Hebrews 11:36 Commentary and Bible Study

Mockings appear to be trials for which the mockers have apparent evidence, for instance the treatment of Sampson by the Philistines. They believed that having cut off his hair his strength had left him permanently, and they therefore made sport of him at the sacrifice to Dagon their god. The mocker thinks his mockery is based on facts, as in the case of atheists today, who are certain that all the arguments are on their side. But Sampson prayed to the Lord and his strength was restored to him for one last act of vengeance against his enemies, and so in his death he slew more than he slew in his whole life. Atheism will come to see that it has miscalculated and overestimated its grasp of the facts. The reality is that it ignored certain facts which were inconvenient and these have a devastating effect on all its conclusions. When people mock then we can try to silence the mockery, but on our own we lack the power to remove the walls of prejudice and unbelief. Only God can make their arguments have no effect by working in their hearts or by bringing them to judgment.Scourging was a punishment given to slaves and those of the lowest order. Jeremiah was beaten and put in the prison house of Jonathan the scribe. Today we are put down in many ways. Almost whenever there has been decline in the evangelical witness in this country it has been associated with leaders or teachers who could not bear to be regarded as fools or inadequate people for Christ’s sake. The new evangelicalism came in because scholars wanted to be respected and not labelled as mere Bible believers.Bonds and imprisonments were suffered by those who had done nothing worthy of them. Joseph was imprisoned by Potiphar because his adulterous wife falsely testified against him. Micaiah was put in prison under Ahab, king of Israel, because he prophesied the truth about the outcome of the battle with Syria. So many of these sufferings were inflicted by the Jews. How much more should we expect trials from Gentiles.