Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 15 Sep. 2019
As we continue our study of Hebrews chapter 11 on the topic of Biblical faith, we’ve seen that:
Faith involves understanding what God has done in creation
Faith involves righteousness (illustrated by Abel)
Faith involves pleasing God and walking with Him (illustrated by Enoch)
Faith involves responding to God’s word in obedience (illustrated by Noah)
Faith involves going where God wants as a pilgrim on the way to heaven (Abraham)
Faith involves trusting God’s promises to come true (Sarah)
Faith involves willingness to sacrifice what is dearest to us out of obedience to God (Isaac)
And faith involves blessing and inspiring faith in our children and grandchildren (Jacob)
Now let’s look at the life of Moses and how faith enabled him and his family to resist sin and escape from bondage. In this sermon, I want to meditate on how Biblical faith gives us our proper authority, identity, and destiny. (That will be my three points.)
Let me say up front that the political country of Egypt is a nation like any other. There is nothing morally wrong with living in Egypt today. But in the Holy Scriptures, the country of Egypt takes on a symbolic meaning of bondage to sin, and I’m going to be using that kind of symbolism a lot in my applications of this passage. Please understand that when I compare Egypt to Sin, I am not dissing the modern, political nation of Egypt; I’m using the word “Egypt” mostly in its typological, spiritual meaning.
The account of this from Exodus 2 was read earlier in our worship service. Steven the Evangelist in Acts 7 also related the story: "But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt 'till another king arose who did not know Joseph. This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies, so that they might not live. At this time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father's house for three months. But when he was set out, Pharaoh's daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son." (Acts 7:17-21, NKJV)
Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, wanted to knock down the population numbers of the Hebrew slaves in his country because he feared they might be powerful enough to overthrow him.
He first tried to do this underhandedly by getting the medical professionals to practice infanticide at the births of as many baby boys as they could.
The medical professionals refused to obey this immoral command, so Pharaoh escalated things by calling upon all “his people” to throw baby Hebrew boys into the Nile to drown.
That is the context into which Moses was born, but that was also a context in which his parents, Amram and Jochabed, could put their faith in God into practice.
Like the birth-nurses who didn’t kill Moses when he was born, his parents also defied the command of Pharaoh and didn’t throw him into the river to die right away – and they kept anyone else from doing it to him too. They hid him safe for his first three months.
Now, the Bible doesn’t explain why it was three months:
Some have suggested that he was born three months premature (after only six months of pregnancy), so his parents knew no one would suspect he had been born until the normal nine months of pregnancy had elapsed, so they just pretended the baby hadn’t been born for another three months to buy time. (Jonathan ben Uzziel in Exod. ii. 2)
Another traditional explanation that seems more likely to me is that Pharoah only instigated roundups of Hebrew boy babies every few months, so the parents knew they had three months to raise him before the next roundup.
Three months does a lot in the development of a child, so maybe his parents thought it would give him more of a fighting chance at survival before they had to take drastic measures.
Whatever the case, the apostle gives us two reasons why Moses’ parents did what they did:
First, because they saw that Moses was a fine/ beautiful/ proper/ goodly/ noble/ handsome child.
The Greek word asteion literally means “from the city” and, by implication, “not run-of-the-mill” but rather “well-bred.”
The Hebrew word in Exodus 2 is tov, which generally means “good.”
So Amram and Jochabed saw that their son was a keeper, born of good Levite stock, and perhaps particularly good-looking (although it’s hard for any parent to say that without some bias!).
Perhaps Josephus’ comment in his Antiquities (ii. 210ff.) is true that God told Amram in a dream that Moses would deliver Israel from Egypt. The Bible doesn’t say.
At the very least, Moses’ parents saw the wonder of God’s creation in the form of this child and knew it would be wrong to reject this good.
The second reason given that Amram and Jochabed exercised faith in the preservation of Moses’ life was that they were not frightened by the king’s executive order.
Some say it is always wrong to disobey authority because, as Romans 13 says, “all authority is instituted by God.” Yet the Bible, in Exodus 1 and 2, commends the midwives and Moses’ parents for disobeying their king! How can this be?
Faith makes all the difference: This was not disobedience motivated by rebellion against authority but rather obedience motivated by faithfulness to the authority of God.
In this case, God had taught Noah that murder was wrong, and so when the king of Egypt commanded people to murder their sons, Amram and Jochabed obeyed God instead of the King, and that was an exercise of faith which was pleasing to God.
