“Not Having Received The Promises”

"These all died in faith, 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."

Hebrews 11:13

These saints of old “died in faith, not having received the promises.” They had not yet received the promised blessings of their inheritance in Canaan. They had received and believed God’s word of promise; but they had not yet received the fulfillment of the promises God made to Abraham. In a word, they had not yet seen Christ and the accomplishment of redemption by him. They lived by faith, just like you and I do. They had the Word of God and promise of God just like we do. They had it in part. We have it in its fulness. But they had the same word we have; and they believed it just like God’s people believe it today. They received it by faith.

Without question, faith is the gift of God; but we must never look upon faith as a speculative thing. Faith is not an inactive fact, or a mere intellectual acquirement. True faith is always a living principle. It is an active grace, doing and experiencing the very things here declared.

Saw

They saw God’s promises afar off. They saw, by divine revelation, that the Lord God would, at some point in the future, send Abraham’s Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ and all the blessings of grace and glory by him. The Lord God gave them a seeing eye, a hearing ear, and an understanding heart. The eyes of their understanding had been enlightened (Eph. 1:18). Like Abraham, these all saw Christ’s day and rejoiced.

Persuaded

They were persuaded of the promises. They set to their seal that God is true (John 3:33). These chosen, redeemed, called sinners, believing God, had that confidence in their souls that only God given faith can give. The believer is persuaded, confident, assured of some things, the believer knows some things others can never know in this world, because we know that God is true.

We know that Jesus is the Christ.—We know the Shepherd’s voice.—We know that we know him.—We know that we have passed from death unto life. We know whom we have believed.—We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called, according to his purpose.—We know that when our earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.—We know that when we see him we shall be like him.

Embraced

Seeing God’s promises afar off, being persuaded of them, they embraced them. Faith received. The understanding was persuaded. And the heart loved the revelation of God in the Gospel (Ps. 119:14; 2 Cor. 5:17-5:1). John Trapp said, “They kissed Christ in the promises and were kissed by him in them, being drawn together by mutual dear affection.”

Confessed

"These all died in faith, 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." The blessings promised were the objects of their confident hope, joyful expectation, and invigorating affection. Therefore, they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. Abraham sought no inheritance here, but only a place to bury his wife and himself. Jacob made the same confession to Pharaoh (Gen. 47:9). But the confession went far beyond the earthly inheritance in Canaan.

We know that because David made the same confession long after that earthly inheritance had been obtained (Ps. 39:12; 119:19; 1 Chron. 29:15. God’s people in this world are all strangers here, because our home is in another country. We are pilgrims because we are simply passing through this strange land on our journey home (Phil. 3:20-21; Col. 3:1-3).