Hebrews 11:32 Commentary and Bible Study

These verses are about the life of faith: about trusting Christ of course for salvation, trusting in his shed blood, his offering of himself. He suffered the outpouring by the Father of the punishment for our sins, the eternal weight of punishment for all the sins of the redeemed were heaped upon him on Calvary's cross. He died so that we may be forgiven. Trust in that and in that alone, and in no righteousness of our own, for salvation. And then once forgiven and renewed, once converted, we are to trust in him every day in all circumstances, to bring everything before him in prayer. We are not to permit ourselves to be overwhelmed by the attacks of Satan by the allurements of the world, by various moods and trials and problems, but to process everything by trusting in him. That is the life of faith.The passage is almost rhapsodic in its tone and pace. The inspired writer seems momentarily lost. He has not the time to carry out a review of Bible history. He is not moved of the Spirit to do that, but only to summarise, to give examples, and to depend upon us to research these events. Some of the great heroes of the past are named here. Gideon: it is disappointing to hear some of the things that are said about the great judges. Even preachers often read those passages and say, ‘Gideon was asking God for a sign. He was not content with the sign when it is given, and asked for yet another sign. You remember how he put out a fleece on the ground in the open air and if by the morning it was wet with the dew when the ground around it was dry, then he would take it as a sign from God that he was to deliver the people from the seven-year oppression of the Midianites. And then, not content with that he asked again for another sign and the fleece was put out again, but this time he asked that the fleece would remain dry and the ground around it would be wet. So in the morning, it was. ‘Well,’ they say, ‘Gideon had little faith. Gideon needed to be reassured repeatedly.’ But he is in the chapter of the heroes of faith. How can he possibly be seen as a person who had little faith, who could not trust in the Lord? No, he wanted to be certain that he was correct. This was a momentous thing and we have it today. People will say for example, ‘I feel that God would have made me minister’ and so they seek to be prepared and trained for pastoral service, but people want to be certain of such a thing. So it was with Gideon. This was something that seemed almost impossible: that the Midianite oppression could be thrown off by such a weak people as the Israelites who had descended into their idolatry and forfeited the blessing and power of God. How can these people be used to throw off such a powerful force? So Gideon seeks confirmation and once he receives it, he obeys to the letter, and his faith is proved and God blesses him. God even reduced the number of men with him to a mere 300. It was going to be very evidently a mighty act of God. And then Barak. People say of Barak, he was a coward. He said to God, I can’t do this, unless Deborah the prophetess is with me, but that was not cowardice. He is in the chapter of heroes of faith. He cannot possibly have been a faithless coward. Barak wanted Deborah to be the figurehead. Because this would be a work of God, it would be God who delivered them and gave them victory. That was perhaps the biggest oppression of all. This wasn’t the oppression of merely one nation against Israel. This was a confederation of nations and the chief, Jabin and the kingdom of hazor, was described as the head of a great Canaanites force. How could it possibly be overthrown, but it was, through faith, and so one of the heroes of faith is Barak. And Samson. We know he was under a Nazarite vow, a dedicated man of God. Once again people discredit Samson. They say he was a lusting character, an impulsive individual, and yet they say amazingly that God could use such a man. But that is poor exegesis because he is in the chapter of the heroes of faith. Certainly he came to a point in his life, where he sinned against God, deeply and seriously. And so for a time he was rejected from his labours and punished very severely by Philistine captivity. He suffered the loss of his sight, and torture, and degradation. It must be seen by the people of Israel, that God will reject somebody who no longer keeps faith with his standards and with the life of faith. But up until that time, Samuel was not a soldier. He had only ever handled farming implements. He was evidently very powerfully built, but of himself he was not able to trouble the Philistines until God called him. He is an example of a man who obeyed God and single-handedly accomplished signal victories, when the nation was severely demoralised and lacking in faith. Up until the time of his fall, God used him magnificently for the best part of 20 years.And then King David is mentioned and Samuel the prophet. Once again the chronological order is so not observed in these verses in Hebrews 11. These heroes of faith trusted God and they were men of prayer. They were committed to his service and by faith they performed great exploits for God.