemn name – ‘The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob.’ The one set of obligations refers to Him; the other to us. There are, then, three things here for our consideration – the name; what it pledges God to do; and what it binds men to seek. Let me ask you to look at these three things with me. I. First of all, then, regard the significance of the name round which the whole argument of our verse turns. The writer lays hold of that wonderful designation, by which the God of the whole earth knit Himself, in special relationship of unity and mutual possession, to these three poor men – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he would have us ponder that name, as meaning a great deal more than the fact that these three were His worshippers, and that He was their God, in the sense in which Moloch was the God of the Phoenicians; Jupiter, the god of the Romans; or Zeus of the Greeks. There is a far deeper and sacreder relation involved than that. ‘The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob’ means not only that His name was in some measure known as a designation, and in some measure honoured by external worship, by the patriarchs, but it involved much in regard to Him, and much in regard to them. It is the name which He took for Himself, not which men gave to Him, and, therefore, it expresses what He had made Himself to these men. That is to say, the name implies a direct act of self-revelation on the part of God. It implies condescending approach and nearness of communion. It implies possession, mutual and reciprocal, as all possession of spirit by spirit must be. It implies still more wonderfully and profoundly that, just as in regard to the relations between ourselves, so, in regard to the loftiest of all relations, God owns men, and men possess God, because, on both sides of the relationship, there is the same love. Other forms of connection between men and God differ from this deepest of all in that the attitude on the one side corresponds to, but is different from, the attitude on the other. If we think of God as the object of trust, on His side there is faithfulness, on our side there is faith. If we think of Him as the object of adoration, on His side there is loftiness, on our side there is lowliness. If we think of Him as the Supreme Governor, His commandment is answered by our obedience. But if we think of Him as ours, and of ourselves as His, the bond is identical on either part. And though there be all the difference that there is between a drop of dew and the boundless ocean, between the little love that refreshes and bedews my heart, and the great abyss of the same that lies, not stagnant though calm, in His, yet my love is like God’s, and God’s love is like mine. And that is the deepest meaning of the name, ‘the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob’: – mutual possession based upon common and identical love. And then, of course, in so far as we are concerned, the name carries with it the most blessed depths of the devout life, in all its sacredness of intimacy, in all its sweetness of communion, in all its perfectness of dependence, in all its victory over self, in all its triumphant appropriation, as its very own, of the common and universal good. It is much to be able to say ‘Our God, our help in ages past.’ It is more to be able to say ‘My Lord and my God.’ And that appropriation deprives no other of his possession of God. I do not rob you of one beam of the sunshine when it irradiates my vision. We take in of the common land that which belongs to us, and no other man is the poorer or has the less for his. My God is thy God; and when we each realise our individual and personal relation ‘to Him, as expressed by these two little words, then we are able to say, in close union, ‘Our God, the God and Father of us all.’ So much, then, for the name. II. Now a word or two, in the second place, as to what that name pledges God to do. He is ‘not ashamed’ of it, ‘for He hath prepared for them a city.’ Now I do not need to enter at all upon the question as to whether the three patriarchs to whom my text has original reference had any notion of a future life. It matters nothing where .or how they thought that that coming blessing towards which they were ever looking was to be realised. The point of the text is that, in any case, they were servants of a future promised to them by God, as they believed, and that that future shaped their whole life. Think of what their life was. How all their days, from the moment when Abraham left his home, to the moment when the dying Jacob said, with a passion of unfilled expectancy, which yet had in it no hesitancy or doubt or rebuke, ‘I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord,’ that future shaped their whole career! And then, if the end of all was that they lay down in the dust and died, having been lured on from step to step by dazzling illusions dangled before them, which were nothing but dreams, what about the God who did it? and what about their relation to Him! Would there be anything in such a God deserving to be worshipped, Might He not be ashamed of ‘being called their God’ if that was all that they got thereby? God needs the City for His own vindication. Now that seems to be a daring way of putting it, hut it is only another form of expressing a very plain thought, that the facts of the religious life here on earth are such as necessarily do involve a future of blessedness, and a heaven. I need not, I suppose, dwell for more than just in a sentence upon the first plain way in which this truth may be illustrated – namely, that nothing but a future life of blessedness, such as we usually connote by the simple name ‘heaven,’ saves God’s veracity and the truthfulness of His promises. If we believe that the awful silence of the universe has ever been broken by a divine voice; if we believe that God has said anything to men – apart, I mean, from the revelation of Himself made by our nature and in our daily experience – we must believe that He has promised a life to come. And unless such a life do await those who, humbly and with many faults and imperfections, have yet clung to Him as theirs, and yielded themselves to Him as His possession, then

‘The pillared firmament is rottenness, And earth’s base built on stubble.’

