Moses Part 1
Moses’ faith enabled him to face Pharaoh unafraid, and to trust God to deal with the enemy. The endurance of Moses was not a natural gift, for by nature Moses was hesitant and retiring. This endurance and courage came as the reward of his faith.
As Dr. Vance Havner said, “Moses chose the imperishable, saw the invisible, and did the impossible.”
ME:
v.23 His parents risked their own lives to save the child because he was “cute”??? Or is there more? ANSWER: He had a unique destiny… how could they know???
Faith gives reality to things that cannot be seen. By this faith the Old Testament believers received a positive witness from God (11:1–2). In the generations before the flood, Abel, Enoch, and Noah all responded by faith to demonstrate obedience to God. Their faith pleased Him. Abraham demonstrated his faith by forsaking the comforts of Ur and Haran to follow God to the promised land. By faith Abraham and Sarah bore Isaac as a child of their old age (11:8–12). Moses showed his faith by leaving the wealth of the Egyptian palace to suffer hardship with the Hebrew people (11:23–28).
The book of Deuteronomy ends with Moses’ unparalleled epitaph:
Since then no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. (34:10–12)
He was Israel’s greatest prophet. God communicated directly to him and testified regarding their relationship:
When a prophet of the Lord is among you,
I reveal myself to him in visions,
I speak to him in dreams.
But this is not true of my servant Moses;
he is faithful in all my house.
With him I speak face to face,
clearly and not in riddles;
he sees the form of the Lord.
(Numbers 12:6–8)
This is why his face was luminous when he descended Mt.. Sinai with the Ten Commandments.
He was Israel’s greatest lawgiver. Virtually everything in their religion recalled his name.
He was Israel’s great historian. Moses authored everything from Genesis to Deuteronomy.
He was considered Israel’s greatest saint, for Scripture says he was “more humble than any one else on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3). This is perhaps most amazing of all because often those who have accomplished great things are anything but humble. But Moses was the humblest of the entire human race!
24 The author passes over the putting of the baby in the ark of bulrushes, the finding of the child by Pharaoh’s daughter, and the rearing of Moses in Pharaoh’s house. He comes at once to Moses’ faith as a grown man. “When he had grown up” is probably the best way to understand megas genomenos (“having become great”), though the suggestion has been made that there is a reference to the social and political position the man Moses found himself in. Stephen tells us that Moses was about forty years old at the time (Acts 7:23).
Stephen tells us that Moses was about forty years old at the time (Acts 7:23). The author appears to be saying that the decision Moses reached was that of a mature man—not the decision of a child or rebellious adolescent. In full knowledge of what he was doing, Moses “refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,” which, as Bruce puts it, “must have seemed an act of folly by all worldly standards” (in loc.). He had open to him a place of great prestige and he could have lived comfortably among the Egyptian aristocracy. But he gave it all up. Some have tried to identify “Pharaoh’s daughter,” but we lack sufficient information to do this.
Result: Jochebed got paid to nurse her own baby and to raise him during his early years!
So Moses was preserved by his parents’ heroic faith. But there is more, for he was also nurtured by their faith. There in the slave hut of his parents Moses was surrounded by the pure atmosphere of faith. There he became aware of his own origins. There he was taught to fear God. And there he was made conscious of his call to deliver his people. Stephen informs us in his great sermon (Acts 7:25) that when Moses made his first attempt to defend his people, “Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them.”
What encouragement there is here for any who are attempting to try to raise a godly family in today’s secular desert. Moses was preserved by his parents’ faith. Their faith, their prayers, their bravery, and their creativity saved him.
The author is certainly interested in the way Moses exercised faith, and he gives five instances of faith in connection with the great lawgiver.
23 Moses is mentioned eleven times in Hebrews, which is more than in any other NT epistle (though not so many times as in John and Acts). Like the others in this chapter, he lived by faith. But here the reference to him begins with the faith exercised when he was too young to know what was going on—the faith of his parents. In the account in Exodus the role of Moses’ mother receives all the attention, his father not being mentioned. In the LXX, however, the plural verbs in Exodus 2:2–3 show that both parents were involved, and the author follows his customary practice of depending on LXX. In any case, the mother could not have hidden the child without the father’s agreement. So both parents were necessarily involved.
Moses’ faith enabled him to face Pharaoh unafraid, and to trust God to deal with the enemy. The endurance of Moses was not a natural gift, for by nature Moses was hesitant and retiring. This endurance and courage came as the reward of his faith.
Moses—faith warring (vv. 23–29). Moses was fortunate to have believing parents. For them to hide their baby son from the authorities was certainly an act of faith. The account is given in Exodus 2:1–10. Moses’ parents were named Amram and Jochebed (Ex. 6:20). Though godly parents cannot pass on their faith as they do family traits, they can certainly create an atmosphere of faith at home and be examples to their children. A home should be the first school of faith for a child.
