So far, our tour through the Hebrews 11 Faith Hall Of Fame has stopped to look at some well-known Biblical personalities such as Moses and Noah and a few not-so-well-known characters such as Enoch and Rahab. In this edition, we’ll continue that pattern by looking at two more members of the Faith Hall Of Fame, one of whom is very familiar and another who is much less so.
“Well, how much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel and all the other prophets” (Hebrews 11:32).
The less well-known member of our Hall of Fame duo for today is a man named Barak. Barak was an Israelite who lived in the Old Testament period that is written about in the Biblical book of Judges. Like the rest of the people of Israel in his day, Barak had suffered for 20 years under the oppressive rulership of a man named Jabin (see Judges 4:3).
Jabin was the leader of the Canaanites, a group of people who lived in the territory that God had given to Israel. Although God had instructed His people to totally wipe out the Canaanites when they first came in to take over the land (Deuteronomy 20:16-18), a large number still remained well after Israel had taken over. As you might expect, this led to a lot of trouble between the Israelites and Canaanites over the years.
In Barak’s time, Jabin enforced his rule over Israel through a military leader named Sisera. Sisera had an army that included 900 iron chariots (Judges 4:3) which represented some pretty serious firepower back in those days and helped Jabin keep things under control. Unfortunately for Jabin and Sisera however, they were about to find out that their military strength was no match for God and His power…
“Israel’s leader at that time, the one who was responsible for bringing the people back to God, was Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth. She held court at a place now called ‘Deborah’s Palm Tree,’ between Ramah and Bethel, in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites came to her to decide their disputes.
“One day she summoned Barak (son of Abinoam), who lived in Kedesh, in the land of Naphtali, and said to him, ‘The Lord God of Israel has commanded you to mobilize ten thousand men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun. Lead them to Mount Tabor to fight King Jabin’s mighty army with all his chariots, under General Sisera’s command. The Lord says, “‘I will draw them to the Kishon River, and you will defeat them there.'”
“‘I’ll go, but only if you go with me!’ Barak told her. ‘All right,’ she replied, ‘I’ll go with you; but I’m warning you now that the honor of conquering Sisera will go to a woman instead of to you!’ So she went with him to Kedesh” (Judges 4:4-9).
So it seems that Barak was hardly the kind of enthusiastic, “let’s go for it against all odds” type of person that you might expect to see in the Faith Hall of Fame, doesn’t it? In fact, Barak basically told Deborah, “You want me to save Israel? Fine- but you’re going with me and if you don’t want to go, then forget it.” How’s that for a shining example of faith? So how could Barak possibly end up in the Faith Hall Of Fame? Well, let’s drop down to Judges 4:14 and check it out…
“Then Deborah said to Barak, ‘Now is the time for action! The Lord leads on! He has already delivered Sisera into your hand!’ So Barak led his ten thousand men down the slopes of Mount Tabor into battle. Then the Lord threw the enemy into a panic, both the soldiers and the charioteers, and Sisera leaped from his chariot and escaped on foot” (Judges 4:14-15).
Here’s the answer: despite his initial hesitation, Barak moved forward on God’s commandment through His spokesperson by faith. You can see this simply by looking at the sequence of events that took place after Barak and Deborah left together to take on Sisera’s army. Notice that Deborah first told Barak, “The Lord says go.” Barak then acted on God’s direction and the Bible tells us that “At Barak’s advance, the LORD routed Sisera…” (Judges 4:15 NIV emphasis added).
You see, once Barak showed his faith by acting on God’s orders, God then moved ahead with the fulfillment of His promise. Now if you’ve been following along on our little tour through Hebrews 11 then this should all sound very familiar, for Barak’s actions are very similar to what we saw earlier when Joshua and his army took out the city of Jericho. Like Joshua, Barak acted according to God’s instructions first- then he saw God come through on his behalf! In this way, Barak’s demonstration of faith landed him a place in the Bible’s Faith Hall Of Fame.
(By the way, you might be wondering about what happened to Sisera and Jabin. Well, you’ll have to read Judges 4:17-24 for the answer to that question but be warned- it’s not pretty).
Our second Hall-Of-Famer for today is named Samson and you can find the accounts of his life beginning in Judges chapter 13. Unlike some other members of the Faith Hall Of Fame (like Barak, for example), the name Samson is probably familiar to most people, even to those people who don’t read the Bible very much. In fact, it’s probably fair to say that most people have at least heard something about Samson and how he was a man of tremendous physical strength.
If you read the story of Samson’s life in the Bible, you’ll find that he demonstrated his incredible strength in a number of ways. For example, Samson once took out a thousand enemy fighters using just a jawbone (Judges 15:15). Samson also killed a lion with his bare hands (Judges 14:5-6) and could easily split ropes that were used to tie him up (Judges 16:12). That’s pretty impressive and not surprisingly, Samson served as Israel’s leader for 20 years (Judges 15:20).
Unfortunately, the big problem with Samson was that he was also a hot-headed, playboy type of guy who had a bad habit of getting involved in personal relationships that were very bad for him. The most well-known example of this is found in Judges 16:4-20 which tells the story of how a woman named Delilah convinced Samson to tell her the secret of his strength and how she betrayed that secret to his enemies. The Scriptures tell us that following Delilah’s betrayal, Samson’s Philistine enemies captured him, dug out his eyes, tied him up with bronze chains and put him to work in prison pushing a big stone wheel that was used to grind up grain (see Judges 16:4-21).
So how could a man like Samson, a man who was set apart by God (Judges 13:5) and who served as a leader of the people for 20 years, end up blind and chained up in prison? Well, the sad truth is that like many people today, Samson made a lot of bad choices and those choices ultimately resulted in a terrible consequence.
But remember what was said earlier when we looked at the life of Gideon -it’s not always how you start but how you finish that really counts. If you continue reading about Samson after he was put into prison, do you know what you find? Well, after Samson’s lifetime of immaturity and disobedience caused him to become a total joke to his enemies, Samson turned to God in faith once more. Here’s what happened…
“Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, ‘Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.’ When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, ‘Our god has delivered our enemy into our hands, the one who laid waste our land and multiplied our slain.’
“While they were in high spirits, they shouted, ‘Bring out Samson to entertain us.’ So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them. When they stood him among the pillars, Samson said to the servant who held his hand, ‘Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.’
“Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. Then Samson prayed to the LORD, ‘O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.’
Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, Samson said, ‘Let me die with the Philistines!’ Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived” (Judges 16:23-30 NIV).
So despite all of his mistakes, Samson turned to God in faith and God turned his helplessness into one final act of strength, thereby finding him a place here along with the other members of the Bible’s Faith Hall Of Fame.