Barak~ the man whose faith grew through a battle

This is a picture of Barak, one of God's most unlikely heroes. Let look at how his faith grew through battles.

Barak was son of Abinoam who was from the tribe of Naptali .Barak came from the city of refuge named, Kedesh (Judges 4:6). Cities of refuge were given to the Israelites by God for the protection of those who found a need to flee to a place of protection. I find it interesting that Barak was called out of one of these cities to go and fight Israelites' enemy who was oppressing them terribly. In a way, he was called to lead them into a state of refuge and peace.

As it was, God had Deborah, a prophetess, who judged Israel, summoned Barak to go and fight their enemy to bring peace back to their land. Barak said, "Only if you will go with me." Now why do you think that he did that? I believe it was because he had little faith in himself as a leader & in God as a deliverer. But since Deborah was willing to go with him he gained courage, & lead 10, 000 men into battle against their enemy.

Once Deboroah yelled, "Charge!" Barak gave the battle all that he had. Why is that? I believe that it was because as the battle went on & he could see that they were winning. That made his faith stronger and stronger. You see faith is a little like a muscle that gets stronger with work or exercise. By the time the battle was over, Barak's faith had grown very strong, and after the battle was over Barak & Deborah sang praises to God for the victory. (Judges 4:1-5:31)

Gideon~ the man who was called out of hiding to become a mighty man of valor

The next picture we see in this great hall of faith is that of Gideon. Gideon was from the tribe of Manasseh. Manasseh was the son of Joseph who was the son of Jacob is is the Father of the  original tribes. If you will remember that Jacob blessed Joesph's sons & promised him that his sons would also be given a piece of the promised land (Gen. 48:1-22). This did happen when their people entered the land (Joshua 17:1-8). So now that we know how Gideon connects with those in whom we have been looking at let us take a look at the circumstances that took Gideon from being a man in hiding to a mighty man of valor.

Because the children of Israel had disobeyed God, again. God allowed the Midianites to rule over them for seven years.The Midianites made it so hard on the Israelites that they were hiding from them by living in dens & caves in the mountains.  The Midianties also were stealing their food. Because of this, the Israelites cried out to God.

God heard their cries & the angel of the Lord came to Gideon and his Father, Josash. Now let us picture this in our minds. Josash & his son, Gideon were hiding behind a wine press to thresh the wheat In other words, Gideon was a coward. Then the angel of the Lord comes up and sits next to them & tells him that God is with him & then goes on and calls him a man of valor! Gideon couldn't believe his ears & argued the point. Much like Moses did (Ex. 3:1-11). But the Angel of the Lord encouraged Gideon. But Gideon wasn't sure so he did a couple of tests to make sure that he had heard God right. Both times the tests proved that God indeed want him to lead the Israelites into battle against the Midianites.

Once Gideon was sure that this is what God wanted him to do, he went to God for directions & obeyed everything that God asked of him. He indeed became a mighty man of valor! Later he became a judge for his country. You can read all about it in Judges 6-8:13.






                                                                                                                                                                 

Rahab~ the woman whose faith took her from harlot to being in Jesus' lineage

The next picture we see on the wall shows that God not only went outside of Abraham's family, but outside of the chosen people of God, as well. Why? Because of her faith. Let us take a closer look at her life to better understand why she is a great hero of faith, shall we?

Rahab was a harlot in the city of Jericho. That would make her an untouchable in two ways in Jewish eyes. Why? 1.  Because she was not of the holy lineage of the Jewish people.. They believed that they were not to deal with the  "Greek," also known as non-Jewish .people, for they were unclean. 2. She was a harlot. They not only were told not to touch a harlot, but harlots were often stoned to death for the crime of adultery. So why is she in Jesus lineage? Faith, my friend, faith. Let us take a closer look at that.