Let God be true and every man a lie. Unless there is a heaven, He has flashed before us an illusion like that which has tempted many a wanderer into the bog to perish. He has fooled us with a mirage, which at the distance looked like palm-trees and cool, flashing lakes, and when we reach it is only burning sand, strewn with bleached bones of the generations that have been cheated before us. ‘God is not ashamed… for He hath prepared a city.’ But, then, there is another thought, closely con-netted with the preceding, and yet capable of being dealt with separately, and that is that there is a blot ineffaceable on the divine character unless the desires which He Himself has implanted have a reality corresponding to them. That is true, of course, in the most absolute sense, in regard to all the physical necessities and yearnings which the animal nature possesses. In all that region God never sends mouths but He sends meat to fill them; and need is the precursor and the prophecy of supply. So it is in regard to the whole creation; so it is in regard to that in us which we share in common with them. Care never irks the full-fed beast. No ungratified desires torture the frame of the short-lived creatures. ‘Foxes have holes, and the birds of air have their roosting-places’; and all beings dwell in an environment absolutely corresponding to their capacities, and fitted to satisfy their necessities. But amongst ‘them stalks the exile of creation, man; blessed, though he sometimes thinks he is cursed, with longings which the world has nothing to satisfy; and with ideals which are never capable of realisation amidst the imperfections and fleetingnesses of time. And is that to be all? If so, then God is a tyrant and not a god, and there is little to love in such a character, and He might be ashamed, if He is not, to have made men like that, so ill-fitted for their abode, and to have bestowed upon them the possibility of imagining that to which realisation shall be for ever denied. And if that is true in regard of many of the desires of life, apart altogether from religion, it becomes still more manifestly and eminently true in regard of Christian experience and devout emotions. For if there is any one thing which an acceptance of Christianity in the heart and life is sure to do, it is to kindle and make dominant longings, yearnings rising sometimes to pain, which the world is utterly unable to satisfy. Is it ever to be so? Then, oh then, better for us that we should never have known that name; better for us that we had nourished a blind life within our brains; better for us that we had never been born. But ‘He hath prepared for them a city,’ where wishes shall be embodied, and the ideal shall be reality, and desires shall be fulfilled, and everything that has dwelt, silently and secretly, in the chambers of the imagination shall come forth into the sunlight. Morning dreams are proverbially true. ‘We are not of the night, nor of the darkness: we are the children of the day,’ and our dreams are one day to pass into the sober certainty of waking bliss. Then there is another thought still, and that is that it would be a blot ineffaceable on the divine character if all the discipline of life were to have no field in the future on which its results could be manifested. These three poor men were schooled by many sorrows. What were they all for? For the City. And in like manner the facts of our earthly life and our Christian experiences are equally inexplicable and confounding unless beyond these dim and trifling things of time there lie the sunlit and solemn fields of eternity, in which whatsoever of force, valor, worthiness, manhood, we have made our own here shall expatiate for ever more. I do not mean that life is so sad and weary that we need to call another world into existence to redress the iralante of the old. I think that is only very partially true, for we are always apt in such considerations to minimize the pleasures on the whole, and to exaggerate the pains on the whole, of the earthly life. But I mean that the one true view of all that befalls us here on earth is discipline; and that discipline implies an end for which it is applied, and a realm in which its results are to be manifested. And if God carefully trains us, passes us through varieties of condition, in order to evolve in us a character conformed to His will; puts us to the long threescore years and ten of the apprenticeship, and then has no workshop in which to occupy us afterwards, we are reduced to a state of utter intellectual bewilderment, and life is an inextricable tangle and puzzle. You may go into certain prehistoric depots, where you will find lying by thousands flint weapons which have been carefully chipped and shaped and polished, and then, apparently, left in a heap, and never anything done with them. Is the world a great cemetery of weapons prepared and then tossed aside like that? We need a heaven where the faithfulness of the servant shall be exchanged for the joy of the Lord, and he that was faithful in a few things shall be made ruler over many things. III. And now a word about my last thought; and that is, what this name binds Christian people to seek. My text in its former part says, ‘They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.’ If Abraham, instead of stopping under the oak tree at Mature, had gone down into Sodom with Lot, and taken up his quarters there; or if he had become a naturalized citizen of Hebron, and struck up alliances with the children of Heth, would the Sodomites or the Hebronites or the Hittites have thought any the better of him therefore? As long as he kept apart from them, he witnessed to the promise, and God looked upon him and blessed him. But if, professing to look for ‘the city which hath the foundations,’ he had not been content to dwell in tabernacles, God would have been ashamed of him to be called his God. Translate that into plain English, and it is this. As long as Christian people live like pilgrims and strangers, they are worthy of being called God’s, and God is glad to be called theirs. And as long as they do so, the world will know a religious man when it sees him, and, though it may not like him, it will at least respect him. But a secularized Church or individuals who say that they are Christians, and who have precisely the same estimates of good and evil as the world has, and live by the same maxims, and pursue the same aims, and never lift their eyes to look at the City beyond the river, these are a disgrace to God and to themselves, and to the religion which they say they profess. I cannot but feel – and feel, I think, in growing degree – that one main clause of the woful feebleness of our average Christianity is that our hopes and visions of the City which hath the foundations have become dim, and that, to a very large extent, the thoughts of ‘the rest that remaineth for the people of God’ is dormant in the minds of the mass of professing Christian people. Oh, dear friends! if we will yield to that sweet, strong appeal that is made to us in the frame, and, feeling that God is ours and we are His, will turn our hearts and thoughts more than, alas! we have done, to that blessed hope, Jesus will not be ashamed to call us brethren, nor God be ashamed to be called our God. Let us beware that we are not ashamed to be called His, nor to ‘declare plainly that we seek a country.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

