Now as we move along we find ourselves at a place in this great chapter where the writer of Hebrews names some people without given many details concerning these people and the faith they had. Well I am going to go against the grain and expound on some of these people that are named and may even hit on a few that are not named. We will not take an entire study for each of these but some may require us to look at them in a study of their own.
To begin with the writer of Hebrews moves into this section by saying in Hebrews 11:32 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I recount Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, as well as David and Samuel and the prophets.
I simply could not move on to finish this study without looking at the faith of some of these as well. It’s not that the writer wrote an incomplete section here but that he was done with making the point that he set out to in this section. For me these men of faith have great stories that go along in our study pertaining to having faith in trials and suffering. So with that we will look at these men and others before we finish this study.
First I want to read this entire section that speaks of some of the things that these men and others dealt with and went through as they lived for God in their own time. Let’s read Hebrews 11:32-38 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I recount Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, as well as David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, performed righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong from weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; 36 and others experienced mockings and floggings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword. They went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, mistreated 38 (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in desolate places and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.
We will not necessarily exposit word for word throughout this section but will relate the things that are listed with the individual as we move along. So this section will guide us into a deeper understanding as we look at the faith they had in these difficult situations. With that we will look at our first person in our first point.
1.The faith of Gideon.
Read along again Hebrews 11:32a that says And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I recount Gideon.
The writer of Hebrews was bringing his point to a closure in this chapter of this great letter but we will dig a little deeper back to the Old Testament stories of these great men of faith. We come to Gideon in this section first even though in chronology he would fall behind Barak. This may indicate his greatness and his status as one of the and maybe the most renowned judge that we read about in this list of 4 we see here. The first four listed here were judges of Israel or in Barak’s case second in command with a judge. We will talk about that a little more in our next point.
For now we will look at Gideon. I look into this section of Scripture from Hebrews 11:32-38 to see which of these seem to go along with Gideon. I focus on Hebrews 11:34b that says (who) were made strong from weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
Now this could relate to more than just Gideon but for sure this seems to explain the work of God in Gideon and through Gideon. You can read about Gideon in Judges chapters 6-8. There you will see the fact that Gideon was not a mighty man physically nor was he some bold and strong man. Look at this account of Gideon’s call in Judges 6:12-13 And the angel of Yahweh appeared to him and said to him, “Yahweh is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His wondrous deeds which our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?’ But now Yahweh has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
God calls Gideon a mighty man of valor but Gideon does not see himself in that way. God looked beyond the words that Gideon spoke to what He knew Gideon would do. God then says to Gideon in Judges 6:14-16 “Go in this strength of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?” 15 But he said to Him, “O Lord, with what shall I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” 16 But Yahweh said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike down Midian as one man.”
As the story goes Gideon continues to display nothing but test after test for God to prove Himself to Gideon. This seems far from a mighty man of valor. Gideon is weak in his own ability but also seems to have very little faith in God’s strength as well. So we ask how is it that Gideon is seen as a man of faith?
As you follow the story of Gideon you see that these test or proof positives that he places before God was what he needed to know that God was indeed commanding him to do what God was saying. First there was the meal or offering that Gideon made for the Angel of the Lord. Gideon brought the meal and the Angel of the Lord consumed the meat and unleavened bread by just touching the meat with the tip of His staff.
This positive event moved Gideon to look away from his own weakness to the Lord’s strength. In fact Judges 6:22 says And Gideon saw that he was the angel of Yahweh, so he said, “Alas, O Lord Yahweh! For now I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face.”
In the flow of the story we see that God tells Gideon in Judges 6:25-26 “Take your father’s bull and a second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it, 26 and build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top of this stronghold in an orderly manner, and take the second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.”
The next verse explains that Gideon did this very thing. The big key to understanding Gideon’s status as a man of valor comes along in Judges 6:34. The people of the city were furious at the disaster of their altar of Baal. They set out to kill Gideon for doing this but was unsuccessful at their plan. Verse 34a says But the Spirit of Yahweh clothed Gideon.
Gideon would again test God in making sure that the command was God’s through the test of the fleece found in Judges 6:36-40. Gideon at that point realized that God was where he gathered his strength. He would take 300 men to a war with Midian and defeat them all because of his stance to have faith in God even when he knew his own strength was not enough. This shows to us that yes he is a mighty warrior but only because of the faith in God that he had to be mighty in war and to put foreign armies to flight.
This moves us now to look at our next person in our list and our next point.
2.The faith of Barak.
Look again with me at Hebrews 11:32 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I recount Gideon, Barak.
We simply can’t go on in this story without mentioning Deborah who was the judge of Israel during this time. Even though we will not focus on her specifically we do know that she played a huge part in this story. In fact when Deborah summoned Barak to gather 10,000 men to go to war against the men of Sisera, Barak said this in Judges 4:8 “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”
Barak knew that her leadership would help him along the way. The plan was set in motion and then they executed the plan. Deborah planned and Barak executed the plan. He finds himself following this plan that gives him a victory over this commander of the Canaanite army. In Hebrews 11:33a we see that some who through faith conquered kingdoms.
I believe this applies to the story of Barak. *He had to have faith in God because they were being oppressed by this king of Canaan called Jabin. There seemed to be no way to conquer this army on their own. They were oppressed and mistreated by this powerful king. Then Deborah steps in to speak to Barak. As she is explaining that she will go with Barak to this battle she says to Barak in Judges 4:9b for Yahweh will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.
It was these words that must have rung in his mind. He was not worried that he wouldn’t get the credit for this victory but only that God would be glorified and the people released from their oppression. His faith is displayed in following God even at a time when the most unlikely person would be the one to help and guide in defeating this powerful foe.*
The story ends with Sisera being killed by Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite as Barak was continually pursuing him when he fled from the battle. This defeat of Sisera’s army weakened Canaan to the point of falling into the hand of the people of Israel. Jabin’s rule was coming to an end all because of the faith of Barak and how God used him and Deborah in this time of Israel’s history.
I hope that we see that no matter if we are facing small situations or big situations in our own life that God will be with us no matter what. The thing is most of the time we just do what we want without worrying about what God wants. I hope you will become a man or woman of God that will follow as Gideon, Barak and Deborah has.
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