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God Pleasing Faith, Moses’ Faith, Lesson 16, Hebrews 11:24-26
Hebrews 11:24-26, By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; 25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
Here in this faith passage we are given a clear message of how faith conducts itself in the matter of choices.
One of the hallmarks of our nature as to choices is the seeking of profit and inherent in that seeking is choosing between options.
I remember as a child bargaining with other children when we traded and bartered things among us.
Sometimes it was candy for candy and other times toys for toys.
We were also deep into collecting baseball cards and knew the value of each on
e and were always interested in trading a card of less value for one of more value.
Very early in our lives we were interested in profit.
I would have a baseball card, say of Hank Sauer, a Chicago Cubs slugger in the 1950’s in hopes of getting one with Ernie Banks the great Cubs shortstop and first baseman.
I may have been able to get a one for one trade but I most likely would have had to throw in a card of a lesser famous ballplayer in order to conclude the deal.
Would I still have those cards today I would have a valuable treasure but alas my search for profit led into different directions.
God made us thus to seek profit in our choices and Jesus our Lord spoke of this in Mark 8:36 when he asked this profound question:
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Jesus, our Lord, compares two things here and speaks of a choice that will bring the most profit
Jesus knowing our propensity for seeking profit brought our minds to think on the greatest profit there is, the saving of our own soul.
And with this profound question Jesus brought to the forefront what a man of faith will consider in his profit life.
So Moses considers profit in this passage in Hebrews 11 and sees the recompense which means payment of the reward and his faith brought him to respect that reward as greater than all that his eyes revealed to him in Egypt.
He compares the pleasures of sin for a season and the riches of the treasures in Egypt with suffering affliction with the people of God, and the reproach of Christ that comes with this and he sees greater profit in what his faith eyes reveal.
But without faith, eyes only reveal the gold and silver of this world and the profit or loss that comes from only concentrating on things seen.
But things seen will soon be gone and any profit will also be gone so by faith Moses chose to suffer affliction and the reproach of Christ with the people of God.
So our passage teaches us that choices made by faith may result in suffering but any suffering that may come is but for a season for faith will always result in eternal blessings for God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
So in seeking Him, Moses, by faith, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
This in itself is an astounding decision for think back and know that Pharaoh’s daughter had rescued Moses from certain death.
She had taken him in as her own son, to enjoy all the benefits of a grandson of the Pharaoh
Luke speaks of this in Acts 7:21,22, And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. 22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
Moses was rescued from death but even if he had lived with his birth family he would have lived the life, perhaps a short life, of a most hard working slave.
Think about the reaction of those who had done this good thing for Moses and the hurt that was felt by his choice in refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
What an ingrate, perhaps ringed in his ears!
All that we have done for him and this is our reward?
So Moses by faith chose to alienate himself from his family for he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than all that he found in Egypt’s home.
This is what faith will do, for God, in providing us with this account of Moses’ life, tells us that what he has for us cannot be compared to anything that is left behind by following Jesus Christ!
Is there anything higher than gaining the whole world you may ask and faith loudly speaks “yes there is”, for gaining your own soul is of eternal value which will never pass away.
Moses chose to alienate his family but he also turned his back on what the world offered to those in positions of power.
Moses was Pharaoh’s grandson by adoption and would have been expected to assume a position of power and authority in Egypt.
But Moses through eyes of faith turned away from such things and aligned himself with his people, the slave class of Egypt, to eventually become their deliverer.
Imagine that, for Moses no doubt lived in splendor, ate the best delicacies of Egypt, enjoyed the finest clothes, was given the best of education and had riches to have anything money could buy.
But by faith Moses saw that those things do not lead to God’s house but only lead to passing pleasures that fade away with body and soul.
And by faith Moses knew that the path to God’s house many times was a hard and difficult path but chose anyway to suffer affliction with the people of God and in so doing lost everything that this world values.
But faith cares not what this world values for faith cries out to love not the world, neither the things that are in the world for if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15
Moses by faith cared that the love of the Father was in him and therefore he chose to suffer the world’s reproach.
He stepped from a position of respect from the world to a position of ridicule and distain from his peers.
His decision to stand with the lowest rung of Egyptian society, the slaves, placed him as a pariah, one worthy of all shame and mockery.
But Moses decided for the love of the Father and left all to follow him for he indeed had respect unto the recompense of the reward, a reward from God himself, which was far better.
Certainly Moses knew not what was to come from his choice but he knew as a man of faith that blessings from God would come by him being aligned with people who had been placed in Egypt destined to fulfill God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Certainly Moses knew not of all the experiences that his faith would lead him in, all the terrible and fearsome things that this people of God would bring him to.
