HEB 11:32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about
Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets

Dr Tong came in a little earlier this week and promptly went to rest on the
reclining chair I got him. He greeted me and asked me about my ministry, I
gave him a brief answer, bowed my head to read the passage for the evening,
and within seconds, he was sound asleep, again completely exhausted over his
long day. I did not disturb him but was kind of worried that he would sleep
through the whole session, but as usual, he appeared in due time, and as
usual, came completely alive at the pulpit. I think he did not even take his
dinner... still have no clue how he does this week after week.

Tong started by reviewing last session's lesson on the prostitute Rahab, and
emphasized how Rahab was a classic Old Testament example of the universality
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This was a good reminder even for myself, as
I spoke during the Youth "No Apologies" sexual abstinence session the next
day, reminding the people that while sexual purity is a biblical design and
goal for Christians, the example of Rahab showed us that no one who made
sexual mistakes can be out of the grace of God.

Here in verse 32, the author of Hebrews started to end his exposition on
great men and women of faith. Faith enabled these people to see the future
from the presence, to view eternity from the temporal, and as such, they
were able to transcend time-space into eternity. This, said Tong, is the
uniqueness of Christianity, in that while other faith grabble with
uncertainties, the Christian is certain of the outcome of history, and where
we are all heading towards. This certainty is found in our LORD Jesus
Christ, as the Old Testament prepared the people for the New Testament which
fulfilled the OT promises in the person Jesus Christ. All of scripture
points toward Christ as the fulfillment of God's revelation, and faith in Him
enables the Christian to move into eternity.

There are so many people in the Old Testament that exercised such faith that
the author essentially did not have enough time to talk about them all. Here
he listed six names plus a collective term (i.e. prophets) for the rest,
making the grand total of seven. The first would be Gideon, and Tong went on
to elaborate on the lessons to be learned from Gideon. One of my 'problem'
with working with Dr Tong is that he has truly demonstrated that there are
so much insight and power in the Word of God that a verse could take weeks
to expound on (which I am sure would be the case for this verse, character
by character). After working with him, it is difficult to preach on a given
passage without feeling guilty about short-changing God's people... ha ha.

Gideon was a very interesting case study. Tong noted firstly that Gideon had
a father, who not only did not worship Jehovah God, he built altars for Baal
instead. In other words, he was like a temple owner, and people would come
to his temple to worship Baal. Tong reminded the congregation that about the
leadership of Moses, and that of Joshua; both constantly and repeatedly
reminded the Israelites not to worship idols. Joshua's declaration that he
and his family would worship the LORD (Joshua 24:15) was especially
significant, for he had dedicated his entire family to God. Despite of it
all, the Israelites fell into a 4-fold pattern in their history:
1. They would leave God and worship idols 2. God would allow their enemies
to persecute them 3. They would call upon God for mercy 4. God would raise
a judge to rescue them, and they would have peace for several decades or so
And the cycle would repeat itself, over and over again.

Tong said that as Christians, we are all the same as well. We would go
through this cycle in our lives, over and over again, waiting for some
'judge' to come point the way for us. Like the Israelites, we are
stiff-necked people.

Tong then shared some interesting observation on Gideon's family background.
The fact that Gideon's father was a opposing religious leader tells us that
just because a family has bad parents, it does not mean that their children
must turn out bad. Conversely, just because a family has saintly parents, it
does not mean that the children must turn out saintly. Tong extended his
observation to the church. He said that just because a church has a good
pastor, it does not mean that the congregation will be good Christians, and
vice versa. In fact, he knows of many churches with lousy pastors. It is
precisely because the pastor is lousy, that the lay people arose to lead
lest the church collapses. Tong said that there is no fixed formula to
predict one way or another.

Tong then turned his attention back to Gideon. He said that Gideon was a very special person, in that he was bold and dared to question and even doubt. The angel of the LORD appeared to Him (Judges 6) and addressed him as 'mighty warrior'. Here, Tong pointed out that there are two usual terms used for the messenger of God. The plural term is typically used for the angels we are familiar with. But when the singular term is used (as in this case), it referred to the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, who appeared to Gideon in human form.

