Seeing God In The Darkness

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Gary Whitney

Middletown Baptist Church

The Hidden Hand of God • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago • Presented 2 years ago • 33:41

Esther 2:1–18

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Esther 2:1–18 (CSB)

1 Some time later, when King Ahasuerus’s rage had cooled down, he remembered Vashti, what she had done, and what was decided against her. 2 The king’s personal attendants suggested, “Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. 3 Let the king appoint commissioners in each province of his kingdom, so that they may gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem at the fortress of Susa. Put them under the supervision of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, keeper of the women, and give them the required beauty treatments. 4 Then the young woman who pleases the king will become queen instead of Vashti.” This suggestion pleased the king, and he did accordingly.

5 In the fortress of Susa, there was a Jewish man named Mordecai son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite. 6 Kish had been taken into exile from Jerusalem with the other captives when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took King Jeconiah of Judah into exile. 7 Mordecai was the legal guardian of his cousin Hadassah (that is, Esther), because she had no father or mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was extremely good-looking. When her father and mother died, Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter.

8 When the king’s command and edict became public knowledge and when many young women were gathered at the fortress of Susa under Hegai’s supervision, Esther was taken to the palace, into the supervision of Hegai, keeper of the women. 9 The young woman pleased him and gained his favor so that he accelerated the process of the beauty treatments and the special diet that she received. He assigned seven hand-picked female servants to her from the palace and transferred her and her servants to the harem’s best quarters.

10 Esther did not reveal her ethnicity or her family background, because Mordecai had ordered her not to make them known. 11 Every day Mordecai took a walk in front of the harem’s courtyard to learn how Esther was doing and to see what was happening to her.

12 During the year before each young woman’s turn to go to King Ahasuerus, the harem regulation required her to receive beauty treatments with oil of myrrh for six months and then with perfumes and cosmetics for another six months. 13 When the young woman would go to the king, she was given whatever she requested to take with her from the harem to the palace. 14 She would go in the evening, and in the morning she would return to a second harem under the supervision of the king’s eunuch Shaashgaz, keeper of the concubines. She never went to the king again, unless he desired her and summoned her by name.

15 Esther was the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai who had adopted her as his own daughter. When her turn came to go to the king, she did not ask for anything except what Hegai, the king’s eunuch, keeper of the women, suggested. Esther gained favor in the eyes of everyone who saw her.

16 She was taken to King Ahasuerus in the palace in the tenth month, the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17 The king loved Esther more than all the other women. She won more favor and approval from him than did any of the other virgins. He placed the royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti. 18 The king held a great banquet for all his officials and staff. It was Esther’s banquet. He freed his provinces from tax payments and gave gifts worthy of the king’s bounty.

When it appears that dark powers hold all of the cards, you can be certain that God drew a royal flush. God is playing chess while the world is playing checkers.

Seeing God In The Darkness- The Text In Its Context

God’s People Revealed

Esther 2:5–7 (CSB)

Imagine the reaction of a contemporary Jewish reader- finally they see a true Jew in the story. He was a Jew by lineage and a good man for adopting his orphaned cousin.

Esther 2:10–11 (CSB)

Mordecai made sure he checked on Esther daily, also a sign of a good man.

The Jews would also have been concerned about many of the things they read. Mordecai is a Babylonian name that points to Marduk- the Babylonian state god. Esther had two names, one Hebrew and the other not, the latter being derived either from the Persian strara, or star, or from Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love. It may have been conferred on her because of her outstanding beauty. These would have concerned Jewish readers. The hiding of being Jewish and not keeping Jewish laws would be even worse.

The greatest revulsion would have come with hearing that Esther was given to be a concubine to a pagan. Sure Mordecai checked up on her daily- but he should have hidden her away from the pagans seeking to take her there in the first place.

It was obvious they were collaborators with the enemy. It seemed they were trying to conform to their circumstances rather than stand in their faith.

The author of Hebrews gave examples of how we should seek to live in faith.

Hebrews 11:32–40 (CSB)

32 And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, 33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received their dead, raised to life again. Other people were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Others experienced mockings and scourgings, as well as bonds and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. 38 The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and on mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.

39 All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us.

Trying to appear as a pagan and sending your adopted daughter to warm a pagan kings bed to avoid getting in trouble is definitely not the type of thing that will get you on the list of heroes of the faith. AMEN?

But can we judge them when we may me doing the same thing today? We certainly can feel empathy for their situation and what they do.

