“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, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,…” (Heb. 11:32-33; NASB)
One man had a weak faith. One was a weak leader. Another was weak in character. And the last one made a rash vow. These are hardly the kind of men one would expect to be used mightily by God. These are not the kind of qualities that we think of when we attempt to define the word “faithful.” Yet the lives of Barak, Gideon, Jephthah and Samson are the stories of God’s grace in repeatedly saving his chosen people in the book of Judges. Though it may not have been expected after reading Judges, each of these men reside in God’s “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11 as men who demonstrated extraordinary faith in and faithfulness to God.
A couple of observations about how that might have come to be:
- Hebrews 11 is not so much a chronicle of the achievements of men as much as it is the story of greatness of God in using ordinary, weak vessels to accomplish His purposes (Rom. 9:21).
- What these men did, they did because of divine enablement. Judges specifically tells us that Gideon, Jephthah and Samson were empowered by the Holy Spirit (6:34; 11:29; 13:24-25). And it is clear that Barak’s deeds also were divinely accomplished (4:9).
- Despite moments of doubting faith, in the moment of crisis, each obeyed God fully. Barak joined forces with Deborah to defeat Sisera and his army — and gave glory to God (Jg. 5). Gideon took the Midianites with the 300 men God gave him (Jg. 7). Jephthah kept his promise and gave his only child to a life of service in the temple (Jg. 11:29-40). And Samson destroyed 3,000 Philistines in his dying act — physically blind and spiritually repentant (Jg. 16:28-31).
- They were faithful because of God’s grace. The truth is that all men finally are what they are for one simple reason — the grace of God. Their power and strength came not from themselves but from God. That is true of us as well. The reason any good is produced by any of our lives is simply because of the unmeritorious gift of God, working His will in our lives (Phil. 2:13).
Our tendency when seeing remarkable accomplishments or extraordinary gifting and abilities, is to exalt the man — whether he is an entertainer, businessman, athlete, or preacher. But we should always look to the God behind the man and recognize that the story of greatness is really the story of God’s great grace operating through a man so that God is glorified and exalted as preeminent.
Words of Grace 