Gideon immediately launched into a series of protests, challenging the LORD with his own doubts. Tong said that the reply given by the messenger was startling to him. Instead of rebuking Gideon, the LORD affirmed that the very might Gideon had came from God (Judges 6:14). So the answer to Gideon's complaint was that in the common grace of God, Gideon already received much. Tong said that we often complained against God, expecting to see our own specific needs answered by God, as if His sole purpose is to please us. The LORD's answer here reminds us that His grace is indeed already sufficient for us, even without any special intervention.

Gideon's reply was that of doubt and fear, and yet the LORD did not despise genuine questions and his need for verification. Tong said that in all his years of lecturing at the seminary, he has never despised any genuine questions from his students, always answering them carefully one by one. The only exception is when the questioner attempts to be difficult, rather than posing genuine questions. The LORD is gracious and patient, and will answer us and honour our intentions.

Gideon was given a sign with the LORD consuming the sacrifice using His own fire, upon which Gideon became extremely fearful. Still, the LORD comforted him (6:23) and told him that he will not die, addressing his fear directly and personally. Next came a command to tear down his father's altar to Baal. In the same manner, the LORD often allow us to go through trials, step by step, in order to build up our faith.

Here, Gideon faced a really difficult problem. He was living with the Canaanites, and his own father was a temple owner, a worshipper of Baal. If he were to do as the LORD commanded, he would surely be killed, or at least completely ostracized by his own people. So he compromised and did as he was commanded at night, when no one was looking. Although this was not ideal, Tong said Gideon clearly was not thinking of his own benefits, and went along with the command of God. Tong digressed a little here and spoke about the next significant time the altar of Baal was destroyed, in the incident of Elijah calling out for fire. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah called for fire instead of rain. It was most illogical for the people had not had rain for 3.5 years, and yet the prophet called for fire. This is God's way, not the way of man.

When the people came hunting for Gideon, the strangest thing happened. Gideon's father Joash came out and spoke for him! Tong said that we need not worry about, or fear religious leaders of other faith, for they may harbour great doubt in their own hearts, as Gideon's father obviously did (Judges 6:31). Tong then related a very funny story about the father of one of his student. This lady was graduating from the Malang seminary, and invited her father, a temple owner in Malaysia to come attend the graduation. She arranged for Tong to send the old man to Jakarta, so that he could be evangelised by Tong. So the entire Tong family squeezed into the car with the man, and for 2 days, Tong tried to evangelise to him to no avail. Along the way, they stopped by a 4 star hotel, and the old man took a long time in the toilet. To his horror, Tong discovered that he left behind a graffiti with his own name and contact address, so Tong had to spend a long time removing it from the toilet walls. The old man did not believe finally, saying that in his temple, people come to look for God, but Jesus Christ is so desperate that He has to go look for recruits.

8 years' later, Tong met the preacher and she told him that her father believed just 1 day before he died. He said that after thinking for a long time, he found that Tong was right afterall. He gave instructions for the temple to be converted to a church, but the villagers all opposed; so it was not done finally. But the most hilarious thing was that after meeting Tong, the old man magnified Tong's photograph and placed it along side the idols for people to worship, because he said that there are spirits of the past, and spirits of the present; and Tong is a great spirit of the present! Tong said that he has since been wondering how long he sinned against God in that manner! Very funny... about the funniest incident I have heard him relate thus far.

The last segment related to the selection of the warriors. Out from a group of 32,000 people, 22,000 left with 10,000 remaining. We would think that this is too little men to fight a war. Yet the LORD wanted finally only 300. But these were people of the highest quality. They had the right priorities in life, knowing their role as soldiers, alert while they were drinking water. These are the type of people the LORD would want to use, not just anyone available, but those who would give Him their very best.

In the step-by-step guidance of Gideon, he was taught to have faith, to be obedient, to demolish evil, to understand quality over quantity, and to be alert and fight for the LORD. This was why he was listed also among the greats in the hall of faith.

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Disclaimer: This summary does NOT represent the official position of STEMI (Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministry International), and is the personal opinion of the author, expressed without prejudice. Expressed opinions are meant for academic discussions only.