Sermon Tone Analysis

Hebrews 11:8-10

8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance.

He went without knowing where he was going.

9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents.

And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise.

10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God

8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

11

8 By faith Abraham, when he* was called, obeyed to go out to a place that he was going to receive for an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

9 By faith he lived in the land of promise as a stranger, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the fellow heirs of the same promise.

10 For he was expecting the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God

What is particularly significant about Abraham’s act of faith is that it began the emergence of the theocratic community.

Abraham acted as an individual, but even then many of his family followed him.

question.

He left Haran by faith (Gen.

11:31–12:4) and let God supply the road map.

He did not receive his inheritance at the time of his first call, and he did not even know the location of the Promised Land.

His daring faith earned him the title of “father of the faithful.”

By the city he means the heavenly Jerusalem, and his statement is that Abraham’s faith looked forward to that.

The idea of the new or heavenly Jerusalem was familiar to the Jews.

See ch.

12:22; 13:14; Gal.

4:26; Apoc.

3:12; 21:2.

The Rabbins regarded it as an actual city.

For the foundations comp.

Apoc.

21:14.

In ascribing to the patriarchs an assured faith in heaven as the end and reward of their wanderings, the writer oversteps the limits of history; but evidently imports into the patriarchal faith the contents of a later and more developed faith—that of himself and his readers.

11:9–10.

These verses add three facts about Abraham’s faith.

First, his faith extended to his family.

Isaac and Jacob became linked as heirs with him of the same promise.

Second, he showed a tenacious faith by living as a nomad in a foreign land without rights and privileges.

Third, Abraham did not look primarily for a physical city in the Promised Land but for a spiritual city founded and built by God.

Abraham wanted God to be the architect and builder of the city.

The secret of Abraham’s patient waiting was that he could see the invisible and move toward it.