Hebrews 11:33–38

This list of names, and of those left unnamed, comes with a long list of the conflicts and conquests of faith. It is not meant to stir our admiration for the people involved, but for the God who sustained and enabled them. Read the history of the first four named, and their faith looks weak in many ways. Yet in certain clear cases they did act for God, and their faith showed. In other cases they broke down, and did not act by faith at all.

Nothing could have been more wretched than Gideon's condition here. He was threshing wheat in secret, for fear of the Midianites, to feed his family! Yet here is a man the Spirit of God delights to mention. No man recorded his name, but God counts it worthy of a place in His record. The Spirit of God writes to magnify the grace of God, not to exalt man. He wants us to keep in mind such small details in the story of the soldiers of faith. Then we see what weak and unimportant tools God works with. He has always won His mightiest victories through such people, not through those with resources of their own.

Gideon and his three hundred men fought the Midianites and Amalekites, who were as many as grasshoppers. In the end Midian went down and never oppressed Israel again. Barak broke the power of Jabin, king of Hazor, and that Canaanite kingdom was heard of no more. Samson began the fight with the Philistines on his own. Samuel, and after him David, carried it on with great success. Jephthah refused to give up any of Israel's land when the king of Ammon demanded it. Then we are reminded of Daniel in the lions' den.

Practical righteousness, in their ways and in ours, is never maintained except by faith. For only God can lead us in a straight and true path. By faith we obtain His promises now, just as they did then.

"Obtained promises." Example after example was given in their history of promises obtained from God when everything on man's side was hopeless.

Here is the whole secret of his protection and deliverance. God produced faith in his soul, and that faith brought God in. God shielded His servant from the hatred of his enemies. He subdued and held back the natural, ravenous instincts of the lions. The apostle has Daniel in mind when he speaks of the prophets: "who through faith… stopped the mouths of lions." This was one of the victories of faith. It was meant to encourage the people of God to trust Him and count on Him at all times.

"Subduing kingdoms" would have a parallel in the New Testament: we "destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ." As to "wrought righteousness," here are "the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left" — righteousness acted on firmly in the face of wrongdoing. "Obtained promises" is a positive result of pleasing God, God revealing Himself in grace to the soul. "Stopped the mouths of lions" is answered in 1 Peter 5:8: "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." Sober watchfulness and steadfast faith are the safeguards.

Now we come to the faith that shines among the ashes of a failed testimony. That should have spoken to the Hebrews of that day, who knew they were living in the last times. It should speak to us too, who live in days when so much that was bright for God has decayed. Many have fallen by the way. The testimony as a whole has decayed until there is only one here and there — a little flickering lamp where there should have been a blaze. Yet faith still shines in the ruin, and that ruin is the harvest of what God's people themselves have sown. Faith lays hold on God in it.

We are reminded of Daniel in the lions' den, and of the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. Elijah and Elisha escaped the edge of the sword. Jeremiah was an instance of one made strong out of weakness.

"Quenched the power of fire." There we see the Hebrew young men in the blazing furnace. The idol-worshipping king Nebuchadnezzar had thrown them in. Instead of destruction, they found their bonds loosened. They also found the company of One whom the king himself says is "like the Son of God."

Faith has found, in modern as in ancient times, a refuge from the arm of violence in God. We may expect both treachery and violence in a world where our calling is to be as sheep for slaughter. But He who hid His prophets from the anger of man, when it pleased Him, is the preserver of His people's earthly lives, at His wise discretion.

"Made strong out of weakness," like Gideon. He felt himself powerless, and would have excused himself from leading a band of three hundred against a great army. Then, after the great victory over the Midianites, he still kept chasing the fleeing army, so that the victory would be complete. You remember the words: "faint, yet pursuing."

Weakness is always the saint's condition until by faith he looks to Jesus as his strength. Faith made the fathers brave in their conflicts, when huge armies of foreigners fled before a handful of brave men. They were God's soldiers, and He was their shield. Their valour and their strength were all from Him, who made them worthy of the Name that was their banner.

After verse 32 the names begin to disappear, and the chapter reverses its earlier order. Examples of the power of faith come first, in verses 33, 34, and the first clause of 35. From there on the chapter celebrates the patience of faith.

