Kootenai Church: Hebrews

And please turn now to Hebrews 11. We're going to begin reading at verse 32 and we'll read through the end of verse 38. Hebrews 11:32:
32 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets,
33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, 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 scourgings, 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, ill-treated
38 (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. (NASB)
When we read the triumphs and accomplishments of the men and women of faith in Hebrews 11, there is a subtle danger that presents itself to us. And it is the danger of responding to these examples in the wrong way. We are tempted to compare ourselves with them but in the wrong way, in an inappropriate way. It is tempting for us to take their accomplishments and their victories and the great things that these men and women did and to single out their singularly great accomplishments and then select some of our worst failures and then to put them side by side with one another and then say to ourselves, “I can't possibly measure up to that kind of faith.” Whatever faith it is that these great men and women had, it is obviously something greater than my kind of faith, the faith that I have, because I have never put foreign armies to flight, I have never conquered kingdoms, I have never shut the mouths of lions, I have never quenched the power of fire, I've never received the promise of a land in the Middle East, I've never received the promise of a lineage or a kingdom or anything like that. So whatever faith they have must be for the upper crust, the special super-spiritual element, the 1 percent of humanity that has that kind of faith. And for the rest of us, the hoi polloi, those of us sitting in the cheap seats, we just have to be content with whatever kind of faltering faith and faltering trust that the Lord might give to us. We are tempted to think and to say, “I could never aspire to that. I could never accomplish that.”
And we ought to be encouraged. That would be a way of being discouraged by Hebrews 11, but we ought to be encouraged by this list in Hebrews 11 because the purpose of these notable examples is not to discourage us in that way but rather to encourage us. They serve as reminders that, yes, these men and women did great and mighty things, and, yes, they believed God for impossible things and inexplicable things and extraordinary things and God granted them that grace and God did those great things for them, but we ought to be encouraged by the reminder that they were men and women of like nature as we are, fallen sons and daughters of Adam, ruined and wrecked people who were also physically weak and spiritually weak and emotionally weak and had their own issues, their own failures, their own disabilities. And so we are just like them. Their faith was extraordinary. God did extraordinary things through some of these men and women. But the point is not for us to be discouraged but for us to say, “Yes, this is what God can do through weak people who likewise have the same kind of weaknesses and inabilities that these men and women in Hebrews 11 had.”
So far from being just the precious possession and blessing of a special few upper-crust spiritual elite in Christianity, faith is the precious possession of all those whom the Lord draws to Himself. It is the precious blessing and gem that belongs to all believers. It is the air we breathe, and it is influencing and should influence our decisions and our works, our labors, our service, our giving, our sacrifices, our love for one another, our worship, and everything that we do each and every day because whatever is not of faith is sin. There are those two categories—those things that we do in obedience to the Word of God, seeking to bring His truth to bear in our lives and live in accordance with what He has revealed, and then there is sin. Everything else is sin, so that whatever is not of faith is sin.
We have quite a list of heroes that we have seen mentioned in Hebrews 11. And so far we have covered the verses that name all of them by name. We finished verse 32 last week, and that was the list of people: Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. Those are the last ones that are named by name in Hebrews 11. And now there remains for us in the discussion of faith in verses 33–38 only this list of accomplishments. Some of these things we are familiar with—conquering kingdoms, shutting the mouths of lions, quenching the power of fire. Some of these things we are not as familiar with. We don't know exactly who it is that the author has in mind specifically for each one of these things, but he is listing here things without much comment because he is aware that he could go on and on and run out of paper and patience before he exhausts the examples of faith that he could give to this first-century believing community.
So the point herein—and herein lies the encouragement—that by faith you and I join ourselves to this list, to this company of people. It is by faith that we are willing to bear faith's reproach, and thus it is by faith that we will receive faith's reward. If we, with them, bear faith's reproach, then we, with these men and women, will gain faith's reward. And so we are joined to this group in Hebrews 11 by virtue of a like precious faith that God gave to them even if what God does through our lives is not as history-altering as what He does through the lives of the people who are mentioned in Hebrews 11.
So we read here before we started verses 33–38, and I'm going to handle this list in the same way, or similarly to it, that I did to the list last week in verse 32 of the people. I don't think that the point of the author is to be gleaned in an exhaustive deep dive into each one of these things that these people accomplished or did by faith but rather from the list itself. And so we are going to, in keeping with our pattern, we're going to have kind of a high-flying overview, as it were, through verses 33–38.
