S29 || Ordinary People, Mighty God || Hebrews 11:30-40 || Session 29

What if the clearest proof of faith isn’t a miracle, but endurance when nothing changes? We walk through the final verses of Hebrews chapter 11 and let the text challenge our assumptions—celebrating triumphs at Jericho and the courage of Rahab, then facing the sobering roll call of believers who were mocked, chained, stoned, and even sawn in two. The thread that ties it all together is not perfect people, but a perfect God who keeps his promises and invites us to act on them.

We talk candidly about the judges and kings who made the list—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David—and how their moral failures don’t cancel their witness. Instead, they spotlight the truth that mustard-seed faith in a great God still counts. That leads us into the sharp turn of the chapter: some shut lions’ mouths; others refused release to gain a better resurrection. Both groups are commended. We ask what endurance looks like today, why prosperity teaching collapses under this passage, and how hope in future glory empowers gritty obedience right now.

Along the way, we define faith as trust expressed in action, explore why the wilderness wanderings are absent from the record, and consider how God strengthens his people exactly when they need it. The takeaway is simple and weighty: keep going. Fix your eyes on Jesus, choose obedience over optics, and remember that you are part of a larger story where unseen promises are the surest reality.

If this conversation helps you stand firm, share it with a friend, subscribe for the next chapter, and leave a review with the one lesson you’re putting into practice this week.

Chapters

• 0:00 Can Faith Hold In Hard Times
• 0:34 Setting The Stage: Hebrews 11
• 1:06 Jericho’s Walls And Risky Obedience
• 3:03 Rahab’s Risk And Real Trust
• 6:43 Faith Requires Action
• 7:42 Wilderness Unbelief Omitted
• 8:22 From Victories To Suffering
• 9:22 Flawed Heroes: Gideon To David
• 15:05 Why List Morally Broken People
• 17:12 Triplets Of Triumph And Growth
• 19:06 Faith’s Hard Turn Toward Pain
• 22:49 Better Resurrection And Hope
• 25:04 Strength For Trials When Needed
• 26:05 Calling Out Prosperity Myths
• 28:29 Trusting God Without Guarantees
• 30:10 Waiting For Unseen Promises

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:20

It's easy to follow God in faith when times are good, but what happened when times are bad or things that are painful in our lives? Can we still be expected to trust God and have faith? Hi, my name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We are reasoning through the book of Hebrews, and we're at Hebrews chapter 11. There's been a long list of heroes of the faith, people that believed God about a kingdom that was coming, believed God about a promised land, believed God about many things. These have been examples for us. Well, today we're going to see some people that are some of the examples that we're going to question just a little bit and say, why do these people on the list? In Hebrews 11, we'll dive in at verse 30, says this. Steve, what acts of faith did Israel perform at Jericho?

SPEAKER_00: 1:28

They marched around the city for seven days, one time each day, and then on the very last day they blew trumpets and the walls fell down. They believed God in what he was saying to do in order to attack this city of Jericho that we find out through archaeology had two sets of walls and was up on a hill. It was about nine acres in size. And whenever you wanted to assault a city and put it under siege, walking around it with expectations that the walls were going to fall down was not the best military strategy that somebody would come up with. It was truly by faith for them to do that. And of course, leading the way was the Ark of the Covenant. This was all orchestrated by God, and they had to believe that God was going to take the walls down of that city. They did it by faith. In fact, the walls did fall down, and it was an act of God. It wasn't anything that they did in order to make the walls fall down. And after the walls fell, they assaulted the city.

SPEAKER_01: 2:43

There was a very, very unorthodox military strategy is to walk around the city and expose yourself. But nevertheless, this is what God had commanded, and it was an act of faith. The lack of faith may have tried to attack it in a conventional military style, but they trusted God and did what he had commanded. Then the next verse talks about Rahab the harlot. And if you remember the story, Rahab was a harlot, as it says, and she housed in her house the two Hebrew spies. Later, when they were about to go back, she warned them about where the Jericho's soldiers were and cautioned them on how to go back safely. She also said, Please remember us when you come to attack the city. What risks did that entail, Steve? She took some risk and some acts of faith when she did that. So how did those acts by Rahab demonstrate her faith?

