Hebrews 11:32-40 "By Faith" pt 4

Introduction

As we continue to look through the great Hall of Faith passage in Hebrews 11, I want us to remember that this passage does not actually stand alone. In chapter 10, the Holy Spirit, through the human author, has brought the theme: “Jesus is superior to everything and to everyone” to a peak. At that peak, we find two foundational truths. Jesus is the Perfect Sacrifice and Jesus is the Perfect High Priest. Based upon those two truths, we are commanded to draw near to God, hold fast our confession, and consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, which is done primarily through the local church. On the heels of this is the warning against purposefully/willfully/deliberately sinning, sinning with a “high hand” (Numbers 35). Yet the Holy Spirit, through this letter, calls those who may be tempted to return to sin (for sin promises comfort and peace), to rather endure. Hebrews 10:36 “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” This brought us to 2 questions we have been answering: What is faith? & What does faith look like? The answer to the first question is found in Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is the assurance/substance of things hoped for, the conviction/proof of things not seen.” In these twin phrases and the surrounding text, we came to this definition of Faith: Biblical Faith is an enduring/persevering trust in the Person of God often demonstrated by living in obedience to the Word of God. Faith is not some intangible thing, but rather it is to be demonstrated by/in the way we live. Which brings us to our second question: What does faith look like? The answer to this question is demonstrated in a variety of ways. For Abel it was offering the appropriate sacrifice, for Enoch it looked like a daily consistent walk with God, for Noah it was building an Ark, for Abraham it was leaving a country and being willing to sacrifice Isaac, for Sarah it was believing that God would fulfill His promise of a son even when it did not seem humanly possible. For Isaac it was Isaac it was invoking the blessing upon Jacob and Esau. For Jacob it was blessing Joseph’s sons. For Joseph faith looked like making plans for his bones to go with the Israelites when they left Egypt. For Amram & Jochebed, faith meant using wisdom in disobeying the king’s command. Faith for Moses looked like refusing to be identified with the Egyptians, leaving Egypt, and sprinkling the blood on the door posts. Faith for the Israelites was walking through the Red Sea and circling Jericho, and faith for Rahab looked like hiding spies. These are all illustrations of people living out their faith/their “assurance/substance of things hoped for, their conviction/proof of things not seen.” Each of these did not look back on where they had come from, but were focused on that future Land of Promise. As Hebrews 11:16 declares “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.” Today as our text brings us to a crescendo of examples may we see the examples of Faith lived out.

Text Read (Stand out of Respect for God’s Word)

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. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Text Explained

As we read this passage the Holy Spirit informs us of just how vast cloud of witnesses is. These are illustrations of people who lived out their faith/trusted God and God answered their faith with miraculous results. 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. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. In our list we read of Gideon whose small force of 300 men armed with earthenware jars and trumpets threw the Midian host into a panic and won a mighty victory (Judges 7:19-25). Then we find Barak, a judge and commander who led the Israelites to victory against Sisera the commander of the Canaanite Chariot force. Samson whose Supernaturally empowered feats of strength destroyed so many of the Philistines. We read of Jephthah who led the Ephraim, Gad, and the 1/2 tribe of Manasseh against the Ammonites. We see David, the man after God’s own heart, whose faithful obedience became the standard upon which every future king of Israel would be measured against. And then Samuel who was known throughout all of Israel as the prophet of God. The Holy Spirit then simply mentions “the prophets” as a general inclusion of so many who would come after. The result of their trust in God was varied and miraculous. For through Faith, they conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, and obtained promises. We may think of Jehoshaphat in 2Chronicles 20, and King Asa 1Kings 15. We read of Daniel who ‘stopped the mouths of lions’ (Daniel 6), Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who “quenched the power of fire” (Daniel 3), and Elijah who escaped the wrath of King Ahab and Jezebel (1Kings 18). These and many more were ‘made strong out of weakness, mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, and some women even saw loved their dead resurrected (2Kings 4:18-37). Each of these people experienced tremendous answers from God to their Faith. Yet, as one Pastor notes, “The point of mentioning these works is to show that, whether the need was for political victory, helping those in need, receiving promises, overcoming natural enemies, protection from war or weakness, or winning in war—the power to accomplish these things was from God and the power was received by faith in Him.” (MacArthur). By trusting in God, the seemingly impossible occurred. By Trusting in the Person of God, demonstrated by obedience to God resulted in the most encouraging and uplifting events. And this is where so many of us stop. So many of us wish this is where the text would stop. We trust God and God always gives us an earthly and sometimes miraculous earthly victory. Yet the Holy Spirit is honest with us.