I want you to notice that there are two statements in the list that are parenthetical statements. They're kind of explanatory statements that the author gives as he's listing these things. The first is in verse 35: “Women received back their dead by resurrection.” That's something that they did by faith. But look at the parenthetical description: “And others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection” (v. 35). That’s sort of a parenthetical explanation. There's another one down in verse 38: “(men of whom the world was not worthy).” It seems like parenthetically inserted into this list. Each one of them does.
So here's what we're going to do. We're going to go through the list today, and then next week we're just going to take those two statements, that they may obtain a better resurrection and they are men and women of whom the world is not worthy, and I have no idea what the outline is going to be, but we're going to pull those two from out of this list and we're just going to look at the significance and what we learn from each of those two parenthetical phrases.
But now we turn our attention to the list and we see here that the list is easily divided up into two sections or two different kinds of groupings of things. First you have in verses 33–35—actually 35a—the role of faith or the work of faith in affecting great triumphs. And then in verses 35b and following all the way through the end of verse 38 you see the work of faith in enduring great tribulations. Affecting great triumphs and enduring great tribulations.
So let's look first at this list of great triumphs beginning in verse 32. You'll notice the phrase “who by faith” (v. 33). That connects the list that he's about to give, generally speaking, in a very loose way, back to verse 32 where you have this list of men, because it is the continuation of the sentence that begins in verse 32. You have Gideon Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. Generally, this list—and there are others that we could put into that list—Elijah and Elisha and others like that, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Jonah, Joel, all of those great men of the Old Testament. You could put more kind of like-minded, similar men into that list, who—these men and others that are like them—did these things and other things like them. So he's simply describing generically the kind of men he's talking about and then generically the kind of things that they did or endured by faith. So some of these men in verses 32–33 and others who are like them did more than a couple of things that are listed on the list. Some of the things on the list describe more than just one man. So there's not a one-to-one correspondence between the list of men and the list of accomplishments or triumphs, but it is rather a loose connection. These men and men like them accomplish these kinds of things and things like them by faith. That's the idea.
So let's look now at the list. And the purpose is to show the power of God and the value of trusting and walking in obedience to Him. First up, they conquered kingdoms. This is something that could be affirmed of all the judges in Israel's history. It could be affirmed, of course, of David and in some sense Samuel, who himself also led the nation over certain military triumphs. There are many times in Israel's history when God would raise up a deliverer, a king, a judge, somebody unique who would lead against an army of people who were oppressing them or taking things from them and ruling them. So that phrase “conquered kingdoms” would apply to more than just the men on that list, certainly. And it would apply to a number of men on that list—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David.
Second, “performed acts of righteousness” (v. 33). And this does not mean that they were inherently righteous nor that these men were perfect in their righteousness. Remember, we closed last week by observing that these were men in many cases who were marked by grievous failure, morally speaking. Samson and David had moral blights upon their character and their record. So it doesn't mean that these men always did righteousness but rather that they did, in spite of their flaws, do righteous things. David ruled the people righteously. Second Samuel 8:15: “David reigned over all Israel; and David administered justice and righteousness for all his people.” Generally speaking, writ large, the story of David's life is, yes, he had a moral failure, but when you consider everything, he ruled the people in justice and righteousness. He was a godly man who was after God's own heart. He did righteous things. So generally speaking, we can say that these men, in obedience to the Word of God, in righteousness, mortified sin, denied themselves, served others, acted in righteousness in obedience to the Word of God, and they were driven and motivated by their faith.
Third, they obtained promises. That's the third thing on the list. They obtained promises. Now, some vaguely imagine that there is a contradiction in this list and in fact a contradiction in Hebrews 11 itself. I want you to look back at verse 13: “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” Then Hebrews 11:33, which we just read, says, “Who by faith . . . obtained promises.” And then look down at verse 39: “All these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect” (vv. 39–40). So verse 13, they died without receiving the promises. Verse 33, they obtained promises. Verse 39, they did not receive what was promised. So did they obtain the promise or not? Is the author schizophrenic here? Does he forget what he wrote in one verse?
Some vainly imagine a contradiction there because it's really not a contradiction. It depends on what you mean by obtaining promises. And it depends on what you mean by which promises we're talking about, doesn't it? Just take Abraham, for instance. Was Abraham promised things? He was promised a lot of things. He was promised a land that he never possessed in his lifetime and a son that he did see in his lifetime. Right? So would you say that Abraham received the promises or not? Well, you'd say, yeah, he did receive the promise of a son, but there are other promises that he did not receive in his lifetime.
