The author/Pastor has spent considerable time working through the Old Testament history to show to this community of believers that they must continue to follow Jesus. He is running out of time …
“And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel …” (Hebrews 11 v 32)
Hardly perfect men! But God chooses and uses as He decides. Look at us!
These first 4 men were all from the Judges period.
Gideon who moved from the place of inadequacy threshing wheat hiding in fear of the Midianites to being found by God and told he was a Mighty Warrior! God changed his thinking about who he was and he moved forward in faith.
Barak who was told by Israel’s leader to ambush the Canaanites and was given 10,000 men. He went but not without demanding Deborah, the leader, had to go with him. He learnt faith. So the story shows that Barak in the end pursued the chariots and horses of the Canaanites and tracked down King Sisera.
Samson’s story didn’t end well. But after Delilah he recovered his faith. Can you imagine the first morning Samson felt his head and felt stubble!! He has nothing left to give to God. No rights, bargaining powers, he doesn’t deserve anything. When we no longer feel God owes us special favours, when we no longer have expectations grace flows to our lives and faith begins to grow.
Jephthah is mentioned but we may struggle to know why! We find his story in Judges 11 and its horrendous! In exchange for defeating the enemy he makes a promise to sacrifice whoever comes out of his door first. Crazy especially when the person who comes out is his daughter! In one sense Jephthah is a warning to us to be careful what we promise but to be faithful to that promise. Maybe that is why he made it to the hall of faith. However, if the promise means our actions will end up being nothing but stupid and wrong then the promise should surely be overruled, certainly for the sanctity of life. Perhaps this is the reason for us to see him as a man of faith: if you promised God everything and coming out of that door was indeed everything (for Jephthah’s daughter was all he had – his life) then would you still give it? Or when you said everything to God, did you mean something? (Jephthah was expecting an animal not his daughter) Everything or something? What have you promised God?
Four incredible stories which reveal that being a person of faith doesn’t mean you are perfect and won’t make wrong decisions. Thousands of years later people can judge you and maybe after even a few days. But at that time in the weakness of your humanity and maybe it wasn’t huge faith but it was nevertheless faith that made you step forward and take action. That is to be commended.
Missions Paul 