Heb 11:8-16 | PNT | STEP | By faith Abraham . . . went out, not knowing whither he went . See . While in Ur of the Chaldees he was commanded to go where he should be led. In obedience to this call he obeyed through faith, a striking example of the action of faith.

Hebrews 11:8-16

By faith Abraham . . . went out, not knowing whither he went. See Ge 11:31 12:1-4 Ac 7:2-4. While in Ur of the Chaldees he was commanded to go where he should be led. In obedience to this call he obeyed through faith, a striking example of the action of faith. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise. He was a stranger in the land promised to him and his seed, dwelling as did Isaac and Jacob, in tents, yet trusting the promise of God.

With Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. See Ge 26:3,4 27:4,13-14. For he looked for a city which hath foundations. Not only for a permanent home for his seed in Canaan, but for a home above in the eternal city, the New Jerusalem.

Whose builder and maker [is] God. Architect and maker. God not only projected the plans of the eternal city but has executed them. Through faith also Sara received strength to conceive seed. See Ge 17:15-21 18:11-14 21:1-2. Far beyond the years of child bearing, yet by faith she was give natural strength to bear the child of promise. She was about ninety years old (Ge 17:17). Therefore there sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead. From an old man, a hundred years old, whose reproductive powers were dead, a people.

As the stars of the sky in multitude. See De 1:10. These figures are used to express a vast multitude. These all died in faith, not having received the promises. All the patriarchs named. They died without the fulfillment of the promises, either those of a temporal possession or of an innumerable seed.

Having seen them afar off. They beheld them in the future by faith.

Confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. By their whole lives that they were pilgrims. They had no fixed home and were waiting for a country. They that say such things. Who confess that they are pilgrims.

Declare plainly that they seek a country. This confession shows that they are seeking a country somewhere and have not yet found it. And, truly, if they had been mindful of that [country]. They could have returned to their old home in Ur of the Chaldees, if they had chosen, but though homeless in a strange land they had faith in a future home. But now they desire a better [country], that is, an heavenly. They desired a country better than Chaldea, better even than Canaan. They had a faith which looked for a heavenly country.