Gideon or Jerub-Baal All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family. The Lord used Jepthah Judges to subdue the Ammonites and Ephraimites - but he also sacrificed his daughter to satisfy a vow he made to "ensure victory.
It is not at all clear that inclusion on the list in Hebrews requires that we view these men as heroes of the faith. Some are, some are not. All were used by God to achieve his purposes. Of course, God also used Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus. As we will see in our walk through Isaiah, Cyrus is even called "his anointed.
So What? I recently heard a sermon that used the story of Samson as a foreshadowing of Jesus. The way that Samson was connected with Jesus disturbed me. A number of parallels were drawn - the divinely enabled birth of Samson to a woman unable to have children ff , the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson , , , Samson sacrificed himself for his people - more on this below.
This preacher is not off by himself. Other Christians have viewed Samson as a type of Jesus, based on similarities between their lives. There is a running theme through the Old and New Testament of God's will being accomplished through children born through his promise to childless women for example: Sarah, Rebekah see Gen , Hannah 1 Sam. Samson does fall in this pattern and it is clear that Jesus does as well, but in a far more profound way.
Okay, but can we go beyond this? Now the preacher did not claim that Samson was perfect - in fact far from it. He commented on the rather foolish interaction with Delilah. After the first three incidents, you would think Samson would realize that she was not to be trusted! He suggested that Samson's self-confidence was such that he thought no one could ever defeat him and his hair was unimportant.
That makes sense. Perhaps Samson's biggest problem here was that he thought that his success was all his own doing and nothing could change it. First, it is important to clarify that the author of Hebrews 11 is merely listing people from biblical history who demonstrated some faith.
Rather, he presumes that his audience already knows about the depressing message of the book of Judges; so he intentionally does something different. The point of Hebrews 11 is to inspire us to grow in our faithfulness to Jesus; the point of the book of Judges is to warn us about our tendency toward apostasy or faith less ness!
Since Hebrews 11 has a positive objective, the author selectively includes only the positive details from people who had imperfect faith. Fee and D. The selected stories of faith in Hebrews 11 should be viewed as catalysts that point us to God. God is clearly the one in the book of Judges who sends oppressors, raises up leaders, sends his Spirit, and grants deliverance. God is therefore identified in the book as the ultimate ruler and the ideal judge In light of these general considerations, I would suggest the following principles for interpretation:.
The point in Scripture is never that we should be like Abraham or Moses, or—God forbid! While all of these characters may have exhibited some measure of faith, the purpose is to point us to God so that we can be formed into his likeness see Eph Snapshots from the lives of these imperfect characters are recorded in order to direct us God-ward by showing us who He is based on what He has done in the past.
The truth is that all of us are faith-challenged and are works-in-progress see Rom New International Version And what more shall I say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. English Standard Version And what more shall I say? Douay-Rheims Bible And what shall I yet say? International Standard Version And what more should I say? Literal Standard Version And what yet will I say? Judges Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; so He delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, Judges Then the angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites.
Am I not sending you?
0コメント