Royal Rage Regretted

Esther 2:1–2 (CSB)

The war with Greece was not going well for Xerxes, and neither was his return to the Persian capitol. He realized that he missed Queen Vashti. He was learning that wealth and power were not enough to ensure happiness. Herodotus narrates that in the midst of his glory on his march to Greece, Xerxes said, ‘In this short life there is no man either among these or others so happy, that he should not often and more than once be in such a position as to prefer death to life. The misfortunes come, and diseases rage, which make our life appear so long, though it is so short.’ It is significant that he said this in spite of all his displays of wealth.

Xerxes was probably extremely miserable upon his return. And the royal court felt a need to put Xerxes in a better mood. It is understandable- if you have ever had a miserable boss make your life miserable you can imagine how motivated they were. Any further sadness, misery, or brooding would probably fall on them!

AMEN? If King Xerxes wasn’t happy nobody will be happy- and he was more than happy to kill those whose joy offended him.

But what do you get for a blood thirsty despot who has been thwarted from achieving revenge on Greece and is starting to miss his former Queen? He had the money and power to get anything else he wanted. And the advisors were not going to suddenly change the outcome of the battles in Greece. So they decided to appeal to his lust and need for companionship by finding the most beautiful women in the land to as nightly gifts to boost his spirits.

From Concubine To Consort

The Persians were brilliant administrators- and they put together an expansive process to collect and train the most beautiful young women in the empire and prepare them to be presented to the King.

Collect and Transport

Esther 2:3 (CSB)

3 Let the king appoint commissioners in each province of his kingdom, so that they may gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem at the fortress of Susa. Put them under the supervision of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, keeper of the women, and give them the required beauty treatments.

The first stage was to collect “beautiful young women” from all over the kingdom. It doesn’t seem that these women or their families had a choice in the matter. If they were single, young, and beautiful they were taken to the capitol of Susa and turned over to Hegai who provided each of them a year of “beauty treatments” (v. 3).

Esther 2:8–9 (CSB)

Hegai was in charge of this stage and immediately initiated Esther’s one-year treatment (v. 12), placing her “into the best place in the Harem” (v. 9).

Esther 2:12–13 (CSB)

From this stage on, the process was personalized for each woman.

The Royal Test Drive

Esther 2:4 (CSB)

4 Then the young woman who pleases the king will become queen instead of Vashti.” This suggestion pleased the king, and he did accordingly.

This was not a beauty pageant, there was nothing good, ethical or moral in the process. Each woman, was summoned by the king and given one opportunity to make an impression on him.

Esther 2:14 (CSB)

14 She would go in the evening, and in the morning she would return to a second harem under the supervision of the king’s eunuch Shaashgaz, keeper of the concubines. She never went to the king again, unless he desired her and summoned her by name.

The Crowning of Queen Esther

Esther 2:15–18 (CSB)

The story we are hearing here is very dark- one where women are objectified and made victim of a predatory culture. Closer to our real life experience than we may care to admit. A place where the weak need to live in fear, and where we are often one of the weak.

The Book of Esther does not flinch from narrating for us the simple, ugly fact of life in ancient Persia, where people are treated as commodities. And it is a reality that continues to this day.

The book doesn’t mention the power or glory of God. Just as our reality today.

Yet God wants us to see Him in the middle of all these moral ambiguities and the shocking abuses that make up Esther and Mordecai’s circumstances. They do not give us examples of faith to follow, but show us that the sovereign God is at work even when all we see around us is sin and suffering. And that He is working in and through His people- those who love him and who have been called according to His purpose- even when we stray.

Though we live in a dark world, and sometimes we are part of the darkness, God in his grace does not discard us but saves us, even from ourselves, and deploys us for his purposes.

Live Openly By Faith Contemporary Application

It has been my experience that it is easier to see God working in my past than my present circumstances. And it is hardest to see what God is leading me towards in the future.

Does that match your personal experience?

God has protected and guided me and my family even when it didn’t seem to be the case at the time. And as I grow in understanding it becomes easier for me to trust that He is working when I cannot yet see the result. AMEN?

God’s providence doesn’t guarantee that we will be treated fairly, or that we will live a comfortable life. Obviously, God can provide us comfort and fairness- and He has done so for so many. Think of how Daniel and his friends were allowed to continue following Jewish dietary law, but Esther was subjected to the beauty treatments and forced to become a sex worker.

God’s providence is about his kingdom work. This always requires God’s people to focus on what is central. God’s love is promised; comfort and fairness are not.