If they had murdered their son in order to stay on the good side of their earthly king, God would have counted that as sin and unfaithfulness.
What Moses’ mother eventually did in putting Moses in the basket to float on the Nile under his big sister’s careful watch actually complied with the letter of Pharaoh’s edict (after all, she cast him into the river, just as Pharaoh had commanded!), but she resisted the evil purpose behind the edict. She put him in a watertight, covered boat and floated it in the shallowest water on the edge so he wouldn’t drown, and she just happened to put it in the very spot where the compassionate princess took her baths!
Faith in God chooses to obey God’s authority when it conflicts with human authority.
Now, since we’re all under imperfect, human authorities in the home, at church, and in the civil sphere, there are going to be times when they tell you to do something that violates a command of God:
They may tell you that you have to work on the Lord’s Day.
They may instruct you to tell a lie to cover up their mistake.
They may even seek your complicity in oppressing others.
Because this is only natural in human governments, we should not raise a stink too quickly; we should rather appeal respectfully, asking for reconsideration or for an exception for the sake of your conscience. Your authority may have had no intention of doing wrong, and God might use your respectful, peaceful appeal to open their eyes to a healthy adjustment that brings blessings to your whole community.
But at some point, if your authority refuses to budge, you will have to decide whether you will “obey God rather than man.” And, like the apostles in the book of Acts who were commanded by their government authorities to stop talking about Jesus, it might mean taking a beating from a corrupt authority in order to maintain your clear conscience, but Faith takes stands like that in order to honor the authority of God.
The life of Moses shows us that faith is related to authority, but it is also related to identity:
Once again, the Steven the evangelist fills in some of the context for us in Acts 7, starting at verse 21: "...Pharaoh's daughter [named Thermuthis, according to Jewish tradition] took him away and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was learn-ed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds. Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian." (Acts 7:21-24, NKJV)
Although we don’t have any Biblical account of anyone calling Moses the son of Pharoah’s daughter and him denying it, Moses certainly never used his privileges in the family of Pharaoh to boast his superiority over anybody. He remained modest, and when God told him at the burning bush to go back and take a message to Pharaoh, Moses humbly responded, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" (Ex 3:11, NKJ)
In verses 25 and 26, the Apostle gives us two reasons why Moses chose to lodge his identity with the persecuted people of God rather than with the powerful dynasty of Egypt2:
First, in v.25 he “had chosen instead to be ill-treated together with the people of God than to have temporary enjoyment of sin.”
He made a choice about his identity based upon his recognition of what would be lastingly-satisfying versus what would be only temporary.
In 2 Corinthians 4:18, the Greek word for “temporary/seasonal/passing/fleeting” is contrasted with its antonym: "...we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary [πρόσκαιρα – for a time], but the things which are not seen are eternal [αἰώνια – forever]." (NKJV)
"Observe how great a temptation Moses was under. Pharaoh's daughter is said to have been his only child, and was herself childless; and having found Moses, and saved him as she did, she resolved to take him and bring him up as her son; and so he stood fair to be in time king of Egypt... [but] he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter lest it should look like renouncing his religion as well as his relation to Israel; and no doubt both these he must have done if he had accepted this honour; he therefore nobly refused it." ~Matthew Henry, AD 1714 (cf. Josephus Antiquities, l. 2. c. 9. sect. 7.)
Moses saw Egyptian dignitaries die and probably saw their tombs filled with food and entertainment and tools that their dead bodies could never be able to appreciate again. He realized that any pleasure he derived from the luxuries of the court of Pharaoh (of which he had privileges), would be only “for a time” and then would be of no further benefit. The only way to enjoy life forever would be to attach himself to the God who lives forever and who makes people right with Him forever, even if it meant some suffering temporarily.
Sin is indeed only temporarily enjoyable – and it is bitter disappointment afterward! Will we resolve – like Moses did – to cling to the eternal community of God and forsake the hollow life of seeking pleasure out of this world?
“When Heaven was set before him, it was superfluous to admire an Egyptian Palace.” ~J. Chrysostom, AD 400
With heaven set before you, what is it superfluous for you to admire?
The second reason why Moses identified Himself with God and His people3 instead of with Egypt and its king was that “had decided that [experiencing] the insulting of the Messiah was greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, since he was looking off to the payback.”
Moses wisely looked down the timeline at what the results would be and asked himself; “Which will give me greater and longer-lasting treasure and reward: Association with Egypt, or association with God’s Anointed?”
