Twentieth_Century(i)
13 All these died sustained by faith. They did not obtain the promised blessings, but they saw them from a distance and welcomed the sight, and they acknowledged themselves to be only aliens and strangers on the earth.
14 Those who speak thus show plainly that they are seeking their fatherland.
15 If they had been thinking of the land that they had left, they could have found opportunities to return.
16 But no, they were longing for a better, a heavenly, land! And therefore God was not ashamed to be called their God; indeed he had already prepared them a city.
17 It was faith that enabled Abraham, when put to the test, to offer Isaac as a sacrifice--he who had received the promises offering up his only son,
18 of whom it had been said-- 'It is through Isaac that there shall be descendants to bear thy name.'
19 For he argued that God was able even to raise a man from the dead--and indeed, figuratively speaking, Abraham did receive Isaac back from the dead.
20 It was faith that enabled Isaac to bless Jacob and Esau, even with regard to the future.
21 Faith enabled Jacob, when dying, to give his blessing to each of the sons of Joseph, and 'to bow himself in worship as he leant upon the top of his staff.'
22 Faith caused Joseph, when his end was near, to speak of the future migration of the Israelites, and to give instructions with regard to his bones.
23 Faith caused the parents of Moses to hide the child for three months after his birth, for they saw that he was a beautiful child; and they would not respect the King's order.
24 It was faith that caused Moses, when he was grown up, to refuse the title of 'Son of a Daughter of Pharaoh.'
25 He preferred sharing the hardships of God's People to enjoying the short-lived pleasures of sin.
26 For he counted 'the reproaches that are heaped upon the Christ' of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, looking forward, as he did, to the reward awaiting him.
27 Faith caused him to leave Egypt, though undaunted by the King's anger, for he was strengthened in his endurance by the vision of the invisible God.