SPEAKER_00: 3:46

Well, it says there in verse 31 that she welcomed the spies in peace. In other words, she didn't turn them in to the authorities. And she took her life in danger by not doing that. She was, in essence, being a traitor to the city by not turning them over. That was the dangerous part, her and her family, by not turning these spies over to the authorities and letting them know that they were there. Of course, in that story, she told the spies that everybody in the city knew about their God and the great things that had happened. She recounted even back to the parting of the Red Sea and how they had also come across the Jordan River on dry land and how that had parted as well. They were very aware of Yahweh, the God of Israel. The way she described it was they were all quaking in their boots, their knees were knocking together because of the fear of the God that they had. Yet they were still defiant of the God of Yahweh. She placed her faith in the God of Yahweh by taking the spies in in peace and asking them, whenever you come to take the city, remember me and my family.

SPEAKER_01: 5:03

And remember the situation she was in. The Hebrew spies were going to attack the city. The city officials of Jericho would have considered this an act of treason. If she had been caught, she would have been executed. This was an act of treason, and treason is generally a capital offense. This was a great risk to her life, to her livelihood, possibly even the lives of her extended family. She was in a position where this was truly an act of faith. We see here that all these people did not merely trust in God, but they acted on it. That's the point of this entire chapter. If they had not taken action based on God's word, they would not have had faith. It's one thing to say you have faith, it's something else to act on that faith. One can even question if you're not willing to act on it, do you really trust? Faith is merely just trust. If we have somebody tell us something, do I believe them? Well, if the person is trustworthy, then I'll trust their statements and I'll then act on it. That's an act of faith. If the person that's talking to me is not trustworthy, therefore I can't trust their words and I'm not going to act on it. How do I know whether I have faith? It's whether I act on what they tell me. We cannot say we have faith and then not act upon it. Anyone not carrying out their faith in action does not have faith. If we notice here in Hebrews 11, we notice that it goes from when Israel left Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea, then the very next verse is the attack of Jericho. If we notice, it does not mention any acts of faith during the 40 years wilderness march. The reason is because the 40 years in the wilderness were not by faith. There were no acts of faith there. That was a time of doubt and punishment. The people were under God's judgment and they were wandering in the wilderness because they didn't believe. This chapter focuses on the acts of faith and not the acts of disbelief. In the next section, he stops focusing on individual actions and starts summarizing. We're going to see some things that are good here and some things that are a little more challenging. Steve, can you start in verse 32 and read down to verse 40?

SPEAKER_00: 7:42

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, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 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. Women received back their dead by resurrection, and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword, they went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. All these things, 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.

SPEAKER_01: 9:08

In this section, he basically summarizes two groups of people. The first group were the people who acted on faith. He talked in there about conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, quenched the power of fire, escaped the sword, weakness were made strong. Those were the good acts of faith. The other one is they endured some very painful things, such as being sawn into and these quite painful things. What I notice in that first part of what we just read, he mentions several names. He mentions in verse 32, he mentions Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephtha, David, and Samuel. Now, what I find most interesting about that list is that most of those names had people who had very large failures in their life. These people did some great sins. Let's go through them and let me point this out. Gideon is in Judges chapter six through eight. And Gideon started out, if you remember, hiding in a hole from the Philistines. When the scene opens, he was hiding, processing grain so that the enemy wouldn't find him. He was then commanded to go and do God's work. He tested God twice to make sure by the putting out a fleece and the getting dew on it. He did obey God by cutting down idols, but he did so at night so nobody would see him. Yes, Gideon did an act of faith by going up against 30,000 men, army of the enemy, with only 300. That was a great act of faith. But in the end, if we remember about Gideon, he became greedy, he created an idol out of a priest's vestment, and then worshiped the idol. He did some very greedy things. Gideon on this list was a mixture of someone who had faith, he had some weak faith, and he also did some great and severe sins. Now, Steve Barack was in Judges 4. What do we know about Barack?