Joshua sent spies into the city of Jericho to see where it's weak spots were, as knowing this would help them to best figure out how to over come & destroy it. While there they were spotted & reported to those who were protecting the city. A man hunt was called on. The spies were trying to figure out how to best get out of the doubled walled city before they were spotted. As they did so Rahab whose home was built between the two walls of the city & on the outer wall, called to them. She motioned for them to go into her house to hide. They yielded to her call & went into her home. 

Once in her home, she hid them on the back roof of her house & placed stocks of flax that were drying over them to keep them from being found. People often dried their stocks of flax on their roofs to dry, so no one would have thought anything about them being there. She also lied to the King when she was called into a court of law before the King of Jericho, & told him that she had no idea where they were (Josh. 1:1-6:27 ).

Why?  Because, she knew that they were with the great group of people who had entered the land & had won many battles against other cities in the land. She had heard that people in her city were afraid of them for they knew that the Jewish people's God was very powerful & helped them win these battles. She told them this before she helped them to escape by climbing out her back window & climbing down a scarlet rope. She also spoke of her faith in their God & asked them to spare her family & her when they came to destroy Jericho.  

They promised that they would indeed save her family & her. Then they went on to tell her to get her family together & keep them in the house, also to keep the rope tied where it was so that they would know here her house was during the fight. After they left and led to the hills to hide until it was safe to go back to their people, Rahab gathered her family together in her home & they waited many days for the men's return. I speak of this waiting period in more detail in "In Pursuit of the virtuous woman". Feel free to read it.

Then when the day finally came, and the Jewish people were marching around the city, Rahab & her family continued to wait. For seven long days, they waited. I believe that shows that she continued to have faith enough to be patient for the time to come.  Then the walls finally fell. Can you imagine what it might have been like to be held up in Rahab's house when the walls fell, & the fighting started. Imagine hearing it all, & yet waiting, & wondering... will the walls fall on us, or how long is it going to be, or will they remember their promise. Yet they stayed put. Why? Because of Rahab's  faith(Heb. 11:31).

When they dug up the lower parts of Jericho's walls remains, they found that part of one of the walls were still standing & the houses there were still whole. That is our powerful God!

So you see, Rahab went from being a harlot to being in the lineage of Christ (Mat. 1:5), because of her faith in God.

  

Joshua ~from fearful to powerful leader

 The next picture that we see in this great hall of faith is Joshua. Up to now, most of the ones we have looked at are from the same family. But Joshua is different. He is in here because of who he worked with, as well as his faith. But he was not always the powerful leader that he became. Let us look at his story to see how God changed him from being a fearful leader to a powerful one, shall we?

Joshua worked for the great leader, Moses. He was one of the spies who went into spy on the land for Moses before they went into it. He is one of two men who came back with a report that showed that he had faith in God's abilities to help them take over the land(Numbers 13).  Joshua also lead God's people in battles along the way, while under Moses direction (Ex. 17:12). Then Moses dies.

Someone has to finish leading God's people into the promised land. So God looked over all the people to find a man who would be just right for the job, and there was Joshua! A man of faith, who had faithfully served under Moses as he lead these people. You could say that he had been trained for the job all along.  But there was one problem. Joshua liked being the man behind Moses, & he didn't feel qualified for the job, when God appointed him to lead His people. You could even say that the idea even scared him a bit. We see this when God encouraged him and tells him, "Be of good courage" (Joshua 1:6,9).

But thank God, Joshua didn't keep that way of thinking! After God gave him a pep talk letting him know that he would help him lead these people & to take courage & lead. Joshua lead God's people into the land God had promised to them & into many a battle to claim it. You see, once Joshua knew that he would not have to lead these people by his own strength, but by the strength of God. He walked in faith with God, leaning on God to do the job that he was appointed to do. And why did God appoint him to do this? Because he had shown that he had had faith in God clear back when he was just a spy, as well as, walked faithfully with God & faithfully did his duties when he wasn't the leader. That is why his picture hangs in the great wall of faith!

You can read all about Joshua in the book that has his name on it.