Faith Illustrated: The Others
Hebrews 11:29-40

Baxter T. Exum (#1705)
Four Lakes Church of Christ
Madison, Wisconsin
September 10, 2023


It is a great blessing to be with all of you as God’s people this morning, and if you are visiting with us today, we are glad to have you with us. We’d like to ask that you fill out a visitor card online if you can (using the QR code up here or on the front of today’s bulletin), or you can use one of the cards from the pew in front of you. Whatever works for you, we would love to hear from you, and we invite you to pass along any questions or prayer concerns.

And speaking of prayer concerns, I am glad that my wife is back in Madison, just in time for me to head out right after worship this morning! I’ll be spending the first week camping in the mountains in Colorado, heading for the Bear Valley Bible Lectures in Denver later in the week, and then I hope to head on up to Washington State to see my sister for the second half of the trip. John Palmer and Josh Yancy are on deck to preach the next two weeks; I am thankful for their willingness to fill-in, and I am thankful to all of you for allowing me to be away for a bit.

Before we get to our study of a text this morning, we want to give just a brief overview of what God has done to save us. He sent his only Son to die in our place, to shed his blood for our forgiveness. He died on the cross, he was buried, and he was raised up alive on the third day. We respond to this good news through faith, repentance, confession, and baptism (a burial in water for the forgiveness of sins). And we have an example to share this morning, coming to us from Don Blackwell, who preaches for the Lord’s church down in Cookeville, Tennessee. Don says, “We are happy to announce that Flip Anderson was baptized into Christ tonight for the remission of his sins! Please welcome him to the body of Christ and Cookeville church of Christ.” 

And then, posted about an hour later, we had this post saying, “More wonderful news! Flip's wife, DJ Anderson, decided to put on Christ in baptism tonight as well. We welcome her to the kingdom of God!” So good to see this, and we share this by way of encouragement. What this husband and wife have done, you can do today. Let me know if we can help in any way.

This morning, we wrap up our study of Hebrews 11. Hebrews, of course, is message addressed to some early disciples who were having a hard time listening to Jesus, they were perhaps tempted to turn back to a former way of life, and this message encourages them to keep on keeping on, to live by faith, to endure. And in Hebrews 11 we’ve had faith defined or described as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” and for the past few weeks we’ve been looking at some examples of living by faith. This is what it looks like! We’ve looked at Abel, Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and sometimes we may be tempted to think that these heroes of faith are on an entirely different level than we are, that what they did is so amazing that a faith like theirs is almost unreachable. After all, God is not asking us to build an ark or lead millions of people out of slavery. And maybe, as the author of Hebrews is preaching, he realizes this.

So, today, we come to everybody else, a group described later in this passage as the “others.” And instead of digging deep into each one of these, what comes next comes in the form of a rapid-fire series of names. We have virtually no details. It’s almost as if he assumes that we we know the stories here, or maybe he gives this as a motivation to dig in later. But these “others” are something of a variety pack, some are powerful leaders, while others are virtually unknown. In fact, about half of these aren’t even named. And they fall into two basic categories: Several of these men and women won some huge victories, but we also find many others who suffered and even died in virtual obscurity. So, I hope we can keep an eye out for the break in this passage as we look at it together. This is Hebrews 11:29-40,

29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace. 32 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; 36 and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated 38 (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. 39 And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.

I.	As we take a look at what it means to live by faith, I want us to note, first of all, that many of these heroes of faith GAINED SOME TREMENDOUS VICTORIES.

And we start in verse 29, where we find that by faith God’s people passed through the Red Sea on dry ground, while the Egyptians tried it (without faith) and they drowned. Obviously, God parted the Red Sea, but the people had to literally step out in faith by walking between those walls of water on each side.

