Hebrews 11:30-38 - Homiletics

Exploits and endurances of faith.

The last two specific examples here cited are connected with the entrance of Israel into Canaan under Joshua.

1. The fall of Jericho. (Verse 30) That stronghold was not reduced as the result of a long siege. It was not successfully assaulted with engines of war. The only means employed were processions, trumpets, and shouts. But the Israelites did not doubt that the word of Jehovah would be fulfilled; and, as the Divine reward of their faith, which they had shown in a sevenfold or perfect manner in "compassing Jericho about seven days," the wall fell down fiat.

2. The safety of Rahab. (Verse 31) Rahab had been a heathen woman, and at one time a woman of abandoned character; but she is now known to the world only as a heroine of faith. The object of her faith was the God of Israel himself, and his purpose to procure Canaan for the chosen people. The ground of it was the miraculous passage of the Red Sea, and the overthrow of the Amorites. Its fruit was seen in her determination at whatever risk to befriend the two scouts, as being Jehovah's servants. And the reward of Rahab's faith lay in her preservation amid the general destruction, and the honor which she received in becoming an ancestress of the Messiah.—In this chapter the author had begun at the beginning of Genesis; and he has been turning over the Old Testament Scriptures almost page by page, and finding everywhere noble specimen-deeds of faith. But the time would fail him were he to continue as he began. Although the galleries of Hebrew history are crowded with portraits of spiritual heroes, our inspired guide tells us that we may not linger any longer over individual pictures. He will permit us only a very hurried walk through the exhibition; for he is anxious to introduce us to the masterpiece of the whole—the portrait of "Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith" ( Hebrews 12:2 ). What a splendid sentence, or group of sentences, this in verses 32-38! How rhetorically resonant, and how spiritually triumphant! These verses may be said themselves to form "one great, magnificent picture, full of figures individually striking, and admirably disposed with regard to one another" (Dr. Lindsay).

I. SUMMARY OF DEEDS DONE THROUGH FAITH . (Verses 32-34) The men of faith are all workers or soldiers.

1. Six famous heroes are mentioned by name (verse 32). These are, four eminent judges; David, the illustrious king; and saintly Samuel, the first of "the prophets."

2. There follows a condensed and. vivid description of the achievements of the heroes of faith (verses 33, 34). The preacher may verify every one of these references from those great eras of Jewish history which extended in succession from the time of Joshua to the age of the Maccabees.

II. SUMMARY OF SUFFERINGS BORNE THROUGH FAITH . (Verses 35-38) For the workers and soldiers of faith are also sufferers. Each expression in this eloquent. epitome may be amply vindicated from the same eras of Hebrew history, and especially from the later periods, the time of the prophets, of the Captivity, and. of the restoration. It is evident that the apostle has here prominently in view the sufferings of Judas Maccabaeus and his brave compatriots in the days of that monster of cruelty, Antiochus Epiphanes. The parenthesis in verse 38, while it is in itself a sweetly beautiful exclamation, also sums up the character of the men of faith in a weighty monograph. Their persecutors condemned them as unworthy of living in the world; but, instead of that, the world was not worthy of them. These godly exiles and martyrs were "the salt of the earth." Their lives decked humanity, even in its periods of gross darkness, with a coronal of spiritual light. The apostle's design in this chapter is to convince his readers that in trusting Christ, and daring and bearing all things for him, they are exercising the very same principle that made "the elders" of the Jewish nation the men they were. The apostle stops at the time of the Maccabees. But it is for us to remember that the exploits and endurances of faith have been as great—in some respects greater ( John 14:12 )—in New Testament times than in the ages before Christ. We are prone to draw oftentimes too sharp a line between what we call "sacred history" and "profane history," and we sometimes forget that the living God is as really present in the one as in the other. Reflect then, in closing, upon the triumphs of faith: