Warren W. Wiersbe - Be Heroic. Demonstrating Bravery by Your Walk

BE HEROIC

Published by David C. Cook

4050 Lee Vance View

Colorado Springs, CO 80918 U.S.A.

David C. Cook Distribution Canada

55 Woodslee Avenue, Paris, Ontario, Canada N3L 3E5

David C. Cook U.K., Kingsway Communications

Eastbourne, East Sussex BN23 6NT, England

David C. Cook and the graphic circle C logo

are registered trademarks of Cook Communications Ministries.

All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes,

no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form

without written permission from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. (Public Domain.) Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved; NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission; NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved; and NLT are taken from the New Living Translation of the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.

LCCN 2010930483

ISBN 978-0-7814-0335-1

eISBN 978-0-7814-0512-6

1997 Warren W. Wiersbe

First edition of Be Heroic published by Victor Books in 1997 Warren W. Wiersbe, ISBN 1-564760591-1

The Team: Karen Lee-Thorp, Amy Kiechlin, Sarah Schultz, Jack Campbell, and Karen Athen

Series Cover Design: John Hamilton Design

Cover Photo: Veer

Second Edition 2010

Contents

: An Introduction to Be Heroic by Ken Baugh

1. (Ezra 13)

2. (Ezra 46)

3. (Ezra 78)

4. (Ezra 910)

5. (Haggai 1)

6. (Haggai 2)

7. (Zechariah 12)

8. (Zechariah 34)

9. (Zechariah 56)

10. (Zechariah 78)

11. (Zechariah 911)

12. (Zechariah 1214)

13. (Review)

The Big Idea

An Introduction to Be Heroic

by Ken Baugh

The Medal of Honor is one of the rarest military decorations awarded by any nation. It is given only to an officer or enlisted person who has distinguished himself or herself by heroic action above and beyond the call of duty. To date, only 3,468 of these medals have been distributed.

According to the Army Regulation Manual, In order to be awarded this medal, the deed performed must have been one of personal bravery or self-sacrifice so conspicuous as to clearly distinguish the individual above his comrades and must have involved risk of life. Incontestable proof of the performance of the service will be exacted and each recommendation for the award of this decoration will be considered on the standard of extraordinary merit. Therefore, the men and women who have been awarded the Medal of Honor are true military heroes who deserve our respect and appreciation.

But there are other heroes who deserve shout-outs too; they are the heroes of the faith. Heroes of the faith are those who have put it all on the line for the glory of God. They are willing to do whatever it takes to carry out Gods calling on their lives regardless of the personal cost. The writer to the Hebrews gives us a glimpse at some of these heroes of the faith and says that many of them were

tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated. (Heb. 11:3537 NIV )

Heroes of the faith are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for the glory of God. Who are your heroes of the faith? My list is long and includes Noah and his wife (hey, she doesnt get a lot of credit, but she had to suffer the stink of the animals too), Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Joshua, David, Hezekiah, Josiah, Ruth, and Mary the mother of Jesus. It also includes the twelve disciples (minus Judas of course), most of whom, according to church history, died martyrs deaths. And dont forget the apostle Paul. I love Paulhe endured endless suffering and imprisonment for the glory of God. Talk about a guy who put it all on the line!

No doubt your list will include some of my favorites and maybe a few others, too. And yet I wonder if your list would include any names of the Minor Prophets. What about Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi? These people were also heroes of the faith but are often forgotten. They are referred to as Minor Prophets not because their messages were less important than the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel) but simply because their books were shorter. For example, the book of Isaiah contains sixty-six chapters while the book of Jonah contains only four. Yet each of these Minor Prophets was a hero in his own right who put it all on the line for God as he carried Gods message during perilous times. Lets take a quick look at two examples.

Hosea was a hero of the faith in that he followed Gods command to marry a prostitute named Gomer (I know, weird huh?) in order to demonstrate Gods gracious love toward His idolatrous people. God said to Hosea: Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the L ORD (Hosea 1:2 NIV ). Im sure that Hosea would have preferred to marry the Jewish girl next door, one whom he would be proud to bring home to the folks, but instead Hosea put his personal interests and dreams of a happy marriage and a normal life on the line, sacrificing them on the altar of Gods will. I would say that makes Hosea a hero of the faith.

How about Jonah? Most of the time, Jonah gets a bum rap, because he was so reluctant to take Gods message of forgiveness to the people of Nineveh. But can you really blame him? Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrians, and they were a brutal and ruthless people, especially in battle. History has recorded Assyrian armies committing rape; mutilating men until death; placing heads, arms, hands, and even lower lips on the conquered citys walls; and mounting skulls and noses on top of stakes. Many times, Assyrian opponents were flayed alive, had their eyes ripped out, had their fingers, noses, and ears cut off. And if all that were not brutal enough, Assyrian soldiers were known to impale enemy combatants on stakes in the ground and even burned men alive. On some occasions, the Assyrians gouged out the eyes of their enemies and allowed them to live and wander around aimlessly, bearing witness to the Assyrian brutality in order to instill fear into local populations so that they would give up without a fight. And dont forget, the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 BC (see 2 Kings 17), and I have no doubt that the Israelites experienced their brutality as well.

Needless to say, when God called Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach a message of repentance, he wasnt interested. He wanted God to judge these ruthless people, not save them. But thats exactly what happened: Jonah preached, even though reluctantly, and the Ninevites repented (Jonah 3:5). But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the L ORD , O L ORD , is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity (Jonah 4:12 NIV ). Jonah knew that God would forgive these people if they repented, which is why he didnt want to go to Nineveh. Nevertheless, Jonah is a hero of the faith because he did eventually obey the Lord, and God used him to bring about revival to a pagan nation and to reveal that God is merciful and gracious.