David was promised a kingdom. Did God give him the kingdom? He did. David was also promised a Son who would sit on the throne of that kingdom and rule and reign over the house of David forever and ever. Did David ever in his life see that Son? He did not. That was the greater Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. Gideon was promised that if he obeyed the Lord, he would defeat Midian with three hundred men. Did he receive that promise? He did.
See, you and I have been promised a whole lot of things, some of which we receive in this life—forgiveness of sins, a measure of sanctification, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, illumination from the Word of God. There are all kinds of things that we could list that you and I receive in this life—adoption as sons, justification—but there are promises that we do not receive in this life, like our ultimate glorification and our ultimate sanctification and seeing the Lord's face and inheriting that kingdom that is promised in the Old Testament.
So there are things that are promised to us that we do not receive. There are things that are promised to us that we do receive. And the point of Hebrews 11 is that some of these men received the things in their lifetime that they were promised, and they received them in their lifetime, and some of these men were promised things that we still have not seen realized. Even today we have not seen them realized. And yet they died in faith, having not received the promise. Other men received everything that they were promised in this life that God specifically promised them.
Fourth, they shut the mouths of lions. Who does that refer to? Of course, instantly we think of Daniel, don't we? But David killed a lion and Samson killed a lion. So in a sense, David and Samson also shut the mouths of lions. But Daniel believed and had faith, and the lion's mouths were shut because he just trusted in God's sovereignty.
Number five, they quenched the power of fire. Since we're talking about Daniel, who would that refer to? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Notice it says that they quenched the power of fire and doesn't say that they quenched the fire. Because they endured the fire, didn't they? But what they were delivered from was the effect or the power of the fire. Fire's power is the power to consume, the power to burn, the power to destroy what is there. They quenched the power of the fire, though they stood in the midst of the flames themselves. And don't forget—remember, if you will, their statement of faith in Daniel 3. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego replied to the king,
16 O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter.
17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.
18 But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. (Dan. 3:16–18 NASB)
That is an amazing statement of faith. For that one statement, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego deserve to be on this list name by name. Our God is able to deliver us from you, O king. And He will deliver us one way or another. He will either take us out of the power of the fire and deliver us safely through the fiery furnace, or He will allow us to be consumed in the flames and to die, in which case He will deliver us out of your hand and into His own. That's an amazing statement of faith. But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego said no matter what it is, whether it is that I face a supernatural triumph or the tragedy of death in a fiery furnace, whichever way this falls out according to the plan of God, we are not going to bow down and serve your golden image. We are going to remain faithful and obedient, and we will leave it into the hands of God to sovereignly dispose of us however He might see fit. That is an amazing statement of faith. They quench the power of fire.
Number six, they escape the edge of the sword. At times through various national and military victories, Israel and those who led Israel escaped the edge of the sword. Individuals escaped execution or enemy threats at times. We could say that this is true of Elijah and Elisha and Jeremiah and Isaiah, all of whom had narrow encounters with death and just by faith and by the grace of God escaped execution.
From weakness, they were made strong. And it's hard not to see multiple ways in which this is true of various characters in the Old Testament. Of course, Samson lost his strength because of his foolishness and then he regained his strength because of his faith. So in a very real and physical sense, Samson was made strong even after he had been weak. David was just a shepherd boy whom God used to defeat a giant, Goliath. That's a way of being made strong after being weak. Gideon, remember, was the least in his father's household, a poor household at that. He was the least of his brethren. Yet he became a leader in the nation of Israel.
Number eight, they became mighty in war and put foreign armies to flight. This would describe military victories, great deliverances and accomplishments in Israel's history. It's one of continual oppression by enemies, and so there are a lot of opportunities. You read through the Old Testament to see times in which men rose up and became mighty in war and put foreign armies to flight.
Number nine, women received back their dead by resurrection. There are specifically two instances of this in the Old Testament. And by the way, since I'm talking about women, I need to make a clarification of something I said last week. I don't mind being disliked for something I believe, but I don't want to be disliked in a way in which I’m misunderstood. To clarify, I mentioned last week about women ruling men and leading in positions and everything. I just want to clarify I have no problem with women leading where God allows women to lead. I do have a problem with women leading where God prohibits women from leading and where men should be leading. In instances where that happens, it is always the case that men are weak and cowardly, apathetic and spiritually negligent and indolent. So that should make that clear.
