BIG IDEA:
FAITH FOCUSES ON THE UNSEEN GOD TO GAIN ETERNAL REWARD BY:
– CHOOSING GOD
– DELIVERING FROM DEATH AND BONDAGE
– CAPTURING ENEMY STRONGHOLDS TO ACHIEVE VICTORY
INTRODUCTION:
Consider how important Moses was to the Jews. In this important lesson on faith, the author transitions from the foundation of the patriarchs to the ultimate law-giver Moses to see how his life modeled faith and endurance. In what ways did he trust in the unseen God and place the motivation of eternal reward ahead of instant gratification as he was willing to share in the sufferings of God’s people?
Hewitt: The author now moves from Genesis to Exodus, from the age of the patriarchs to that of Moses, the leader of Israel, but he introduces the great lawgiver by first mentioning the faith of the parents who preserved his life as a babe.
Richard Phillips: What a difference faith makes! Now it means the difference between fear and courageous perseverance, the very thing the early Christians needed and we so badly need today. But it will mean even more on that great day to come when the heavens part as the Red Sea once did, and Jesus comes back to bring salvation to those who trusted in him and judgment on the world that turned away.
I. (:23-26) FAITH OF MOSES AND HIS PARENTS – CHOOSING GOD
A. (:23) Choosing Obeying God Rather Than the King
1. Action – Protected the Infant Moses
“By faith Moses, when he was born,
was hidden for three months by his parents,”
2. Motivation – Purpose of God Visualized
a. Positively Stated
“because they saw he was a beautiful child;”
Kent: it is strongly suggested that the parents of Moses discerned from his exceptional beauty that God had special plans for him.
Acts 7:20 “lovely in the sight of God”
b. Negatively Stated
“and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.”
B. (:24-26) Choosing Suffering for God Rather Than Pleasures of Sin
1. (:24-25) Action – Identifying with God’s Suffering People
a. (:24) Negatively Stated – Rejecting Position, Power, Possessions
“By faith Moses, when he had grown up,
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;”
Charles Spurgeon: O Moses, if you must needs join with Israel there is no present reward for you; you have nothing to gain but all to lose; you must do it out of pure principle, out of love to God, out of a full persuasion of the truth, for the tribes have no honors or wealth to bestow. You will receive affliction, and that is all. You will be called a fool, and people will think they have good reason for so doing.
b. (:25) Positively Stated – Embracing Suffering over Sin
“choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God,
than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin;”
Hewitt: Sin in this verse has the meaning of apostasy from God, which here is identified with the abandonment of the communion of the people of God.
Leon Morris: “The pleasures of sin” does not mean Moses saw himself as a dissolute rake while at court. It implies rather that once he saw where God’s call lay, it would have been sin for him to turn away from it and align himself with the Egyptians.
MacArthur: If you have a true and saving faith, and you make choices, there are certain things that you accept, and there are certain things that you reject. And they’re really modeled for us here in the story of Moses. . .
Now, what is going to take hold of his heart? Is it going to be the wisdom of the Egyptians, or is it going to be the truth of God? With the formal education in Egypt, the inculcation of Egyptian wisdom, Egyptian idolatry, he would have learned hieroglyphics; he would have learned the hieratic scripts. He no doubt would have been involved in copying the texts that was part of formal education. He would have learned multi languages. He would have learned the languages of surrounding nations, the languages – the various languages of the Canaanites so that he could interact with them in trade. But would he have lost what he had as a foundation of his life, the Word of God? When he reached the age of maturity, he faced a crucial decision. Actually, he reaches 40, so it’s not a full 40 years of Egyptian education, but he faces a crucial decision. He is now to become fully absorbed into Egyptian culture. When he had grown up, he has to make a choice. What is his choice going to be?
The third thing that he turned from – not only the world’s prestige and the world’s pleasure, but let’s just call it the world’s plenty, verse 26, “- considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.” He considered – in the Greek he judged; he made a judgment. This is not a rash conclusion; this is a very careful consideration. He had prestige to the max. He had pleasure to the max at his fingertips, and he had treasure to the max, but faith rejects all of those things. True saving faith. “He considered the reproach of Christ great riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.” The implication there is to the final reward, to the divine reward, to the eternal reward.
And there’s one other thing that I think we can say without exhausting this particular portion of Scripture. Let’s just say this; he rejected the world’s pressure.
2. (:26) Motivation –Eternal Inheritance Worth More than Temporary Riches
a. Accepting the Reproach of Christ
“considering the reproach of Christ greater riches
than the treasures of Egypt;”
Mohler: Moses recognized the vanity of Pharaoh’s house and the all-surpassing worth of obedience to God.
F. F. Bruce: To choose the side of a slave-nation, with all the contempt and privation which that entailed, in preference to the very real advantages and prospects which were his as “the son of Pharaoh’s daughter”, must have seemed an act of folly by all worldly standards.
