By Faith, Those Who Suffered

The Martyrdom of Eleazer the Scribe by Gustave Doré

The stories of the judges, prophets, and kings highlighted in the previous piece in this series on the people listed in the Hebrews hall of faith were all stories of triumph. The lives of these Old Testament heroes, at least the parts featured in the passage we studied, would make outstanding advertisements for the benefits of a life of faith. We started reading, if remember, at Hebrews 11:32, and stopped in the middle of verse thirty-five. Up to that point, it might seem as if the main idea of the passage is “live a life of faith and you will win battles, escape danger, and bring dead children back to life.” 

But the paragraph doesn’t end in verse thirty-five, and the verses that follow contain no stunning escapes, crushing victories, or miraculous resurrections. “There were others,” the text continues,

who were tortured refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground (Hebrews 11:35a-38).

The faithful people described in the second half of the paragraph experienced more suffering than success. No one is going to use their pictures on promotional posters for the earthly advantages of a life of faith. Even so, the author of Hebrews expected their stories to be just as effective for strengthening the faith of his first century readers as the previous stories of triumph.

When he wrote of other heroes who were impoverished, tortured, imprisoned, and killed, he may have been thinking of some of the Old Testament prophets (Nehemiah 9:26). Jeremiah, for example, isn’t known as the “weeping prophet” for nothing. He was beaten, placed in stocks, and thrown into a cistern (Jeremiah 20:2, 37:15-16). The prophet Zechariah was stoned to death (2 Chronicles 24:20-22), and according to tradition, Isaiah was sawn in two. The prophets Hanani and Micaiah were each imprisoned by kings who were angered by what they prophesied (1 Kings 22:26-27; 2 Chronicles 16:7-10). Come to think of it, I’m not sure there were any prophets who weren’t mistreated because they passed on messages from God that made people angry.

The author was probably also thinking of some of the martyrs whose stories are recorded in the Jewish history book of 2 Maccabees. A man named Eleazer, for instance, was tortured to death when he refused to renounce his faith, and a mother and her seven sons were also tortured and killed for remaining faithful to the law. 

These persecuted men and women survived without enough food or proper clothing. They lived in caves and holes; some, perhaps, because they were poor, but others because they were hiding from men who were trying to harm them (1 Samuel 24:3; 1 Kings 18:4,13). They were outcasts from society because they were faithful to God. In the eyes of the world, they were not worthy of respect, but in God’s eyes—the only eyes that see things as they really are—it was the world who was not worthy of them. 

These believers remained true to God as they endured unspeakable suffering because they were looking forward to something infinitely more valuable than a happy, healthy, and successful life. What they wanted most was not a life without pain, but an “even better resurrection.” In the first part of verse thirty-five, right before he turned his attention to the suffering saints, the author of Hebrews wrote of “women who received back their dead, raised to life again.” These women experienced miraculous resurrections, but even as they rejoiced in the miracles, they knew their loved ones would still eventually die. The suffering saints wanted a different and better kind of resurrection.

They longed for an eternal resurrection, one with glorified bodies that can’t experience pain, or illness, or be tainted by sin. They wanted to live forever in the presence of God in the heavenly city. They could live their earthly lives as foreigners and strangers in the world because they hoped for resurrection to “a better country—a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:13-16). What they desired most was life in a place where they truly belonged, and where all the wrongs done to them would be made right.

At the very least, the first recipients of the letter of Hebrews knew believers who had been mistreated and imprisoned because they were Christians (Hebrews 10:32-34), and they were probably afraid that persecution would come again. These accounts of courageous historical men and women reminded them that down through the ages, God’s people have suffered—and many have suffered worse trials than theirs. 

None of their trials came because God doesn’t care for his own, or isn’t faithful to them. And they weren’t suffering because they didn’t have strong enough faith for God to perform a miraculous work to save them. Victorious people of faith and suffering people of faith are both commended in Hebrews 11. God was not withholding blessings from them because they lacked faith, but he was giving them something better. If they kept clinging to Jesus, they would be resurrected to such glory that their present-day trials would seem like nothing (Romans 8:18). 