now = as a matter of fact.

desire. Greek. oregomai. Only here, 1Ti 3:1; 1Ti 6:10.

heavenly. See Heb 3:1.

ashamed. See Heb 2:11. Add “of them”. Figure of speech Tapeinosis. App-6.

called. Greek. epikaleomai. See Act 2:21.

hath. Omit.

city. See Heb 11:10.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

16.] but now (as the case now is: the logical : see 1Co 13:13 note, and our ch. Heb 8:6) they desire ( , classical: see many instances in Wetst. on 1Ti 3:1) a better (home), that is, a heavenly one (the justification of this assertion, which seems to ascribe N. T. ideas to the O. T. fathers, must be found in such sayings as that of the dying Jacob, Gen 49:18, which only represent a wide class of their faithful thoughts): wherefore God is not ashamed of them (reff.) to be called (here has a double object, and . For the latter construction also see reff.) their God (viz. in reff. Exod. Thdrt. (not Chrys. as Bleek) says, , , , , . From the present , and especially from the clause which follows, it is probable, as Bleek has well remarked, that the Writer intends not merely to adduce that God did once call Himself their God, but that he is now not ashamed to be so called, they enduring and abiding with Him where He is: in the same sense in which our Lord adduces the same circumstance, Mat 22:31 ff. and [62]. See below): for He prepared for them a city (permanent and eternal, in contrast to the tents in which they wandered. There are two ways of understanding this clause: 1. with Schlichting, Grot., Bhme, De W., Hofmann, Delitzsch, to take the aor. as a pluperfect, for God had prepared for them a city: quia Deus clestem illam patriam et regnum suum Abrahamo, Isaaco, et Jacobo destinavit, propterea se Deum illorum summumque patronum jure et merito appellat, Schlicht.: 2. with Thl., al., and Bleek, , , , , , . I would adopt a modification of this last. God is not ashamed of them, nor to be called their God: and we find proof of this not only in His thus naming Himself, but in His preparing for them a city: the home for which they yearned: He did not deceive their hopes, but acted as their God by verifying those hopes. Thus, and thus only, does keep its proper emphasis, and the aor. its proper time: they looked for a city: and God refused not to be called their God, for He prepared for them that city, verified those their hopes. And if we ask for the interpretation of , I answer, in the preparation of the way of Christ, and bringing in salvation by Him, of which salvation they in their anticipation of faith were partakers, Joh 8:56, , ).

