Charles Spurgeon Commentary Hebrews 11:13

"These all died in faith, 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." — Hebrews 11:13 (ASV)

And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

They not only were strangers and pilgrims, but they confessed it.

Confessed faith is requisite. Oh, you who, like Nicodemus, come to Christ by night, be ashamed that you are ashamed, and come out, and boldly confess what you are!

These all died in faith, not having received the promises,

By which is meant, not that they did not receive the promises, but they did not receive the things promised.

Not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

The chapter is a very long one, so I must condense it, as the apostle himself did when he came to Hebrews 11:32; there was so much to be said that he added, –

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them,

What long arms faith has! The promises are far off, and yet faith embraces them tonight. Embrace the promises, dear friends, and stretch out your hands by faith to hands that have gone before.

"Even now by faith we join our hands
With those that went before;
And greet the blood-besprinkled bands
On the eternal shore."

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

These all—Paul means Abraham, and Sarah, and Isaac, and Jacob—died in faith. They embraced the promises—threw their arms round them—hugged them to their hearts—embraced them as those who dearly loved them.

These all died in faith,

That is the epitaph which God has carved over the resting-place of His faithful ones: These all died in faith. Will this be the record concerning all of us, These all died in faith?