Hebrews 11:39-40

The Conclusion (Hebrews 11:39).

‘And these all, having had witness borne to them through their faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided (literally ‘foreseen') some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.'

This summary brings together what has been the emphasis of the chapter. It describes men and women of faith, and it emphasises that they were looking for the fulfilment of the promises, for it was those on which their faith was centred. For it was not faith in just a general sense that they revealed, it was faith in the fact that God is, and that His promises are totally reliable.

Yet none of these heroes of faith, although they had witness borne to them through their faith (for God Himself bore witness to them and they were entered in the records of God's people by the Holy Spirit), received the fulfilment of the promise of the Messiah. They had believed, and they had persevered against all odds on the basis of a future expectation, confident that God would not fail in His promise. Yet they had not received the very best. They did die in hope, for they are to be made perfect along with us. But this great privilege of entering into the promise had been reserved for the time when the writer was writing, and for those to whom he was writing, and for their fellow-Christians, and for us who follow on who enjoy the ‘better thing' which God has foreseen and provided for us. In the words of Jesus, ‘Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see, for I say to you that many prophets and kings desired to see the things that you see, and saw them not, and to hear the things which you hear, and heard them not' (Luke 10:23). How responsive they and we should therefore be. How ready to face up to the persecution and opposition of the world.

But now, says the writer, all that was pre-purposed in the purposes of God has come about. Thus are we privileged to be one with them in making up the complete number of those who are truly God's as we await the final fulfilment of the coming of the Messiah.

‘God having provided (literally ‘foreseen') some better thing concerning us.' For we have received a better thing. We have received what was contained in the promise of the Messiah, for which they could only continually look in faith. We now have Jesus Christ Himself. So if they persevered then, without seeing the fulfilment, how then can we who have entered into that fulfilment, fail to also persevere in faith? For we have received the something better. For, as we have seen throughout the letter, ‘better' is the description regularly used for what Christ has brought.

‘That apart from us they should not be made perfect.' Here is the cap on all that he has said. They with us, though not without us, will be made perfect. For while the spirits of righteous men made perfect (Hebrews 12:23) are now in Heaven, they are not ‘complete' in full perfection until we join them, and none of us are complete until the bodily resurrection has taken place and we are all finally united with Christ in His glory, and God is all in all (1 Corinthians 15:20 compare Revelation 6:9; Revelation 7:9; Revelation 21:22 to Revelation 22:5).