We are continuing our study in the last portion of Hebrews 11 as the author is once again setting forth people who expressed faith in God and saw God often bring about spectacular results, turning things around in His people’s favor.
The first heroes of faith did receive what they asked for…
32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35a Women received back their dead by resurrection.
We pointed out last time the fact that God answered the prayers and fulfilled the desires of people who, although very flawed, exercised faith—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel, the first of the prophets. Of course, there were many more prophets down through Israel’s history.
Viewed together, this dynamic half-dozen bore remarkable similarities to one another. Each lived in a time when faith was scarce—definitely the minority position. During the days of the judges, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25), and this ethic was very much alive during the transfer to the monarchy. From Gideon to David, each battled overwhelming odds—Gideon with his three hundred against an innumerable host—young David against the giant. Each stood alone contra mundum, against the world. And most significantly, perhaps, each of these heroes had a flawed faith. John Calvin remarked:
There was none of them whose faith did not falter. Gideon was slower than he need have been to take up arms, and it was only with difficulty that he ventured to commit himself to God. Barak hesitated at the beginning so that he had almost to be compelled by the reproaches of Deborah. Samson was the victim of the enticements of his mistress and thoughtlessly betrayed the safety of himself and of all his people. Jephthah rushed headlong into making a foolish vow and was over-obstinate in performing it, and thereby marred a fine victory by the cruel death of his daughter.
And to this we could add that David was sensuous (2 Samuel 11:1ff.), and Samuel lapsed into carelessness in domestic matters (1 Samuel 8:1ff.). Calvin concludes:
In every saint there is always to be found something reprehensible. Nevertheless although faith may be imperfect and incomplete it does not cease to be approved by God. There is no reason, therefore, why the fault from which we labour should break us or discourage us provided we go on by faith in the race of our calling. (William B. Johnston, trans., Calvin’s Commentaries: The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews and the First and Second Epistles of St. Peter (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1963), p. 182).
God’s power allows trusting people to accomplish great things for God. Faith looks at impossibilities and smiles in light of the power of God! Our writer now rehearses a litany of faith’s accomplishments: “who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35a Women received back their dead by resurrection.”
Our author lists nine empowerments grouped in three successive groups of three. The first three give the broad empowerments of authentic faith: “who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises” (v. 33a). This was not only the corporate experience of the half-dozen, but the general experience of the preceding sixteen members of the Hall of Faith.
Some of those who “conquered kingdoms” were David, Joshua, King Asa, Jehoshaphat, King Hezekiah, and King Josiah. William Barclay has an interesting comment here. He says “There are two principal ‘kingdoms’ which the Christian is called upon to ‘subdue’: one is within himself, the other without him—the ‘flesh’ and the ‘world.'” It was easier for Solomon to subdue the Philistines than his own flesh. This reminds us that success in the battle for character is more important than victories over our enemies.
Among those who “enforced justice” were David (2 Sam. 8:15), Solomon, Elijah, Elisha, and the other prophets in general; King Josiah also. Some established justice and righteous governments. Or maybe he was thinking about Daniel, who served kings of Babylon and Medo-Persia for 75 years, and walked in integrity throughout it all.
And among those who obtained promises we could include Caleb, Gideon, and Barak. Performing acts of righteousness is faith living biblically; obtaining the promises is faith waiting biblically.
The second trio lists some of the forms of personal deliverances that they experienced: “who…stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword” (vv. 33b, 34a).
The test of faith is trusting God when all we have are His promises. When the waters are piled high all around us and problems and dangers are about to overwhelm us, this is when faith is tested, and when the Lord takes special pleasure in showing us His faithfulness, His love, and His power. When we have nothing but His promise to rely on, His help is the nearest and His presence the dearest to those who believe. (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 358)
Samson, David, and Beniah all shut the mouths of lions through physical force. Samson, barehanded, took a charging lion by the jaws and ripped it apart. David grabbed a sheep-stealing lion by the beard and thrust it through. Beniah descended into a pit on a snowy day and dispatched another king of the beasts. But Daniel is the preeminent example, through his faith and prayer (Daniel 6:17–22).
When I was as teenager the Pat Terry Group had a song about Daniel. I would encourage you to listen to the whole song, but the part about Daniel and the lions goes like this…
Early in the morning when the sun came up
The king was feeling down
He went to the lions’ den, he looked in the window
And what do you think he found?
Oh, Daniel was leading all the lions in a hymn
They were clapping their big brown paws
He said an angel of the Lord done arrived last night
And he clamped them lions’ jaws
He really did now
Deliverance from the lions’ jaws came not because Daniel was stronger than the lions, but because of God’s miraculous protection and Daniel’s faith in that protection.
While you and I might not be thrown to lions don’t overlook the fact that we’re told the Devil is on the hunt – he’s even now walking around, like a roaring lion, seeking someone to discredit (I Peter 5:8). Stephen Davey reminds us: “Every time you trust God – every time you do the right thing – every time you respond biblically – every time you avoid the snare of temptation – you effectively shut the mouth of that old lion.”
