December 24, 2006
WHAT SHALL WE SAY MORE?
Hebrews 11:32-40

 

   "For the time would fail...to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: who
By faith subdued kingdoms,
   Wrought righteousness,
      Obtained promises,
         Stopped the mouths of lions,
            Quenched the violence of fire,
                Escaped the edge of the sword,
                  Made strong out of weakness,
                     Waxed valiant in fight,
                        Turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
                           Women received their dead raised to life again: and
                              Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance;
That they might obtain a BETTER RESURRECTION:
Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover
   Of bonds and imprisonment:
      They were stoned,
          They were sawn asunder,
            They were tempted,
               They were slain with the sword:
                  They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins;
                     Being destitute,
                        Afflicted,
                           Tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:)
                              They wandered in deserts...mountains...dens...caves.
And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:32-40).
   We have seen but a sample of the demonstrations of faith in the lives of God's saints through the ages. No doubt Paul would have a special place in such a list, for not only did he "labor more abundantly than they all," (1 Cor. 15:11), he suffered "in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft" (2 Cor. 11:23). "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Tim. 3:12). How about us?

 

Ivan L. Burgener