In verse 30, we find that by faith the walls of Jericho fell down. If we can imagine 2-3 million descendants of former slaves crossing the Jordan into the land that God had given them, and they immediately face this huge city surrounded by walls. As former slaves, they most likely had no weapons, maybe a shovel or a pitchfork here and there. And according to God, the battle plan is to have the entire group march around the city once a day for six days and to do it seven times on the seventh day. The priests are to lead the way, carrying the Ark (a gold box), and when they blow the trumpets at the end of all of this, the walls collapse, and they walk right in. That makes no sense. It’s the most ridiculous battle plan in history, they would have been subject to attack from above as they walk around those walls (rocks, arrows, boiling oil, purple slushies, and so on), and yet the people have faith in God, and they dominate the city of Jericho that day.

In verse 31, we come to Rahab the harlot, and that right there is amazing. Outside the genealogy of Jesus, Rahab is mentioned twice in the New Testament, and both of those times she is identified as “Rahab the harlot.” Is that not a little strange? Imagine making an announcement thanking “Jennifer the prostitute” for cleaning the building this month. Even though Rahab truly was a prostitute, isn’t it amazing that she is actually identified this way? It seems to me that the author of Hebrews is making the point that we sometimes find faith in some rather unexpected places: She’s a woman, she’s a foreigner, and she is also a prostitute, and yet she’s featured here as an example of faith. And she even ends up being the great-great grandmother of King David, and ultimately in Jesus’ family tree.

In verse 32, as I see it, the author of Hebrews suddenly realizes that the sermon is going a bit long! And this is one of those verses that makes us think that Hebrews might have originally been a sermon. Time doesn’t fail you if you are writing a letter! So, without giving much of an explanation at all, he gives this series of names. Gideon is the guy who delivered God’s people from the Midianites with a group of only 300 unarmed men up against thousands of elite warriors. Barak is the guy who God used to deliver his people from the Canaanites and their general, Sisera (Sisera is the guy who got nailed by Jael; Jael is the woman who lets him take a nap in her tent, she gives him some warm milk to drink, and then she uses a tent peg to nail his head to the ground – by the way, in a Barbie world, we really need more women to grow up and to be like Jael). Samson, of course, is the guy who defeated the Philistines. Jephthah is the guy who delivered God’s people from the Amorites. David was a king, Samuel was both a prophet and a judge. And all of these people (and others) did some amazing things: conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions (we think of Daniel), they quenched the power of fire (we think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego), they escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness they became strong (we think of David and Goliath), they became mighty in war, putting foreign armies to flight. And then there were women who by faith received back their dead by resurrection (we think of the widow of Zerephath whose son was raised by Elijah as well as the Shunammite woman whose son was raised by Elisha; in the New Testament we think of the Widow of Nain whose son was raised by Jesus, as well as Jairus’ wife, whose daughter was raised by the Lord as well).

Two things to realize here: First of all, all of these people listed in verses 29-35 had some amazing successes. By faith, these people did some amazing things. But secondly, though, I also hope we realize that these people were also terribly flawed. And for most of them, we can think of some very specific examples of some rather serious moral failures. I mean, we go back to Rahab the prostitute. Samson was a spoiled rotten woman chaser. When God first found Gideon, he was hiding in a wine press to escape from the Midianites. Jephthah made the rash vow to kill the first thing that came out of the door of his house to greet him after that battle. King David blew it in so many ways – adultery and murder and any number of failures. But in all of this, what an encouragement to us! We don’t have to be a Moses to live by faith! By faith, all of us can serve God right where we are, in spite of what we’ve done in the past. So, these are some lessons from this first group. They were flawed human beings (just like we are), but they lived by faith and gained some huge victories.

II.	As we continue, however, let’s also notice (from the middle of verse 35 down through verse 38) that  OTHERS LIVED BY FAITH, AND THEY SUFFERED.

We see this shift in the middle of verse 35, and we’d like to object! Maybe we’ve misunderstood this! I want a faith like we just studied in the first half of this passage. I want the kind of faith that crosses the Red Sea with the Egyptians in hot pursuit. I want God splitting the sea in front of me right when I need it. I want the kind of faith that causes the walls of my enemies to collapse. I want the kind of faith that conquers kingdoms, the kind of faith that protects me in the lions’ den, the kind of faith that quenches the power of fire. But then we come to this shocking statement right there in the middle of verse 35, “...and others were tortured.” No! I don’t want that kind of faith! And we certainly don’t prefer mockings, and scourgings, and chains, and imprisonments. The rest of this passage is just terrible.


