It’s kind of weird how many “heroes” seem to have emerged from the book of Judges. How guys like Samson and Gideon have become Sunday School celebrities though they were part of “Gen D”, as in “a generation that Did Not Know the LORD” (Jud. 2:10).

It was a time in Israel’s history marked by a predictable cycle of perpetual sin: the people do evil in the site of the LORD, abandoning the LORD and bowing down to the gods of the peoples around them; the anger of the LORD is kindled; the LORD gives His people over to the hands of their surrounding enemies; the people cry out to the LORD for mercy and deliverance; the LORD graciously raises up a judge over Israel who is used to deliver His people from their oppression; the people eventually stop listening to the judge and again do evil in the site of the LORD (Jud. 2:11-23). Repeat cycle. Simply, and sadly, it was a time, concludes Judges, when “there was no king in Israel” and “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Jud. 21:25).

So, you wonder how so many “good men” could rise from such a bad bunch . How we tend to want to find so many good apples in such a rotten lot. And yet, if you pause to consider the full bios behind these favored few — like Samson or Gideon, you find stories as sordid as the society in which they were raised. So what gives?

Well, the fact of the matter is that these guys were heroes. But not heroes because of who they were, deserving to be put on a pedestal. Not heroes because of what they did, and thus worthy of wearing an “S” on their chest while a cape flutters in the wind from their shoulders as they stand triumphantly with their hands on their hips. Instead, the Scriptures say they were heroes of faith.

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 — who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions . .

(Hebrews 11:32-33 ESV)

This is what I’m chewing on this morning as I read of one of these heroes, Barak, in Judges 4.

Barak’s a commander in the army of Israel. A man with authority to pull together 10,000 men for battle, and yet refuses to go unless accompanied by one woman (Jud. 4:6-8). And though he’s towards the top of the military food chain, when it comes to the thought of going up against an enemy army with 900 chariots, he comes off as more fearful than fearsome. Not exactly superhero material, me thinks. And to be sure, in the Judges narrative, he is overtly over-shadowed by Deborah, Israel’s presiding judge, and Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, Israel’s ultimate executioner. So even with our hero-seeking sonar on, we’d tend to take a pass on Barak in light of these other “super-heroines.” (Though we don’t fully know their stories either, do we?)

And yet, there’s Barak in the Book of Hebrews with his portrait in Chapter 11’s “Hall of Faith.” Alongside shady Samson and Gideon. But also alongside not so shady David and Samuel (though each of them too has a dark side to their stories).

So, if we’re looking for heroes in Judges, where are they to be found? Well, look up. Look waaay up!

And Deborah said to Barak, “Up! For this is the day in which the LORD has given Sisera into your hand. Does not the LORD go out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him. And the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army before Barak by the edge of the sword. . . .

So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the people of Israel.

(Judges 4:14-15, 23 ESV)

The LORD routed Sisera . . . God subdued Jabin . . .

There’s only one hero in the book of Judges. Only one who deserves the glory. One who manifests His power through His people’s weakness (2Cor. 12:9). One who purposes to raise up heroes of faith who are but “jars of clay” in order “to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2Cor. 4:7).

We might admire men and women of faith — though faith too is the gracious gift of God (Eph. 2:8), but we exalt but One as Hero of the Faith. But One as worthy of our awe, our adoration, and our allegiance.

According to His abundance grace. Always for His everlasting glory.

Amen?