[62] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25, the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified, thus, Mk., or Mt. Mk., &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Heb 11:16. ) God is not ashamed, although they are inhabitants of the earth, and strangers: He is not ashamed, because He has bestowed on them great blessedness, such as it becomes God to confer, and has fulfilled the promises which were made to them; therefore, not only is He not ashamed, but derives praise from it [glories in it]. A Meiosis. Or also, He is not ashamed, because they eagerly grasp at it (); provided that it does not seem (only it must not be thought) as if Gods good pleasure (in them) was the meritorious consequence of their obedience.-, to be called) [to have Himself called.] A verb in the middle voice. First, He called Himself, then they so called Him: the GOD of Abraham, etc.-, a city) in which He Himself reigns. [How great may we suppose the splendour to be that must belong to it, since it is God Himself who shows it!-V. g.]

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

The apostle hereon draws another inference, wherein he expresseth the true, real object of their faith and desires, with the great advantage and dignity which they obtained thereon.

Heb 11:16. , , .

, atqui, nunc autem. Syr., , but now it is known, or certain; it appears by the event.

, meliorem; the Syr. adds , than that; better than the country which they came from. Beza, potiorem; the same with the Syr. , appetunt, expetunt, desiderant; earnestly desire, in the present tense, speaking historically of what was then done.

. Vulg. Lat., confunditur; Rhem., is not confounded to be called their God: very improperly. Non pudet, non erubescit. Syr., , abstained, refrained not.

. Vulg. Lat., vocari, cognominari to have this title of their God to be added to his name.

Heb 11:16. But now they [earnestly] desire a better [country], that is, an heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city.

Here at length the apostle declares what was the acting of their faith in that confession which they made, that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For,

1. It was not a mere complaint of their present state and condition; nor,

2. Did it include a desire after any other earthly country, not that in particular from whence they came, where were all their dear concernments and relations: wherefore,

3. It must be another country, of another sort and kind, that they desired and fixed their faith upon; which is here declared.

1. What their faith was exercised in, under the profession which they made, namely, that they did desire a better country, that is, an heavenly.

2. What was the consequent thereof: God is not ashamed to be called their God.

3. The ground and evidence hereof: For he hath prepared for them a city.

1. In the first, the apostle declares that in the midst of the world, and against the world, which contemns things future and invisible in comparison of those which are of present enjoyment and use, they lived in the hope, desire, and expectation of a future, invisible, heavenly country. And in this profession testimony is borne unto the truth and excellency of divine promises. Yea,

Obs. 1. To avow openly in the world, by our ways of walking and living, with a constant public profession, that our portion and inheritance is not in it, but in things invisible, in heaven above, is an illustrious act and fruit of faith. But then, it is incumbent on us that we do not in any thing contradict this testimony. If we love the world like others, use it and abuse it like others, we destroy our own profession, and declare our faith to be vain.

In the first part of the words we may consider,

(1.) The manner of their introduction; but now.

(2.) The way of the acting of their faith; it was by desire.

(3.) The object of that desire; a better, that is, an heavenly country.

(1.) But now. , now, is not in this place an adverb of time, but an illative particle; and joined with , but, signifies an adversative inference, as is used in the Hebrew, Psa 2:10, Be wise now, therefore. It was not so with them, they desired not a return into their country; but they desired.

(2.) Their faith acted by desire, earnest desire; so signifies. It is twice used by our apostle in his First Epistle to Timothy, and nowhere else. In the one place it is applied to the desire of episcopacy, 1Ti 3:1; and in the other unto that of money, 1Ti 6:10; which usually are vehement; in the latter place we render it by coveted, a craving desire. They had an earnest, active desire, which put them on all due ways and means of attaining it. Slothful, inactive desires after things spiritual and heavenly, are of little use in or unto the souls of men.