Not everyone had Moses’ insight, but he discerned that God had greater and longer-lasting riches to bestow than even Pharaoh.
Later on when Moses blessed the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 28:12 he pointed them to the those treasures in heaven, saying, "The LORD will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens..." (NET Bible)
And Moses wasn’t the only one. Jesus also spoke of heavenly riches in Matt. 6:19-21 "Don't y'all keep treasuring for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and consumption are devaluing, and where thieves are breaking in and stealing, but keep treasuring for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor consumption are devaluing and where thieves neither break in nor steal, for where your treasure is, there also will be your heart." (NAW)
The trouble is that to get to the greater and more lasting treasures and rewards of heaven, we have to first suffer together with Christ, and Christ Jesus suffered reproach, insults, and even execution by crucifixion.
Now, Moses, when he was Prince of Egypt, didn’t know that much about Christ. The best he gets is his regulations in the book of Leviticus about the high priest being “anointed” (for that is what the word “Christ” means; it means “the anointed one”).
But one thing he did know, and that was if he was going to side with the one true God against all the gods of Egypt, he would suffer in Egypt for it. That much he knew.
And you can be sure you’ll suffer too if you make that same decision. Are you willing to face that reproach in order to get that greater reward?
Are you willing to have everybody in your class look at you with disgust like you’re an idiot, because you believe that if we disown Jesus He will disown us, but if we endure in faith, we will reign with Him forever – according to 2 Tim. 2?4
Are you willing to lose a business deal because someone thinks your devotion to God’s 10 Commandments is ridiculous?
Are you willing to lose a friend because she can’t stand you being a goody-goody?
Indeed, Hebrews 10:32-34 indicates that the Christians had already endured some of that “suffering” and “insults,” but they knew they had “a possession that is better and lasting.” (NAW)
1 Peter 4:1-2 “Therefore, since Christ suffered for y'all in flesh, y'all also must start arming yourselves with the same resolution, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has been stopped from sin, in order to live the remainder [of his] time in flesh no longer in the lusts of men, but rather in the will of God..." (NAW)
Romans 8:16-18 "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (NKJV)
Isaiah 51:7-8 "Listen to me, knowers of righteousness – people in whose heart is my law; do not fear the reproach of man, and from their revilings, do not come undone. For a moth will eat them like the garment, and a worm will eat them like wool, but my righteousness will exist forever, and my salvation to generation upon generations." (NAW)
The “reward/payback” that Moses was “looking off toward” is mentioned two other times in the book of Hebrews, including both the negative payback which God will sock to the wicked as well as the positive payoff which God will lavish upon those who stick with Him:
Hebrews 2:2-3 "For, since the word spoken through messengers got confirmed, and every transgression and disobedience received a just payback/reward, how would we ourselves escape after showing apathy for such a great salvation?" (NAW)
Hebrews 10:35-36 “Therefore, don't y’all throw away your open-access – which has [such] a great payoff, for y’all have need of endurance in order that, after y'all have done the will of God, y'all may obtain what was promised." (NAW)
Listen, there is no sweeter reward than eternal life. It is worth suffering with Christ to get it!
"Heaven is a great reward, surpassing not only all our deservings, but all our conceptions. It is a reward suitable to the price paid for it - the blood of Christ; suitable to the perfections of God, and fully answering to all his promises. It is a ‘recompense of reward,’ because given by a righteous Judge for the righteousness of Christ to righteous persons, according to the righteous rule of the covenant of grace. Believers may and ought to have respect to this recompense of reward; they should acquaint themselves with it, approve of it, and live in the daily and delightful expectation of it. Thus it will prove a land-mark to direct their course, a load-stone to draw their hearts, a sword to conquer their enemies, a spur to quicken them to duty, and a cordial to refresh them under all the difficulties of doing and suffering work." ~Matthew Henry
Finally, the life of Moses tells us that faith does more than give us the authority and identity of Christ; it also gives us a destination in Christ that leaves the world behind:
To be sure, there were times when Moses was afraid. His first flight from Egypt, he was afraid Pharaoh would kill him, and for good reason6.
But later on, he overcame his fear of Pharaoh, so that by Exodus 11, he was back in Pharaoh’s court, confronting him boldly: "Thus says the LORD:`About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt; and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals. Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again. But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the LORD does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.' And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying,`Get out, and all the people who follow you!' After that I will go out." Then he went out from Pharaoh in great anger. (Exodus 11:4-8, NKJV) Moses was mad at Pharoah’s defiance of God and he didn’t care whether Pharaoh was insulted or not!
