HEBREWS 11:23-27 [Leaving a Legacy Series]
THE WONDER OF FAITH
[Acts 7:20-44]
To the Hebrews Moses was the supreme figure in history. He was the leader who had rescued them from slavery and who had received the law of the covenant with God. To the writer of the letter to the Hebrews the foremost fact about Moses was that he was a man of faith.
This man of faith’s whole life was marked by an awareness of the presence and power of the unseen God and faithful obedience to His Word. Moses made a clear-cut life altering decision to follow the way of the eternal God instead of partaking of the passing pleasures this world system offers (CIT).
Life is made up of decisions. Some are simple and unimportant, and some are complex and extremely important. Many are made almost unconsciously, whereas others we think about carefully for a long time. Some decisions are made by default. When we put off deciding, a decision is made for us. But it is still our decision, because we decide to put it off. The course and the quality of our lives are determined much more by our decisions than by our circumstances.
No person in Scripture other than Jesus illustrates the power of right decisions better than Moses. His decisions were right because his faith was right. I hope you too today are challenged to make faith-based decisions.
In this example of Moses our writer uses five illustrations of obedience because of faith in the future fulfilment of the promises.
I. RAISED BY PARENT’S OF FAITH, 23.
II. REJECTS THE WORLD’S PRESTIGE, 24.
III. REJECTS THE WORLD’S PLEASURES, 25.
IV. REJECTS THE WORLD’S PLENTY, 26.
V. REJECTS THE WORLD’S PRESSURES, 27.
With this transition to the life of Moses in verse 23, the writer began to focus on the way faith confronts opposition and hostility, a subject familiar to his readers. “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.”
Moses began life as a child of faith. The faith shown at Moses’ birth and upbringing was his parents’. Their faith was that God had a special plan for Moses’ life.
To stem the population explosion among the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, the Pharaoh gave an “edict” that all male babies were to be drown in the Nile. To protect their newborn son, Amram and Jochebed first hid him for three months, and then put him in a waterproofed basket and placed him in the Nile near the place where Pharaoh’s daughter bathed. He was found by the princess and taken to be raised as her own child. Moses’ sister, Miriam, who was watching, persuaded the princess to get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the infant. Miriam, of course, got her mother, who was then able to raise her own son almost as if he had been at home.
The reason the parents hid Moses from the king's edict is said to be because he was “beautiful” or godly. This means more than that he was a beautiful or lovely baby - have you ever seen one that wasn’t? There was something about the child which spoke to the parents that he had a special touch from God. In Acts 7:20 Stephen says Moses was beautiful to God or he was beautiful with respect to God. That means in the sight or estimation of God, Moses was beautiful. The parents’ special affections came from God’s special affection, which is so often the case with parents and children.
This love caused them not to be “afraid of the King’s edict.” The children of God are obligated by God to obey the laws of the country in which they reside, and disobedience to these laws is sin against God. They are obligated to obey these laws only up to the point where obedience to these laws would mean disobedience to God. The parents of Moses were entirely within their rights in this case, for the reigning Pharaoh was violating the law of God which forbids murder. (Acts 4:15-22).
So Moses’ parents willingly risked their own life and placed their child in a basket on the banks of the Nile where he according to God’s intervention was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter. It took considerable faith to put Moses in the basket and then to trust that Pharaoh’s daughter would have pity on a Hebrew baby. Yet when he was, Moses’ mother Jochebed acted in faith and offered to train the child and in faith taught him the ways of God and the promises of God. His mother helped build in Moses the faith that was going to become the basis of his life. She gave him to the courts of Egypt but built into him the faith by which he would direct his life.
As a parent, have you trusted God with you children? God has a plan for every person, and your important task is to pray for your children and prepare them to do the work God has planned for them to do. Faith allows us to entrust even our children to God.
