John Calvin Commentary Hebrews 11:38

"(of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth." — Hebrews 11:38 (ASV)

Of whom the world was not worthy, and so on. As the holy Prophets wandered as fugitives among wild beasts, they might have seemed unworthy of being sustained on the earth. For how was it that they could find no place among men? But the Apostle reverses this sentiment, saying that the world was not worthy of them. For wherever God’s servants come, they bring his blessing with them like the fragrance of a sweet odor.

Thus the house of Potiphar was blessed for Joseph’s sake (Genesis 39:5), and Sodom would have been spared had ten righteous men been found in it (Genesis 18:32). Although the world may cast out God’s servants as offscourings, it is still to be regarded as one of its judgments that it cannot bear them, for a blessing from God always accompanies them.

Whenever the righteous are taken away from us, let us know that such events are signs of evil for us, because we are unworthy of having them with us, lest they perish together with us.

At the same time, the godly have abundant reasons for consolation, though the world may cast them out as offscourings. For they see that the same thing happened to the prophets, who found more clemency in wild animals than in men.

It was with this thought that Hilary comforted himself when he saw the church taken possession of by sanguinary tyrants, who then employed the Roman emperor as their executioner. Indeed, that holy man then recalled what the Apostle says here about the Prophets: “Mountains and forests,” he said, “and dungeons and prisons, are safer for me than splendid temples; for the Prophets, while living or buried in these, still prophesied by the Spirit of God.”

So we also should be encouraged to boldly despise the world. And if it casts us out, let us know that we go forth from a fatal gulf, and that God thus provides for our safety, so that we do not sink in the same destruction.