Gideon Choosing His Soldiers by Gustave Dore
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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