Hebrews 11:8–22

11:8 Just as Noah took action “by faith” when warned of the coming flood (v. 7; cf. Gen. 6:22), so Abraham, when “called” by God, “obeyed” by “go[ing] out” of his homeland in Mesopotamia (Gen. 12:1, 4; cf. Acts 7:2–4). Faith is awakened as God’s voice speaks to his people, and faith responds readily to what God says (Heb. 3:14–4:3). Just as unbelief and disobedience were correlated in the wilderness generation’s hardened response to God’s voice (3:18–19; 4:2, 6), so Abraham’s belief in God’s promise prompted his obedience to God’s command to set out for a place that God would cause him to inherit. Faith’s trust in God’s word about “things not seen” is illustrated in Abraham’s departure, “not knowing where he was going.” The Lord had called it simply the “land that I will show you” (Gen. 12:1).

11:9 Abraham’s second expression of faith, in which his son Isaac and grandson Jacob also participated, was his sojourning in tents—in temporary dwellings and transient circumstances—in the very land the Lord had promised to give his offspring as their inheritance. The patriarchs’ movement and pitching of tents at various sites in the “land of promise” is a repeated feature of the Genesis narrative (Gen. 12:8; 13:3, 12, 18; 18:1; 26:25; 33:18–19; 35:16–21, 27). Abraham’s offspring would eventually receive the entire land as an inheritance, but for Abraham himself his residence there was “as in a foreign land.” Even when Abraham beheld the land with his own eyes (Gen. 13:14–17), his actual possession of it remained a reality “not yet seen,” perceived only by faith. His alien status was most evident when his wife, Sarah, died and he needed to negotiate with Hittites to obtain a burial place for her. In making his request, Abraham acknowledged, “I am a sojourner and foreigner among you” (Gen. 23:3–20), a confession to which our preacher will later allude (Heb. 11:13).

11:10 Our preacher draws a striking conclusion from the fact that Abraham lived out his days as a stranger in the very land God had promised as his inheritance. Abraham was waiting for the “city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” In general, tent-dwelling is temporary, whereas residence in cities with foundations is stable and secure (Pss. 105:12–17; 107:4–7). Our author takes that contrast to a higher level when he speaks of “the city” and describes it as designed and constructed by God himself. One psalmist celebrated Mount Zion in Jerusalem, citing the security of its foundations (Ps. 87:1); but another lamented the razing of the city to its (manmade) foundations (Ps. 137:7; cf. Lam. 4:11; Ezra 4:12).

Abraham’s hope focused on a city that would be unassailable because the living God both designed and built it (cf. Rev. 21:9–26). Earlier in this sermon, a citation from Psalm 102 described the eventual dissolution of the present heavens and earth (Heb. 1:10–12; cf. 12:26–28). The heavenly sanctuary in which Jesus now ministers was “not made with hands” (9:11, 24), so it cannot be touched by the ravages of decay or destruction. Abraham’s hope looked beyond Canaan and Jerusalem, which his offspring would eventually occupy, to the ultimate city of refuge—a “lasting city,” still to come even for believers today (13:14)—in a better, heavenly country (11:16).

11:11–12 Sarah (v. 11) and Rahab (v. 31) are the only two women mentioned by name in the Hebrews registry of faith. Additionally, the statement “Women received back their dead by resurrection” (v. 35) refers to the mothers in Zarephath and Shunem, whose young sons were raised by Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings 17:17–24; 2 Kings 4:18–37). Most versions, including the ESV, present Sarah as the one exercising faith, but commentators are divided over whether Abraham or Sarah is the subject of verse 11. Those who favor Abraham argue that the Greek construction rendered “conceive” describes a father’s contribution in (lit.) “depositing seed” (katabolēn spermatos). And in verse 12, which describes the result of verse 11, Abraham is the “one man” from whom countless descendants came. Some also note that Genesis presents Sarah as far from exemplary in respect to her faith (Gen. 18:11–15).

On the other hand, throughout Hebrews 11 the name of the individual(s) exercising faith closely follows the opening “by faith” (vv. 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 17, 20, 21, 22, 24, 29, 31). (The only exceptions are vv. 23 and 30.) “Sarah” is almost certainly in the Greek nominative case, and is thus the subject who “received power.” And it is Sarah’s incapacity to conceive (“past the age”) that is highlighted in verse 11.¹ Abraham’s reproductive incapacity (“as good as dead”) is not introduced until verse 12. Moreover, the Genesis record is no more complimentary of Abraham’s faith than of Sarah’s. Both dismissed God’s promise of a son through Sarah as laughable (Gen. 17:15–18). The fact that both Abraham and Sarah, whose faltering faith is evident in the OT text, appear in the catalogue of ancient believers whom God “commended” should encourage us all.

