Hebrews 11:27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. : — 1. It furnishes the necessary antidote and correction of sense. Ten to one the beggar who was at your door last winter begging for bread will be there again this winter. And yet, between these two winters, there have been many possibilities within the reach of the humblest. These possibilities came with the spring, with the May-flowers in these shapes: first, of reduced necessities; secondly, of opportunity for working. Why, then, will the beggar of last winter be the beggar of this winter? What causes this continuity of incapableness? The answer is, "These poor creatures live without forethought." Through the long summer months they lie in the sun as though there never was to be another winter. But we need not stay in this low region of illustration. Up above the truth is still the same. Nothing differentiates men so much as this power to see the invisible. Call it what you will, genius, long-headedness, foresight, there is such a quality in human nature; and there is its opposite, shortsightedness, and inability to pierce the future by a single shaft of thought or purpose. And men lose through this latter, and they win by the former. And as it is in the material, so is it in the moral realm. Here, also, the absorbing power of sense, the inability or the failure to take hold on the future, is man's greatest danger. Thousands all around us are living altogether forgetful, just as though there was no such thing as death or judgment or heaven or hell; and for no other reason than because these things are in the future. And this, which is the ruin of so many, is the danger of us all. The tendency of each one of us is to forget the great future in the little present, to live for this world alone. Hence it happens that we so often succumb to temptation. Such being our danger, from whence shall come our safety? With this dangerous tendency, whither shall we look for a corrective as strong and as constant as is our perilous inertia? The text says, To the Invisible. The record of those who have conquered says, To the Invisible. Reason says, To the Invisible. We must come to take hold of unseen reality. We must come to walk by faith, to steer our lives by the polestar of God's infinite throne. And this will save us. Thinking of coming death, we shall prepare to meet it. Living as before God, we shall live unto God. In a word, seeing Him who is invisible, we shall endure as Moses endured, and conquer as Moses conquered. But we need more than remembrance, more than forethought here. 2. We need besides knowledge, motive; besides light, we must have incentive. And this, again, comes from seeing the Invisible. The same paradox here is the law. I suppose the strongest of all cases. Proffered success as brilliant as may be, abundant wealth, the ambition of your manhood, honour so great that the sight of it dazzles, pleasure so sweet that it sets the blood on fire. And all this yours, if only you are willing to lay aside your integrity. What is your safety in such a crisis? It is a glance upward to the invisible God. It is to hear Him as He says unto you, "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" This will save you. It will make you strong to endure. But the human life needs more than knowledge, more than motive even. 3. It also needs encouragement, that encouragement which brings peace and makes duty a joy. This also comes from seeing Him who is invisible. In the hour of its danger the human heart needs to hear a voice saying unto it, "Be of good cheer: victory waits for you, and the crown is ready." I know that men perish for lack of understanding. I remember that human lives perish for lack of motive. But even more perish for lack of sympathy in the hours which make up the crisis of their immortality. Over many a one who has thus gone down in this world might be written this epitaph, "I looked around me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul." But if, at such a time, the endangered ones could only have looked upon the Invisible. If they could have looked into a realm of purity. If they could have seen the invisible God, and by His side the Son who overcame through the Cross. This sight would have saved them. Sympathetic chords would have reached from the Eternal Throne to their failing faith and weakening hope, and along these would have flashed these words of encouragement and strength, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne." 4. I must also add, that this sight of the invisible One must be the true inspiration, because of the immortality of human life. It isn't here that we reap any more than the first-fruits of our harvest. No! Ours is the endowment of an endless life, and the stake with us is not time, but eternity. It must be, therefore, that we need, that we cannot do without, the inspiration which comes from the unseen realm — from the invisible God. We, who are going unto God, cannot safely guide our lives save by the sight of God. Inferential truths. (1) A warning to the life of sense. While God lives and rules no creature life can afford to ignore Him. While human life continues to be assaulted by the world, the flesh, and the devil, it is not possible to endure, save by a sight of Him who is invisible. While shoals and rocks threaten, no man can steer safely over the sea of life, unless he daily takes his observation in the light which falls from the throne of the invisible God. (2) How reasonable is that life of which faith is the dominant principle! Is it not true that death is to confer upon us citizenship in the invisible world? What, then, more reasonable than that we should anticipate and prepare for this our sublime majority? Is there not a living and reigning God upon the infinite throne? And shall we not look upward? (S. S. Mitchell, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. |
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