And this kind of earnest desire includes,

[1.] A sense of want, and unsatisfiedness in things present.

[2.] A just apprehension of the worth and excellency of the things desired; without which none can have an earnest desire after any thing.

[3.] A sight of the way and means whereby it may be attained; without which all desire will quickly fade and fail Such a desire in any, is an evidence of faith working in a due manner.

(3.) That which they thus desired, was a better, that is, an heavenly; a better, more excellent country, which is to be supplied: not that wherein they were, the land of Canaan; not that from whence they came, the land of the Chaldees; (in the one they were pilgrims, unto the other they would not return;) but another, a better.

Better, may respect degrees or kinds; a country better in degrees than either of them; better air, better soil; more fruitful, more peaceable: but there was no such on the earth, nor any such did they desire; wherefore it respects a country of another kind, and so the apostle expounds it, that is, an heavenly.

He had before declared that they looked for a city that had foundations, whose framer and builder is God, verse 10. Here he expresseth where that city is, and what it is; namely, heaven itself, or a habitation with God in the everlasting enjoyment of him.

The apostle here clearly ascribeth unto the holy patriarchs a faith of immortality and glory after this life, and that in heaven above with God himself, who prepared it for them. But great endeavors are used to disprove this faith of theirs, and overthrow it.

If we may believe the Papists, they were deceived in their expectation. For whereas the apostle teacheth that when they died they looked to go to heaven, they affirm that they came short of it, and fell into a limbus they know not where. The Socinians grant a state of immortality and glory to be here intended; but they say that these holy men did not look for it, nor desire it, by virtue of any promise of God. But they are said to do so, because it was that which in the purpose of God would ensue; but they had no ground to believe it. There is herein not only boldness, but wantonness in dealing with the Scripture. For this exposition is not only expressly contradictory unto the words of the apostle in their only sense and meaning, but also destructive of his whole argument and design. For if he proves not that their faith wrought in the desire and expectation of heavenly things, he proves nothing at all unto his purpose.

Grotius and his follower would have the country intended to be the land of Canaan, and the city to be Jerusalem, which yet in a mystical sense were typical of heaven, for these were promised unto their posterity; than which nothing can be more remote from the mind of the Holy Ghost. For,

[1.] That which they looked for and earnestly desired, they did at last enjoy, or their faith was vain, and their hope such as made them ashamed; but they never personally possessed Canaan or Jerusalem.

[2.] This country is directly opposed unto that wherein they were pilgrims, which was the land of Canaan, and called a better country in opposition unto it; and so could not be the same.

[3.] The city which was prepared, was that whose only framer and builder was God; that is, heaven itself.

[4.] This country is said to be heavenly; which the land of Canaan and the city of Jerusalem are never said to be, but are opposed unto heaven, or that which is above.

Certainly men follow prejudices, and are under the influence of other corrupt opinions, so as that they advise not with their own minds, who thus express themselves concerning these holy patriarchs. Shall we think that those who were testified unto to have lived by faith, to have walked with God, who gave themselves unto prayer and meditation continually, who denied themselves as unto all worldly accommodations, whose faith produced inimitable instances of obedience, rose no higher in their faith, hopes, desires, and expectations, than those earthly things wherein their posterity were to have no share comparable unto that of many of the worst enemies of God; the whole of it being at this day one of the most contemptible provinces of the Turkish empire? I no way doubt, but on the promise of the blessed Seed, they lived in that faith of heaven and glory which some that oppose their faith were never acquainted withal. But we see here, that

Obs. 2. Faith looks on heaven as the country of believers, a glorious country, an eternal rest and habitation. Thence they derive their original. They are born from above; there is their portion and inheritance. God is the one and the other. Thereunto they have right by their adoption; that is prepared for them as a city, a house full of mansions; therein they have their conversation, and that do they continually long after whilst they are here below. For,

Obs. 3. In all the groans of burdened souls under their present trials, there is included a fervent desire after heaven and the enjoyment of God therein. So was there in this complaint of the patriarchs, that they were strangers and pilgrims, Heaven is in the bottom of the sighs and groans of all believers, whatever may outwardly give occasion unto them, Rom 8:23.