Where were we? Yes, women received back their dead by resurrection. They received back their dead by resurrection. There are two instances of this in the Old Testament. The widow of Zarephath received a child back from resurrection under Elijah, and then Elisha raised the Shunammite woman's son from the dead. So there are two instances in the Old Testament. You'll notice that the next phrase—“others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection”—there is a contrast here between that resurrection and a better resurrection.
So that is the triumphs of faith—affecting great triumphs. Now look in verses 35–38 of enduring great tribulations by faith. Verse 35: “Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection.” Now, you kind of feel like the tone has changed a little bit in the chapter, don't you? From these great triumphs to now these great tribulations and trials. And the rest of this list, all the way through the end of verse 38, is the list of trials and tribulations that the righteous in every age have had to face and endure. But in the middle of verse 35, you feel like we've just taken a hard right turn somewhere. The tone has changed. We have flipped around, gone 180 degrees the other direction. We read of shutting the mouths of lions, and we think, yeah, that's right. Shut the mouths of lions, conquer kingdoms, put foreign armies to flight, from weakness are made strong. That's where we're at. That's what we want. And others were tortured, yet—wait, hold on, wait. Tortured? How did we get to torturing? We were talking about putting foreign armies to flight, overthrowing kingdoms, great deliverances and triumphs, and now suddenly we're talking about being tortured and stoned and sawn in two and tempted and burned and dying by the edge of the sword. The tone of this has radically changed.
Being tortured is something that can only be endured if you have hope in a better resurrection. And now the question—and we're going to look at that phrase again next week in more detail. The question is, what instance does the author in Hebrews 11 have in mind when he describes being tortured and not accepting their release because they had hope in a better resurrection? There really is no clear example from the Old Testament of what the author might have in mind, so it is likely not an Old Testament example. Instead, it is likely that he had in mind an example which would have been familiar to all of the Jews because it was a matter of their recent, relatively speaking, recent history.
It comes, most people think, and I would agree with this, it comes from an incident that happened between the Testaments, the intertestamental period between the completion of events of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. There are four hundred years in there, called the four hundred—we refer to them as the four hundred silent years, years in which God gave no divine revelation, but they are not years in which no books were written. There are a number of books that were written. We refer to them, some of them, as the Apocrypha. And they do tell Israel's history, sometimes accurately, sometimes fancifully. And they're not regarded as Scripture by the Jews, the Apocrypha. They're not regarded as Scripture by the Jews. They were not regarded as Scripture by the disciples of the Lord or by the Lord or by the early church or by any Christian until about the sixteenth century when the Roman Catholic Church decided to refer to them as Scripture so that they had something to argue with this up-and-coming monk named Martin Luther. They needed a way of answering his arguments. And so they grabbed these books and said, “Well, these are Scripture, too. So you can't say Scripture doesn't teach what we teach because here we have some stuff in these books that we can say teach this.”
So the Apocrypha, those books written during that intertestamental period—there's an incident from 2 Maccabees 6–7 where the very same word, torture, is used of an incident. And I'm not going to go into graphic detail about this, but under persecution during the time of Antiochus Epiphanes—and if you were here for Sunday school, you learned a little bit about Antiochus Epiphanes this morning—the Jews were forced to renounce their allegiance to their God. And one of the ways that Antiochus Epiphanes tried to force the Jews to apostatize and to renounce their allegiance to Yahweh was to force-feed them swine's flesh. Now, that might sound like a nice Sunday afternoon to you and I, but that was, for the Jews who were adhering to the word of God and the Old Testament dietary laws, that was not something that was appealing at all. And so many of them would refuse to eat swine's flesh and remain faithful to God even under threat of death.
This incident was well-known to Israel, to the first-century Jews, because it was a matter of their recent history in terms of within the last couple of hundred years. It would have been as well-known to them and they would have been as familiar with this as we are with George Washington crossing the Delaware River or the heroic actions of Paul Revere. The readers would have known this. There is a story of a mother with seven sons, all of whom died rather than disobey God by eating swine's flesh. And the confessions of these seven sons are recorded in 2 Maccabees. Here’s one example of it. Second Maccabees 7:9—now listen to the confession of this son regarding a future resurrection. “And when he was at the last gasp, he said, ‘Thou, miscreant.’” That's a good word that we should use more often, by the way, for children. Consider it a word you should put into employ with your children. “Thou, miscreant, dost release us out of this present life, but the King of the world shall raise up us, who have died for his laws, unto an eternal renewal of life.” Do you hear what they're saying? We have hope in a resurrection, and therefore put us to death because we will not turn away from the truth, and we would rather face death because we believe that the King of all the world will raise us up to eternal life.
