Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

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Hebrews XI. 7-19. 645
spoken of, and in how far it was so. Precisely the faith that there
is a God, and one who will reward those who seek after him, found
place in Enoch, and could find place in him. Far from intending to
ascrihe to Enoch the New Testament faith, the author defines the
ixlarig here in its general form as it applied to the time of Enoch.
Enoch lived in that time when the descendants of Cain were improving
earthly life by inventions (Gen. iv. 20, seq.), but amid the
pleasures of the earthly life entirely forgot God, and when, already,
the Sethites also were infected with the
prevalent corruption (Gen.
vi. 1, seq.). In that time Enoch led a godly life. He forgot not the
invisible God amid the things and enjoyments that were seen ; he
longed for that blessedness which God is ready to give to those who
seek him.
Ver. 7.
liiaru belongs, of course, again to the principal verb
KaTsaKEvaoe. In how far the building of the ark was an act offaithy
we are told in the apposition %p??jwaTta0£iV. Noah saw as yet nothing
of the flood, when he began to build the ark ; he acted with respect
to a mere prophecy ; but God's word was to him more sure and certain
than the supposition which had become habitual by sight—that
the course of nature would continue ever the same,—and more important
to him than all the scorn and mockery of an unbelieving
world. -EvXaPTjOeLg not = evXafiTjg yevonevog (compare Luke ii. 25 ;
Acts ii. 5, viii. 2 ; Heb. v. 7, xii. 28) but = " in wise foresight"
(namely, in that which sprung from his obedience of faith). Prudence
is not named as the source but as the reward of his conduct.
By his believing obedience he came to be at last the one who was
truly prudent. A truth of great practical importance ! He who,
like a child, blindly follows the will of God regardless of aU consequences,
is the one who is truly prudent ; for he builds on the
Eternal, and he will never allow his own to come to shame. He, on
the contrary, who, in the fear of man and from a wish to please
man, reckons when it will be profitable to follow the Lord, he who
first anxiously weighs the consequences, will with his false wisdom
assuredly come to shame. How many Christians would there be
God command this),
now who, by the building of an ark (should
would take upon themselves the contempt of the whole world ?
We would not seek them among those who already shrink with fear
from the charge of " pietism."— By his faith " Noah judged the
world." Noah by his faith (^. e. by the building of the ark)
saved himself, and thereby left the world to the destruction it de-<
served.
Ver. 8-19.—A series of examples follows taken from the
lifetime
of Abraham. If Abraham, at the call of God, left his home without
even knowing whither God would lead him, he rested more on things
promised of God than on things present, more on the invisible faiths
Vol. VI.—35