Matthew 24:9
"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, (that is the powers that be part of this has taken place back in 66-70 AD) and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake."
Now, the following is but a Western Religious (Judaistic-Christian) mindset. Which says, 'never forget, why are the Hebrews such a hated people? Because Satan knows, from the day that God told Abraham, that that nation of people would be the nation through whom all the blessings of the world would come. And Satan knows that if he could destroy the Hebrew people, then everything that God said falls through the cracks. So this is why they’ve been under such intense pressure. Satan is doing everything he can to thwart the will of God and if God does not have the Nation of Israel on which He can fulfill His promises, then He’s lost His Sovereignty and Satan knows that. This is why we have to pray for the Hebrew people - they are under a Satanic attack, because Satan wants to destroy them.' But is this so? This is also a misnomer because the true Israel of God's design is not found in the physical nation but is in the House or Family ie...Church and Body of Christ! The spiritual House restored by God to God in the person of Christ Jesus.
Come back to Luke chapter 1, We didn’t quite finish there. Luke chapter 1 again, and just another verse or two, then we’ll go back to Hebrews. We did verse 73. "The oath which he swore to our father Abraham." Now here comes the promise again. Now remember this Zacharias, as high priest of Israel, is under the power of the fullness of the Holy Spirit as he speaks.
Luke 1:74-75
"That he would grant unto us, (the Nation of Israel) that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him (the Messiah, their King, their Savior, their Redeemer. How?) without fear, (it’ll be Heaven on earth. See?) In holiness and righteousness before him (Christ Jesus), all the days of our life."
Now that’s what the Hebrew is waiting for. When they can live in total peace and in fellowship with their God and they can see fulfilled these covenant promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by way of an oath. All right, let’s come back to Hebrews chapter 11 once again and make a little headway. What is here said did not take into account God's character because as Jesus said "only God is good" and God can't operate outside of His character nor can He allow man to assume for himself the character of God apart from the essence of Christ restored to us. This is what Paul was saying throughout his Epistles but mere humans ie...Israel and natural man does not understand God in Christ. And now verse 13.
Hebrews 11:13
"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, (they never did have that king. They never did have that glorious kingdom on earth. They died looking forward to it.) but (they) having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, (by faith puls nothing, remember) and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."
They alone were in that place of promised blessings. Its all acquired by all of those who have chosen to receive the blessing of Christ's essence by faith+plus+nothing=Salvation in Christ. Religion wants to add, works of some sort and dimension to faith ie..moralism, works of mans sufficiency, doctrines of man, attendance, tithes, confessionalism...ect. These were all things that Paul was in opposition to. All right, verse 14.
Hebrews 11:14-15
"For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned."
That’s kind of a tough verse because it’s a lot of "doubles" in there. But, had they been mindful of the Ur of Chaldees or maybe even Egypt, then they would have been from the human side, drawn back, and they would have never had the faith to accept the glorious thing that was still in the future. Because you remember, when they came out of Egypt and they were under all the trials and tribulations of that desert existence, what was their murmuring statement? "Oh, would to God that we’d stayed in Egypt." See? At least we didn’t have to swallow dust every day. But, the whole idea was that out of their adversity would come the blessings. Out of their materialism would come their spiritualism which for the most part had not taken place, yet. This is the premise of Paul's argument, they had not suffered to the point of shedding their blood though that would come about after Paul and Peter were executed.
I know this lesson is for us as well isn’t it? You know I’ve said - God never, through Paul’s writings or anybody else, promises the believer a life of a rose-petaled pathway. A lot of people try to tell us that but it’s not true. God does not promise us a rose-petaled pathway, nor does He promise healing in the way most people want it. On the other hand we are promised that we are going to have trials and tribulation. We’re going to suffer. We’re going to have obstacles ahead of us. And in spite of it all our trust keeps looking past all of that. We're looking forward in receptive of hope, in trusting faith's activity for the day of Christ, the day that the day star arises within us a new. We wait under God listening and reception of His faith activity in His Grace activity restored to us.
This is the whole concept of Christian living that we don’t have to have all these good things every day of our lives. That’s not what we’re here for. We are going to suffer adversity as well as enjoy the blessings. Okay, now verse 16. Here we come to that word that we’ve seen all through the Epistle of Hebrews. What is it? Better. B-E-T-T-E-R. Verse 16.
Hebrews 11:16
"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."
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