And see how admirably Paul has put it. He did not say, 'Esteeming heaven, and the things in heaven,' 'greater riches than the treasures of Egypt,' but what? The reproach of Christ. For the being reproached for the sake of Christ he accounted better than being thus at ease; and this itself by itself was reward.
Choosing rather (he says) to suffer affliction with the people of God. For you indeed suffer on your own account, but he chose [to suffer] for others; and voluntarily threw himself into so many dangers, when it was in his power both to live religiously, and to enjoy good things.
Than (he says) to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He called unwillingness to suffer affliction with the rest sin: this, he says, [Moses] accounted to be sin. If then he accounted it sin not to be ready to suffer affliction with the rest, it follows that the suffering affliction must be a great good since he threw himself into it from the royal palace.
But this he did, seeing some great t...
607. – Above, the Apostle gave an example of Abraham’s faith; here he gives the example of the faith of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph: and first of Isaac’s faith. He says, therefore, that by faith of things to come, i.e., of things that extended into the future, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. Or, he blessed them for things to come; or with a blessing which extended to the future. For his words had efficacy from God’s power alone. Through this blessing the younger ruled the older. But this did not pertain to their persons, but to the two peoples that sprang from them: ‘over Edom I will stretch out my shoe’ (Ps. 107:10). For the Edomites who sprang from Esau were subject to the people of Israel. This signified that the younger people, i.e., the Gentiles, by faith were to supplant the older people, namely, the Jews: ‘Many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven’ (Mt. 8:11). But that blessing which concerned the coming fai...
