THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

34 The Hope of Israel: What Is It?
gospel (and never was, or will be, "another gospel."
Gal. 1:6-9). The hope of the gospel has ever been
the coming of Him who should bruise the serpent's
head, and who should be Himself "bruised" in the
deadly conflict; Him who by death should destroy
him, that had the power of death, the Devil.
It is fitting that the faith of Abraham should have
a large space in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews; for
Abraham is "the father of all them that believe" (Rom.
4:11). That chapter does not state what the gospel
was that "God preached unto Abraham" (Gal. 3:8) ;
but it tells what the effect thereof was upon his life
and conduct, and what his hope was, that is, what he
ivas looking for. It is recorded that
"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in
a strange (or foreign) country, dwelling in tents with
Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise"
(v. 9).
And verse 10 gives the explanation
"For he looked (lit. was waiting for) the (not a)
city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker
is God."
Mention is made also of Sarah's faith, which was
also an important factor in the accomplishment of the
purposes of God, and who is herself a type of that
heavenly city upon which Abraham's hope was fixed
. . . the "Jerusalem which is above, which is the mother
of us all" (Gal. 4 :26)
. And further, it is expressly declared
that Isaac and Jacob were co-heirs with Abraham
of "the same promise" (v. 9)
. And then, concerning
those four Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Sarah, to
whom "the promises" were directly given, we have
this illuminating testimony :