How on earth did a frightened murderer-turned-fugitive in a foreign land get so bold? The second half of the verse tells us: “for/because he persevered/endured as seeing Him who is unseen/invisible.”
He had seen such a compelling vision of God that he wasn’t afraid of the most powerful king in the world. He had such a compelling vision of eternity that he was no longer attached to all the conveniences of Egypt. He saw it all with the eyes of faith.
“The unseen one” is of course, God, for the Apostle John taught us that “No one has seen God at any time” (John 1:18; 1 John 4:12) – at least not in His fullness.
1 Timothy 1:17 calls God “the King eternal, immortal, invisible…” (NKJV)
God’s attributes are also invisible, according to Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead...” (NKJV)
But, although they are invisible, the Holy Spirit can enable us to perceive them by faith.
Moses got to see some of God’s glory in the burning bush and on Mt. Sinai, and those glimpses gave him what he needed to stand strong in the midst of great trials of faith. But John says we have even better glimpses of God in the person of Christ:
John 1:14-18 "...the Word [who was God] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth... For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” (ESV)
Colossians 1:15 teaches that Jesus “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” (NKJV)
Like Moses we can also be as those who see Him who is unseen. The Greek phrase implies that other people have lived – and can live – this way too!
What does that look like for you to persevere as one who sees the Unseen God?
How about repentance? If you know that the unseen God will holds us accountable for committing anything that is out-of-accord with His character, we will beg His forgiveness and yearn to become more like Him.
How about prayer? If you know God is there, you’ll bow to the one you can’t see and talk to Him anyway. People may think you’re crazy, but it’s just because they can’t see it.
How about discipleship? If you know that human souls are the only part of this world that will last, you’ll invest in sharing the gospel rather than in material things that will be eventually destroyed.
“If then we too always see God with our mind, if we always think in remembrance of Him, all things will appear endurable to us, all things tolerable; we shall bear them all easily, we shall be above them all... [T]hings appear to us difficult, because we do not have the remembrance of God as we ought; because we do not carry Him about alway in our thoughts.” ~ Chrysostom
May the unseen God be on your mind this week and guide you to your destiny, your identity, and your authority in Christ.
Greek NT |
NAW |
KJV |
23 Πίστει Μωϋσῆς γεννηθεὶς ἐκρύβη τρίμηνον ὑπὸ τῶν πατέρων αὐτοῦ, διότι εἶδον ἀστεῖονB τὸ παιδίον, καὶ οὐκ ἐφοβήθησαν τὸ διάταγμαC τοῦ βασιλέως.D |
23 With faith, Moses, after he was born, was hidden for a 3-month-period by his parents be-cause they saw the child was a fine one, and they were not frightened by the order of the king. |
23
By faith Moses, |
24 Πίστει Μωϋσῆς μέγας γενόμενος ἠρνήσατο λέγεσθαι υἱὸς θυγατρὸς Φαραώ, |
24 With faith, Moses, after he was grown, declaimed being called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, |
24
By faith Moses, when
he was come to |
25 μᾶλλον ἑλόμενος συγκακουχεῖσθαιE τῷ λαῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἢ πρόσκαιρον ἔχειν ἁμαρτίας ἀπόλαυσινF, |
25 having chosen instead to be ill-treated together with the people of God than to have temporary enjoyment of sin, |
25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction X with the people of God, than to X en-joy [the] pleasure[s] of sin for a season; |
26 μείζονα πλοῦτον ἡγησάμενοςG τῶν Αἰγύπτου θησαυρῶν τὸν ὀνειδισμὸν τοῦ Χριστοῦ· ἀπέβλεπεH γὰρ εἰς τὴν μισθαποδοσίανI. |
26 having de-cided that [experiencing] the insulting of the Messiah was greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, since he was looking off to the payback. |
26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater rich-[es] than the treasures inJ Egypt: for he had respect unto [the recompence of] the reward. |
27 Πίστει κατέλιπεν Αἴγυπτον μὴ φοβηθεὶς τὸν θυμὸν τοῦ βασιλέως· τὸν γὰρ ἀόρατονK ὡς ὁρῶν ἐκαρτέρησεL |
27 With faith he left Egypt behind, not having been frightened by the wrath of the king, for he persevered as one who sees Him who is unseen. |
27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. |
1"That is, either Christ personal; meaning not any reproach that lay upon Christ, as the immediate object of it; nor upon the people of Israel for the delay of his coming; but rather for the sake of Christ: Christ was made known to the Old Testament saints, and they believed in him; he was typified by sacrifices which they offered; and they were reproached for his sake, for the sacrifices they offered, and for the worship they performed, for their faith in the Messiah, and their expectation of him: or this may be understood of Christ mystical, the church; called Christ, because of the union, communion, sympathy, and likeness there is between them, insomuch that what is done to the one, is done to the other: when the saints are reproached, Christ himself is reproached; and therefore all reproaches of this nature should be bore willingly, cheerfully, courageously, patiently, and constantly..." ~John Gill, AD 1766
2An interesting contrast to Joseph whose association with Pharaoh was kept in faith, but the need of the time was different.