Second Maccabees 7:14: “And being come near unto death he said thus: ‘It is good to die at the hands of men and look for the hopes which are given by God, that we shall be raised up again by him; for as for thee, thou shalt have no resurrection unto life.’” So that was the confession. It's good to be put to death by men, knowing that the King of the world will raise us up to eternal life and thou, miscreant, will not be raised up to everlasting life. That was the confession. These men were tortured. They could have secured their release if they just apostatized from the faith. If they just ate swine's flesh and disobeyed the Word of God and the law of God, they could have secured their own release. But instead of doing that, they were faithful unto the end because they were looking forward to a better resurrection.
Second on this list of horrible things is mocking and scourgings. This was the common response to the prophets in the Old Testament. Elijah and Elisha were mocked. Jeremiah was beaten, thrown into prison, thrown into a cistern. “Chains and imprisonment” (v. 36)—Joseph was thrown into prison for his righteous conduct. Micaiah refused to cater his message to the king. Do you remember that? So he was put into prison. And Scripture records that the king said to him, “Feed him sparingly with bread and water until I return safely” (2 Chron. 18:26). And that king did not return safely. So either somebody recognized that the king was foolish and let Micaiah go, or Micaiah died in prison eating bread and water because that king never did return safe. Jeremiah was thrown down into a cistern.
This idea of being imprisoned and chained for your faith was something that would have been very meaningful to the Hebrew audience. We read back in chapter 10, verse 34, “For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.” So this is a comfort. Some of the people reading this letter to the Hebrews, they knew people who had been thrown in prison. They had friends, they had family members, they had fellow church members who at that very time were suffering in prison, being imprisoned simply because of their faith. And here's the reminder in Hebrews 11 that some people by faith are imprisoned. Some people by faith are imprisoned.
Some were stoned. Zechariah the son of Jehoiada was stoned in the temple. Second Chronicles 24 says this: “The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them, ‘Thus God has said, “Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has also forsaken you”’” (v. 20). Pretty simple and straightforward message. “So they conspired against him and at the command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord” (v. 21). I think it's Zechariah that they have in mind here in Hebrews 11. It might be that the author of Hebrews 11 also has in mind Stephen, who would have been a very contemporary example of that, and probably people in this church would have remembered Stephen and his grand testimony and being stoned to death for his faith.
Some were sawn in two. There's nothing in the Old Testament that mentions this incident. There's no record of it. The tradition is that Isaiah the prophet was sawn in two by Manasseh, the wicked king. And that tradition, by the way, predates the New Testament. It was known to this author's audience. And so it's likely that if this author is referring to Isaiah as the one who is being sawn in two that here we have an inspired affirmation of that Jewish tradition that the prophet Isaiah suffered that fate.
Number six, some were tempted, I think tempted to apostatize because of their sufferings. And we should not, by the way, minimize the temptation that exists in the midst of suffering. People who suffer, particularly for their faith, often face temptations that are as severe and piercing and as difficult as any bodily affliction because the temptation to simply escape suffering by some compromise can be as vexing to somebody as any physical suffering that they are enduring. It is definitely a suffering that people face by faith.
Number seven, put to death by the sword. Ahab and Jezebel did this. First Kings 19 says, “I have been very zealous for the Lord”—this is the confession of Elijah. Remember this. “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” Notice here the reference to some being put to death by the sword. Didn't we just read earlier that some escape the edge of the sword? It's interesting that both of these things happen by faith—escaping the edge of the sword, being put to death by sword. Those two things—I'm not going to treat you like you went to high school in Clark Fork, but those are opposites. Escaping the edge of the sword, being put to death by the sword—those two things are polar opposites of one another. Both of them are endured or accomplished by faith.
