God reads the heart, and He delights — we say it with all reverence — to take note of faith in any of His saints. So of Sarah we next read, and of her faith as to the birth of Isaac. Who when reading Genesis would have gathered the existence of it from the lawgiver's account? But here, centuries after Moses wrote, the Spirit of God put on record what He saw in her — viz. faith as to that which naturally would have seemed impossible: "She judged [or, counted] Him faithful that had promised" (11:11). A fine reason this for the exercise of faith. With her it was not, Can it be? but, He had said it, so it shall be. She rested as to this solely on the word of her God. For who before her had become a mother at ninety? (Gen. 17:17). "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" (Gen. 18:14) was the word of God to Abraham. For a fellow-creature to have said that would be one thing; for God to say it is quite another. All power He has, and He would certainly fulfil His promise that Sarah should have a son. What results ensued! "Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable." Then, too, faith was in exercise with the patriarchs to the end of their life here. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,[^31] and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Heb. 11:12-13). Death may come in ere the promise is fulfilled. Of this the Hebrews were reminded. For whilst on earth the full blessing cannot be enjoyed. But it can never rob us of our hope.
[^31]: We see the writer's independence in his quotations. At times, as in Heb. 10:30, he renders more nearly the original Hebrew than the Septuagint translation has done. At times, as in 10:38, he adopts more closely a translation of the Septuagint, whilst inverting the last two clauses of his quotation from Habakkuk. We have given in the text the better reading of the passage, as may be seen in the Revised Version.