_A CLOUD OF WITNESSES._
"By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to
come. By faith Jacob, when he was a-dying, blessed each of the sons
of Joseph; and worshipped, _leaning_ upon the top of his staff. By
faith Joseph, when his end was nigh, made mention of the departure
of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his
bones.... By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had
been compassed about for seven days. By faith Rahab the harlot
perished not with them that were disobedient, having received the
spies with peace. And what shall I more say? for the time will fail
me if I tell of Gideon. Barak, Samson, Jephthah; of David and Samuel
and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought
righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from
weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight
armies of aliens. Women received their dead by a resurrection: and
others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance; that they
might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of mockings
and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were
stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain
with the sword: they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being
destitute, afflicted, evil-entreated (of whom the world was not
worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves, and the holes
of the earth. And these all, having had witness borne to them
through their faith, received not the promise, God having provided
some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not
be made perfect. Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight,
and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us."--HEB. xi. 20-xii. 1
(R.V.).
Time fails us to dilate on the faith of the other saints of the old
covenant. But they must not be passed over in silence. The impression
produced by our author's splendid roll of the heroes of faith in the
eleventh chapter is the result quite as much of an accumulation of
examples as of the special greatness of a few among them. At the close
they appear like an overhanging "cloud" of witnesses for God.
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau; and Jacob, dying in a strange
land, blessed the sons of Joseph, distinguishing wittingly, and
bestowing on _each_[289] his own peculiar blessing. His faith became a
prophetic inspiration, and even distinguished between the future of
Ephraim and the future of Manasseh. He did not create the blessing. He
was only a steward of God's mysteries. Faith well understood its own
limitations. But it drew its inspiration to foretell what was to come
from a remembrance of God's faithfulness in the past. For, before[290]
he gave his blessing, he had bowed his head in worship, leaning upon the
top of his staff. In his dying hour he recalled the day on which he had
passed over Jordan with his staff,--a day remembered by him once before,
when he had become two bands, wrestled with the angel, and halted on his
thigh. His staff had become his token of the covenant, his reminder of
God's faithfulness, his sacrament, or visible sign of an invisible
grace.
Joseph, though he was so completely Egyptianised that he did not, like
Jacob, ask to be buried in Canaan, and only two of his sons became,
through Jacob's blessing, heirs of the promise, yet gave commandment
concerning his bones. His faith believed that the promise given to
Abraham would be fulfilled. The children of Israel might dwell in Goshen
and prosper. But they would sooner or later return to Canaan. When his
end drew near, his Egyptian greatness was forgotten. The piety of his
childhood returned. He remembered God's promise to his fathers. Perhaps
it was his father Jacob's dying blessing that had revived the thoughts
of the past and fanned his faith into a steady flame.
"By faith the walls of Jericho fell down."[291] When the Israelites had
crossed Jordan and eaten of the old corn of the land, the manna ceased.
The period of continued miracle came to an end. Henceforth they would
smite their enemies with their armed thousands. But one signal miracle
the Lord would yet perform in the sight of all Israel. The walls of the
first city they came to would fall down flat, when the seven priests
would blow with the trumpets of rams' horns the seventh time on the
seventh day. Israel believed, and as God had said, so it came to pass.
The treachery of a harlot even is mentioned by the Apostle as an
instance of faith.[292] Justly. For, whilst her past life and present
act were neither better nor worse than the morality of her time, she saw
the hand of the God of heaven in the conquest of the land, and bowed to
His decision. This was a greater faith than that of her daughter-in-law,
Ruth, whose name is not mentioned. Ruth believed in Naomi and, as a
consequence, accepted Naomi's God and people.[293] Rahab believed in God
first, and, therefore, accepted the Israelitish conquest and adopted the
nationality of the conquerors.[294]
Of the judges the Apostle selects four: Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah.
The mention of Barak must be understood to include Deborah, who was the
mind and heart that moved Barak's arm; and Deborah was a prophetess of
the Lord. She and Barak wrought their mighty deeds and sang their pæan
in faith.[295] Gideon put the Midianites to flight by faith; for he knew
that his sword was the sword of the Lord,[296] Jephthah was a man of
faith; for he vowed a vow unto the Lord, and would not go back.[297]
Samson had faith; for he was a Nazarite to God from his mother's womb,
and in his last extremity called unto the Lord and prayed.[298]
The Apostle does not name Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, and the rest. The
Spirit of the Lord came upon them also. They too were mighty through
God. But the narrative does not tell us that they prayed, or that their
soul consciously and believingly responded to the voice of Heaven.
