Charles Ellicott Commentary Hebrews 11:16

"But now they desire a better [country], that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city." — Hebrews 11:16 (ASV)

They confess themselves to be only sojourners (Hebrews 11:13), and thus make it plain that they are still seeking their true home (Hebrews 11:14). Yet, if they had sought nothing more than an earthly home, there is one already, which was once theirs, and to which they might return (Hebrews 11:15). Hence, it is not an earthly but a heavenly country that they desire.

This is the general current of thought in these verses, presenting a very close analogy to the argument of Hebrews 3:7 to Hebrews 4:11. Here, as there, words that might otherwise appear to have only an earthly reference are seen to have a higher and spiritual import.

In Hebrews 11:8-9, we have before us only the land of inheritance, but in Hebrews 11:10, the heavenly rest. And in Hebrews 11:13, words that, as read in Genesis, might seem to refer to a wandering life in the land of Canaan are taken as a confession of sojourning on earth.

It is not necessary to suppose that the desires and yearnings of “the fathers” expressed themselves in the definite forms that later revelation has made familiar. In all that is essential, the hope existed, while the mode of the fulfillment was unknown.

Through faith, the patriarchs were willing to connect their whole life and that of their children with waiting at God’s command for the fulfillment of a promise—wandering and sojourning until God’s own time would come when He would grant them a home in a country of their own. And yet each of these servants of God recognized that his relationship with God, which was the foundation of the promise made to him, was personal and abiding.

If these two thoughts are united, it will be easy to see how each one for himself would be led to regard the state of wandering in which he spent his life as an emblem of a state of earthly waiting for an enduring home; the sojourning in the land was a constant symbol of the sojourning on earth. Hence (see the passages quoted in Hebrews 11:13) the same language is used from age to age after Canaan is received as an inheritance. (and see Exodus 3:15, and Matthew 22:31-32.)

But now.—See Hebrews 8:6; the meaning is not “at this present time,” but “as the case stands in truth.”

Wherefore God is not ashamed.—Rather, Wherefore God is not ashamed of them .

Because of this lofty desire, or rather, because of the faith and love toward Him on which the desire was founded, and of which, therefore, the longing for a heavenly country was the expression, God is not ashamed of them, to be called (literally surnamed) their God (Genesis 17:7; Genesis 26:24; Genesis 28:13; Exodus 3:6; and others).

That He is not ashamed of them He has shown, for He prepared for them a city. Before the desire existed, the home had been provided. (Compare Matthew 25:34.)