II. BY FAITH REJECTED WORLDLY PRESTIGE, 24.
The way of faith chooses to mature by identifying with God’s people. Verse 24, “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,”
When Moses had grown up he was ready to make the right decisions. Stephen defines this time as when Moses was forty years of age. Acts 7:22 says he was educated in all the learning of Egypt and was a man of power in words and deeds. But his Egyptian training never blunted his knowledge of the hope of Israel and of the promises of God.
No one has ever been more singled out for his leadership ability, wisdom and deeds of valor than Moses. Yet faith in God was the key that directed Moses’ life.
He could have prestige, power, wealth, respect, and worldly authority. He could have enjoyed everything Egypt had to offer. But he gave up earthly glory for heavenly glory. He decided to live by faith for the next life instead of for this one.
[Don’t Be the World’s Yes Man] Yes is a little word that can often spell big trouble. Bryan Archibald, former president of Northern Baptist Seminary in Chicago, made this point at a conference years ago. He said, “always saying ‘yes’ causes one to lose his identity, whereas ‘no’ defines a person.”
Suppose some morning you decide to say yes to every request that comes to you that day. You say yes to every demand placed on your time, talents, and energies. You say yes regardless of your convictions. What condition would you be in by the end of the day? You’d feel as if you’d been pulled in all directions –not to mention you guilt and loss of self-respect for not saying no to what was wrong.]
Moses defined himself by refusing “to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” We as Christians must also learn to say no to many things. This doesn’t mean we become negative or disagreeable. On the contrary, every no should be the reverse side of a hearty yes to God. The Bible lists many things that are neither right nor wrong in themselves. Discernment must come through prayer, trusting God’s Spirit, and applying biblical principles.
Don’t be a nobody who agrees with everybody because it’s the easy thing to do. Define yourself. Say NO to all that caters to sinful inclinations and selfish ways and YES to all that pleases the Lord.
III. REJECTS THE WORLD’S PLEASURES, 25.
Verse 25 reveals that the way faith chooses between the attractive but temporary pleasures of sin and the way of Christ. “Choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,”
Moses could not identify with both the Israelites and the Egyptians. He had to choose one or the other. Moses chose the side of the downtrodden Israelites and accepted all the contempt and privations which that entailed instead of continuing in the temporary advantages and prospects of Egypt. What he did must have seemed folly by all worldly standards, yet it is the same choice that individuals have made for God down through the centuries.
Look at the choice Moses made. He gave up a palace for a shepherd’s tent. Riches for poverty. Station and prominence for isolation and humility. Have you made that choice to take your stand with the people of God rather than have the temporary enjoyment of sin. Is that decision clear cut in your mind?
No one needs to be convinced of the fun offered by sin. It can feed our pride, satisfy out of control desires and appetites and much more. But it has two characteristics that go unnoticed by a blind world. It is evil and it is short lived or transitory. No matter how satisfying it seems to be, it is temporary. Its seeming satisfaction is deceptive and fleeting.
The sin that enticed Moses was retaining his worldly position of remaining in the Egyptian Court. He had opportunity not simply to be a supporter and promoter of the world system, but a leader in it. Moses had a choice before him between a people suffering in slavery and the best that this world has to offer. God asks us also to choose, either the world or Him. If you do not refuse the world and become obedient to God, you have chosen the fleeting pleasures of this world. God will not allow you to serve Him and mammon.
[Beware of Friendly Snakes] How many of you have a garden? There is an old tale about a youth who, while hoeing in his field during the spring thaw, came across a snake. He raised his hoe to kill it, but the snake begged for mercy. “I am too frozen to do you any harm,” it cried. The youth, full of compassion, picked up the half-dead serpent and put it into his coat, against his chest. As he began to work, the snake got warmer and warmer. Suddenly, the snake bit the youth. The youth frantically reached into his coat and pulled out the beautifully colored and glistening snake, throwing it to the ground. “Why?” asked the boy, “I befriended you. I trusted you.”
“True!” hissed the snake as it slithered away, “but do not blame me. You knew I was a snake when you picked me up.”