Alaric, while on his march towards Rome, said to a holy monk, who
entreated him to spare the city, that he did not go of his own will, but
that One was continually urging him forward to take it.[299] Many are
the scourges of God that know not the hand that wields them.
Individuals "through faith subdued kingdoms."[300] Gideon dispersed the
Midianites;[301] Barak discomfited Sisera, the captain of Jabin king of
Canaan's host; Jephthah smote the Ammonites;[302] David held the
Philistines in check,[303] measured Moab with a line,[304] and put
garrisons in Syria of Damascus. Samuel "wrought righteousness," and
taught the people the good and the right way.[305] David "obtained the
fulfilment of God's promises:" his house was blessed that it should
continue for ever before God.[306] Daniel's faith stopped the mouths of
lions.[307] The faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego trusted in God,
and quenched the power of the fire, without extinguishing its
flame.[308] Elijah escaped the edge of Ahab's sword.[309] Elisha's faith
saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about
him.[310] Hezekiah "from weakness was made strong."[311] The Maccabæan
princes waxed mighty in war and turned to flight armies of aliens.[312]
The widow of Zarephath[313] and the Shunammite[314] received their dead
back into their embrace in consequence of[315] a resurrection wrought by
the faith of the prophets. Others refused deliverance, gladly accepting
the alternative to unfaithfulness, to be beaten to death, that they
might be accounted worthy[316] to attain the better world and the
resurrection, not _of_, but _from_, the dead, which is the resurrection
to eternal life. Such a man was the aged Eleazar in the time of the
Maccabees.[317] Zechariah was stoned to death at the commandment of
Joash the king in the court of the house of the Lord.[318] Isaiah is
said to have been sawn asunder in extreme old age by the order of
Manasseh. Others were burnt[319] by Antiochus Epiphanes. Elijah had no
settled abode, but went from place to place clad in a garment of hair,
the skin of sheep or goat. It ought not to be a matter of surprise that
these men of God had no dwelling-place, but were, like the Apostles
after them, buffeted, persecuted, defamed, and made as the filth of the
world, the offscouring of all things. For the world was not worthy of
them. The world crucified their Lord, and they would be ashamed of
accepting better treatment than He received. By the world is meant the
life of those who know not Christ. The men of faith were driven out of
the cities into the desert, out of homes into prisons. But their faith
was an assurance of things hoped for and, therefore, a solvent of fear.
Their proving of things not seen rendered the prison, as Tertullian
says,[320] a place of retirement, and the desert a welcome escape from
the abominations that met their eyes wherever the world had set up its
vanity fair.
All these sturdy men of faith have had witness borne to them in
Scripture. This honour they won from time to time, as the Spirit of
Christ, which was in the prophets, saw fit to encourage the people of
God on earth by their example. Are we forbidden to suppose that this
witness to their faith gladdened their own glorified spirits, and calmed
their eager expectation of the day when the promise would be fulfilled?
For, after all, their reward was not the testimony of Scripture, but
their own perfection. Now this perfection is described through out the
Epistle as a priestly consecration. It expresses fitness for entering
into immediate communion with God. This was the final fulfilment of the
promise. This was the blessing which the saints under the old covenant
had not obtained. The way of the holiest had not yet been opened.[321]
Consequently their faith consisted essentially in endurance. "None of
these received the promise," but patiently waited. This is inferred
concerning them from the testimony of Scripture that they believed.
Their faith must have manifested itself in this form,--endurance. To us,
at length, the promise has been fulfilled. God has spoken unto us in
His Son. We have a great High-priest, Who has passed through the
heavens. The Son, as High-priest, has been perfected for evermore; that
is, He is endowed with fitness to enter into the true holiest place. He
has perfected also for ever them that are sanctified: freed from guilt
as worshippers, they enter the holiest through a priestly consecration.
The new and living way has been dedicated through the veil.