The consequent or effect of their faith acting itself in their earnest desires of a heavenly country, is, that God is not ashamed to be called their God.

(1.) The word wherefore denotes, not the procuring or meritorious cause of the thing itself, but the consequent, or what ensued thereon, as it doth frequently.

(2.) The privilege granted hereon was, that God would be called their God. He doth not say that he would be their God, for that he was absolutely in the first call of Abraham; but that he would be so styled, called, he would take that name and title to himself. So the word signifies, not vocari, but cognominari. And the apostle respects what is recorded Exo 3:6; Exo 3:15, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. He assumes unto himself this title, whereby he will be known and called on, as by his own name. And this was the greatest honor that they could be made partakers of. He who is the great possessor of heaven and earth, the God of the whole world, of all nations, of all creatures, would be known, styled, and called on, as their God in a peculiar manner; and he distinguisheth himself thereby from all false gods whatever. It is true, he hath revealed himself unto us by a greater and more glorious name; he hath taken another title unto himself, unto the manifestation of his own glory and the comfort of the church, far above it, namely, The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: howbeit, by reason of the covenant made with them, he is yet known by this name. And whilst this name stands upon record, there is yet hope of the recovery of their posterity from their present forlorn, undone condition.

Obs. 4. This is the greatest privilege, honor, advantage, and security that any can be made partakers of, that God will bear the name and title of their God. And thus is it with all believers, by virtue of their relation unto Christ, as he declares, Joh 20:17, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.See 2Co 6:16-18. The privileges and benefits which depend hereon cannot be numbered. Their honor and safety in this life, their resurrection from the dead, as our Savior proves, and eternal life, flow from thence.

Obs. 5. Gods owning of believers as his, and of himself to be their God, is an abundant recompence for all the hardships which they undergo in their pilgrimage.

(3.) There is the way whereby he came to be so called; he was not ashamed to be so called, to take that name upon him self. And sundry things are intimated in this expression; as,

[1.] Infinite condescension. Though it seems to be a thing infinitely beneath his glorious majesty, yet he is not ashamed of it. It is a condescension in God to take notice of, to behold the things that are done in heaven and in the earth, Psa 113:5-6. How much more doth he so humble himself in taking this title on him! This infinite condescension is intimated in this peculiar expression, He is not ashamed.

[2.] It is so, that it would be unto him a matter of reproach. So it was in the world; innumerable gods were set up in opposition to him, idols acted and animated by devils; but all agreed to reproach and despise the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, three poor pilgrims on the earth. Whilst those idols multiplied unto themselves great swelling titles of vanity, their best conceptions of him were, that he was the unknown God, incerti Judae Dei. But notwithstanding all the reproaches and contempt of the world, God was not ashamed of them, nor of the title which he had assumed unto himself; nor did he disuse it until he had famished all the gods of the earth, and vindicated his own glorious being and power. But,

[3.] It is usual that in such negative enunciations the contrary positive is included. So the apostle affirms that he was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, Rom 1:16; that is, he gloried in it, or the knowledge and faith of it were his honor, as he everywhere expresses himself. So, God was not ashamed; that is, he took this title to himself as his honor and glory. If it be asked, how this title could be any glory unto God; I say, it was so, in that by virtue thereof, and to fill it up, he glorified his grace, his goodness, his truth, and power, above all that he did besides in the world. For he gives himself this name in the confirmation of his covenant, in and by which he glorifies himself in the communication of all good things, temporal and eternal Wherefore, to know God as the God of Abraham, eta, is to know him as he glorifies all the holy properties of his nature in the confirmation of the covenant. Therefore he takes this title as his honor and glory.

