Hebrews 11:12a
"Therefore sprang there even of one, (one man, Abraham) and him as good as dead,…"
Because he was one hundred. That’s how old Abraham was when Isaac is born. Even in that period of time it was past the age of normal childbearing. All right, so "him as good as dead." Now finishing the verse.
Hebrews 11:12b
"…so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable."
Now I’m sure that that’s not a play on words. It’s just simply to show us that the number of people that came from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were such a multitude. Now again, do you realize that the Hebrew people who had been scattered into every nation under heaven for the last, you might say, 2,600 years, going back to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian captivity - they have been scattered out amongst all the nations of the world. They should have disappeared. They should have just simply been assimilated into the other nations of people, by intermarriage and what have you. But they have not been so assimilated because they've hung upon their Jewishness and NOT on God's revelation of Himself both in and through His Son, Christ Jesus. For even Ignatius in the Epistle to the Magnesians tells them to NOT return to their Jewishness and Judaism, NOW dead (chapter 11 of this Epistle). Ignatius and Polycarp were disciples of John. So, As like with Moses when he was told by God to remove the tabernacle out side the camp because of their hardness of heart as seen in Exedus 33:7. Now this tabernacle was the tent of meeting where Moses sat as judge over the nation and was a prefiguring of Jesus Christ the Messiah being executed outside the city walls of Jerusalem as a testimony of God's judgment of Judaism. Now I might encourage those who maybe of interest to get a copy of the Epistle to the Ephesians written by Ignatius and study it closely.
But because of these promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob there, they are back in the land tonight. The world can’t comprehend it. But the little Nation of Israel is there because God has kept them under His wing, even though they’re there in unbelief and lawlessness. I wouldn’t doubt but that there are more almost agnostic, if not atheistic Hebrews in Israel than believers of any sort. But God has kept them in spite of all of their adversity. They have not intermarried to the place that they lose their identity and they’re still God’s “covenant nation” or are they? And I don’t think people stop to analyze that. That a little nation of only an average of 10 million people should have disappeared. They should have just gone out into the various nations by intermarriage and lost their identity. But they didn’t. And there they are. A Hebrew is a Hebrew is a Hebrew. Even though they're steeped in unbelief of God's Word. Why? Is my question.
I saw on TV a National Geographic program. Where a Jewish community clear up in the boondocks of Siberia and one someplace in North Africa. They have their Synagogue and they have been practicing Judaism for centuries. Just a little pocket of them. Well, that’s the way it’s been all the way around the world. And they have kept their identity. All right, so here it is. Verse 13 now.
Hebrews 11:13a
"These all died in (what?) faith,…"
They never stopped believing that this Abrahamic promise was going to be fulfilled through this nation of people coming from these three men. All right, they didn’t receive the promises. Not on this earth. For they through their sufferings show that the city and land was still a far off as yet unseen unoccupied by them, a city who's designer and builder is God.
Hebrews 11:13b
"…not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."
Why? Well, as yet they didn’t have a designated homeland. They did not have a designated king or government or constitution. They are just simply held together by God’s invisible power. But the Hebrew people did not understand this as they wanted what they wanted and that was physical, material and a land in which to live and not just occupy as their own. Some place along the time of their captivity in Egypt they lost sight of these things, as God had warned. But nevertheless, they’ve always survived as a nation of people. All right now then, verse 14.
Hebrews 11:14
"For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country."
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