SPEAKER_00: 11:28

Well, he comes about in conjunction with Deborah, who says that she was a judge in a different area of the land at the time. And he had been commanded by God to be raised up as a judge because the people had been crying out for God to do something. They were being oppressed at the time. Actually, Deborah comes to him and reminds him, says, Hey, don't you remember God has called you forth in order to be a judge for the people? He tells her, I'm not going to do it unless you go with me. She acquiesces and says, Okay, I'll go with you, but you will not receive the fame for taking care of the enemy. As the story goes, he actually is the leader and does take care of the enemy, but yet she receives the fame from it. What's interesting to me that he's mentioned here in verse 32 in the absence of Deborah along with him.

SPEAKER_01: 12:27

The next person that's mentioned here is Samson, and we find Samson in Judges chapters 13 to 16. Of course, Samson was the one who was given great strength. Now, Samson had a long string of failures. He ate unclean food. It was against the Mosaic law and caused his parents to sin by giving them the unclean food and not telling them about it. He wasted his great strength with prostitutes. For his entire life, Samson acted like a spoiled child. He would go to his parents and ask them to fix his problems. The only acts of faith ever recorded in the entire life of Samson were one time he prayed, and then he prayed again at the very tail end of his life. At the very end, after he had lost his sight, he prayed to God and said, God, please bring my strength back this one last time. And if you remember, he pushed against the pillows of the temple and it collapsed and killed himself and his enemies. Samson not only sinned by frittering away God's gift, but he caused others to sin and he had his eyes put out because he was foolish and he never gained his sight back. God gave him his strength back, but he never got his sight back. Samson lived a very foolish life with a drop or two of faith in it. Then we have Jephthah. Steve, Jephthah is in Judges chapters 11 and 12. Who is Jephthah and what did he do?

SPEAKER_00: 14:05

Well, Jephthah was another judge that was raised up and defeated the enemy with the help of God. But in part of that, he made a vow to God that said if he would be successful, that he would offer up as a sacrifice to God the first thing that came out of his house whenever he returned home. Of course, the story goes as he returned that it was his daughter that came out, not just his daughter, but his only daughter that came out of the house. That was a very foolish vow. We talked about that in detail when we went through judges and we discussed it at that time that there were several different things that he could have done, but that was a foolish vow that he made.

SPEAKER_01: 14:49

And Jephthah's vow for his daughter was a vow of perpetual virginity. He sacrificed her marriage, if you were, right? We take it he did not have a burnt sacrifice with her. She mourns her virginity because she was never going to have a child. Then we have in Hebrews here mentioned David. Now, of course, King David at different times of his life expressed a great deal of faith, but he also was a man with some great failures. He had a great failure with a series of women. David committed adultery and then committed murder to cover up the adultery. David had a very hot temper. David was a very poor father to his children. So if we look at these people, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, some of them, like David and Gideon, were sort of a mixture of some faith and sin and weakness. Some of them, like Samson and Barak, really didn't have any, hardly any acts of faith ever mentioned. So we ask, why would these people be mentioned here? It's not like, okay, Abraham did these great acts of faith, and there was a couple of small things where he told a lie. That's a sin, but compared to what David did, they were relatively minor. Why would we have these people? All these men had great moral failures, but they all had at least a little bit of faith. Jesus said, What did he say about faith? All we need is faith like a mustard seed. If these men can be listed as having great faith, then there's a chance for scoundrels like me and scoundrels like you. That's what I take in here is if these men, with all of their moral failures and all of their problems that they created, if they could be listed as people of faith, then there's hope for me. Steve, what do you think of when you see this list of names?