We also need to remember God’s promise that

Romans 8:28 (CSB)

28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

We know these promises- we know that God is in control. But do our actions match our belief? There are questions we can and should answer about our own lives. For instance, are we open about belonging to Jesus? Or are we hiding that relationship? Are you comfortable with sharing your faith at work? Not forcing conversations, but responding to openings that have presented themselves? If young and unmarried, do you date anybody are you not being vocal about you feel an attraction to? Or are you looking for a partner who shares you faith and make conversations about faith and expectations as part of the dating process? In short, are we seeking approval from others rather than resting in God’s approval in Christ? The gospel frees us to serve because we have found security in God and are not seeking it elsewhere.

This week the Supreme Court answered the fervent and persistent prayer of many Christians and repealed Roe V Wade. I say many Christians because there are Christians who do not see abortion as wrong. Roe V Wade has been the law of the land since 1973, with an estimated 63 million abortions during that time. For every 1,000 births there are 180 abortions. That will change now in many states- but the numbers will continue to climb till the practice is outlawed nation wide.

Culture has indoctrinated the belief that that a fetus isn’t a person, and that a women’s right to self determination is a given right. That has been drilled as truth and good for decades. In schools, universities, media, and even liberal churches. Why doesn’t every Christian believe it is wrong? The bible doesn’t out right say abortion is a sin- and culture says this is right- and the pressure to accept this as good is incredible. Truly- the tipping point is seeing the unborn baby as a human being who is alive.

God knows us in the womb. And John the Baptist responded to Jesus while both were in their mother’s womb. (luke 1:41) John leapt because he was overcome with the emotion of joy. The more exact sense is that he “leaped with delight.” Every time I read that passage in John I am overcome with with conviction that fetus’ are babies. This fetus, yet to see the light of the world, experienced the emotion of joyous delight. This is incontrovertible testimony to the pre-birth personhood of John the Baptist. John was then about nine inches long and weighed about one and a half pounds. He looked like a perfect miniature newborn. His skin was translucent. He had fingerprints and toe prints. Sometimes he opened his eyes for brief periods and gazed into the liquid darkness of the womb. As a fetus of six months, John was an emotional being. He had the capacity to be filled with the Spirit. He was so overcome that he leapt for joy. This is a sobering revelation for anyone who countenances abortion, but especially for Christians.

Question Needing Answers

Why do we often go around difficult biblical texts instead of through them? What is the danger of doing so? What are some of the more difficult aspects of Esther 2?

Why is making a decision in anger or haste a bad idea? How can we minimize how often we do so?

How is remorse different from repentance? Why do we need more than just remorse?

Describe a time when you found yourself in a difficult situation or circumstance because of someone else’s sin. How can we be faithful even in such difficult situations?

Describe a time when you believed the Lord disciplined you, but you also saw evidence of his sustaining you through it.

We do not know Esther’s or Mordecai’s motivations, but we do know that neither’s resistance is recorded in chapter 2. Perhaps they were threatened with loss of life, and they chose to compromise with the world. Why do you and I tend to compromise for far less serious threats?

In what ways are you currently trying to hold on to your biblical convictions but feel tempted to compromise with the world? How can we faithfully navigate such tension?

Esther and Mordecai were imperfect and perhaps even disobedient, but the Lord still used them instead of discarding them. How do you feel about this? Is it any less true for us?

What is your response to the idea that Ahasuerus took the purity of women and left them with shame but that Jesus takes our shame and leaves us pure?

[Landon Dowden, Exalting Jesus in Esther (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2019), Es 2:1–18.]

Points To Ponder

“Contemporary Significance” by Karen H. Jobes

DELIVERANCE FOR GOD’S covenant people. These verses that identify Mordecai and Esther as Jews are essential for understanding the contemporary significance of the book. The book shows how against all odds, the fate of a marginalized people within a hostile world is reversed. These marginalized people not only survive, they rise to power within that world. There are clearly two sides pitted in conflict in the story, Mordecai and Esther versus Haman. One side will be victorious; the other will be destroyed. The author shows that powerful worldly forces are working against Mordecai and Esther.

However, these people do not represent just any two groups in conflict. The story is not about how, coincidentally, one group happens to win against the other through an extraordinary chain of events. Rather, these verses identify Mordecai and Esther as Jews. Haman is the enemy of the Jews. The story is not about conflict between any two hostile peoples, it is about the hostility of the world against God’s people. Against all odds, in some inscrutable and mysterious way, the events of human history work to fulfill the promises of the covenant the Lord made with his people at Sinai (see the comments on 3:1). While God may be good to all his creatures in general, he is in a special relationship of protection and preservation with his covenant people.