In any case they could only please God by continued confidence that He exists and … rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
That God does reward those who seek Him is suggested by the career of Noah, who became an heir of righteousness by faith. What he inherited was, in fact, the new world after the Flood as the readers might inherit “the world to come” (cf. 2:5). The reference here to Noah saving his household recalls the writer’s stress on a Christian’s salvation-inheritance. It further suggests that a man’s personal faith can be fruitful in his family, as they share it together.
11:23 beautiful child. Meaning “favored,” in this case divinely favored (Acts 7:20; cf. Ex. 2:2). The faith described here is actually that exercised by Moses’ parents, although it is unclear how much Moses’ parents understood about God’s plan for their child.
Often their faith is directed to the future, which is unseen: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (v. 1).
Because the original readers of Hebrews would not receive the full benefits of their faith in this life, the author focuses on heroes whose lives highlighted the future dimension of faith. Abraham, for example, “was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (v. 10). In fact, the writer summarizes the witnesses to faith up to and including Abraham in this way: “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (v. 13).
Another key dimension of faith extolled in chapter 11 is its firm, steadfast character, especially in light of present sufferings and future glory. So it is that Moses chose “rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ [i.e., being like Christ in suffering on behalf of God’s people] greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt” (vv. 25–26). Hebrews combines the steadfastness of faith with its unseen reward when it says of Moses, “he endured as seeing him who is invisible” (v. 27).
If ever there was a biblical chapter that prosperity theology teachers should avoid, this is it! The heroines and heroes of faith hardly “named it and claimed it.” To the contrary, “They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about.… destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy” (vv. 37–38). The chapter ends still focusing on the future promises of faith: “And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect” (vv. 39–40). These words draw attention to the final salvation accomplished by Christ’s priestly ministry. Old Testament saints looked forward to this ministry and, amazingly, Christians now enjoy its fruits, solely by God’s grace.
Sometimes Hebrews 11 is referenced as the New Testament’s “Hall of Heroes,” but it is important to remember that the “heroes” identified were often quite fallible in character. They became heroic not by their abilities or advantages but by the eternal purposes of the One in whom they placed their faith. The strong medicine of chapter 11 is applied to hearers’ needs in the first four verses of chapter 12.
12:1–4 Missiologists teach us that the church i
The promises the Old Testament believers had expected were coming true in the events New Testament Christians were experiencing (11:39–40).
The writer of Hebrews follows the biblical account here (in its LXX form—the Hebrew only mentions the mother’s decision to rescue him—Ex 2:2–3), but many Jewish writers expanded the story of Moses’ birth, especially his beauty, into reports that his glory illumined the room at birth and so forth. These stories became very popular as time went on.
The writer of Hebrews makes it clear that faith is a very practical thing (Heb. 11:3), in spite of what unbelievers say. Faith enables us to understand what God does. Faith enables us to see what others cannot see (note Heb. 11:7, 13, 27). As a result, faith enables us to do what others cannot do! People laughed at these great men and women when they stepped out by faith, but God was with them and enabled them to succeed to His glory. Dr. J. Oswald Sanders put it perfectly: “Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen.”
The best way to grow in faith is to walk with the faithful. The remainder of this chapter is devoted to a summary of the lives and labors of great men and women of faith found in the Old Testament. In each instance, you will find the same elements of faith: (1) God spoke to them through His Word; (2) their inner selves were stirred in different ways; (3) they obeyed God; (4) He bore witness about them.
Moses’ sin, had he remained part of the Egyptian system, would have been apostasy—for he would have had to abandon the truth. There is no doubt that the pleasures of sin in Egypt were substantial. But like all physical pleasures, they were only pleasurable for a moment. The pleasures of sin are like a Chinese dinner. No matter how much you eat, you are hungry again in a couple of hours!
Moses’ sin, had he remained part of the Egyptian system, would have been apostasy—for he would have had to abandon the truth. There is no doubt that the pleasures of sin in Egypt were substantial. But like all physical pleasures, they were only pleasurable for a moment. The pleasures of sin are like a Chinese dinner. No matter how much you eat, you are hungry again in a couple of hours!
11:25 with the people of God. Moses would have sinned had he refused to take on the responsibility God gave him regarding Israel, and he had a clear and certain conviction that “God would deliver them by his hand” (Acts 7:25). Moses repudiated the pleasures of Egypt.
Both parents were from the tribe of Levi (cf. Exodus 2:1), and Exodus 6:20 tells us that their names were Aniram and Jochebed and that they also had another son—Aaron, who would be high priest. They also had a daughter—Miriam, the prophetess.
