Most expositors explain the words “in a parable” as if they meant nothing more than “as it were,” “so to speak;” and some have actually supposed them to refer to the birth of Isaac in his father’s old age, when Abraham was “as good as dead.”[278] Both interpretations do violence to the Greek expression,[279] which must mean “even in a parable.” It is a brief and pregnant allusion to the ultimate purpose of Abraham’s trial. God intended more by it than to test faith. The test was meant to prepare Abraham for receiving a revelation. On Moriah, and ever after, Isaac was more than Isaac to Abraham. He offered him to God as Isaac, the son of the promise. He received him back from God’s hand as a type of Him in Whom the promise would be fulfilled. Abraham had gladly received the promise. He now saw the day of Christ, and rejoiced.[280] FOOTNOTES: [258] 1 Peter iii. 20. [259] Chap. xi 8. [260] Chap. xi. 9. [261] Acts vii. 5. [262] Chap. xi. 10. [263] Rev. xxi. 10. [264] τεχνίτης. [265] δημιουργός. [266] ἀσπασάμενοι (xi. 13). [267] Chap. xi. 14. [268] ξένοι καὶ παρεπίδημοι. [269] πατρίδα. [270] Chaps. xi. 16; ii. 11. [271] Gen. iv. 3. [272] 1 John iii. 12. [273] James ii. 19. [274] Chap. xii. 24. [275] 1 John iii. 19, 20. [276] Gen. xxii. 8. [277] Luke xx. 38. [278] Chap. xi. 12. [279] καὶ ἐν παραβολῇ. [280] John viii. 56. CHAPTER XII. _THE FAITH OF MOSES._ “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw he was a goodly child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to be evil entreated with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing Him Who is invisible. By faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of the blood, that the destroyer of the first-born should not touch them.”—HEB. xi. 23–28 (R.V.).