Unlike some of the early Christian readers of Hebrews, you probably haven’t had your possessions confiscated or been thrown in jail for following Jesus. I do, however, know someone who lost a dear friend because she shared the gospel, and a few others who have been mocked for their convictions. I also know believers who have friends and family who strongly disapprove of the things they believe. These trials are minor, of course, when we compare them to torture and death, but we shouldn’t underestimate the pain that can come from this kind of rejection. But even if you are never persecuted or rejected, you will not get through life without suffering. In this life, we are all susceptible to illness, pain, and loss. And while we may never face martyrdom, we will certainly face death. 

One key to faithfully enduring all sorts of trials is to look toward the better resurrection that will one day be ours. Our earthly bodies will eventually fail us, but we will gain resurrection bodies that can’t fail. When the circumstances of our life make us feel as if we don’t really belong here, we can focus on our resurrection home in a place where we will always be with the One (and the ones) we love most.

What’s more, while looking forward to a better resurrection will help us keep clinging to Jesus during seasons of suffering, the seasons of suffering themselves can work to loosen our grip on the pleasures and successes of this life so that we can cling even tighter to him. Our trials teach us that the truest treasures are found in the glories of the life to come—glories we can only receive through faith. If you are a believer, your times of trial work to increase your desire for heaven and strengthen your hold on Jesus, who is your only hope, and both of these are good reasons for God to allow us to suffer.

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Previous post in this series:

• By Faith the Ancients
• By Faith Abel
• By Faith Enoch
• By Faith Noah
• By Faith Abraham and Sarah
• By Faith These All
• By Faith Abraham
• By Faith Moses’s Parents
• By Faith Moses
• By Faith the Israelites, Including Rahab
• By Faith, Those Who Triumphed

By Faith, Those Who Triumphed

Gideon Choosing His Soldiers by Gustave Doré

The verses at the end of Hebrews 11 remind me of the time my father gave a lecture at a conference, and the lecture before his went way overtime. He had no choice but to fit his carefully prepared hour-long speech into the thirty-minutes left in his time slot or his talk would spill over into the scheduled lunch break—and no one wanted that! A few minutes into the lecture he began to just list his main points and briefly explain each one because there was no time for a fuller presentation of his material.  

The author of Hebrews did something similar in Hebrews 11. In the first 31 verses of the chapter, he reminded his readers (or listeners, if Hebrews is a sermon) of the particular circumstances in which each of the people in the hall of faith demonstrated their faithfulness. But near the end of the chapter, he changed his strategy. 

^“And what more shall I say?” he wrote:

 I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again (Hebrews 11:32-35a NIV).

The author finished the hall of faith with just a list of people and exploits. These Old Testament men and women got the quick list treatment, not because they were less faithful than those with fuller commendations, but because there was not enough time to do more than mention them briefly. 

The rapid-fire commendations began with four of Israel’s judges—Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah—and then David, who was a king, and Samuel, who was both a judge and prophet. All these men had significant flaws; some are quite unexpected additions to the hall of faith. Still, with their imperfect faith they fought battles on behalf of God’s people and won, allowing the Israelites to maintain their place in the land God gave them. Despite their weaknesses and sins, these men “conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised.”

Take Gideon, for example. He gathered 300 men equipped only with torches, earthenware jars, and trumpets, and with God’s help, he won the battle against the large and well-equipped army of Israel’s Midianite oppressors (Judges 7:19-23). 

If we read Gideon’s story carefully, we see that he was actually a weak and fearful man. When the angel of the Lord visited him to call him to his role in Israel’s deliverance, Gideon was hiding from the Midianites (Judges 6:11). When the angel announced to him that God himself was sending him into battle, Gideon objected, pointing out all the ways he wasn’t a good fit for the job. He was, he said, from the weakest clan in one of the smallest tribes, and on top of that, he was the least impressive person in his family (Judges 6:15). Maybe he was just humble, but I think he was afraid to do what God was calling him to do.

