Heb 11 - 24-27 - Christ - Our ONLY Help

Heb 11 - 24-27 - Christ - Our ONLY Help


Heb 11:24-27 By faith Moses, when he was 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.


The faith that is mentioned here is that which disdains worldly privilege when it gets in the way of identification with God’s people. We must live in the world and nothing in and of itself is evil. It is the love of the world and of worldly things that is to be avoided - no, rejected. Moses had rank, "security," privilege, luxury - but these things came from the system that was at enmity with his people.

This is the perfect picture of the dominion of Satan and of this world, and of how we are to choose God and His church above all the blandishments and enticements that are put in our way. He was of God’s people and he was God’s child. God had promised His people nationhood, a land and a Saviour.

It would be a stretch to think that, in his early struggles, Moses was clear in his motives and pure in his methods. He killed a man in passion, believing this was an effective means of delivering his fellow Israelite. This would not turn out to be the means of God’s ultimate deliverance. But God so often takes our mistaken, fleshly and even sinful actions and uses them for good in the end. We are not excused, but we are being sanctified. We may not deliberately sin thinking that God is backing us up somehow. But we will stumble and do the wrong thing and we can know that there is not only forgiveness on account of Christ, but that God will make silk purses out of our sows’ ears.

So, like Sinatra, Moses did it his way at first. But we must not miss the fact that he did it his way thinking it was helping, because he trusted in the promise and because he belonged to God’s people. And like all of us, his faith was imperfect. He was in need of God’s sanctifying grace and he would receive it over the period of 40 years, starting with his exile from Egypt. Though he may not have had the light he later came to see, he was ready and willing to receive the consequences of his identification with God’s people, including the loss of all rank and privilege, and being sent out into the desert with no visible means of support or defence.

And this is where the real work of God began. A man stripped of all the things that the world considers to be necessary for life and success is the more ready to be trained in relying upon God through the Spirit to work His purposes in His way.