The Decisions of Faith

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2015 · 2 August 2015

“By faith, Moses when he had grown up refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the King, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 28 By faith, he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. 29 By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.”

This was written to some Jewish people who had heard the gospel were interested in the gospel, but who had not yet put their faith in Christ. So when the gospel comes along and says forget keeping the Law, forget circumcision, forget the rituals, none of those contribute to your salvation, it’s all a matter of grace and faith, the Jews would wonder if this was not some new message. And so the writer of Hebrews is pointing out here that salvation has always been by faith.

And to make his point, he goes all the way back to the beginning of the Old Testament. We have already learned about Abel and how he demonstrated faith and it was by his faith that he was reconciled to God. And then we learned about Enoch. And then we learned about Noah. Then we learned about Abraham. And then we began to learn about Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. And in every case we have seen that those men all had a right relationship with God through faith. Faith defined their relationship.

So it is stunning to say that Moses operated in the spiritual realm by faith, not by Law. The writer of Hebrews tells us that the faith of Moses is based on the series of choices that he made. In fact, verse 25 even uses the word “choosing.” This is a good way to look in general at the life of faith because genuine saving faith is selective. There are certain things you accept and certain things you reject and they’re modeled here in the story of Moses.

Moses is the next example of the truth in Hebrews that salvation comes not by works, not by ritual or outward appearance, but by faith. That personal belief in the Word of God, is our identity. Life is a series of choices that we make. We make either good choices, or bad choices. You often hear people say, “I made some bad choices.” They don’t want to admit that they were lustful, passionate sins. We face the opportunity every single day over and over again to make the right choice.

Who are we? Many people who retire lose their identity, because their work gave them their self-esteem, they were engineers, doctors and so on. What is your identity based on, is it your job or is it based on your personal relationship with God? You either choose the way of God, the way of truth and righteousness, where you will live forever with God because He knows you and loves you. Or you choose the way of the flesh, the world and Satan, where all you efforts in this life have no meaning and you will be forgotten in hell as soon as you die. Many people put their names on Hospitals and buildings because they want to be remembered forever, and yet as soon as they die they are totally forgotten.

Deuteronomy 30:19 says, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life that both you and your seed may live.” Joshua 24:15, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

So now we look at Moses who made the right choice. He chose God’s way. He chose to believe God, to believe the revelation of God, the Word of God, to live a life of faith. And his faith is demonstrated in his decisions that related to things he rejected and things he accepted. Moses upbringing is described in Exodus 2, in Acts 7 by Stephen and in Hebrews 11. Let us use parts of these three sources. Hebrews 11: 24 says, “By faith, Moses when he had grown up refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.”

Exodus 2:10 says, “The child grew and the mother brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son.” He was maybe twelve years old by then. And so, he would have learned of the promise to Abraham. He would have learned of that promise to Isaac and Jacob and Joseph. He would have learned the history of Joseph, who had died in hope of the Promised Land, knowing that there would come a time when God would lead His people out of Egypt. And also that God had promised to send a deliverer for Israel, the ultimate Messiah in Genesis 49:10.

And verse 11 then says, “Now it came about in those days when Moses had grown up,” forty years passed between verse 10 and 11. The years of Moses maturing, which according to Acts 7:22 were the years in which he learned all the wisdom of Egypt. So he started out with a foundation in his life which was the truth of God revealed up until that point from his parents. And after that he is learning the wisdom of the Egyptians.

Now what is going to take hold of his heart, what is his identity, who is he in the eyes of God? Is it going to be the wisdom of the Egyptians or is it going to be the truth of God? Would it be the formal education in Egypt, the Egyptian wisdom, Egyptian idolatry, he would have learned hieroglyphics. He would have learned the languages of surrounding nations, so that he could interact with them and 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 the crucial decision. He now has become fully absorbed into the Egyptian culture. What is his choice going to be? Let’s go back to the book of Hebrews and we’ll return to Exodus a little later. The answer to the dilemma comes in verse 24, “By faith, when he had grown up, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” And that is the first point that needs your attention, he rejected the world’s prestige.

What was more prestigious than to be the grandson of the Pharaoh, the greatest ruler in the world at that time? The most sophisticated society, highly advanced, he understood the honors of being a prince in Egypt. He understood the status and the comforts, the power, wealth and privileges that he would have. So, this is the biggest decision of his life. Should he forsake it for the call of God? And he knew that God had called him.

Look at Acts 7:21-25, where Stephen says, “Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in the all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds. 23 When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was givng them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.”

Exodus 2 describes the same thing. That is the moment in which he rejected the prestige and the honor and everything that came with being a prince in Egypt. This is an act of faith. Why? Because if you operate on sight, you’re going to take what you see: power, prestige, money, fame, all of that that is his as a prince in Egypt. He exchanged what he could see for what he couldn’t see. This was an act of faith. Most people live all their life chasing those things and they wouldn’t leave the chase to live a life of faith.

So Moses trusts God to fulfill and accomplish his purpose in his life. He rejects what he has in hand, the prestige and power of Egypt and choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God. To put it in our context today, faith rejects all that the world has to offer: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, as 1 John 2:16 describes it. The disciples used another word just as strong in Matthew 19:27, “We have forsaken all to follow You.”