It may be useful to note the energy of faith in subduing kingdoms, in being made strong in war, and in putting armies or camps of foreigners to flight. All that fitted the time before the gospel. But it is in no way the model of what the Christian is now called to... In ordinary Christian experience, "made strong out of weakness" applies quite differently from its meaning long ago here. The ground of our difference is plain. Grace is now revealed and reigns as it did not until Christ came, died, rose, and took His seat in heaven.

We are called to a warfare, but our fight is no longer against flesh and blood. What once won earthly kingdoms must now work in another struggle. It is a struggle against rulers and authorities, against the powers behind the darkness of this world, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. By faith the Christian has to press his way into the enjoyment of the things that God in Christ declares to be his.

Faith wins triumphs when it attacks sin and death with active energy. God marks with equal pleasure its gentle, steady endurance of undeserved sorrow and suffering... God has not always hidden His prophets. Sometimes He has honoured them by putting to their lips the cup that Jesus would later taste.

Usually, though, God does not step in at once, and suffering follows... They endured. They did not accept the rescue that could have reached them if they had taken back their words or compromised. Faith suffered, but it carried them through.

The Shunammite woman repeats, on a smaller scale, the story of Abraham and Sarah. The promised child was given to a woman with no natural hope of one, then taken away in death, and then raised again. We see something similar in the story of Elijah.

In these cases, to live was better than to die, because God was dealing with an earthly people. Faith has since learned that to depart and be with Christ is now far better than to stay on earth. So such displays of its power are no longer likely to be seen. Those who mourn will receive their dead back to life when God soon brings with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him (1 Thess. 4:14).

These were not saved out of death. Their faith counted on the better resurrection. Not every martyr was rescued from the death that faced them... But they would not accept release at the price of loyalty to Him. He had called them to that better resurrection, and the eyes of their faith were fixed on it.

They did not accept release, though it was offered to them if they would renounce Christ. Their faith triumphed in death, and they wait for the full victory in resurrection. "Of whom the world was not worthy" (Heb. 11:38) — that is God's estimate of every such faithful martyr.

A better resurrection means resurrection to life, not a return to this world. The Shunammite's son and the son of the widow of Zarephath only came back to this world.

Compare and contrast the two statements, and it is hard to doubt the meaning. Some received their dead back from the grave, the well-known and much-loved body alive again. Others looked for their own bodies to be raised too, but in a different way and for a different end: never to die again, but to live for ever beyond death. A better resurrection indeed!

The others who were tortured refused the release that men offered. They wait for a better resurrection still to come, and they are better known in heaven than on earth.

(Verses 33, 34). First, he points to incidents that show the power of faith. It subdues kingdoms and overcomes armies. It is strong in weakness and brave in fight. It triumphs over the power of nature, as represented by the lion, and quenches the violence of the elements such as fire. It even wins victory over death.

(Verses 35, 36). Second, the Apostle sets before us the endurance of faith. Under torture it refused to accept deliverance. In trial it endured mockings and scourgings, bonds and imprisonments.

They had trial of something that may be harder to bear than physical suffering — the scorn of those who do not know our Lord. How keenly sensitive natures feel the slights put upon them! The neglect, the coldness, the sarcastic and condescending smile of pity — these are scourgings that bite deeper than the lash laid across the shoulders. But faith endures, and triumphs over it all.

Let us take care that we do not become persecutors. Some think there is no persecution except fire and sword; but there is persecution of the tongue. Reviling is called persecution: "men shall revile you and persecute you"; this is tongue persecution. "His words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords" (Ps. 55:21). You may kill a man in his name as well as in his person; a good name is as precious ointment... So the earliest saints endured the persecution of the tongue. They "suffered mocking" (Heb. 11:36).

This leads on to the last condition we are to look at — faith in times of persecution... Now names are unrecorded, but the acts of faith were never to be forgotten. So, though we cannot identify all those referred to, we are well assured that their names are remembered in heaven.

The Old Testament does not give us the details of such history, at least in many of these cases. Yet no doubt such cases were not few. The records of later church history tell of many godly people who suffered these very things, and tortures even more cruel, for Christ's sake.

In every age and in every country it has been so. We find the people of faith the objects of the hatred of man. But God owns this people... Here God gives His history of them. He does not interfere. He leaves them "destitute, afflicted, tormented." He does not meddle with the world, and the world goes on. It will not always be so, but that is the present fact... The world has departed from Him, and He will not own it.