Number eight, they went about in sheepskins and goatskins. That is a description of their poverty, not their luxury. It wasn't just the uniform of the prophets, as it were, to wander about in goatskins and sheepskins. These are people who could not have afforded or did not have access to the woven fabric and the world's goods, and so they were therefore destitute. That's the next thing on the list. They were destitute. They didn't have this world's goods. They didn't have the niceties of life, sometimes even without the basic provisions or bare necessities. And this resulted in them being afflicted and ill-treated. That's in verse 37, the end of verse 37. Sometimes afflicted and ill-treated, by the way, by their own countrymen, the very people that they came to serve and to sacrifice for and to do good to. This is what is so disturbing about the history of how the righteous are treated is that sometimes they are afflicted and ill-treated by the very people whom the Lord sends them to do good unto, and the people who should receive good at their hands, namely the Word of God and correction and instruction in righteousness, instead they respond to those people by afflicting them and treating them ill.
And number eleven, “wanderers in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground” (v. 38). And we'll get to that phrase “these are men and women of whom the world is not worthy.” We’ll get to that next week. David hid from Saul in a cave. Obadiah, you remember, hid one hundred prophets in a cave from Jezebel—1 Kings 18. Elijah fled for his life and where did he go? Into a cave, dressed in sheepskins and goatskins by the way. Elijah went and hid in a cave.
You and I would rather find ourselves on the first part of this list than the second part of this list, wouldn't you? I mean if you're given a choice. What do we learn from this lesson? We would be well served to be familiar with the heroes of faith. I think that's the first lesson we should draw. We would be well served to be familiar with the heroes of faith, not just the heroes of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11. Now you're familiar with all of these people and all these things. If you've been here for all of Hebrews 11, you say, OK, I'm familiar enough, and I'm glad you're getting to verse 38. Now we can move on. You'd be well served to be familiar with them but not just them. We ought to meditate and reflect upon the acts of faith and the things that men and women in the Old Testament did by faith, but there are people who have lived since the Old Testament and lived since the New Testament whose example can also be encouraging to us. We should, you and I—and this is just a note of wisdom; it's not that I'm laying this on you by law—but you and I should be familiar with the men and women and the great saints who have preceded us in the church age, in the church era in which we live. And we can do this by reading the biographies of great men and women.
By faith, we could say, Martyn Lloyd-Jones left the field of medicine to preach the Word of God. We could say by faith Martin Luther turned his back on all of his comforts and conveniences and at risk to his own life stood against the entire Roman Catholic Church, the Roman Empire of the day, in order to preach the true gospel and to defend it. By faith Charles Spurgeon preached to thousands and stood for the truth in his day and stood against the Downgrade Controversy and the liberalization of the church in the 1800s. By faith John Knox did not fear the Queen of Scots but preached the truth. By faith John Wycliffe translated the Bible into English and became known as the Morning Star of the Reformation. By faith William Tyndale was hated and hunted for translating the Bible. And he was so hated that after he died the church dug up his bones and burned them in effigy just so they could have the last word on Tyndale. And time would fail me if I were to tell of Baxter and Owen and Bunyan and Whitfield and Edwards, men and women of whom the world is not worthy. They've all lived since the new Testament. You and I would do well to familiarize ourselves with our forefathers in the faith, people who have gone before.
Second, faith strengthens us for everything on this list. Note it. You and I would far rather be in the top half of that list than the bottom half of that list, but the truth is that you and I can commiserate or relate more to those in the bottom half of the list than we can in the top half of the list. Has anybody here put a foreign army to flight? Raise your hand. Anybody here shut up the mouth of a lion? I see little kids raising their hands because that's what they do in Sunday school. Raise your hand if you want your feet chopped off. They put their hands right up. They just hear “raise your hand,” and that's the instinctive response. We relate to the people on the second half of the list, but we want to be with the people on the first half of the list.
And these two halves are quite different, but listen, faith strengthens us for both. That's the key. Faith is the key to both of these, for coming out of a difficulty triumphant and for coming out of a difficulty as a victim. Faith is key in both instances. Faith sometimes makes men victors, sometimes makes them victims. Sometimes you escape the sword and sometimes you are put to death by the sword. Some through faith are triumphant and some through faith are tortured. Some by faith sit in king's palaces like Daniel, and some by faith live in caves and holes in the ground. Some people by faith wear royal robes like Esther, and some people by faith wear sheepskins and goatskins. And faith is manifested every bit as much in having victory in the suffering as it is in achieving victories in those triumphs. In fact, I would argue to you that faith is manifested more in the second half of that list than the first half of that list.