For By faith...By trusting in the Person of God demonstrated by living in obedience to God, Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. The torture most likely referred to by this word τυμπανίζω/tumpanizō is that of being stretched out over a large drum-like instrument and beaten until dead. In fact between the time of Malachi and Matthew, history records a man named Eleazer along with 7 unnamed sons who willingly accepted this death rather than forswear their loyalty to God. 2 Maccabees 6:19 records the event in this way. “But he/Eleazar, welcoming death with honor rather than life with pollution, went up to the rack of his own accord, spitting out the flesh,” Eleazar desired to “and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws.” When he had said this, he went at once to the rack/tumpanizo.” Theses are barely known men who by Faith, were tortured to death rather than accept the earthly release that turning from God would give them. Yet we also read that

By Faith... 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, Those who were reading this letter would have been able to identify with being mocked, beaten and imprisoned for their faith. Yet this is also what happened to some of the same prophets of old, such as Jeremiah the weeping prophet. Jeremiah 20:2 “Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord.” Jeremiah 20:7–10 “O Lord, You have deceived me, and I was deceived; You are stronger than I, and ou have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, “I will not mention Him, or speak any more in His name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! “Denounce Him! Let us denounce Him!” say all my close friends, watching for my fall. “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.” Multiple times Jeremiah was beaten, imprisoned, and even thrown into a muddy cistern for days, (Jeremiah 38:6-13) Jeremiah suffered his entire prophetic life with beatings, mocking, and imprisonment. He did not see the same miraculous results as those mentioned earlier even though he walked by faith just as those others had. In fact the fate of Jeremiah the Weeping Prophet, the Prophet who left us the book of Jeremiah and Lamentations, was to be stoned by Jews in Egypt who could not stand his preaching against their idolatry. Yet Jeremiah wasn’t the only one to die this way, for Zechariah was also stoned to death at the insistence of King Joash. 2 Chronicles 24:21 “But they conspired against him/Zechariah, and by command of the king they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the Lord.”

By faith… they were sawn in two, According to Jewish literature this was the fate of the famed Prophet Isaiah who was taken and sawn in two.

By Faith... they were killed with the sword. While some escaped the sword by faith, others were killed with the sword by faith. We read that Elijah escaped the sword of Ahab and Jezebel yet 1 Kings 19:10 records that they“...killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” Jeremiah 26:23 records the death of Uriah the prophet. “and they took Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, who struck him down with the sword and dumped his dead body into the burial place of the common people.” By faith some escaped the sword and by faith some were killed with the sword. While other

By Faith...They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— We know Elijah wore a garment of haircloth (2 Kings 1:8 “They answered him, “He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.” As well as John the Baptist. Yet “the whole description of those who, roughly clad like this, endured destitution, affliction, and ill-treatment as they wandered in desolate places and sought the shelter of caves, reminds us especially of those godly Jews who fled from the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes” and recorded for us in Jewish history. These were people outlawed from the world, yet the reality is found in verse 38 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

39 And all these, From righteous Able to those who died though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. As one scholar notes “Some of them, as we were told in v. 33, “obtained promises,” but none of them received the promise in the sense of witnessing its fulfilment. They lived and died in prospect of a fulfilment which none of them experienced on earth; yet so real was that fulfilment to them that it gave them power to press upstream, against the current of the environment, and to live on earth as citizens of that commonwealth whose foundations are firmly laid in the unseen and eternal order. Their record is on high, and on earth as well, for the instruction and encouragement of men and women of later days.” All of these lived looking forward to the fulfillment of the Promise of a Savior. Their faith was not in some immediate fulfillment of God’s promises but rather in the ultimate fulfillment of the promise of a Redeemer. As 1 Peter 1:10–11 says “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.” All of these mentioned in Chapter 11 lived by faith concerning their final salvation. Their faith at times brought them land, earthly victories, and saved them from death. At times their faith brought them pain, heartache, torture and death. The earthly outcome of Faith did not matter, because they knew God had provided something better. That something better for us is the New Covenant, the Heavenly Reality which is the reason they could not be made perfect apart from us. For not until the time of the New Covenant was the promise of salvation completed/made perfect. “Until Jesus’ atoning work on the cross was accomplished, no salvation was complete, no matter how great the faith a believer may have had. Their salvation was based on what Christ would do; ours is based on what Christ has done. Their faith looked forward to promise; ours looks back to historical fact. Yet, though their salvation was not completed in their lifetimes, these were not second-rate believers. They were believers of the highest order. They courageously struggled, suffered, and counted on salvation. They believed all of God’s Word that they had, which is what counts with Him. How much less faith do we often have, in spite of our much greater light. “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed” (John 20:29).” (MacArthur)

Text Applied

As we consider our application, I want us to go to the account of those who “quenched the power of fire”. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. In Daniel 3 we read of the account of the three faithful men. King Nebuchadnezzar has made a golden image of himself and certain Chaldeans have influenced the King to make a law stating that at the sound of the instruments, all people must bow before the golden image of the king. Yet these three would not. Daniel 3:8–15 “Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live forever! You, O king, have made a decree, that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” The political trap has sprung. Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. 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?” Now notice their reply: Daniel 3:16–18 “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 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. 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.” The three faithful men did not know the outcome of this event. They simply had a persevering trust in the Person of God and that trust was being demonstrated by obedience to God regardless of the outcome. They did not trust God because they knew God would deliver them. In fact they fully acknowledged the possibility that God may not save them from a fiery death. They know God could, but they didn’t know if God would. However, the living by Faith does not depend on the earthly outcome. We do not live by faith because we know God will provide earthly benefits or earthly salvation. Living by faith is doing what is right because God has said it is right and leaving the earthly outcome to the Lord. God is able to deliver from the greatest dangers and the most terrifying of circumstances. Yet living by faith does not mean that God WILL deliver from those earthly dangers and circumstances. Our God is able, but If He chooses to not… well in the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 14:8 “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” Faith: A Persevering Trust in the Person of God demonstrated by living in obedience to God, regardless of the outcome.