The Thursday after Sexagesima Sunday
Posted on February 12, 2026 by under
Scripture: Hebrews 11:32-40 (NKJV)
11:32 And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: 33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35 Women received their dead raised to life again.
Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
Devotion
Today’s text gives us a kind of ‘fruits of faith’ cataloging. Believers of old conquered the kingdoms of the Midianites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, etc. They enforced justice, received divine promises, sealed the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, exhibited strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, and put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. The faithful displayed great endurance even through horrible torture and persecution. We are told the world was not worthy of them. They were too good for the wicked world of men, which is without God and opposed to His will, which pursued them mercilessly, falsely making them out to be evil doers and outlaws.
The truth is well attested by their faith. The concluding verse of our text declares that God has planned something better: the fulfillment for them, as for us, is in Christ, who is the resurrection and the life. Only together with us would they be made perfect. All persons of true faith who had gone before focused their faith on God and His promises, just as we do in our time. The fulfillment of God’s promises to them (and us) has now come in Jesus Christ, and their redemption (and ours as well) is now complete in Him.
Collect: O Lord God, Who seest that we put not our trust in anything that we do: Mercifully grant that by Thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
