Philippians 3:19
19. destruction—everlasting at Christ's coming. Php 1:28, "perdition"; the opposite word is "Saviour" (Php 3:20).
end—fixed doom. whose god is their belly— (Ro 16:18); hereafter to be destroyed by God (1Co 6:13). In contrast to our "body" (Php 3:21), which our God, the Lord Jesus, shall "fashion like unto His glorious body." Their belly is now pampered, our body now wasted; then the respective states of both shall be reversed. glory is in their shame—As "glory" is often used in the Old Testament for God (Ps 106:20), so here it answers to "whose God," in the parallel clause; and "shame" is the Old Testament term contemptuously given to an idol (Jud 6:32, Margin). Ho 4:7 seems to be referred to by Paul (compare Ro 1:32). There seems no allusion to circumcision, as no longer glorious, but a shame to them (Php 3:2). The reference of the immediate context is to sensuality, and carnality in general. mind earthly things— (Ro 8:5). In contrast to Php 3:20; Col 3:2.Hebrews 11:9-10
9. sojourned—as a "stranger and pilgrim."
in—Greek, "into," that is, he went into it and sojourned there. as in a strange country—a country not belonging to him, but to others (so the Greek), Ac 7:5, 6. dwelling in tabernacles—tents: as strangers and sojourners do: moving from place to place, as having no fixed possession of their own. In contrast to the abiding "city" (Heb 11:10). with—Their kind of dwelling being the same is a proof that their faith was the same. They all alike were content to wait for their good things hereafter (Lu 16:25). Jacob was fifteen years old at the death of Abraham. heirs with him of the same promise—Isaac did not inherit it from Abraham, nor Jacob from Isaac, but they all inherited it from God directly as "fellow heirs." In Heb 6:12, 15, 17, "the promise" means the thing promised as a thing in part already attained; but in this chapter "the promise" is of something still future. However, see on Heb 6:12.10. looked for—Greek, "he was expecting"; waiting for with eager expectation (Ro 8:19).
a city—Greek, "the city," already alluded to. Worldly Enoch, son of the murderer Cain, was the first to build his city here: the godly patriarchs waited for their city hereafter (Heb 11:16; 12:22; 13:14). foundations—Greek, "the foundations" which the tents had not, nor even men's present cities have. whose builder and maker—Greek, "designer [Eph 1:4, 11] and master-builder," or executor of the design. The city is worthy of its Framer and Builder (compare Heb 11:16; Heb 8:2). Compare Note, see on Heb 9:12, on "found."Hebrews 11:13-16
13-16. Summary of the characteristic excellencies of the patriarchs' faith
died in faith—died as believers, waiting for, not actually seeing as yet their good things promised to them. They were true to this principle of faith even unto, and especially in, their dying hour (compare Heb 11:20). These all—beginning with "Abraham" (Heb 11:8), to whom the promises were made (Ga 3:16), and who is alluded to in the end of Heb 11:13 and in Heb 11:15 [BENGEL and ALFORD]. But the "ALL" can hardly but include Abel, Enoch, and Noah. Now as these did not receive the promise of entering literal Canaan, some other promise made in the first ages, and often repeated, must be that meant, namely, the promise of a coming Redeemer made to Adam, namely, "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Thus the promises cannot have been merely temporal, for Abel and Enoch mentioned here received no temporal promise [ARCHBISHOP MAGEE]. This promise of eternal redemption is the inner essence of the promises made to Abraham (Ga 3:16). not having received—It was this that constituted their "faith." If they had "received" THE THING PROMISED (so "the promises" here mean: the plural is used because of the frequent renewal of the promise to the patriarchs: Heb 11:17 says he did receive the promises, but not the thing promised), it would have been sight, not faith. seen them afar off— (Joh 8:56). Christ, as the Word, was preached to the Old Testament believers, and so became the seed of life to their souls, as He is to ours. and were persuaded of them—The oldest manuscripts omit this clause. embraced them—as though they were not "afar off," but within reach, so as to draw them to themselves and clasp them in their embrace. TRENCH denies that the Old Testament believers embraced them, for they only saw them afar off: he translates, "saluted them," as the homeward-bound mariner, recognizing from afar the well-known promontories of his native land. ALFORD translates, "greeted them." Jacob's exclamation, "I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord" (Ge 49:18) is such a greeting of salvation from afar [DELITZSCH]. confessed . . . were strangers—so Abraham to the children of Heth (Ge 23:4); and Jacob to Pharaoh (Ge 47:9; Ps 119:19). Worldly men hold fast the world; believers sit loose to it. Citizens of the world do not confess themselves "strangers on the earth." pilgrims—Greek, "temporary (literally, 'by the way') sojourners." on the earth—contrasted with "an heavenly" (Heb 11:16): "our citizenship is in heaven" (Greek: Heb 10:34; Ps 119:54; Php 3:20). "Whosoever professes that he has a Father in heaven, confesses himself a stranger on earth; hence there is in the heart an ardent longing, like that of a child living among strangers, in want and grief, far from his fatherland" [LUTHER]. "Like ships in seas while in, above the world."14. For—proof that "faith" (Heb 11:13) was their actuating principle.
declare plainly—make it plainly evident. seek—Greek, "seek after"; implying the direction towards which their desires ever tend. a country—rather as Greek, "a fatherland." In confessing themselves strangers here, they evidently imply that they regard not this as their home or fatherland, but seek after another and a better.15. As Abraham, had he desired to leave his pilgrim life in Canaan, and resume his former fixed habitation in Ur, among the carnal and worldly, had in his long life ample opportunities to have done so; and so spiritually, as to all believers who came out from the world to become God's people, they might, if they had been so minded, have easily gone back.
16. Proving the truth that the old fathers did not, as some assert, "look only for transitory promises" [Article VII, Book of Common Prayer].
now—as the case is. is not ashamed—Greek, "Is not ashamed of them." Not merely once did God call himself their God, but He is NOW not ashamed to have Himself called so, they being alive and abiding with Him where He is. For, by the law, God cannot come into contact with anything dead. None remained dead in Christ's presence (Lu 20:37, 38). He who is Lord and Maker of heaven and earth, and all things therein, when asked, What is Thy name? said, omitting all His other titles, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" [THEODORET]. Not only is He not ashamed, but glories in the name and relation to His people. The "wherefore" does not mean that God's good pleasure is the meritorious, but the gracious, consequence of their obedience (that obedience being the result of His Spirit's work in them in the first instance). He first so "called" Himself, then they so called Him. for—proof of His being "their God," namely, "He hath prepared (in His eternal counsels, Mt 20:23; 25:34, and by the progressive acts of redemption, Joh 14:2) for them a city," the city in which He Himself reigns, so that their yearning desires shall not be disappointed (Heb 11:14, 16). a city—on its garniture by God (compare Re 21:10-27).
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