3P. E. Hughes made a case in his commentary, based on the use of xristwn in Ps. 105:15, that “Christ” refers to Israel.
42 Timothy 2:12 "If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us." (NKJV)
5It's possible that this word is also used in the sense of "seer," which is it's meaning in 3 out of its seven other uses in the Greek Bible (Numbers 24:3&15-Balaam & Amos 7:12).
6Nevertheless, some Bible commentators try to interpret this statement in Hebrews of his first flight from Egypt.
AThe
Greek is the Majority text, edited by myself to follow the majority
of the earliest-known manuscripts only when the early manuscript
evidence is practically unanimous. My original document includes
notes on the NKJV, NASB, NIV, & ESV English translations, but
since they are all copyrighted, I cannot include them in my online
document. Underlined words in English versions indicate a
standalone difference from all other English translations of a
certain word. Strikeout usually indicates that the
English translation is, in my opinion, too far outside the range of
meaning of the original Greek word. The addition of an X indicates a
Greek word left untranslated – or a plural Greek word
translated as an English singular. [Brackets] indicate words added
in English not in the Greek. Key words are colored consistently
across the chart to show correlations.
BSince this adjective bears no definite article and the noun it modifies is definite, asteion is in a predicate position as the predicate nominative of ton paidion, in other words “the child [was] fine” (not “the fine child”). A.T. Robertson concurred: “‘the child was goodly’ (predicate adjective)”
COnly here and Ezra 7:11, akin to an “executive order” in the United States.
DThe 6th Century Claramontanus manuscript was recorded by Tischendorf as containing the following extra verse, found nowhere else: “With faith, Moses, after he was grown, was merciless toward the Egyptian when he realized the abasement of his brothers.”
EHapex Legomenon. The simpler form of this verb without the syn- prefix occurs only twice, and both in Hebrews (11:37 & 13:3).
F1 Tim. 6:17 contains the only other instance of this word in the Greek Bible.
Gcf. logisamenos referring to Abraham’s faith in v.19.
HNowhere else in the NT, but several instances in the OT, expressing positive interest (Ps. 10:4), evil intent (Ps. 9:29) or distraction (Cant. 6:1; Hos. 3:1; Mal. 3:9). cf. aporwnes in 12:2.
IOnly here and Heb. 2:2 and 10:35 in the Greek Bible.
JThe Textus Receptus, upon which the KJV was based, followed a dozen or so Greek manuscripts, (the earliest being the 9th century miniscule #1424 and the 5th century uncial Alexandrinus) which add the preposition en here, but perhaps twice as many Greek manuscripts (the oldest of which are the 4th century Sinaiticus and 6th century Claramontanus uncials) read without the preposition, the latter of which is the rendering of majority editions, modern critical editions, and modern Greek Orthodox editions of the Greek New Testament. But whether the treasures were “in” Egypt or “of” Egypt, the idea is basically the same.
KIt is not just that Moses could perceive indefinite invisible things, but rather that he could perceive “the” particular invisible person (Louw & Nida Lexicon Supplement #92.11a). Geneva, KJV, NKJV, NASB, NIV, and ESV all render this definite article "Him who is" (cf. NET "the one who is" and CEV "the God").
LOnly here and in the LXX of Job 2:9 and Isa. 42:14, but more common with the pros- prefix (Num. 13:20/21, Mark 3:9; Acts 1:14; 2:42,46; 6:4; 8:13; 10:7; Romans 12:12; 13:6; Colossians 4:2).