But we need to understand that the people in the second half of this passage have just as much faith as those in the first half of this passage. Those who are tortured for their faith have just as much faith as Moses, and Rahab, and Gideon, and David. These “others” who suffered suffered not because of a LACK of faith on their part, but BECAUSE of their faith. The author of Hebrews doesn’t say, “And some who did NOT have faith were tortured, and mocked, and so on.” No. These people suffered as a result of having faith. In fact, in verse 35, if it weren’t for their faith, these people could have been released. If they had denied the Lord, they could have been set free. But as it is, they endured “so that they might obtain a better resurrection.” These people were looking for something better, so they willingly endured these terrible things, “mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonments.” Some have suggested that this would apply to the prophet Jeremiah, who was terribly abused for speaking the word of God. In verse 37, some were “sawn in two.” We have an uninspired source suggested that this is how Isaiah died. The king didn’t appreciate his message, so he had Isaiah placed inside a hollow log, and he then ordered that the log be sawn in two, with Isaiah inside it. At any point, these people could have abandoned the faith, but they chose to endure. Also in verse 37, some were “put to death with the sword.” And what an interesting reference, because back in verse 34, some by faith “escaped the edge of the sword.” Both had faith, and some escaped the sword while some by faith were “put to death by the sword.” We might think of the time when Jeremiah was delivered from Jehoiakim (in Jeremiah 26), while the prophet Uriah preached a similar message, but he was killed. Or we might think of Acts 12, where King  Herod killed James, but Peter escaped – right there in the same chapter! Both had faith, but one died while the other lived. Others (in verse 37) “...went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated,” (and in verse 38), they were “wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.” We think of prophets like Elijah and Elisha, even David at one point. These are “men of whom the world was not worthy.” This is God’s assessment. The world says, “You are not worthy,” but God says that the opposite is true. The world rejected these men and treated them as outcasts, unfit for civilized society, but the truth is: The world doesn’t deserve these men. The message is: By faith, there are times when we will suffer; so, do not be disillusioned, but hang in there!

Conclusion:

And this brings us to the last two verses, where the author says that“...all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.” When he refers to “all these,” I believe he’s referring back to everybody he’s just mentioned in this whole chapter, from Abel on, up to those he’s just mentioned. Everybody who has ever lived by faith in times past gained God’s approval through their faith, and yet they still “did not received what was promised.” That promise was for “something better.” And as we’ve learned throughout this book up to this point, the “something better” is Jesus, a Savior. We now have what all of these great heroes of faith were looking forward to. And we have Jesus, “so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.” Those great heroes of the past were never really complete without us. Abraham, and Moses, and David, and the others are not done yet, because they (in a sense) are still cheering us on. And this great chain of faith goes all the way back to the beginning (when that first promise of a Messiah was made to Adam and Eve), and it continues all the way to the very last one who obeys the gospel before the Lord returns. And we are a part of it. We now have what they were hoping for, a Messiah, a Redeemer. And this is something that only the New Covenant brings. So once again, the message is: You now have what all of these people were hoping for, so don’t go back, because Jesus is better.

And the author will elaborate on this in the opening verses of Chapter 12, but we will save that for the first Sunday in October, if the Lord wills! Until then, please let me know if there’s anything I can to do encourage you to take the next step of faith, whatever that might be.

Before we get ready to partake of the Lord’s Supper, let’s go to God in prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We come before you today as your people, praising you for revealing yourself to us through your word, and this morning we pray for greater faith. We want to be assured of what we hope for, we want to be confident of what we cannot see. And we pray for a faith like these great heroes we’ve studied over the past few weeks. We want to trust and obey, in times of victory and great success, but also in difficult times.

Thank you, Father, for Jesus. We come to you in his name. AMEN.

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