Hebräer 11:8

From the antediluvian saints he passes to the patriarchs of Israel, to whom "the promises" belonged. called--by God (Gen 12:1). The oldest manuscripts and Vulgate read, "He that was called Abraham," his name being changed from Abram to Abraham, on the occasion of God's making with him and his seed a covenant sealed by circumcision, many years after his call out of Ur. "By faith, he who was (afterwards) called Abraham (father of nations, Gen 17:5, in order to become which was the design of God's bringing him out of Ur) obeyed (the command of God: to be understood in this reading), so as to go out," &c. which he should after receive--He had not fully received even this promise when he went out, for it was not explicitly given him till he had reached Canaan (Gen 12:1, Gen 12:6-7). When the promise of the land was given him the Canaanite was still in the land, and himself a stranger; it is in the new heaven and new earth that he shall receive his personal inheritance promised him; so believers sojourn on earth as strangers, while the ungodly and Satan lord it over the earth; but at Christ's coming that same earth which was the scene of the believer's conflict shall be the inheritance of Christ and His saints.

The apostle having, in the close of the foregoing chapter, recommended the grace of faith and a life of faith as the best preservative against apostasy, he how enlarges upon the nature and fruits of this excellent grace. I. The nature of it, and the honour it reflects upon all who live in the exercise of it (Heb 11:1-3). II. The great examples we have in the Old Testament of those who lived by faith, and died and suffered extraordinary things by the strength of his grace (v. 4-38). And, III. The advantages that we have in the gospel for the exercise of this grace above what those had who lived in the times of the Old Testament (Heb 11:39, Heb 11:40).

11:8 Abraham obeyed: See Gen 12:1-2. He, too, acted in the face of what he could not yet see, since he went without knowing where he was going.