In the words of Jesus in Luke 9:23, “Deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Me.” This is the first act that we see in expressing faith on Moses’ part. Faith is willing to deny itself, to deny all that it possesses. If someone will not let go of the things of the world, they cannot come to God. Remember, that’s what happened to the weedy soil, thorny ground, right? The deceitfulness of riches and the preoccupation with this world and that’s what led to your unfruitfulness.

Secondly, he rejected the world’s pleasure. Verse 25, “Choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.” Sin is fun and pleasurable. There was plenty of it in that Egyptian culture, especially if you were the prince. No sensual desire would go unfulfilled. Moses had to be willing to turn his back on all the pleasures of sin. Remember what Job 20:5 says, “The triumphing of the wicked is short and the enjoyment of the hypocrite is but for a moment.”

The third thing that he turned from, not only the world’s prestige and the world’s pleasure, but also from the world’s riches, verse 26, “He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.” He considered, in the Greek, he made a judgment. He was looking to THE reward, to the divine reward, to the eternal reward.

What does he mean by the reproach of Christ? He would be blamed in a similar way to that which Christ endured. Although Moses didn’t know Christ, he knew there was a promise of a coming deliverer. But we know and the readers of Hebrews know that he was willing to take a reproach to move from having everything to basically having nothing, from being honored to being treated with scorn and disdain, as was Christ.

He bore the kind of reproach that is characteristic of Christ who was infinitely rich, infinitely privileged, infinitely satisfied in the presence of God and set it all aside to the do the will of God, to come down to suffer ill treatment on behalf of the people of God. Moses is, in that sense, like Christ. He knew his life was in the hands of the invisible and eternal God.

Moses also rejected the world’s pressure. Look at verse 27, “By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” How could he give up all the treasures of Egypt to become a reproach? Because he chose the pathway to greater riches than anything Egypt had to offer. How could he then not be afraid of Pharaoh having killed an Egyptian? He would have to flee for his life. That’s exactly what he did, he fled to Midian where he had to stay for forty years.

What it actually says there in verse 27, “By faith he left Egypt,” it’s a stronger word than that, it means a heart renunciation. In the Greek both here in Hebrews 11 and also in Luke, they forsook all to follow Jesus. So it has the idea of not just simply physically leaving Egypt but renouncing Egypt. He rejected the power that Pharaoh had over his life. He rejected the fear of man, to borrow the words of Proverbs 29:25.

Forty years he had been living in the land of Midian as a shepherd and now in boldness, he walks right in to the face of Pharaoh and makes his demands. And it doesn’t go well when the Pharaoh rejects. First the waters turn to blood, then the frogs come, then the dust and the gnats and then the dog flies and the blood-sucking insects, then the death of domestic animals, then the dust, the boils, the hail, the locusts, the darkness and verse 28 would indicate the final plague, the death of the firstborn.

Where did Moses get this kind of faith and courage? He endured as seeing Him who was invisible. He saw a greater King with the eyes of faith, he believed God. The man made the right decisions, he chose to reject the world’s prestige, to reject the world’s pleasure, to reject the world’s riches, and to reject the world’s pressure. So he makes the right decision. True faith accepts the Word of God even though the end is yet unseen.

Back to verse 23, “By faith Moses when he was born was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” Pharaoh had made a decree to kill Hebrew baby boys and they fearlessly hid the child and protected the child. Well the word “beautiful” is an interesting word. In Acts 7:20, Stephen says, “he was beautiful in God’s sight”. They knew this child was special to God with a divine destiny. Moses’ parents are models of faith who trusted the plan of God.

Then we see the providence of God. After Pharaoh’s daughter found the little baby and Miriam said, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And so the baby went back to Jochebed, the mother and stayed there and developed for many years. Theologians think that the responsibility of Moses was clarified to him in those years and that his parents explained that he had been specially called by God. And so, by the time he went back to Pharaoh’s place before his teenage years, he already knew that God had a special plan for him.

Moses never deviated from what he knew was his calling. And so his faith was like his parents and behind his refusal to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Exodus 2:11-12, “It came about in those days, he had grown up”, that is when Moses reaches his forties, “he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren, 12 so he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.”

The Bible doesn’t say this is the right thing to do, it’s a sinful thing to do, but it does indicate that he was willing to make the choice to pay the consequences to be identified with his people. Verses 13-14, “When he went out the next day, behold, two Israelis were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” 14 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.”

And even his own people rejected him because they were afraid that the Egyptians would come and kill them all. He was forced to leave the land for forty years, live in the land of Midian while God shaped him into the leader He wanted him to be. And after he had been prepared by God for forty years, he went back, commissioned at the burning bush. He walks into Pharaoh’s presence, pronounces divine judgment on him, and calls him to let the people go. True faith accepts the Lord’s plan.

He didn’t try to develop his own strategy. He accepted the Lord’s plans, and the Lord’s provisions, and the Lord’s promise. Verse 29, “By faith he and all the people of Israel, as many as two million, passed through the Red Sea as thought they were passing through dry land and the Egyptians when they attempted it were drowned.” The story of Moses is not the story of Law, it’s the story of faith, right? Faith makes all the right choices. What about you? Following God is the only way to be saved, Amen? Let us pray.