By Faith: Moses
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We have been looking at how to live “By Faith” by looking at the examples of people who lived by faith given in Hebrews chapter 11, the hall of faith.
We have seen how faith drove Abel to give his best when worshipping God,
how Enoch walked by faith with God, until he grew so close to God that God took him to heaven before he died
How Noah, with faith that was born out of fear of the Lord obey God and built the ark and saved his family
How Abraham had such faith in God’s promises, that even when commanded to do something that seemed counter to God’s promise didn’t hesitate, because he knew God would keep his promises
How Jacob, who understood the value of God’s blessing, did everything in his power to make sure his Children and Grandchildren inherited it,
How Joseph, an incredibly gifted person used his gifts by faith, allowing God to guide him, rather that taking the power of his gifts for himself.
And Now we come to Moses
Now Moses’s life covers 4 whole books of the Bible.
We are not going to explore them all
rather, we are going to see what Hebrews highlights, and focus on those moments.
Hebrews 11:23 (ESV)
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
Moses was born during one of the most terrible moments in history.
The king of Egypt had ordered that all newborn baby boys among the slaves be thrown into the Nile.
Exodus 1:8–10 (ESV)
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”
Pharaoh was afraid of the Israelites, so he started killing off the baby boys,
because baby boys can grow into fighting men
This is a horrible Evil act, from a horrible evil man
Exodus 2:1–3 (ESV)
Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.
Moses’s mother hides him for three months, until he is getting to big for her to hide.
and Hebrews says that she was not afraid of the king’s edict - because of faith.
She knew of Joseph’s final vision, the God would bring Israel out of Egypt,
and she sees her son
She saw the child was beautiful, and tried to find a way to save him
and she did
She puts him in a basket and places it in a safe place along the riverbank
Giving him to the nile.
and Pharaohs daughter comes down to bathe in that very spot.
Exodus 2:5–10 (ESV)
Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Moses Grew up as Egyptian royalty. He had everything handed to him,
But he didn’t hold onto it
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
Moses chose to return to the people of Israel once he had grown up.
He considered it better to serve God and reject the worldly treasures.
One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.
Moses’s first visit among his people does not go well.
And he isn’t really mistreated with the people.
He kills an Egyptian in cold blood.
People incuding pharaoh find out
and he is forced to flee.
By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
This seems like a contradiction, Pharaoh found out Moses murdered somebody and moses fled because he was afraid.
But that happened before Moses met God.
What if these last few verses in Hebrews are referencing a different time in Moses’s life?
Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Moses comes face to face with God at the burning bush.
And God calls him to go to pharaoh and demand the ISraelites go free.
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
So when did moses choose to be counted with God’s people
When God called him,
THen Moses went and met with the elders of Israel
Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.
And then he was mistreated with them once he met with pharaoh
Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’ ” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”
The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.”
The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, “You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.” They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; and they said to them, “The Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”
Moses was mistreated along with the israelites, often by the israleites
But he had seen God, so he was not afraid.
By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
after all the plagues, that God sent on Egypt, after egypt was made to ruin, Pharaoh kept hardening his heart.
And the God of Israel slew the Egyptian gods one by one
Each of the 10 plagues represents the defeat of another egyptain god.
The Nile bleeds
The Frogs are banished from their home
the Earth turns to lice
the Flies are scattered, eating the living instead of the dead
the cattle are stuck dead
health is destroyed and magic fails to help
every last bit of grain is eaten
the Sun, Ra - is struck from the sky.
Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go, serve the Lord; your little ones also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.” But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the Lord our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.” But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go. Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me; take care never to see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.” Moses said, “As you say! I will not see your face again.”
Moses leaves pharaoh without fear, becuase he knows God.
So Hebrews is right, Moses did leave pharaoh without fear, and he did suffer with the israelites, we just had to look twice at the story to see where it lined up.
Sometimes church you need to look at scripture multiple times to see all the connections.
But Now we see that by Faith, Moses overcame his previous fear, he used to fear, Pharaoh, now he doesn’t
He has found that the reporach of Christ - the offence of Christ is better than anything this world can offer.
The reward of God is greater
By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
Moses instructs the Israelites in passover, telling them to paint blood on the doorposts, and when God goes to kill the firstborn of egypt he passes over anyone who has blood on their door.
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.
For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
God destroys the firstborn of Egypt
THat doesn;t sound like a good God, a god of mercy?
But Egypt Slew all of the Hebrew male children for many years.
And Pharaoh kept hardening his heart even when presented with undoubatble proof of God’s power
HAve you ever wondered Why God asked the israelites to use blood to spare their first born?
the other plagues did not afftect the Israelites, if you look at them, the land of Goshen - where the Israelites live is spared from several of the plauges
So why did moses have to sprinkle blood to keep the destroyer of the firstborn away?
1. It points to Christ
2. only those who had faith in God put the blood on their doorpost.
They had to respond in faith.
that faith was open to anyone,
an egyptian who had seen all the devastation, upon hearing about this final plague, might believe in the Israelite God and kill a lamb and therefore make it thorugh the plague untouched.
Only those who had hardened their hearts against God
So Moses is finding a way to save people based on their actions which are born of faith
Faith begets action!
So it is with Christ, Christ died to save us from the destruction that is coming,
Only those who have faith in Christ will be spared
And though we are not saved by our actions, Faith begets action.
And so now Moses is able to lead the people out of Egypt
And Pharoah hardens his heart again
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon. When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.
By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.
Moses’s faith changed his life, It turned around from Pampered Palace Prince to humble servant of God, From fearful fugitive, to fearless leader, and now his faith has spread to the rest of the ISraelites
The way is open to them, the waters are split, but they have to take the steps and walk through the sea - and they do so by faith
And the Egyptians who rather than soften their hearts and recognize God for who he is, harden their hearts and try to follow, and they end up drowning.
Moses’s faith softened his heart.
It drove him to obedience, and humility
Obedience is faith acted out.
Because he was looking for a greater reward.
There is nothing on earth worth more than the rewards in heaven.