Besides, in being thus their God, he doth such things in them and for them, that they shall be a glory to him. For until his own Son came in the flesh, he could not be more glorified on the earth by the obedience of his creatures, which is his glory, than he was in that act of Abraham which the apostle immediately instanceth

2. Their graces, their sufferings, their obedience, were his glory. And therefore, as it is said that he will be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty unto his people, Isa 28:5, his owning of them shall be their crown and diadem; so is it also said that they shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of their God, Isa 62:3. He will, by his Spirit and graces in them, make them his crown and diadem; which he will hold in his hand, to show it unto all the world. Well, therefore, is it said, that He is not ashamed to be called their God. And we may observe, that,

Obs. 6. Divine wisdom hath so ordered the relation between God and the church, that that which is in itself an infinite condescension in God, and a reproach unto him in the wicked, idolatrous world, should also be his glory and honor, wherein he is well pleased. To trace the steps and declare the mystery of this wisdom, is the principal subject of the Scripture, too large a subject to be here entered into.

Obs. 7. When God, in a way of sovereign grace, so infinitely condescends, as to take any into covenant with himself, so as that he may be justly styled their God, he will make them to be such as shall be a glory to himself. And,

Obs. 8. We may see wherein the woful condition of them who are ashamed to be called his people, and make that name a term of reproach unto others.

3. The last clause of the verse, For he hath prepared for them a city, doth either give a reason why he was not ashamed to be called their God, or contains an evidence that he was so called.

In the first way, the causal conjunction, for, denotes the reason or cause whence it was that God was not ashamed to be called their God. It is true, they were poor wanderers, pilgrims on the earth, who had neither city nor habitation, so that it might be a shame to own them; but saith the apostle,

God had not herein respect unto their present state and condition, but that which he had provided for them.Or it may be an evidence that he was not ashamed to be called their God, in that he did what might become that relation.

The thing itself, which is either the cause or evidence of that title, is, that he hath prepared for them a city. What this city is, we have already declared and vindicated, namely, that city whose framer and builder is God, the same with the heavenly country which they desired.

Hereof it is said that God hath prepared it for them; an allusion taken from the disposing of colonies into cities and towns, where all things are ready prepared for their habitation and entertainment. And the word here used is constantly applied unto the preparation of heaven and glory for believers, Mat 20:23; Mat 25:34; Mar 10:40; Joh 14:2-3; 1Co 2:9. And two things are included in it.

(1.) The eternal destination of glory unto all believers: Mat 25:34, The kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; that is, designed, destinated unto you in the eternal counsel of God.Thus God had prepared a city for these pilgrims in his eternal purpose, to bring them unto rest and glory.

(2.) It denotes the fitting and suiting of that city unto them, as the means of their eternal rest and blessedness. It is such, so ordered, so furnished, so made meet for them, as to answer all the ends of Gods being their God, and being so called. So our blessed Savior useth the word, Joh 14:2-3, I go to prepare a place for you; his entrance into heaven being prerequisite unto that glorious state which is promised unto the believers of the new testament, as I have showed elsewhere.

This preparation, therefore, of a city denotes,

(1.) An eternal act of the will and wisdom, of God, in designing heaven and glory unto the elect.

(2.) An act of his power and grace, in the actual producing and disposing of it of that nature as may be an everlasting habitation of rest and glory. Thus,

Obs. 9. Eternal rest and glory are made sure for all believers in the eternal purpose of the will of God, and his actual preparation of them by grace; which being embraced by faith, is a sufficient supportment for them under all the trials, troubles, and dangers of this life, Luk 12:32.

Fuente: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews

they desire: Heb 11:14, Heb 12:22

God is: Heb 2:11

to be: Gen 17:7, Gen 17:8, Exo 3:6, Exo 3:15, Isa 41:8-10, Jer 31:1, Mat 22:31, Mat 22:32, Mar 12:26, Luk 20:37, Act 7:32

for: Heb 11:10, Heb 13:14, Mat 25:34, Luk 12:32, Phi 3:20

Reciprocal: Gen 9:26 – Shem Gen 28:13 – I am Gen 30:25 – and to Exo 6:7 – I will be Lev 25:38 – and to be Lev 26:12 – will be Num 15:41 – General Deu 29:13 – he may be 1Ch 17:24 – a God Psa 37:9 – inherit Psa 91:2 – my God Psa 95:7 – For he Psa 107:7 – that they Isa 64:4 – seen Jer 24:7 – and they Jer 32:38 – General Jer 33:2 – the maker Eze 11:20 – and they Eze 14:11 – that they Eze 36:28 – be people Mat 20:23 – for Mar 10:40 – General Luk 20:38 – a God Joh 5:39 – ye think Joh 14:2 – I go Joh 20:17 – your God 1Co 2:9 – the things Heb 8:10 – I will be Rev 21:3 – they shall

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

A PREPARED CITY

Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.