The faith that pleases God and receives his promises may struggle, but it does not let go (Rom. 4:16–22). We noted earlier (comment on Heb. 6:15) that in Isaac’s birth Abraham received, in a preliminary form, the fulfillment of God’s promise of innumerable offspring. Here our author scans across the generations to make us marvel that God’s power could bring “from one man,” who was “as good as dead” (lit., “had been put to death”; nenekrōmenou, 11:12) in terms of reproduction, descendants as countless as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, the very imagery in which the Lord painted his astonishing promise (Gen. 15:5; 22:17; cf. 32:12; Isa. 51:2).

11:13 The patriarchal generations together are the subject of the fourth event associated with faith: “these all died.” Their deaths occurred before God’s promises to them—inheritance of the land (vv. 8–9) and countless offspring (v. 12)—reached fulfillment. Thus Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and his wives (and sons) represent the entire “cloud of witnesses” who populate the pages of the OT, who “though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised” (v. 39). By faith Abraham and the others perceived the objects of their hope across the centuries and greeted them from a distance, as Jesus himself said: “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).

Those who lived by faith (Heb. 10:38) and died in faith realized that no earthly regions or cities, vulnerable as they are to invasion and desolation, could provide the security for which they longed. Thus the patriarchs “acknowledged”—or “confessed” (homologeō, referring to corporate confession of faith (3:1; 4:14; 10:23; 13:15)—that they were strangers and exiles while they sojourned in the land (of promise). They were actually confessing that they were exiles anywhere on earth (the Greek noun gē includes both “land” and “earth”). The patriarchs made this confession not only in Abraham’s negotiations with the Hittites (Gen. 23:4) but also in Jacob’s retrospective summary of his whole life, both inside and outside the Promised Land: “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning” (Gen. 47:9).

11:14–16 Our preacher reasons that the patriarchs’ confession that they were “strangers and exiles” implied not only that they were “seeking a homeland” but also that the homeland they sought was, ultimately, a “better country, that is, a heavenly one.” To acknowledge one’s status as a temporary resident, living in tents and lacking property rights “in a foreign land” (v. 9), is to imply that there is another “homeland” or “hometown” (patris) where one truly belongs (cf. Matt. 13:53–57). Lest we assume that the homeland for which the patriarchs longed was merely the land of Canaan, which their descendants would eventually receive as their inheritance in coming generations (Heb. 11:8), the author raises and then dismisses the patriarchs’ opportunity to occupy a geographical locale in which they could have been at home. They might have returned to Mesopotamia, the country, kindred, and father’s house that God had called Abraham to leave behind (Gen. 12:1). In fact, twenty of Jacob’s 130 years were spent outside Canaan in Mesopotamia, “that land from which” his grandfather Abraham “had gone out” (Heb. 11:15; cf. Gen. 31:38–42). Yet Jacob considered those two decades as included in his lifetime of “sojourning,” not as a period of respite in which he enjoyed the security of home (Gen. 32:4).

Whether living in the land his offspring would eventually occupy or in the land his ancestors once called “home,” Jacob described his entire 130 years on earth as a brief and stressful sojourning. Our author has strong warrant to conclude that those ancient fathers and mothers of faith desired a better, heavenly homeland and city, where they could dwell forever with the God who had drawn them into covenant.

That God is “not ashamed to be called their God” recalls the earlier, surprising announcement that the divine Son is “not ashamed” to name as “brothers” the struggling sinful human beings whose salvation he achieves through his incarnation and suffering (Heb. 2:10–11). Genesis shows Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob to be seriously flawed. Yet, despite their sin and sometimes shaky faith, the Lord engaged them in covenant love, identifying himself as their sovereign protector: “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you” (Gen. 17:7–8; cf. Gen. 15:1). The Lord identified himself as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Ex. 3:6; cf. Gen. 28:13; 1 Kings 18:36). The city he had prepared for them and for all who follow in their footsteps of faith is that city whose foundations stand forever because God laid them (Heb. 11:10), the heavenly Jerusalem filled with joyful worship (12:22), which will outlast the coming cosmic cataclysm (12:27–28; 13:14).