Steven Cole: He considered “the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.” The reproach of Christ is a startling phrase! It probably means, “reproach similar to what Christ endured when He was despised and rejected by the world.” How much Moses knew about the promised Anointed One, we cannot know for sure. But Abraham rejoiced to see Jesus’ day (John 8:56). Moses knew that God promised to raise up a prophet like him, who would speak His word (Deut. 18:15). He knew of God’s promise to Eve, that one from her seed would bruise the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). He also no doubt knew that the sacrificial system pointed ahead to a Redeemer. And so Moses considered that any reproach that he endured for identifying himself with God’s Messiah was far more valuable than the worldly treasures he could amass in Egypt.
b. Anticipating Future Reward
“for he was looking to the reward.”
Kent: By his action Moses displayed his faith that the Israelites were not just slaves of Pharaoh but were a people whose destiny was appointed by God. In casting his lot with them, it was not a display of mere national identification but of spiritual affiliation (the people of God). At the same time Moses was well aware that his choice would cause him to suffer hardship. The alternative would have been to repudiate his national origins and make the most of the opportunities which his fortuitous adoption by Pharaoh’s daughter made possible. Surely the life of one in his position provided for enjoyment in stark contrast to Pharaoh’s Hebrew slaves.
Richard Phillips: Faith will always make itself known through its choices. . . What was it that Moses believed? Mainly, he believed that the Israelites, though enslaved, were the people of God. He understood that the Egyptians, though wielding power and enjoying wealth, were in opposition to the true God. Their pleasures were sinful ones and Israel’s afflictions were holy ones. Surely this means that he knew Israel’s God, Yahweh, to be the true God, and the many gods of the Nile to be empty idols. If this was true, he knew it as better to be one of God’s people, even in a state of affliction.
II. (:27-29) FAITH OF MOSES – DELIVERING FROM DEATH AND BONDAGE
A. (:27) Trusting God for a New Life – Leaving the Palace for the Desert
1. Leaving Privilege for Leadership Development
“By faith he left Egypt,”
Argument could be made either for:
– Flight to Midian after slaying the Egyptian oppressor (Exod. 2:11-15) – this would be more consistent from a chronology standpoint with the Passover event happening afterwards; seems the preferred view
– Departure with the rest of the Israelites at the Exodus
2. Leveraging Courage
“not fearing the wrath of the king;”
3. Looking to God for Endurance
“for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.”
Moses had to endure for 40 years before God called him to lead his people out of Egypt.
Mohler: Their trust in promises was intimately connected to their trust in God. As they trusted in the unseen God, so they trusted in the unseen fulfillment of his promises. This is the very essence of faith.
B. (:28) Trusting God for Redemption – Worshiping via Blood Sacrifice to Avoid the Sentence of Death
1. Observing Passover
“By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood,”
2. Experiencing Passover
“so that he who destroyed the first-born might not touch them.”
C. (:29) Trusting God for Escape – Following God’s Leading Where Enemies Cannot Go
1. Safe Passage
“By faith they passed through the Red Sea
as though they were passing through dry land;”
2. Unsafe Passage
“and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned.”
What is good for the goose is not always good for the gander!
III. (:30-31) FAITH OF ISRAEL AND RAHAB — CAPTURING ENEMY STRONGHOLDS TO ACHIEVE VICTORY = JERICHO
A. (:30) Following the Divine Battle Plan
1. Mission Accomplished
“By faith the walls of Jericho fell down,”
Hewitt: Since the author looked upon the wanderings in the wilderness as an example of unbelief rather than of faith, of apostasy rather than of fidelity, no mention is made of them. The capture of Jericho may have been chosen because it was the first campaign in the promised land.
Leon Morris: The taking of Jericho is a striking example of the power of faith. Apart from the conviction that God would act, nothing could have been more pointless than the behavior of those warriors. They did not attack. Instead, they simply walked around the city once a day for six days and then seven times on the seventh. But once more faith was vindicated, for the walls tumbled down.
2. Mission Performed
“after they had been encircled for seven days.”
MacArthur: True faith has the courage to believe God in impossible conflict, with ridiculous orders and incredible promises. And the experience at Jericho is an illustration of that kind of faith, to do what seems ridiculous, unnecessary, foolish. But what marks faith is obedience.
B. (:31) Facilitating the Mission of the Spies
1. Avoiding Destruction
“By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish
along with those who were disobedient,”
MacArthur: in the case of Rahab, she acknowledged faith in the true and living God. She believed and staked her life on it. She put herself in a dangerous, dangerous position, hiding spies on the roof. She staked her life on the fact that this was the true God. She had a kind of adventurous courage to fling her lot with this deity about which she had only heard from second-hand sources, but she believed in the true God, and because of that she was spared.
2. Accepting Danger
“after she had welcomed the spies in peace.”
Hewitt: This despised heathen woman, who became united with the people of God and also an ancestress of the Messiah, points to the universality of the gospel.
F. F. Bruce: The earliest Christian writer outside the New Testament canon, Clement of Rome, recounts the story of Rahab to illustrate the virtues of faith and hospitality, and makes her a prophetess to boot, since the scarlet rope by which she let the spies down from her window on the city wall, and by which her house was identified at the capture of the city, foreshowed “that through the blood of the Lord all who trust and hope in God shall have redemption” (1 Clem. 12:7).