SPEAKER_00: 16:49

The writer here of Hebrews is going through all of these acts of faith by these people that had character flaws, and we've discussed them as we've gone along, and there's going to be some more as we go through here. To encourage and bolster the people that he's writing to. They're Christians, Jewish Christians in Judea. He's convincing them to stay faithful to the decision that they have made, not because of their salvation, they are already saved, but not to go back under Judaism and the sacrifices there because that would mean that they would recrucify Christ over and over again. They were going to lose their rewards. It might shorten their life here on earth. They were going to be under the judgment that was pending because Jesus had talked about the stones of the temple were not going to be standing one on the other. So there was an impending judgment that was out there that was going to happen. He's giving them all these stories of these faithful people, like I said, had character flaws to bolster their faith to continue on and going forward. In these verses 32 through 34, they're in a series of triplets that are here. The first triplet talks about national victories. The second triplet talks about personal deliverance. They stop the mouths of lions, they quench the power of fire, they escaped the edge of the sword. And then the third triplet talks about personal gifts and attainments, that those who from weakness were made strong, Gideon, Samson, and David as example, they waxed mighty in war, Joshua, Barak, and David, and they turned to fight armies and aliens. We have those stories through David and Jehoshaphat. I think the author of Hebrews is doing a masterful job, Glenn, going through all of these different people of faith to once again bolster this audience that he's writing to to stay true and to stay faithful to the decisions they've made and to keep looking to the future and not look back to the past of where they had come from.

SPEAKER_01: 19:06

If we look at this long list of people in Hebrews 11 that are lifted up as having faith and lifted up as examples of people with faith, all these were fallible people who had trust in a great God. The book of Hebrews is not saying that this list of people were a list of great people. No, no. It's saying that these were ordinary weak people who had trust in the power of a great God and they merely acted upon it. It's not that the people were great, it's that the God was great. All these people did was trust the Lord and then acted upon what he had told them. The lesson in Hebrews is that we can trust God to do what he promises. And remember the flow of the entire book. The book of Hebrews is written to Jewish. Believers in Jesus Christ that were getting persecuted in the world. And he's encouraging them to stay the course. That's going to happen between here and chapter 12 is that stay the course, stay true to God, stay on the right path. That's what he's doing. He's saying, remember all these people, they had issues, they had problems, but they believed in a great God and they stayed faithful. I think that's a lesson that applied to our lives today. If we were to go around the room in our churches today and ask people about stories of trusting God, then I trust we would have many of these kind of stories today. There are great heroes of the faith that are all around us that are just simple, fallible people that have trust in a great God and act on what he says. Now we have to also in this next section have a great contrast. If you notice, starting in verse 32 and 33, he lists these great wonderful things that we like to hear who by faith conquered kingdoms. Oh, I like that, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions. That was Daniel, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were weak, made strong, mighty in war, women received back their dead. We like those. Those are the ones, yes, we'll cheer on for those. But he turns a very hard corner and lists some other people who had faith too. But starting in the middle of verse 35, listen to the other people here that he lists that had great faith. But these were quite painful. He says, others were tortured. Oh, don't like that. Not accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection. Others experienced mockings and scourgings, thus beatings, chains and imprisonment, stoned, sawn into, tempted, put to death with the sword. And then it goes about telling about some of these were just very poor. They went about in sheepskin, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated. We can all stand and cheer for the ones that shut the mouths of lions and won the battles. But when we look at the other part of the list, it gives us pause. This is very sobering. Some people had dead loved ones resurrected from the dead. Others refused to be released from torture because they had faith that God would have something better for them if they kept the faith. There have been Christians throughout history that were persecuted. There's Christians that were tortured. There's Christians that were killed for their faith. It's still happening today. Verse 35 is suggesting that people could have avoided the torture if they had denied their faith, but they didn't. They stayed the course. They would not deny the faith just to make it easier on themselves. They refuse. The question for us, and Steve, I'll ask you this question: do you think you could endure torture for your faith and not deny Christ?

SPEAKER_00: 23:19

Those are one of those hypothetical questions that you don't really know how you're going to react until it actually happens to you. I would like to think that I would for sure. One of the things that we get through this is that these examples show it was not God's will to physically save everyone, that there were times when periods whenever he didn't intervene and whenever they didn't see that from God and they suffered these terrible deaths from him. There in the verse part of 35 talks about the women received back their dead. A lot of the miracles happened with women. We have the widow of Zarephath, whose son was raised by Elijah. We have the widow of Nain whose son was raised by Elisha. And then over in the New Testament, we have Mary and Martha, whose brother Lazarus was raised from the dead by Jesus himself. But with all of those examples, they all died again. But in the latter part of 35, there it talks about those who went through with the suffered and didn't want to release their torture and imprisonment, that they obtained a better resurrection. Well, what is a better resurrection? It's an immortal body that they were going to receive, that they were going to have eternal life, a glorified body. It's the same things that we have. Coming back to your question that you asked me, how would I react if I was put in that situation? I would look forward and saying that the body that I have here is a temporary body, and they could do with what they will with this body, but I've got an immortal body. I've got a glorified body that I'm going to have, and I'm going to have a great and better future ahead of me, something to look forward to that I think would carry me through that type of a situation, just like it carried these people through the situations that were depicted here.