11:17–19 The final event of Abraham’s life of faith was his readiness to sacrifice his “only son” Isaac, whom God had designated as the offspring through whom all of his promises would be fulfilled (Gen. 22:1–19). In several ways our author underscores the gravity of this “test” (peirazō) of Abraham’s faith in God, which would be shown in his readiness to act in keeping with God’s command. First, the term “offered” (prospherō), already associated with sacrificial bloodshed (Heb. 5:1, 3; 8:3–4; 9:7, 14), appears not once but twice. Second, our author describes Isaac as Abraham’s “only” (monogenēs) son, at this point following the Hebrew text of Genesis 22:2 instead of the LXX (which replaced “only” with “beloved”). Although Ishmael had been born to Abraham and the slave Hagar, Isaac was Abraham’s “only” son from the standpoint of God’s covenant promises. Third, Isaac’s indispensability to God’s good purpose is reinforced by the description of his father as “he who had received the promises” (cf. Heb. 6:12–15; 7:6) and by the quotation of God’s designation of Isaac, not Ishmael, as the son through whom Abraham’s offspring would be named (Gen. 21:12; cf. Gen. 17:18–21).

To obey God’s command that Isaac be slain so young, before marrying or fathering children, would put all God’s promises (offspring, land, blessing to all nations) in jeopardy. How could Abraham’s faithful God issue such a death sentence after issuing such promises? Our author unfolds the patriarch’s line of reasoning: “He considered that God was able even to raise [Isaac] from the dead.” This conviction underlay Abraham’s words to the servants whom he and Isaac had left at the foot of the mountain: “I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you” (Gen. 22:5). The verbs “will go,” “worship,” and “come again” are plural: Abraham and his son will ascend the mountain, worship, and return together.

The apostle Paul observed that Abraham had already experienced God’s imparting life to the dead in the conception of Isaac from Abraham’s own “dead” body and the morbidity of Sarah’s womb (Rom. 4:19). At Mount Moriah, Abraham reasoned that nothing less than God’s power to raise the dead could reconcile Isaac’s early death and the promises God had vested in that only son. Abraham was spared fatherly anguish, and his son the blade of death, through the Lord’s provision of a substitute (Gen. 22:11–14). So it was that Abraham “figuratively” (lit., “in a parable [en parabolē]”; cf. “symbolic [parabolē],” Heb. 9:9) did receive his son back from death, foreshadowing not only physical revivifications later in the OT (11:35) but also, supremely, the resurrection of God’s Son, “brought again from the dead” (13:20) to be our Great High Priest forever.

11:20–21 The blessings pronounced by the next generations of patriarchs, Isaac and his son Jacob, are mentioned briefly to illustrate faith’s confidence in God to bring about an as-yet-unseen future. Our author passes over in silence the ruse by which Jacob, having already purchased Esau’s inheritance right as firstborn, duped their father and stole the preeminent blessing as well (cf. Heb. 12:16–17). The story is well known, and the inversion of birth order in naming the brothers is sufficient allusion to it. Our preacher’s point is that their respective blessings from their aged and unseeing father spoke of things future and so demonstrated Isaac’s faith in things not seen (Gen. 27:27–29, 39–40).

Jacob’s deathbed blessing of Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, also involved a blind patriarch, the firstborn’s inheritance rights, and an inversion in which a younger was honored over an older brother (Genesis 48). Jacob’s firstborn, Reuben, had disqualified himself from the privileges of primogeniture—leadership and inheritance (Gen. 35:22; 49:3–4). When Joseph approached his dying father with his two sons, Jacob adopted both as his immediate heirs: “Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are” (Gen. 48:5). As a later Israelite historian observed, Reuben’s birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, as they would receive two tribal allotments in the Promised Land, while leadership in Israel would pass to Judah, the tribe of King David (1 Chron. 5:1–2). Again an aging and sightless patriarch preferred a younger son (Ephraim) over his older brother (Manasseh), but in this case it was deliberate (Gen. 48:13–20). By faith Jacob, despite failing physical sight, foresaw the multiplication of tribes that would descend from Ephraim (more dominant) and Manasseh (less influential) in coming generations, and he worshiped his faithful promise-keeping Lord.

11:22 Finally, the faith of the patriarchs was exhibited in the prediction and direction of the dying Joseph (Gen. 50:24–25). Although Joseph and his brothers would die in Egypt, the Lord would cause a future generation to exit Egypt and return to the land he had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Joseph “made mention of”—spoke a reminder of (mnēmoneuō)—the exodus, which God had predicted to Abraham (Gen. 15:13–16). Joseph’s expectant faith was confident, and his directions solemn: “Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, ‘God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here’” (Gen. 50:25).