Love for God and obedience to Him are magnified especially when it is costly, especially when it's costly, especially when our obedience results in paying a price. That's when God is glorified. It's difficult to say that He's more glorified through that. He's obviously glorified through all of these things, and it's difficult to put a degree on it. But you and I certainly can see how it is that in the difficulties and the tribulations of life that confront us, when faith perseveres through that, God is magnified through that. Like Job. You remember the slander against Job? He only worships and serves You because You do good to him. So God showed the reality of Job's faith by taking away all the good things that he enjoyed and manifesting that Job would worship and serve God even without any of those good things. Job by faith enjoyed the triumphs. Job by faith endured the tribulations. There's a man whose name would be on both sides of that list.
But what would you rather do? Conquer kingdoms or be sawn in two? Conquer kingdoms. Would you rather escape the edge of the sword or be put to death by the sword? Would you rather shut the mouths of lions or be stoned? You'd rather shut the mouths of lions. I understand that. That's the natural human approach to this list. Lord, give me the stuff in verses 33–35 and keep me from all the stuff in verses 35–38. God is glorified when we endure the things that are in verses 35–38 and we do so by faith.
And God is going to dispose of every single one of you in this room in one of these two ways. You're going to find yourself on one part of that list or the other. He appoints our times and our seasons. He determines the boundaries of our habitation. He's the one who sends either prosperity or persecution, tribulations or triumphs. And you say, how is it that I get on the first part of the list? That's not yours to choose. How is it that I avoid the second part of the list? Again, that is not for you to choose. You and I must rest in the sovereign disposal of God, trusting in Him by faith that He, in His wisdom, in His sovereignty, and in His perfect providence, will dispose of all of His creation and all of His creatures, you and I included, in the way that is most for our good and most for His glory. And we trust Him for that. If I die putting a foreign army to flight, then so be it. And if I die being sawn in two, I don't want that, but so be it. Those are not our choices. Those are the ways in which God will dispose of us somewhere on that list.
But you and I can have the confidence that the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us, right? That's what you cling to. And that ultimately is what every last person on this list understood. You see, the reference to “they did this believing and trusting in a better resurrection” doesn't just apply to those who were tortured, not accepting their release. It refers to those who were victorious in faith and found themselves anywhere on this list. They were stoned and did not accept their release. They were sawn in two and did not accept their release. They were put to death by the sword and did not accept their release.
Number four, afflictions and sufferings are not evidence that you and I lack faith. See, it is very good for us that the author put at the bottom of this list all of these horrible things because after reading verses 32, well, in fact, after reading the entire chapter from verse 1 all the way through the end of verse 32, we've read of all these promises that were secured by faith and these great things that were done, Moses and the crossing of the Red Sea and the plagues on Egypt and Joshua conquering Jericho and Rahab being saved and then the conquering kingdoms and performing acts of righteousness—these are all great things—but then we get to the end of verse 34 and you and I might be tempted to think, “Well, if I don't have those kinds of accomplishments, then maybe I don't have have faith.” That might be the conclusion that we would draw. And the point of the author is no, I have faith. It is quite the contrary. These are men and women, in verses 32–34, these are men and women of whom the world is not worthy, but that also can be said of people in verses 35–38. They are men and women of whom the world is not worthy. And so it is good that the author should put this list of horrible things in here lest you and I think that if we don't have some great victory that changes history, that we don't have that kind of faith.
It also is a correction to a false doctrine that we need to be aware of, and that is the doctrine that teaches that if I have faith, I likewise can do great things. See, if I have faith, I can slay a giant. If I have faith, I can step into the lion's den. If I have faith, I can handle poisonous snakes. If I have faith, I can drink poison. If I have faith, I can do these mighty things. That's a dangerous doctrine. That is what is at the heart of the Word of Faith movement, that you will be prosperous and healthy and wealthy and accomplish great things and be mighty in this world if you have enough faith. Well, verses 35–38 is the refutation of the entire Word of Faith doctrine. It shows that those men and women who have faith are not necessarily the mighty and the great in this world and they don't necessarily accomplish the great things up in verses 33–34. Some of them are tortured, some of them endure tribulations.
This chapter has been a reminder that faith is the active principle in all of life. In salvation and suffering, triumph and tribulation, in the palace and in the prison, you and I can have confidence that God is gracious, kind, and good and that our faith is sufficient to give us rest in Him and in His wise disposal of all of His creatures.