Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see the time of my coming; he saw it and was glad."

It was in faith that all these persons died. They did not receive the things God had promised, but from a long way off they saw them and welcomed them, and admitted openly that they were foreigners and refugees on earth.

What a record all of these have won by their faith! Yet they did not receive what God had promised,

It was concerning this salvation that the prophets made careful search and investigation, and they prophesied about this gift which God would give you.

They tried to find out when the time would be and how it would come. This was the time to which Christ's Spirit in them was pointing, in predicting the sufferings that Christ would have to endure and the glory that would follow.