When the Lord assured him that he would be with him (something he’d told him once already) and promised that he would be successful in his mission, Gideon asked for a sign that it was actually the Lord who was sending him. And the Lord, always patient, gave him the sign he asked for (Judges 6:16-22). 

But even this was not enough for Gideon. After this sign, he asked for another. “I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor,” he said. “If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said” (Judges 6:37 NIV). Gideon was actually questioning whether God would keep his word!  But once more, God condescended to do what Gideon asked. The next morning the fleece was wet and the ground was dry. 

You would think this would be enough to shore up Gideon’s wobbly faith, but it wasn’t. He asked God for still another sign. He would, he said, put the fleece out again, and this time he wanted God to do the opposite—to keep the fleece dry while the dew formed around it. By this time, even Gideon suspected his repeated demands were a bit much, because he prefaced his request with, “Do not be angry with me” (Judges 6:39 NIV). Think about it: God told him what to do, and then he told him again. One command from God, let alone two, should have been sufficient. But Gideon asked for more: not just one, or two, but three signs that God would keep his word. It would, of course, have been perfectly just for God to be angry with him, but in his mercy, he demonstrated again that he could be trusted. He kept the fleece dry and made the ground wet, just as Gideon had requested. 

This third sign was enough for Gideon. He led his small band of men into battle, something he could only do if he finally trusted God. With God’s help, his army defeated the mighty Midianites (Judges 7:19-24), and Gideon—despite his doubt, and despite his other sins, including idolatry (Judges 8:24-27)—was included in Hebrews 11 hall of faith. 

After he listed the four judges, along with David, Samuel, and the prophets, the author of Hebrews began listing extraordinary things done by people of faith in Old Testament history. There were those who “shut the mouths of lions,” like Daniel (Daniel 6:22), for instance, or Samson (Judges 14:5-6) or David (1 Samuel 17:34-37). There were a few who “quenched the fury of the flames,” like Daniel’s friends Shadrach Meshach, and Abednego. These three men, if you remember, refused to worship a statue built by King Nebuchadnezzar, so the king had them bound and thrown into an extra hot furnace. Unlike Gideon, they had no special revelation or miraculous signs to reassure them when they faced the threat from the king. They were sure God could deliver them from the fire, but since he had not told them that he would, they went into the furnace knowing they might die (Daniel 3:18). They decided that they would remain true to God even if they lost their lives as a result. In the end, God sent either an angel or the pre-incarnate Christ into the furnace with them (Daniel 3:25), and they were untouched by the flames (Daniel 3:27). 

Other Old Testament heroes, to continue down the list, “escaped the edge of the sword,” which sounds like what happened to the prophets Elisha (1 Kings 19:2), Elijah (2 Kings 6:31-33), and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 36:26). Some, like Gideon and Samson, were strengthened by God when they were weak. Samuel, David, and several judges protected God’s people by routing foreign enemies. The prophet Elijah (1 Kings 17:17-24) raised a widow’s son after he died, and so did Elisha (2 Kings 4:18-37). These men believed God and trusted him, and he accomplished mighty acts through them. Despite the significant weaknesses of some, they were all victorious by faith.

The people to whom the book of Hebrews was first written might soon face their own fiery ordeal, and at least some of them had weak faith. If they were all perfectly prepared to stand firm no matter what, they wouldn’t have needed the letter of Hebrews to encourage them to stay faithful to Jesus even though they might be persecuted for believing in him. The stories of Gideon and the others reminded them that their weak and imperfect faith didn’t prevent God from using them to accomplish great things. The point was to not give up—to keep on coming to God with their weakness, asking him for strength, and asking for forgiveness when they fell. Their future triumph didn’t depend on their own strength, but on God’s power working in and through them. 

All these truths apply to us, too. In every age, God accomplishes great things through people with less-than-perfect faith. We persevere, not in our own strength, but in the strength of the one who sits on the throne of grace, ready to hear our requests for forgiveness and help, and the one who, in his mercy, will surely help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16). 