Like Moses of old, many people know that sin’s pleasures are but for a season (Heb. 11:25), that the world will pass away and the lusts thereof (I Jn. 2:16-17). Yet they continue to indulge in the pleasures of sin. They take sin into their own bosom and go about their business. Someday when these things have passed away and they are faced with eternity, they will cry out against sin and accuse it. But it will be too late for some! Sin will reply, “You knew I was sin! You knew that I was but for a season. Do not blame me!” Truly, one cannot blame the enticements of sin with the warning of God being what it is.
IV. FAITH REJECTS THE WORLD’S PLENTY, 26.
The bases for Moses’ choice is revealed in verse 26. “Considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.”
What could possibly have influenced one to go through suffering with God’s people instead of enjoying all that the world system could possibly offer? [What was this world system offering to Moses anyway?
History strongly suggests that Moses was saved from Pharaoh’s intended fate by Hatshepsut, the young daughter of Thothmes I (who had ordered the destruction of the Hebrew male babies - Ex. 2:5-10). Moses then became her adopted son (Acts 7:21). Scholars tell us that this Pharaoh had a son, who because he was physically and mentally handicapped, was considered incapable of assuming the royal prerogatives to which he had been born. When he ascended the throne as Thothmes I, his sister Hatshepsut became regent and actually ruled the country. Thothmes II eventually died without a legitimate heir, but because both his father and sister had foreseen this lack of a successor, they probably had determined long beforehand that Moses would be the eventual heir. So from earliest years Moses had been educated with this in mind, as Stephen declares: “Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds” (Acts 7:22).
When her brother died, it appears that Hatshepsut retained supreme authority as regent in Egypt and indicated her intention of placing Moses, her adopted son, on the throne as her successor. To legitimize this she had planned to marry Moses to her elder daughter, Nepherus. Moses, however, apparently refused both the throne and the bride, and thus sacrificed his position in the kingdom and the honor and the wealth that went with it. (See Pentecost, pg. 198)]
What could possibly influence one to go with the reproach, the stigma that could include ridicule, suffering and persecution instead of such power, position and possession? It says here that Moses did a comparative study between the riches (Opportunities costs -economics) of Christ and the all the treasures of Egypt that would be his.
God’s reward is always greater than the world’s! God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory (Phil. 4:19). Moses surely saw the reward of living this life for God but he also saw the future fulfillment of what God had promised, the eternal reward of God is where the emphasis lies.
God always rewards true faith, if not immediately, certainly ultimately. Against all the great yet fleeting treasures of Egypt, Moses saw the recompense of an eternal reward.
Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of the wicked. It took faith for Moses to give up his place in the palace, but he could do it because he saw the fleeting nature of great wealth and prestige. It is easy to be deceived by the temporary benefits of wealth, popularity, status and achievement and to be blind to the long-range benefits of God’s Kingdom. But faith helps us look beyond the world’s value system to see the eternal values of God’s kingdom.
For forty years Moses enjoyed the riches of Egypt. Then he made the decision to live by faith and started laying up treasures in heaven (Mt. 6:19-21). For the rest of his 80 years of life he forsook worldly treasures because they interfered with his obedience to God and would have prevented his receiving immeasurably greater riches when it came time for eternal rewards.
[PORTIA’S CHESTS] Portia, a beautiful and wealthy heiress, is the heroine of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. She had many suitors of noble birth who wanted to marry her. But her father’s will decreed that her husband would be chosen by a certain test. She would belong to the one who chose the right chest out of the three that were prepared. One chest was made of gold. On it was inscribed, “who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire,” and inside was a skull. The second chest was of silver, with the inscription, “who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves,” and inside was the picture of a fool. The winning chest was made of lead and held Portia’s picture. On the outside was the inscription, “who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.” All of her suitors but Bassanio chose one of the first two chests, because both the precious metals and the inscriptions were so attractive. Bassanio picked the one of lead and got Portia’s hand in marriage, because he was willing to give everything he had for the sake of the one he loved.