The couple’s marriage came at a dark time for Israel—when the oppression of the Egyptians had become utterly diabolical. First, Pharaoh had commanded the Hebrew midwives to murder all males immediately upon birth. When that plan failed, his command became more crude and effective—all newborn baby boys were to be tossed into the Nile as food for the crocodiles (cf. Exodus 1:15–22).
Nevertheless, Jochebed conceived. Interestingly, Josephus says the pregnancy was accomplished by Amram’s obedience to a vision in which God told him he would have a son who would deliver his people. Says Josephus:
These things revealed to him in vision, Amram on awaking disclosed to Jochabel(e), his wife; and their fears were only the more intensified by the prediction in the dream. For it was not merely for a child that they were anxious, but for that high felicity for which he was destined.
Josephus’ account is not inspired revelation, though some respected commentators believe something like this may have led to their faith.
John Brown, Hebrews (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1972), p. 539 explains:
We know that, at the time this Epistle was written, it was the common faith of the Jews that such a revelation had been made. Josephus, in his “Antiquities of the Jews,” Book ii. chap. v., expressly states, that a divine communication was made to Amram during the pregnancy of Jochebed, that the child about to be born was to be the deliverer of his nation from Egyptian tyranny. There is nothing in Scripture inconsistent with this. Though we have no account in Scripture of an express revelation made as to sacrifice, we conclude, from its being said that it was “by faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,” that such a revelation was made; and on the same principle, I cannot help considering the Apostle as here giving sanction to the commonly received belief of the Jews on this subject and stating that it was the faith of Moses’ parents in this revelation that led them to act as they did, in preserving their infant’s life at the risk of their own.
See also Warren Wiersbe, Run with the Winners, A Study of the Champions of Hebrews II (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1985), p. 100.
Many Jewish stories of this period, especially Diaspora Jewish stories, portrayed Moses as an Egyptian military hero and stressed his great learning and knowledge (see comment on Acts 7:22). Yet the writer of Hebrews may allow the view affirmed by Philo—that Moses as son of Pharaoh’s daughter was his heir. If this is the case (following a Roman understanding of adoption), Moses’ rejection of this status to maintain his identification with his oppressed people (11:26) is all the more significant. Greek philosophers and moralists commonly stressed the superiority of enduring hardship over succumbing to the rule of pleasure, as Jewish tradition stressed honoring God above all else.
In a classic presentation of the way faith chooses between the attractive but temporary pleasures of sin and the prospect of disgrace for the sake of Christ, the writer showed Moses to be a real hero of faith who had an intelligent regard for the eschatological hopes of the nation of Israel. The readers also were to accept “disgrace” and reject “the pleasures of sin,” and they would do so if they, like Moses, anticipated their reward.
Finally, there is the reward of faith (Heb. 11:26b–29). God always rewards true faith—if not immediately, at least ultimately. Over against “the treasures in Egypt” Moses saw the “recompense of the reward.” As Dr. Vance Havner said, “Moses chose the imperishable, saw the invisible, and did the impossible.”
While Moses knew what “the treasures of Egypt” were worth, he counted “the disgrace for the sake of Christ” as great riches. This may mean that he received the same kind of reproaches Christ was later to receive. More probably, however, the author thought of Christ as identified in some way with the people of God in OT times. The prophet could say of God, “In all their distress he too was distressed” (Isa 63:9). Similarly, Christ could be said to be involved with the people. Some suggest that we should bear in mind that “the Christ” is equivalent to “the Anointed,” and thus this could be a reference to the people of God rather than to an individual. To support this view Psalm 89:51 is sometimes used. But this does not seem to be what the author means. He saw Christ to be the same yesterday as he is today (13:8); so it is much more probable that he thought of him as identified with Israel in OT times (cf. 1 Cor 10:4).
Moses looked forward to the “reward.” He bore in mind the just consequences of his actions and was not deceived by the glitter of the Egyptian court. History, of course, has vindicated him.
Moses looked forward to the “reward.” He bore in mind the just consequences of his actions and was not deceived by the glitter of the Egyptian court. History, of course, has vindicated him.
Similarly, he encouraged the Corinthians:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)
Faith as “defined” by Hebrews 11. As portrayed in the lives of God’s faithful through the ages, (1) faith involves confident action. Most of the examples delineated in Hebrews 11 involve a person acting confidently in accordance with what God says. By faith Abel offered to God a superior sacrifice, Noah built an ark, Abraham obeyed by leaving familiar territory and later by offering Isaac, Isaac blessed his sons, and one of those sons blessed Isaac’s great-grandsons, and on the list goes. The author spits out action words in rapid succession in verses 32–34: they conquered, administered, gained, shut, quenched, escaped, became powerful, and routed. Faith acts out a bold confidence.