SPEAKER_01: 25:22

I've thought about this question for quite a long time. And I think the first response you gave, Steve, is right, you don't really know what you're going to do until you get into these circumstances. But I have faith in a great God. And I think God increases our faith when we need it. I think any of these people, if you would have asked them way before they got into these problems, they would have had the same question, same answer we do, in the sense that, well, I hope I don't have to go through that. We'll see when it comes. When the time comes, God will give you strength. When the time comes, God will give you strength. I trust that we, if we ever get into a situation, there's still today people that are being killed for their faith. Now, the next thing I want to explain in this passage is we have today in our nation and I'm sure in other places, what we call prosperity preachers. These people teach a false doctrine that God is always going to do things that feel good, that he's going to pour down money from the sky and he's going to make you wealthy, and you're never going to get sick, and all your bills are going to get paid, and things are always going to be kind of downhill on greased grooves. We call them prosperity preachers. I've never seen one of the prosperity preachers teach the last part of Hebrews chapter 11, because I could just imagine, I can picture in my mind, if we look through this list, let's say there's one person there that is being sawn in two, as it says, and another person is being killed with the sword, and another person's being stoned, and another person is going about in goatskins, being destitute. The prosperity preacher is standing there saying, Well, you can have your best life now. You know, if you had enough faith, you could have all the money you want, and you'll never experience pain. No, no, that is exactly the opposite of what Hebrews 11 is saying. God, it says, resurrects people and has great acts of faith with that. Most of the people in the entire chapter never saw the fulfillment of what God had promised them. Here it says some of them even had to endure torture just for not denying the Lord. I think that we can take that to be exactly what it says. We should be in a position to trust God, whether he makes things comfortable for us, or whether he gives us challenges like he did Abraham and Isaac, or whether we have physical pain like being tortured. I think the true test is how much do you really believe? Can you have faith that God's going to bring about something better no matter what he brings my way to give me faith? Then lastly, in verse 39, all the people receiving this promise, the final promise, none of them saw. All of them were waiting and believing that God would be faithful in what he promised. Faith helps us look towards future rewards, and faith helps us not be concerned about the opinions of worldly people around us. See, that's just such a great chapter.

SPEAKER_00: 28:40

It is. And I think, in summation, here, as you pointed out, that there were certain personal promises that were fulfilled in their day, but the Old Testament saints did not receive the national and messianic promises and prophecies. Through that, I think we could sum it up this way is that the author has pointed out many times to his readers, the audience that he's writing to, that they possess faith. And that it's now is the time that they are to use their faith by showing patient endurance, as did these saints that he's giving here. We call them Old Testament saints. There is something waiting for all believers in the future, and that now they are to exercise their faith in the patient endurance of waiting for those future things to come. It's the same thing with you and me, Glenn. We have to exercise our faith in the patient endurance of what we've talked about before, this world that is continuing to degrade, but yet this is not our world. Our citizenship is in heaven. We have greater things to look forward to, and we need to stay in our faith and continue in it. And not only just us, but also encourage our other fellow believers and also go out and witness, go out and make disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as Jesus had directed us to do, making disciples of them. Those are the things and the activities that we should be doing here with expectation of the future messianic kingdom that's coming and the future that we all have as believers for our glorified bodies and reigning with Him as well.

SPEAKER_01: 30:32

That's the end of Hebrews chapter 11, which is the faith chapter. Next time we'll be in chapter 12, which is the hope chapter, where we learn to fix our eyes on Jesus. That is really our command for today.

SPEAKER_00: 30:46

Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.