We’re now halfway through the list of deeds for which the faithful people of the Old Testament were commended. So far, it’s been all about exploits and victories, and while these stores are exciting and uplifting, anyone with much life experience knows that even those with strong faith don’t always win their battles. In the verses that follow these, the author turns to exemplary men and women who kept trusting God in the midst of suffering, suffering that sometimes even led to death. Those are the saints we’ll discuss in the next—and maybe final—piece in this series on the faithful people commended in Hebrews 11.

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Previous post in this series:

• By Faith the Ancients
• By Faith Abel
• By Faith Enoch
• By Faith Noah
• By Faith Abraham and Sarah
• By Faith These All
• By Faith Abraham
• By Faith Moses’s Parents
• By Faith Moses
• By Faith the Israelites, Including Rahab

By Faith the Israelites, Including Rahab

Joshua Spares Rahab by Gustave Doré

We ended the last piece in this series on the people of faith in Hebrews 11 with Moses, who was commended for faithfully instituting the Passover. If you remember, the Israelites, who were slaves in Egypt, followed Moses’s Passover instructions—instructions he received from God—and they escaped the tenth plague God inflicted on the nation of Egypt. 

In this plague, all the firstborn sons in Egypt died on a single night—all of them, that is, except for those in the homes of the Israelites, who faithfully followed the Passover instructions. This was God’s last plague on Egypt, because after this one, Pharaoh finally did what Moses had been telling him to do all along: He allowed all the people of Israel, along with their flocks and herds, to leave. So the Israelites packed up quickly and God led them out of Egypt toward the Red Sea. 

Meanwhile back in Egypt, Pharaoh changed his mind. Now he regretted letting the Israelites leave. Who, he thought, would do all the hard work if there were no Israelite slaves? He readied his army—chariots, horses, horsemen, and soldiers—and led them out to round up the Israelites and force them back into service in Egypt.

This bit of background sets the scene for one of the most dramatic episodes in Old Testament history, and also for the next commendation in the Hebrews 11 hall of faith. Imagine it: The Israelites were camped beside the Red Sea when they saw the Egyptian army marching toward them. They were boxed in between the waters of the Red Sea and the advancing army of Pharaoh, and they panicked. 

They cried out to the Lord, which is always the right thing to do when we’re scared, but they also blamed Moses for bringing them out of Egypt in the first place (Exodus 14:11-12). They had already forgotten, it seems, that it was the Lord himself who had brought them out, and it was the Lord who had led them to this place.

But despite their doubts and complaints, God protected them. The pillar of cloud that had been leading them as they travelled moved behind them as a barrier between them and the Egyptian army. Then Moses stretched his hand out over the Red Sea, and “the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land,” and the Israelites crossed the sea safely between two walls of water (Exodus 14:21-22). 

According to the author of Hebrews, it was “[b]y faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land (Hebrews 11:29 NIV).”  It took faith for the Israelites to cry out to the Lord when they saw the Egyptians chasing them down, and it took faith for them to move forward into the sea at his command. Walking between those walls of water must have been almost as terrifying as facing their pursuers would have been. But even though they didn’t know exactly how God would save them, they trusted that he would, so they obeyed him. 

“[B]ut,” continued the author of Hebrews, “when the Egyptians tried to [cross], they were drowned (Hebrews 11:29 NIV).” Pharaoh’s forces followed the Israelites right into the sea, but the Lord fought for his people. While the army was crossing, he threw them into a panic (Exodus 14:24). They tried to turn back, but with all the mayhem, it wasn’t easy, and they were too late. Moses stretched his hand out over the sea again; the water returned to its place; and Pharaoh and his men drowned. In one miraculous act, God rescued the Israelites and judged their enemies.

Like the Israelites, the first century readers of the letter to the Hebrews were afraid of what their enemies might do to them. The story of the Israelites’ faith at the Red Sea reminded them that if they were persecuted again for following Jesus, they could trust God to care for them. Even if they were eventually martyred for their faith (Hebrews 12:4), the Lord could still be trusted. He would bring them safely to their promised heavenly home. And in the end, they would triumph over their enemies when God judged all those who had harmed them. 

