Mosaic Fath

Hebrews 11:23-28

Our text this morning is really all about the choices that faith must make or that faith does make. And I was thinking about famous choices throughout history. There’s the famous story about Fred Smith, the founder of Fedex, who was down to the company’s last $5000, was denied a loan, and went to the Vegas casinos to try to save the company on a game of blackjack. He ended up winning $27,000, just enough to cover the $24,000 fuel bill for the next cycle, kept the company afloat and the rest is history. Crazy story. I wouldn’t call it wise or good advise, but certainly historical.

I’m sure you can think of choices you’ve made, good ones, bad ones. Ones perhaps that keep you up at night. Making choices is part of the human experience, and it is terrifying sometimes isn’t it? Because we don’t always judge things rightly, and we certainly don’t always know that our choices are going to result in a good outcome. Well isn’t it good to know that we have a sure and confident hope in Christ? We may not know what will be the immediate result of our choices, but we do know that we are promised good if we choose to act according to faith.

Well the author of Hebrews is going to demonstrate this for us in our text today. He’s going to do this with Moses, but not just Moses, in fact he begins with the faith of Moses’ parents.

We’ll actually look at verses 23 and 27 together as they both highlight faith in light of fear.

1. Faith chooses the fear of God over the fear of man

I don’t know how much you’ve actually thought about the story of Moses’ birth. I never really thought about how difficult it would be to hide a baby for 3 months until I had some of them myself. Pharoah had made an edict, any male child born to the Israelites was to be thrown into the Nile River. Now the text here says that Moses’ parents hid him by faith for three months. That’s a long time to keep a baby quiet from soldiers looking for newborn babies.

But notice this, Moses’ parents kept him hidden for three months because they saw that he was beautiful. Now what on earth is going on here? Well any of us would think that our children are beautiful and wouldn’t want to hand them over to be killed, so there must be something more going on if the author is going to highlight it like this. Beautiful is what is used in Exodus, and also in Acts 7 in Stephen’s telling on the Exodus event. But there Stephen says that he was beautiful to God. Whatever this means, clearly Moses’ parents knew that God had set him apart for something and that he would be saved. I think the trajectory of Hebrews has taught us of these Old Testament saints that they believed the promise of God that he would save his people through the coming of a rescuer, and his parents believed Moses to be him.

Look down at verse 27, Moses when he had grown up also did not fear the king, but left Egypt. Now Moses left Egypt twice, once after killing the Egyptian and once with God’s people. I think this is probably referring to the second leaving, the Exodus.

It didn’t make sense for Moses’ parents to place him in a basket in the very River where the babies were being thrown and it didn’t make sense for Moses to leave Egypt with God’s people, knowing the Pharoah commanded the largest army on the planet. But we aren’t talking about rationality here, we are talking about faith.

Now maybe that statement seems silly because you have bought that reason is the height of human thinking. I agree with you. Except for one very important detail… Human thinking is corrupted by sin. Human thinking says “God says… but I know better.” Faith says “God says… everything in me says he’s wrong… but I trust him over me.” And so a sanctified reason is a faith filled rationality. I don’t fear the king, I fear God. You may end my life here, but he preserves me in the next.

You’re faced with choices like this all the time. Maybe they aren’t always life and death, but often they are faith against fallen human reason. Who’s authority is trustworthy?

See as we’ve been talking all through Hebrews 11, faith acts. The evidence of saving faith is often displayed in faithful action. It is faithful thinking, and faithful choosing that precedes that faithful action.

2. Faith chooses the eternal over the temporal

Moses was in a very similar position to Joseph. Son of the Pharaoh’s daughter. He didn’t have an earned position like Joseph, he was adopted into the family. He had it all. The text says he chose to give it up. Actually the text highlights two sides to this choice. He chose to give up the title of son of the Pharaoh’s daughter, and chose rather to be mistreated with the people of God that to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

Oh doesn’t this verse pierce you to the core? The Spirit is so explicit with the wording here isn’t he? There’s no wiggle room. Our sin is a choice of fleeting pleasure. That is pleasure that will disappear. It may be pleasure for a while but it doesn’t satisfy. Every time we choose sin we choose the fleeting pleasures that go along with it. But of the choice of Christ he says it is a choice of mistreatment.

Suffering for the sake of Christ. “The first act of faith is self-denial” - Owen. “Take up your cross and follow me” Matthew 16:24. Believer isn’t this the call of Christ? Follow me and suffer. The world is full of fleeting pleasures, Christ offers pleasures that do not wither and rust, and are even found often in the midst of great sorrow. Paul says that we have joy incorruptible in Christ. It cannot be explained how someone suffering in this world can also be deeply satisfied in Christ, but that is the choice faith makes.

In this act Moses pictures Christ for us. He forsook an immediate reward to suffer with his people in anticipation of a greater reward. Jesus, we’ll see in Hebrews 12:1-2 forsook joy to endure the cross for the greater reward of accomplishing God’s purposes.

The world will tell you of the foolishness of suffering for Christ’s sake, but believer don’t listen to them, your reward is with Christ, your reward is Christ.

In fact the text says that Moses considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth that the treasures of Egypt because he was looking to the reward. Psalm 89:50-51 says that God’s people always suffer the mocking of his enemies. Praise God we have a Christ who sees with perfect vision to joy set before him. I don’t see perfectly, I see often through a mirror dimly, but my treasure is stored safely in the presence of God because he accomplished what I cannot.

3. Faith chooses what God provides

Verse 28 explains that Moses chose to keep the passover and sprinkle the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of his house so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. A lamb died to save God’s people from death. Human wisdom does not teach this. Human wisdom teaches that we must work to pay off our debts. Human wisdom teaches in the event we cannot pay off a debt… Isaiah 22:13 “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

The reality is that the Destroyer is coming for who have sinned against God. But as believers we have chosen, rather than to run away and hide, rather than to ignore is and wait for the inevitable, we have chosen to worship the lamb that was slain. Revelation 5 teaches us that this lamb that was slain stands in the presence of God, himself God, he rules and reigns over this creation through his church, that he’s coming again… But for those who have been washed in the precious blood of the lamb have been made spotless, white as snow. Isaiah 1:18 “18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”

Faith takes everything and places it all on this lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ and says “I’m placing all of my hope of him. I know judgment day is coming, but Psalm 27:13 “13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!”

God loves to exercise his faithfulness in his people. Ephesians 2:10 “10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Believer God has crafted you in the Lord Jesus, prepared beforehand these good works we walk in. So rest in Christ that his purposes are being accomplished in you, and trust him with the choices of your life, that he is faithful to complete the good work in you he once began.