"And what shall I more say?
for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson"
(Heb. 11:32).
Gideon
The story of Gideon is a favorite
of children and adults alike. Do not our hearts go out to Gideon, the underdog,
one of the least important men in the entire nation of Israel (Judg. 6:15),
totally inexperienced in military affairs, and leading an army of 300 men (6:8)
against over 120,000 Midianite soldiers (8:10). What marvelous faith Gideon had
in the LORD who put him in such a responsible position! What a tremendous
victory was wrought by the LORD through his faithful servant Gideon!
We tend to forget that before God
sent Gideon out against the Midianite army, He tested Gideon’s faith close to
home:"It came to pass the same night that the LORD said unto him, Take
your father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and
throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the grove that
is by it; and build an altar unto the LORD your God upon the top of this rock,
in the ordered place … Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as
the LORD had said unto him" (Judg. 6:25-27). This was a very risky thing
for Gideon to do, as we see in the next verses:"And when the men of the
city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and
the grove was cut down that was by it … And they said one to another, Who has
done this thing? And when they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of
Joash has done this thing. Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out
your son, that he may die" (6:28-30). However, Gideon’s father wisely
intervened on behalf of him:"Joash said unto all that stood against him,
Will you plead for Baal? will you save him? … If he be a god, let him plead
for himself" (6:31). Gideon’s faithful obedience to the LORD on the home
front qualified him to be used of the LORD in a mighty way at a national and
international level.
Increasingly I hear about young
Christian men and women, in their teens and early twenties, going off to other
parts of the country or to foreign countries to engage in some kind of
Christian service for a few months. I believe it is well to follow the example
of Gideon in first proving one’s faithfulness in serving the Lord and doing
what He wants us to do on the home front before even thinking about going to
"the regions beyond" (2 Cor. 10:16). Saul (later called Paul) and
Barnabas followed this pattern. They labored in the assembly at Antioch for a
year (Acts 11:26-30) before the Holy Spirit stirred up the assembly to send
them out as missionaries to the Gentile world (13:1-4).
In summary, Gideon teaches us the
following:We must first prove our faithfulness to the Lord in matters close
to home before we are qualified to serve Him far away from home.
Barak
"And the children of Israel
again did evil in the sight of the LORD when Ehud was dead. And the LORD sold
them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the captain
of whose host was Sisera … And Deborah a prophetess … judged Israel at that
time … And she sent and called Barak … and said unto him, Has not the LORD
God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with
you 10,000 men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zabulun? And
I will draw unto you to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army,
with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into your hand. And
Barak said unto her, If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will
not go with me, then I will not go. And she said, I will surely go with you;
notwithstanding the journey that you take shall not be for your honor; for the
LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman" (Judg. 4:1-9).
At first glance, Barak seems to be
characterized by his lack of faith. Deborah, a prophetess and judge of
Israel, gave Barak a very clear message from the LORD. Barak responded
obediently, but conditionally:he would go only if Deborah went with him.
Deborah went, but Barak was deprived of personal honor and glory as a result.
The LORD used Jael, a woman of Israel, to kill Sisera, the captain of the
Canaanite army.
Did Barak lose a great deal by his
apparent lack of faith? Being, apparently, a humble man, it did not seem to
matter much to him who got the glory of killing Sisera as long as the children
of Israel could defeat the Canaanites and get them to stop harassing them.
Barak seems to have grasped the value of having Deborah at his side during the
battle. After all, Deborah was a prophetess and seemed highly capable of
receiving communications directly from the LORD. What a resource to
have—directions from the LORD Himself—when engaging in battle with the enemy.
So that which had the initial appearance of being lack of faith turned out to
be really mistrust of himself and his ability to discern the mind of the LORD.
Barak wanted the mind of the LORD above anything else—even above personal
honor—and so asked Deborah to accompany him onto the battlefield.
The lesson, then, is this:Faith
is willing to give up personal honor and glory in order to be certain of having
the mind of God.
Samson
How in the world did Samson get
into Hebrews 11? His life seems to be more an example of how a child of God is not
to live rather than of a life of faith. In a previous issue we noted that Jacob
had a similar track record. It was not until he was old and crippled,
"leaning upon the top of his staff," that he gave real evidence of
faith and dependence upon the LORD. So it was with Samson. At the end of a life
characterized by one failure after another, Samson was reduced to physical
weakness and blindness (Judg. 16:21).
Then his hair—the source of his
formerly great strength (16:17)—began to grow back again after he had been
shaved by the Philistines. Samson might have tried to rely upon the little bit
of hair that had grown back and perhaps might have been able to a little bit of
damage to the Philistines. But he did not do this. Rather, "Samson called
unto the LORD and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray Thee, and strengthen
me, I pray Thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the
Philistines for my two eyes" (16:28). As a result of trusting in the LORD
rather than in himself, "the dead whom he slew at his death were more than
those whom he slew in his life" (16:30).
One lesson for us is that faith
does not depend upon one’s natural or God-given strength, but upon the Giver of
that strength. The Lord Jesus is our perfect Example in this regard.
Possessing the divine attribute of omnipotence, as a Man on earth He never
exercised that power apart from total dependence upon His Father (see Matt.
4:3,4).
Another lesson, as with Jacob, is
that faith is noted and honored by God even when it comes at the very end of
a life that is characterized by the lack of faith.