According
to the writer of Hebrews, the people who considered themselves
“strangers and pilgrims on the earth”
“might have had opportunity to have returned” “if they had been
mindful of that country from where they came out”.
In chapter eleven and verse sixteen of
Hebrews the writer shares
how the “strangers and pilgrims on
the earth”
“desire a better country” where
we read:
wherefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he has prepared for
them a city.
The
verse begins, “But now
they desire a better country,
that is, an heavenly:”. The
writer began with the word, “But”
which is a
disassociation conjunction that means what is about to be written
takes precedence over what was just stated “now
they desire”
or “at this very moment the people of faith reach or stretch
themselves out in order to touch or grasp something” “a
better country”
which refers to “a more useful, serviceable, advantageous or
excellent”, “that is an heavenly”
which means “an above the sky and celestial place”. Rather than
settle for their current situations or places, these people of
“faith”
were passionate about a “more advantageous, excellent and
celestial” position.
The
verse continues, “wherefore God is
not ashamed to be called their God: for he has prepared for them a
city.”. The
writer added the word, “wherefore”
or
“consequently, for which cause and on account of” “God”
which refers to “the Godhead bodily and trinity which is comprised
of God the Father, Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit” “is
not ashamed”
or “not feeling any shame” “to be
called” which
means “to put a name upon or surname” “their
God” or
“the people of faith's Godhead bodily or trinity which is comprised
of God the Father, Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit”: “for
he has prepared”
which means “made the necessary preparations to get everything
ready” “for them”
or “these people of faith” “a
city” or
“an abode of the blessed in heaven”. Since the people of “faith”
looked toward God's “promises”,
He had no “shame” to be called God by them because He already
“made ready” an “abode in heaven” for them.
When
we consider these words in Hebrews, we see how the “promises”
of God were kept in the forefront of the people of “faith's”
minds and lives. Rather than being settled in their “current
situations or places”, these people “desired” a “more
advantageous, excellent and celestial” one, and this sort of
“faith” was not only acknowledged by God, but revealed His
preparation of an “eternal abode” for them. Jesus Christ desires
that we have “faith” in Him and His sacrifice for our sins
because He has a place “prepared” for all who believe.
(John 14:1-4) Let all who read these words be “unsettled” in
their present “country or position” and look forward to the
“promise” of Jesus that all who “believe in Him, should not
perish, but have everlasting life”. (John 3:16)
Next
time the writer shares how “Abraham,
when he was tried, offered up Isaac”,
so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until tomorrow…there is more…
Look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore.
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