"32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life."
Hebrews 11:32-35
It would be tempting to take each name mentioned here individually for comment and discussion, but we had better follow the example of the Apostle as he brings to a close his catalogue of faith's heroes, and concentrate rather on his final observations on these wonderful lives. We may conveniently sum up the gist of these verses here under the heading of 'faith's achievements', just as the following verses may be styled, 'faith's sufferings'. We single out two phrases in particular for comment. Through faith they 'subdued kingdoms’. If this tremendous phrase means anything at all for us, it means that faith can lay siege to the whole nation and ransom it from the growing paganism and materialism into which it is sinking, reclaiming it for righteousness and for God. This is the force of the references to the period of the Judges, and even more so Samuel and David - for was not this what they did, in the energy and with the inspiration of a living faith in God? These men achieved things because they had faith; we have only opinions (as someone has rather cynically put it) and therefore have problems instead of achievements. That is the fundamental difference between our experience and that of the saints of old. They were sure of God; we do not really know Him.