The destruction of Pharaoh and his army was only one of many battles God fought for his people. After the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and then wandered around the wilderness for forty years, God led them across the Jordan River into Canaan—the land he had promised would be theirs. But before they settled in Canaan, God commanded them to drive out the people who lived there. 

They started their conquest of Canaan with the walled city of Jericho. God gave them their battle plan, and it was a strange one. He instructed them to march once around the city for six days in a row, and then, on the seventh day, to march around it seven times. Next, God said, the priests should blow their trumpets and all the people should shout. Then the walls of Jericho would fall and they would be able to capture the city and destroy it. 

The Israelites trusted God enough to follow his unorthodox military strategy—and it worked. “By [their] faith,” wrote the author of Hebrews, “the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days” (Hebrews 11:30). Obviously, God didn’t need their marching to bring down the walls of the city, but he chose to wield his mighty power in response to their faith, which they demonstrated by following his command to march around Jericho.

This chapter in Israel’s history is a reminder that God often accomplishes things in ways that, from our perspective, seem foolish. Think of the early Christians to whom Hebrews was written. They had already suffered some persecution and were anticipating more—and worse. Don’t you think they considered persecution a threat to the survival of the church? And humanly speaking, it was. But under God’s management, their suffering actually contributed to the spread of Christianity. God also worked through their trials to make their faith stronger. One day they would see—perhaps not in this life, but certainly in the next—that God used their faithfulness in suffering to accomplish his (and their) final victory.

The next person commended in Hebrews 11 is Rahab, who is part of the Jericho story. She was a prostitute who was spared when the others who lived in Jericho were killed.  Here’s what the text says about her:

By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient (Hebrews 11:31).

When spies were sent to scope out Jericho before the Israelites entered Canaan, Rahab hid them from the authorities and then helped them escape (Joshua 2:1-21). She risked everything for their safety, and in return, they promised that she and her family would not be harmed when the Israelites destroyed Jericho.

Why did Rahab help the Israelite spies? She did it because she already believed in Israel’s God. Everyone in Jericho had heard of Israel’s conquests, including their defeat of the Egyptian forces at the Red Sea. Rahab understood that they won these battles because their God, who she believed was “God in heaven above and on the earth below” (Joshua 2:11), fought for them. She knew her only hope was with this God—the one true God—so she aligned herself with him and his people. 

When the Israelites took the city of Jericho, “Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho” (Joshua 6:25). Because she was loyal to him and his people, God gave her a home among the Israelites, and rewarded her with an Israelite husband, at least one Israelite son, and a place in the lineage of Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

Did you notice that the author of Hebrews still called her “Rahab the prostitute”? The apostle James referred to her this way, too (James 2:25). Why did these New Testament authors bring up her sordid past hundreds of years after she died? Why wouldn’t they let people forget it? It certainly wasn’t because they wanted to demean her or sully her reputation. After all, both writers hold her out as an example to follow. They saw her as a hero.

Perhaps it’s because her never-forgotten label serves as a permanent reminder that a sinful past doesn’t disqualify someone from God’s forgiveness or his reward. God’s mercy is for anyone who will receive it, even a Canaanite prostitute. Yes, God gave her a whole new identity. She left her past loyalties behind and became a true Israelite. But because she is still remembered by her old title, she is also a witness to the gospel—the good news of the way of the salvation that Jesus, her descendant, opened for anyone who believes, including someone with a sordid past. I don’t think she minds that we know her as “Rahab the prostitute.”

It’s this same gospel—the one that both her old name and her new faith testify to—that the Hebrew Christians were in danger of losing because they were afraid of the consequences of continuing to identify with Jesus. They must be more like Rahab, who was willing to risk her life by aligning herself with the one true God. She knew with whom her hope lay. Did they? Their only hope—and ours, too—is to stick with Jesus even when it makes life difficult, because he is the only Savior. There is no other way.

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Previous post in this series:

• By Faith the Ancients
• By Faith Abel
• By Faith Enoch
• By Faith Noah
• By Faith Abraham and Sarah
• By Faith These All
• By Faith Abraham
• By Faith Moses’s Parents
• By Faith Moses