Esther 2:5–7 shows that it was the Jewish nation who, against all odds, were delivered from the enemies who would destroy them. The New Testament teaches that the Christian church has inherited the promises of the covenant because the demands of the covenant were fulfilled by Jesus Christ.14 The story of Esther and Mordecai is, therefore, a part of the Christian’s heritage, even though the church does not commemorate the deliverance by celebrating Purim. The relevance of this story for Christians today goes far beyond the historical necessity that the Jewish people had to be preserved during the Persian period in order for Jesus to have been born from them centuries later. The deliverance of the Jewish people was rooted in the promise of the covenant God had made to them, to which Christians today are heirs.

The story of Esther and Mordecai shows the wonderful chain of events God used to fulfill his covenant promise to his people. Therefore, the book of Esther has theological implications for the church today. God continues to work through providence to fulfill the promises of his covenant with us in Jesus Christ. Through providential circumstances people have the opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel of Jesus. Through providential circumstances Christians are “conformed to the likeness of his Son” (Rom. 8:29), and through providence God is directing all of history toward its close in the return of Christ.

In but not of the world. Within the broad theological sweep of the book of Esther, the circumstance in which Mordecai and Esther find themselves also provides an opportunity for Christians today to reflect on the implications of being in the world but not of it (John 17:14–19). Some interpreters believe this story was written to instruct the Jews living in the Diaspora of the postexilic period how to survive and even thrive in a pagan culture in which anti-Semitism was an omnipresent threat. The old order of living under a theocratic king within the borders of their own land had passed. The Jews of the Diaspora struggled with issues of how to maintain their relationship to the one, true God in a polytheistic, pagan society. Should they maintain their distinctives in clothing, language, and custom, thereby identifying themselves as Jews? If they assimilated the culture in which they were living, would it compromise their faith? The experience of Esther and Mordecai in the Persian court suggest the complexity of such questions.

Even today, Jewish people are divided about how to live in non-Jewish society. There are some sects of Judaism, such as the Hassidic Jews of Brooklyn, New York, who believe that faithfulness to the Torah requires being distinctively separate in dress, manner, and customs from the culture in which they live. Other Jews find it proper to assimilate the culture in which they live, at least to some extent, while still maintaining certain distinctives of their Jewish faith.

The same issues pertain to Christians throughout the world today. The Christian is clearly instructed to be distinct from the world. For instance, Paul writes, “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking” (Eph. 4:17). In Romans 12:2 we read, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

How Christians understand and apply this admonition varies greatly. The Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, have enshrined the nineteenth-century lifestyle as holy, believing that the modern world and its conveniences are an evil to be avoided. Many of them still ride in horse and buggy and live without telephones or electricity. At the other extreme are Christians who eagerly participate in worldly culture without giving a thought to whether it is compatible with a biblical worldview.

The extent to which a Christian adopts the culture and society in which she or he lives is a major issue, not only for the individual, but also for the apologist and theologian. Sincere Christians wishing to obey the Bible often disagree on how to dress, whether to drink alcohol, what music, movies, and other entertainment is appropriate, whether to run for public office, and so forth. Missionaries must think long and hard when taking the gospel to another culture, to decide what are the nonnegotiables of the Christian life and what are cultural options. The issue of relating one’s faith to one’s culture is ever-present, yet most Christians live without thinking deeply and seriously about its implications.

Christians living in Western countries today are generally not at risk by identifying themselves as Christians. However, untold numbers of our spiritual brothers and sisters have had to struggle with that very issue, living under communist regimes or in regions controlled by Muslim fundamentalists. Martyrdom has not been confined to the first-century church in Graeco-Roman culture. The issues raised by Esther and Mordecai living in Persia are analogous to the issue of how far to conceal one’s Christian identity when living in a society that is hostile, at least potentially so, to those convictions.

The relationship of Christians in Germany to the Third Reich is one excruciating example from our own century. While the Jews suffered the most under Nazi Germany, it should not be forgotten that many devout Christians also found themselves the targets of the Gestapo, not infrequently for protecting their Jewish neighbors. The charge against them was the same as the charge the Romans brought against the first-century Christians: political treason. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) is perhaps the best-known Christian who resisted on Christian principle the Nazification of the German church and the oppression of the Jewish people. He, along with many other Christians, struggled intensely to know how to express their Christian identity in a society that was increasingly becoming hostile to their most fundamental convictions.15

Of course, each of us must decide how to live without knowing the end of a situation from the beginning. Many Christian pastors swore allegiance to Hitler, not knowing where his leadership would take Germany in the final analysis. Bonhoeffer himself was finally arrested by the Gestapo in April 1943, and he was executed on the charge of treason in April 1945. American Christians may live with the blissful illusion that our constitutional principle of the separation of church and state assures that a similar situation could not develop here. That may or may not be true. Nevertheless, Jesus Christ calls for the transformation of every area of our lives, and consequently, we must relate our Christian faith to the practices, morals, and ideologies of the society and culture in which we find ourselves, whether or not that culture is congenial or hostile to our faith.