The phrase about quenching the power of fire goes straight back to the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego in Daniel 3:19-28. These three young men were condemned to the fire because they refused to bow down to Nebucchadnezzar’s idol. Given a second chance by the king, with the warning “But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” (Daniel 3:15b).
I love their response.
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
They knew that God could deliver them, but “if not…we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image you have set up.” Even if God chooses not to deliver us, we will not deny Him. He is the true God, not you, Nebucchadnezzar.
And God did deliver them, even though the furnace was heated “seven times more than it was usually heated” (Daniel 3:19).
24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” 25 He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” 26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire.
You might not be thrown into a fiery furnace – you might not be thrown into a den of lions, but every day you re-enter your world, whether you know it or not, you face the threat of a firefight and a cunning lion. We’ve been given the “shield of faith” to quench the fiery darts of doubts and lies that Satan projects our way. Those fiery darts dipped in temptation or impatience or unbelief or pain.
King David (against both Goliath and Saul, and others), as well as the prophets Elijah and Elisha and Jeremiah, “escaped the sword,” as did many others (1 Samuel 18:10, 11; 1 Kings 19:8–10; 2 Kings 6:31, 32; Psalm 144:10; Jeremiah 39). Moses escaped the sword of Pharaoh, and Elijah escaped the sword of Jezebel.
The third triad tells about the astounding power that came by faith: “[who] were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection” (vv. 34b, 35a).
Some of those “made strong out of weakness” were Sarah, Gideon, Abraham, Esther, and King Hezekiah. Faith requires recognizing our weakness, but at the same time, laying hold of God’s strength. As Jesus said (John 15:5), “… apart from Me you can do nothing.” Philip Hughes writes, “Faith is the response of all who are conscious of their own weakness and accordingly look to God for strength” (The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 510).
Spurgeon reminds us “Many of us may never have to brave the fiery stake, nor to bow our necks upon the block, to die as Paul did; but if we have grace enough to be out of weakness made strong, we shall not be left out of the roll of the nobles of faith, and God’s name shall not fail to be glorified in our persons.”
Paul described his own life as being weak and experiencing God’s strength in 2 Corinthians 12. Starting in verse 7 he says, “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
And in 2 Corinthians 4:7 Paul once again speaks of how our weaknesses do not disqualify us from being mightily used by God: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”
Every Christian who has accomplished great things for God has known this truth as the very foundation of what they did. Robert Morrison, a pioneer missionary to China was asked, “Do you really expect to make an impact on that great land?” He replied, “No sir, but I expect God to” (source unknown). George Muller’s biographer wrote of him, “Nothing is more marked in George Muller, to the very day of his death, than this, that he so looked to God and leaned on God that he felt himself to be nothing, and God everything” (A. T. Pierson, George Muller of Bristol [Revell], p. 112). Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to inland China, said, “All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on God being with them” (source unknown). (https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-43-faith%E2%80%99s-reward-hebrews-1132-40)
William Carey was a cobbler by trade. Most churchmen in his day believed that the Great Commission had been given only to the apostles, and thus they had no vision for “converting the heathen.” But Carey came to the revolutionary idea that foreign missions were the central responsibility of the church. He wrote a book promoting that thesis, and he spoke to a group of ministers, challenging them to the task of missions. In that talk, he made the now-famous statement, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God” (Tucker, p. 115).
What are you trusting God for right now that is beyond your comfort zone or human ability? Are you praying for God to do anything that, if He did it, there could be no human explanation for it?
Several of the Psalms express how David and his men “became mighty in war …” experiencing God’s strength to do battle against their enemies (Psalm 17, 18, 59, etc.). Allied with that phrase is the next, “put foreign armies to flight…” David did it on numerous occasions, so did the renowned Maccabeans during the 3rd century B. C. against Antiochus Ephiphanes, the ruthless Syrian king.
Even when experiencing the greatest loss in the temporal realm–death–faith triumphs. Our author ends this list of mighty triumphs by saying, “Women received back their dead by resurrection” (Heb. 11:35a). He saves this feat until last because it is the greatest expression of God’s delivering power.
What are you trusting God for right now that seems impossible and is far beyond your comfort zone or human ability? Are you praying for God to do anything that, unless God shows up in a mighty way, you fall flat on your face?
Faith always involves the risk of putting yourself into a situation where, if God does not come through, you fail miserably. This doesn’t mean that we should be sloppy in our preparation or planning or follow through. There is nothing spiritual about sloppiness or lack of preparation or just being lazy. But it is to say that after all of our planning and preparations and conduct, we should be still praying, “God, if you don’t work, this whole thing is going to be a colossal failure!”
Like Peter stepping out of the boat into the water, we should be very much aware that if He doesn’t hold us up, we’re going to drown! So pray with me that God would accomplish things through our lives and churches that can only be explained because God did it.
But even before we decide to go out and do miracles and conquer kingdoms, let’s focus on a more personal and practical level. Let’s first remember that private victories precede public victories.
- How are you doing on taming your temper…or your sharp tongue?
- How about conquering that bitter, unforgiving spirit?
- How about loving your spouse with unconditional love, giving 100% of your time, energy and effort to doing what is best for them?
- How about reconciling with an enemy?
Believe me, those are miracles too!
Grace Still Amazes 