WE must refer our reader to our June issue for the paper of which this is a continuation. Our subject is pilgrimage and faith; the verses now before us being the 11th to the 16th of Heb. 11 The reader will observe, that from the 8th to the i 6th verses of this chapter the theme is mainly pilgrimage. Some of the qualities marking true pilgrimage have already occupied us.
By faith Sarah received strength to become the mother of Isaac, through whom the Seed came. It is especially interesting to note this fact as here recorded by the Spirit of God, for we cannot forget Sarah's laughter of unbelief when in the tent door she heard the Lord's words to Abraham: "Sarah thy wife shall have a son." (Gen. 18:1010And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. (Genesis 18:10).) She laughed within herself, as if what God had said was impossible of realization. Then the Lord said to Abraham, "Wherefore did Sarah laugh?" She was measuring the divine promise by her own strength. How often are we like Sarah in this respect? Let us heed the Lord's words of gentle rebuke to her "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Faith looks to God. With God all things are possible, and all things are possible to him that believeth. Blessed assurance for the people of God!
We know that Sarah denied her laughter, for she feared the rebuke of the Lord, but He said to her, "Nay; but thou didst laugh." The Lord would not allow her to escape from the exposure of her unbelief to herself. We may say that it is His way with His people, to teach us in our souls what we really are in His presence. Such dealing with us lays us bare before Him; it also teaches us truly to trust in Him. Now we can but feel that the exercise of soul Sarah passed through must have led her to God in a peculiar way, so that she could say experimentally, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" for "by faith Sarah received strength.”
Sarah did not forget her want of faith in her day of realized blessing, and most touchingly she refers to it when Isaac was born: "And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me." (Chapter 21:6.) God had turned the doubting laugh at His promise, into the joyous laugh of exultation in Himself.
Let us be sure of this, if the consciousness of helplessness and death in ourselves seemed to forbid our hopes of blessing, we shall not wish to hide our seasons of want of faith, at the time when the gracious intervention of God brings in life and blessing. It is most encouraging to see this holy woman of old time, with the promised son in her arms, thus gratefully confessing what God had wrought in her. He had given her the faith, and her faith's fulfillment.
There is laughter-joy in its highest sense— for all the pilgrims to glory, who really trust God. He turns our hopeless moments into occasions of deep joy by giving us to trust in Himself.
We next mark the result of Sarah's faith: "Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable." A family shall spring up in resurrection. From death heaven and earth will be peopled. This refers to the Lord Himself, who died and rose again for God's people.
Turning from the vast issues arising from the resurrection of our Lord, let us for a moment apply these words to our own daily lives, as we think we may, without speaking of their direct interpretation. We may safely assert, he who has faith in God, who counts Him faithful in the presence of what nature can only see to be death, will assuredly find that great fruits of blessing shall follow his faith.
Sarah received strength by her faith in God, and the life and joy that followed as the result of her faith, was not only for herself, but of a far-reaching kind for others. As we have said, she had to go through the necessary exercise of soul; she had to learn God's strength in herself, before she rejoiced in what God had done for her; but the reward that followed was not for herself only, for to this day her words are proven, "All that hear will laugh with me.”
Faith in God produces a harvest of blessing, and what at the first was gained in deep exercise of soul for oneself, becomes also a rich reward for others. He who has true faith in God for the difficulties of the day, will assuredly, by his faith, help other believers to rejoice in God also.
The holy people of old, spoken of in our chapter, died in faith, they were a waiting people; Christ the promised seed and the city of God's building were before them in prospect. Christ has now come, He is ours, but we too are going home and hence too are waiting in spirit.
We derive strength from God for life's difficulties as we journey on; but let us keep continually before us that we are journeying on; we are going home to God. This world is not our rest, it is the place where we learn God in adverse circumstances.
In faith, the company of pilgrims died, "not having received the promises, but, having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Heb. 5:1313For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. (Hebrews 5:13) (R.V.)
There is exceeding beauty in these words, which so fully characterize the heavenward walk of God's people. We see in them the strength which is stronger than death. Like a bright beacon, the promises guided them on their path, and as they drew towards its end, the light of the beacon shone the brighter to their eye of faith. Time rolled them daily on to God. Their steps led them daily nearer to "a country of their own." (R.V.) How true is this of the children of faith. Heaven is, indeed, for such "a country of their own"—
Heaven is our fatherland
Heaven is our home.
—This confession of being strangers and pilgrims on this earth is not a mere form of words. A stranger is one, who is away from his home. The things around him may be beautiful, but they are not those of his home. We admire the glories of the snow-clad mountains and the loveliness of the flowers of other lands, but we pass through these scenes; we are not at home; we are strangers on our way to England. Our ways, our language, make it manifest to the people of the land through which we pass that we are seeking a country of our own. A stranger has not the ways of the people of a foreign land, a pilgrim hastens through it. Such characteristics mark the child of faith in this world. He is known by his language and his behavior.
We read of "pilgrims" now-a-days, who travel to some shrine, taking return tickets for their journey. Such travelers illustrate verbal pilgrimage. We cannot be strangers and pilgrims on Sundays and on religious occasions, nor just while singing hymns of heaven; no, it is the course of a lifetime that proves what we are. Settling down in the world, giving ourselves to its ease and luxury, or its ways and prospects, deny us the title of strangers and pilgrims.
God looks to us for purpose of heart; these holy men and women of old "might have had opportunity to have returned," but their backs were towards the country whence they came out. We do not forget how some of Israel in the wilderness sighed for Egypt and its flesh-pots and onions, and we remember Lot's wife looking back upon Sodom. These were not pilgrims in truth, and they perished by the way. When a saint of God forgets his calling, and attempts to combine in his heart the world and heaven, he lives a disappointed life, and dies a death of self-reproach.
Most cheering are the words to the stranger and the pilgrim, "God is not ashamed to be called their God." Have we truly trusted His word? He finds pleasure in our confidence in Himself. The eternal God looks down from heaven, His dwelling place, and is not ashamed of the weakest child, who believes His word. Let us stir up our souls to more confidence in God, not only for life's steps, but also for looking to Him as the God of resurrection.
Do we, not only as a fact marked by the flux of time,
“Nightly pitch our moving tent
A day's march nearer home,”
but as a heart enjoyment? We are going daily on to meet God. Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. All that is solid and abiding is before us. Beyond us are gathered very many of our fondest friends; they "died according to faith," and God "hath prepared for them a city." There will be no pitching of tents in heaven-no days marches there; it will be eternal rest in the presence of God.