But the important point is that the fulfilment of the promise has not
dispensed with the necessity for faith. We saw, in an earlier chapter,
that the revelation of the Sabbath advances from lower forms of rest to
higher and more spiritual. The more stubborn the unbelief of men became,
the more fully the revelation of God's promise opened up. The thought is
somewhat similar in the present passage. The final form which God's
promise assumes is an advance on any fulfilment vouchsafed to the saints
of the old covenant during their earthly life. It now includes
perfection, or fitness to enter into the holiest through the blood of
Christ. It means immediate communion with God. Far from dispensing with
faith, this form of the promise demands the exercise of a still better
faith than the fathers had. They endured by faith; we through faith
enter the holiest. To them, as well as to us, faith is an assurance of
things hoped for and a proving of things not seen; but our assurance
must incite us to draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, to
draw near with a true heart in _full assurance_ of faith. This is the
better faith which is not once ascribed in the eleventh chapter to the
saints of the Old Testament. On the contrary, we are given to
understand[322] that they, through fear of death, were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. But Christ has abolished death. For we
enter into the presence of God, not through death, but through faith.
In accordance with this, the Apostle says that "God provided some better
thing concerning us."[323] These words cannot mean that God provided
some better thing _for_ us than He had provided for the fathers. Such a
notion would not be true. The promise was made to Abraham, and is now
fulfilled to all the heirs alike; that is, to those who are of the faith
of Abraham. The author says "concerning,"[324] not "for." The idea is
that God foresaw we would, and provided (for the word implies both
things) that we should, manifest a better kind of faith than it was
possible for the fathers to show, better in so far as power to enter the
holiest place is better than endurance.
But the author adds another thought. Through the exercise of the better
faith by us, the fathers also enter with us into the holiest place.
"Apart from us they could not be made perfect." The priestly
consecration becomes theirs through us. Such is the unity of the Church,
and such the power of faith, that those who could not believe, or could
not believe in a certain way, for themselves, receive the fulness of the
blessing through the faith of others. Nothing less will do justice to
the Apostle's words than the notion that the saints of the old covenant
have, through the faith of the Christian Church, entered into more
immediate and intimate communion with God than they had before, though
in heaven.
We now understand why they take so deep an interest in the running of
the Christian athletes on earth. They surround their course, like a
great cloud. They know that they will enter into the holiest if we win
the race. For every new victory of faith on earth, there is a new
revelation of God in heaven. Even the angels, the principalities and
powers in the heavenly places, learn, says St. Paul, through the Church
the manifold wisdom of God.[325] How much more will the saints, members
of the Church, brethren of Christ, be better able to apprehend the love
and power of God, Who makes weak, sinful men conquerors over death and
its fear.
The word "witnesses"[326] does not itself refer to their looking on, as
spectators of the race. Another word would almost certainly have been
used to express this notion, which is moreover contained in the phrase
"having so great a cloud surrounding[327] us." The thought seems to be
that the men to whose faith the Spirit of Christ in Scripture bare
witness were themselves witnesses for God in a godless world, in the
same sense in which Christ tells His disciples that they were His
witnesses, and Ananias tells Saul that he would be a witness for
Christ.[328] Every one who confessed Christ before men, him did Christ
also confess before His Church which is on earth, and does now confess
before His Father in heaven, by leading him into God's immediate
presence.
FOOTNOTES:
[289] =hekaston= (xi. 21).
[290] Gen. xlvii. 31.
[291] Chap. xi. 30.
[292] Chap. xi. 31.
[293] Ruth i. 16.
[294] Matt. i. 5.
[295] Judges iv. and v.
[296] Judges vii. 18.
[297] Judges xi. 35.
[298] Judges xiii. 7; xvi. 28.
[299] Robertson, _History of the Christian Church_, book ii., chap. vii.
[300] Chap. xi. 33.
[301] Judges vii.
[302] Judges xi. 33.
[303] 2 Sam. v. 25.
[304] 2 Sam. viii. 2, 6.
[305] 1 Sam. xii. 23.
[306] 2 Sam. vii. 28, 29.
[307] Dan. vi. 22.
[308] Dan. iii. 27, 28.
[309] 1 Kings xix. 1-3.
[310] 2 Kings vi. 17.
[311] 2 Kings xx. 5.
[312] 1 Macc. v.
[313] 1 Kings xvii. 22.
[314] 2 Kings iv. 35.
[315] =ex= (chap. xi. 35).
[316] Luke xx. 35.
[317] 2 Macc. vi. 19.
[318] 2 Chron. xxiv. 21.
[319] Reading =eprêsthêsan=.
[320] _Ad Martyras_, 2.
[321] Chap. ix. 8.
[322] Chap. ii. 15.
[323] Chap. xi. 40.
[324] =peri=.
[325] Eph. iii. 10.
[326] mart/yrôn (xii. 1).
[327] perike/imenon.
[328] Acts i. 8; xxii. 14.