He stepped out on faith but could never picture his future leadership of millions to exit the land of their birth to go to a strange new place called the Promised Land of God.
But he gained the blessing of walking those paths with the people of God led by God himself with a cloud by day and a fire by night.
Moses found that his faith brought him to far greater blessings in enduring affliction with them than to live in the worldly, shallow society of the Pharaoh’s court of Egypt.
Moses found God’s people, in spite of all the problems he experienced with them, far better to journey toward the city of God than to live and experience life with people who believe not God.
He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the vast treasures in Egypt.
This means reproach similar to what Christ endured when He was despised and rejected of men.
How much Moses knew about the coming one we do not know but John tells us in John 8:56 that Abraham rejoiced to see Jesus’ day.
In Deut. 18:15, Moses said: The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
Moses knew of Abraham’s promise to Isaac that God would provide himself a lamb and he knew of the sacrificial system that taught of a substitute for sinners.
He knew of God’s promise to Eve recorded in Gen. 3:15, that a deliverer would bruise the serpent’s head speaking of course of the Christ, come from God.
So he esteemed, that is, he valued the reproach that he would endure, like the coming deliverer would endure, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.
Faith is that which dims the eyes to what the world provides and clears the eyes to what God has prepared for those who love him.
The Apostle Paul caught this truth in 1 Corinthians 2:9 when he, referring to Isaiah 64:4 wrote: But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
And in I Corinthians 2:10 Paul tells of Faith’s product, for God gives new eyes to see the things which God hath prepared: But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
Faith is that which brings sight to battle against that which the world preaches as valuable, the lust that the flesh and the eye covet, and that natural state of the natural man, the pride of life that simply puffs up, having no substance.
Moses welcomed the reproach of Christ for it gave him 20-20 vision of the recompense of the reward.
He saw the treasure of Christ and all other things of this world faded from his view.
By faith Moses, when he was come to years, means that he made this choice after he was well grown to manhood.
For by faith, Stephen in his oration that resulted in his martyrdom said: And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.
What brought about this turn in Moses is clearly said here for his visit to his brethren resulted from his faith.
Moses was mature enough to have seen what the world has to offer.
No doubt he saw the multitude of Egyptian gods in Pharaoh’s court and superficiality on every side.
He saw the pleasures of sin were but for a season and old enough to see the hard consequences they brought.
He refused to be taken in by riches that were deposited in the tombs of the dead, riches that did them no good in what they called the afterlife.
Moses carefully measured these things against the promises of God which he had heard passed from generation to generation and then to his father who passed it to him.
Yes, he knew that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who came before believed in the one true God who promised that city, that city which could only be seen through eyes of faith.
And he also knew of that Promised Land and nations promised to Abraham as a precursor of that city to come.
So Moses chose to stand with the people of God regardless of any suffering and hardship and reproach his stand would bring.
Again go to Acts 7 and hear Stephen speak of what Moses believed as he killed the Egyptian for in Acts 7:24,25 Stephen speaks this:
And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he (Moses) defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: 25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.
Notice what faith was teaching Moses when here we learn that he believed God had chosen him to be the deliverer of his people.
Perhaps he thought that by being an insider in the court of Pharaoh he could use his influence to bring deliverance to Israel.
So when he was come to years, 40 to be exact he went on an investigative visit to look on the burdens of his brethren.
But instead of only gathering information he saw injustice and took action to right a wrong.
It seems that Moses, instead of waiting on God to show him the way he impulsively took things into his own hands and killed one whom he thought to be one of the oppressors of his people.
But God’s arm is not shortened that it cannot save for God determined to place Moses into another 40 year faith curriculum in order that all glory will go to God in the deliverance of his people and he will have a faith prepared Moses to bring this about.
Moses was exiled to a desert place that he might be prepared to lead God’s people from the place of slavery to a place of milk and honey.
He started out doing things his way but he ended up doing things God’s way.
That is the road upon which faith is to be lived.
God’s will is paramount.
There is no space between doing God’s will and exercising faith.
You do not have faith, Bible faith, if you do not do God’s will.
Moses decided for God and made a decision to do God’s will and left all that he had, refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
By his life he lived out what Paul wrote in Romans 8:18, For he reckoned….. that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
And again his life revealed what Paul wrote in II Cor. 4:17,18,
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Faith always sees correctly for it discounts any sufferings, any affliction, any trials as simply momentary in light of eternity.
But on the contrary think of the momentary pleasures of sin weighed against the eternality of separation from God with an eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire, that place reserved for Satan and his rebels.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
The answer of course is that there is absolutely no profit, no profit at all in gaining the whole world but absolute and eternal loss for there is no neutral position with God.
Jesus said, He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
So faith is that which brings you to be with and gather with Jesus Christ. |