That is the attitude every Christian should have about Christ. We should be willing to forsake and hazard all we have for the sake of God’s will, knowing with Moses and with Paul that our “momentary, light affliction is producing in us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17; Rom. 8:18). MacArthur, p. 355.
V. FAITH REJECTS THE WORLD’S PRESSURE, 27.
Moses exemplifies faith because he was looking ahead to his reward and persevering because he saw Him who is invisible. Verse 27: “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.”
The first time he left Egypt Moses was fleeing from a Pharaoh who wanted to kill him for siding with the Hebrew slaves and killing an Egyptian slave master (Ex. 2:14-22). The second time he left Egypt another Pharaoh wanted to keep Moses from taking the children of Israel with him. In both cases his life was at risk, and he had much to fear, but Moses chose faith instead of fear. He chose faith in God and overcame fear of man and the world’s system.
What was the source of Moses’ faith? The outstanding characteristic of Moses’ life was the intimacy of his relationship with God. The secret of Moses’ faith was his close walk with God. His faith grew out of knowing God the way he did. He chose to build relationship with the unseen until God was clearly seen with the inner eyes of faith. Moses’ choice and his loyalty to God and to God’s people came about because of his seeing Him who is unseen. This is the key to loyalty for any one today also.
If faith is the substance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen, it first and foremost must be applied to the unseen God by those who believe that He is. He rewards those who seek Him daily with intimacy of relationship.
So Moses paid more attention to the invisible King of Kings than to the King of Egypt. He was able to do so because he saw an invisible monarch greater than pharaoh. Moses laid hold of His God’s love, presence, power, and faithfulness and fixed his trust in Him that God would protect and provide as He had promised. The better view you have of the unseen God the more faith you will place in His promises also.
Again, how did Moses find the empowering for faithful service? Exodus 39:9-11 indicates that He daily waited before God to receive His instructions. Then came out of fellowship through His Word in His presence to accomplish His Will. Fear and failure are often due to the fact that we attempt to do things alone or with the effort of man. The effort of man can only have the arm of man. The effort of God has the arm of God. Moses faced God before he faced man.
In CLOSING
[Faith is force sustaining God’s people in times of opposition and affliction, enabling them to overcome fear and temptation and to fulfil his purposes for them.] Moses chose the imperishable, saw the invisible and did the impossible. Moses’ faith enabled him to face Pharaoh unafraid and trust God to deal with the enemy. Moses’ courage and endurance came as the reward of his faith.
What would it take for you to choose the world’s offerings over continued close fellowship with God? Wealth enough to guarantee your security? A relationship seemingly better than the one you’re in? Sensual pleasure at will? Material possessions beyond your wildest dreams? To some believers, these things would not be the least bit tempting, just as they weren’t to Moses. But to others, a price tag may still hang on their commitment to Christ. If that is your case, settle the issue today. Recognize that there is nothing that can equal the privilege of Knowing and serving Christ.
The Christian understands that one who follows the will of God can never ultimately be on the losing side for even if the very worst happened - which is not likely - and he is completely defeated he would still receive heaven’s victory and trophies.
But have you taken the side of God? Have you chosen to be with His people and called them yours even if they are a suffering afflicted people? Don’t be captivated because of your inner thirst by worldly pleasures for they are but a temporary mirage and hold no long-term satisfaction. As Joshua would tell the people of God. “Choose this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”
Dear Father we pray for faith and trust in you. We know that without faith it is impossible to please you. Help us to grow in our faith and trust in you, so that we may come to know you more intimately and serve you more faithfully. Please help us to overcome any doubts or fears that keep us from trusting you completely. We know that you are faithful and trustworthy, and we thank you for your many blessings. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
BENEDICTION:
May our Lord Jesus hold you close by your faith.
May His blessings of love, hope, compassion and wisdom
surround, sustain and surprise you,
this day and all your days. Amen