Relating faith to culture. Esther and Mordecai were faced with the issue of relating faith in Yahweh to their lives in the Persian culture. All the Jews of the Diaspora had to grapple with that issue. Their theology and previous religious practices had assumed the political-sociological situation of life in their own land under a theocratic king and worship centered on the temple in Jerusalem. After the Exile, that was no longer an option for the majority of Jewish people. Even the remnant who returned to Jerusalem continued to be ruled by Persia, then by the Hellenistic kings, and finally, after a brief but corrupt independence, by Rome. In such a situation, one way to relate faith to culture is to give up on faith, at least in its practical, outward expressions, especially where there is reason to fear a lurking anti-Semitism in the dominant culture.

The complete absence of religious language in the book of Esther at least raises the possibility that Esther and Mordecai had done just that, and possibly for good reason. When Haman does convince Xerxes to annihilate the Jewish nation, it is on the convenient excuse of political disloyalty, a form of treason, “There is a certain people … who do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them” (3:8). However, the Jews of Persia as a whole must have retained enough of their outward, visible distinctives to allow Haman to identify them as a socioreligious group, whose customs were, in his opinion, “different from those of all other people” (3:8).

Esther and Mordecai apparently had chosen to adopt the dress, customs, and practices of their Gentile neighbors, at least to the extent that they could successfully conceal their identity as Jews. (Mordecai did become known to the royal officials at the king’s gate as a Jew, but according to 3:4, it was only because he had told them so.) Esther’s decision to risk her life by finally identifying with the covenant people of God is, therefore, all the more poignant. Before Mordecai’s conflict with Haman and the threat of genocide, had Esther and Mordecai compromised, or even abandoned, faith in Yahweh? Possibly, but not necessarily. The Bible does not tell us.

At what point does the assimilation of culture compromise our Christian faith and witness? Most American Christians today are indistinguishable from their unbelieving neighbors in dress, housing, professional vocations, entertainment choices, and so forth. Does this mean we are compromising our faith? Possibly, but not necessarily. And if a Christian living in a hostile land conceals his or her faith in Christ to avoid the threat of death, is that person being unfaithful to the Lord or simply prudent? These types of decisions are ones over which equally committed Christians can, and often do, disagree. Yet we make such decisions every day because there is no way to avoid making them. We should each strive to live in obedience to our Lord, but it is not always clear what that means in the nitty-gritty details of daily life in the twentieth century. Moreover, regardless of our good intentions, none of us has pure motives all of the time. Even when we know the right decision, our hearts are not always committed to it.

This is where the silence about Esther and Mordecai’s character and spiritual fidelity becomes a powerful encouragement. Regardless of whether they always knew what the right choice was or whether they had the best of motives, God was working through even their imperfect decisions and actions to fulfill his perfect purposes. Other than Jesus, even the godliest people of the Bible were flawed, often confused, and sometimes outright disobedient. We are no different from them. Yet our gracious God omnipotently works his perfect plan through them, through us, and most surprisingly, even through powerful political structures that sometimes operate in evil ways.

The author of Esther knows the end of his story when he begins to tell it. He knows that God did not come down deus ex machina to save his people from the crushing power of the Persian empire. Yet, God’s people were saved. Even though the decision that decreed the destruction of God’s people was made by a pagan king who mindlessly allowed himself to be manipulated by the ulterior motives of others, God did not directly intervene, as he had, for instance, when Pharaoh’s army was drowned in the Red Sea at the Exodus. In fact, in the Esther story, the same abuse of power that led to the threatened destruction of God’s people also led further on to their deliverance! The same events that led to destruction also opened the way for salvation. It has often been said that “God works in mysterious ways.” The author of the book of Esther is beginning to show us just how mysterious those ways can be.

[Karen H. Jobes, Esther, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999), 103–108.]

A Week’s Worth of Scripture

Monday

Romans 12:2 (CSB) 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Tuesday

Romans 12:21 (CSB) 21 Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.

Wednesday

Jeremiah 1:5 (CSB) 5 I chose you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

Luke 1:41–44 (CSB)

41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped inside her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 Then she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and your child will be blessed! 43 How could this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For you see, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside me.

Thursday

Psalm 139:13–16 (CSB) 13 For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. 15 My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.

Friday

Romans 8:28 (CSB) 28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

Saturday

Hebrews 11:32–40 (CSB) 32 And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, 33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received their dead, raised to life again. Other people were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Others experienced mockings and scourgings, as well as bonds and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. 38 The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and on mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. 39 All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us.

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