Heb 11:16

What are the special qualities of the town through which the Divine can make itself known? What are the materials which it can be put to use?

I. First of all, I think, the heightened personal vitality which the crowded town quickens into activity.The man in us, the personal self, discloses through the town strange and exciting possibilities which lie hidden until the stress of multitudinous life awakes them. And these possibilities as they expand under the incessant pressure and growth of intercourse become to us a revelation of what the personal vitality of God might mean, if only one could enter into it more fully. This heightened vitality shows itself first in the quickened capacity for emotion. Yes, there is danger in it; yet in itself a rise in capacity to feel is a rise in the spiritual scale. Feeling, passion, impulsethese belong to the deep realities of human character. They are in our primal and most essential being. And they belong to the very central self by which we adhere to God. In raising the power of feeling, the town has raised our capacity to understand and commune with God.

II. And, secondly, this heightened vitality shows itself in the will.The energy of the human will is evoked by the town. Through the town man calls upon his creative activities for ever-increasing endeavour. He challenges himself to higher achievement. He can never come to arrest. That which he has done is but the earnest of what he will do. Every fresh attainment suggests a better. Always he searches after a new thing to do. And the emulation of many vitalises the energy of each. Ever he will strive to fashion some new life more true to his desire. Ever he reviews his handiwork, only to criticise, to improve, to extend it. His will-power has never exhausted itself; it has more to do; it summons out fresh forces to fulfil its need. So the town breeds energy of will. And in this emergent and unconquerable energy man can win some faint insight into the Eternal energy, with which, from the beginning to the end of the days, the Father worketh hitherto, and the Son worketh also.

III. And, thirdly, both this heightened emotion and this heightened energy reveal the possibilities of an intenser co-operation, a closer bond of brotherhood.The town creates sympathy, companionship, communion. And as the heightened emotions draw men together into affectionate companionship, so the heightened energy of will gathers men together into the great brotherhood of labour. They knit themselves together into unions, into federations, into associations. And it is the town which makes all this possible. It forms the temper in which combination becomes an instinct. And in doing this it is offering us a glimpse into the union of the Three Persons in One Substantive Life which is the innermost secret of the innermost revelation of God Himself in His essential Being, in His everlasting fellowship, in His unwithering joy.

Here are the elements, then, through which the religion of the town can complete the religion of nature. God speaks to us through the town.

Rev. Canon H. Scott-Holland.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Heb 11:16. This verse expresses the same hope mentioned of Abraham in verse 10. God is pleased to own people who are trusting Him, and as a reward he will admit them into the heavenly city in the “sweet by and by.” Such a home will be a better country than the one from which they came, or even than the one in which they were “sojourners.”

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Heb 11:16. But now (the case is that, see chap. Heb 8:6) they desire a better, that is, a heavenly (home); wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God. Of old He honoured them as His friends; Himself added to names which describe His essential nature, His being, and His almightiness, the surname the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; acknowledged it when given to Him by the patriarchs (Gen 32:9); and now he acknowledges the same name, and acknowledges the continuance of the same relation (the force of the present tense), showing their continued life and His own continued favour; and the proof of all (partly perhaps the reason but rather the proof) is that He prepared for them a permanent home abovenot a lent but a city of Hisand welcomed them there. Whether all this was foreseen by the patriarchs has been much questioned. There may be a fulness of meaning here which the patriarchs did not reach; but in substance they believed that the promise given them was the promise of a future home, a promise connected in part with an earthly heritage; but their desire was for the presence and blessing of Him who was their trust, and with whom they hoped to be when their earthly pilgrimage was ended. Less than that fails to explain the language of the Old Testament, as it fails to recognise the clear teaching of the New.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

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