As we read in Hebrews 11:33-38, some are delivered and escape the edge of the sword; others are tortured, undergo trials, are slaughtered, or wander about. The mystery of God allows John the Baptist to perish in prison while Peter is rescued. The word to Smyrna is: "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." The word to Philadelphia is: "I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming" (Rev. 2:10; 3:10).

Their names are not given, but God knows them all. He also knows the countless thousands of martyrs constantly added to this list… Some were stoned, as Zechariah (2 Chron. 24), and Jeremiah, according to tradition. Some were sawn in two, as Isaiah was under Manasseh. Some were killed with the sword, as Urijah was (Jer. 26:23), and James the brother of John (Acts 12). They could have worn silks and velvets. They could have lived in the palaces of princes — if they had denied God and believed the world's lie.

The law required stoning for Jews guilty of idolatry, blasphemy, or other open rebellion against the LORD. That is what made the deaths of Naboth and of Zechariah so terrible. The wickedness lay wholly with those in high authority, who twisted the law to hurt saints. We can hardly imagine a worse or bolder wrong. Godly people died the death of the ungodly at the hands of ungodly rulers. It was done by clever lies or in uncontrolled rage.

"Were tempted." The kind of temptation is not stated. No doubt it was some offer of escape from suffering, if only they would give up Christ. This was tried again and again with martyrs for the name of Jesus during the pagan persecutions of the early Christians. It was tried too in the equally pagan public burnings in Spain. There, release was offered even after the victim stood in the flames, if only he would deny the truth that had set his soul free. We can well imagine how sharp such temptations were. Loved ones — wives, little children — all begged the father to stay with them, instead of sealing with his blood the faith he had confessed.

Next comes the more drawn-out suffering in life of those who, for one reason or another, were not killed. "They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated." For some this was an even harder test of faith than a sudden death, whether by law or by violence.

Whether before Christ or after Him, the solid fact remains: God has always had a line of sufferers who believed. It was their faith that made them objects of dislike and persecution. It was not so much that they condemned the world, its pursuits, pleasures, sins, or godlessness. It was the quietest and most telling witness of all — separation from the world to God and His word.

In every age and in every country it has been so. We find the people of faith to be the objects of man's hatred. But God owns this people… Here God gives His own account of them. He does not step in. He leaves them "destitute, afflicted, mistreated." He does not interfere with the world. The world carries on. It will not always be so, but that is the present fact.

What an army! No gold braid or uniform on them, no great glory and honour. There you see them in the caves and holes of the earth, dressed in sheepskins and goatskins. Is your place with them? Is that reproach worth more in your eyes than "the treasures of Egypt"? Faith will always link us with that company "of whom the world was not worthy." They are the ones Christ is not ashamed to call brothers.

So they were often outcasts, roaming in deserts and mountains, and in dens and the caves or crevices of the earth. The same scenes repeated in pagan and papal persecutions after this letter was written. That needs no proof here. In the world's eyes they were unyielding and impossible to work with. Nothing won them: not wealth, ease, or honour. Nothing broke them: not slander, hatred, prison, or death. They refuse present glory. They remember who was crucified and by whom; they await His day and see it approaching.

Still, one solid fact remains, before Christ or after: God has always had a line of sufferers who believed. And it was their faith which made them objects of dislike and persecution. It was not so much their attack on the world — on its pursuits, pleasures, wrongs, or godlessness. It was the quietest and most telling of all testimonies: separation from the world to God and His word... "Of whom the world was not worthy," though they were counted unworthy of a place in it, or even of life. But, as has been said, in condemning them it condemned itself; and God forgets neither.

God came out and wrote their epitaph, and it reads: "Of whom the world was not worthy."

One little parenthesis in the long chapter which records their testimony places at once a glorious tribute upon them and a fearful condemnation on those of the other side; it says, "Of whom the world was not worthy."

The Old Testament does not give us the details of such history, at least in many of these cases. Yet such cases were doubtless not few. And the records of later Church history hold a multitude of godly people who suffered these very things, and tortures even more cruel, for Christ's sake. How full and how precious that word, "of whom the world was not worthy."

How the apostle lets it all accumulate before the eyes of those he was addressing! It is as though he were saying: is your affliction worse than that of those who have gone before you? They were heirs of the same precious faith as yourselves... You see what the portion of faith is — nothing here, everything in the living God, everything in the future. You cannot get your portion here; you must wait for it too.