About this sermon
By faith Moses’ parents hid him, not afraid of the king’s edict. By faith Moses refused the title son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing to suffer mistreatment with God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin, because he considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt and looked to the reward. Faith enables believers to face fear, counts reproach for Christ as riches, and realigns their loyalties, as Rahab did when she welcomed the spies and joined herself to Israel.
Sermon transcript
Well, let’s turn now in the scriptures to look at Hebrews chapter 11. We’ll be reading verses 23 through 31. This is the book of Hebrews chapter 11, verses 23 through 31 this morning. Please give your attention to the reading of God’s Word. 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. 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 fleeting, greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith, he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
By faith, he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch him, touch them. By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith, Rahab, the prostitute, did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. Amen. Let’s pray. Father in heaven, Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you who have inspired this word, we ask that you would come and you would open our hearts, open our ears, that we might have ears that hear, that you might turn and heal us. We might not be those that have ears but do not hear, but we would have hearts that are changed, that are open and receptive to the power of your word.
We ask that you would be present by your spirit in the preaching and hearing. For Jesus’ sake, we pray this. Amen. You may be seated. What is your reward? I’ve been a bit of a neuroscience nerd for a few years now and partly trying to understand some of my own struggles with high school and college, which I later discovered would be some of the traits matching ADHD, but partly because I’m just fascinated with how things work including our brains. One of the things that has become clear is that there are important connections between our physical bodies and our brains, especially in terms of exercise, which is why I’ve taken up running myself, but exercise by nature is challenging. It’s often hard to keep people motivated to do it. In fact, they did a study a number of years ago on how to help keep people motivated to keep up their exercise goals and they advised different groups of people to focus on different things while they exercised.
The thing that worked the best to keep people consistent over the long run with their own plans was they’re focusing on their goal, their long-term benefits. Trying to just enjoy the moment, planning an indulgent cheat meal after you were done or focusing on the negative aspects, pounds you were trying to lose or things like that ended up causing each of the participant groups to give up sooner than the group that focused on their final positive reward. And it’s similar with a life of faith. The only way to make it to the end is to focus on the reward. We’ve seen in our study of Hebrews, the language of reward show up recently in chapter 10 and 11. In chapter 10, if we look back at verse 35, Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
Then also in verse 6 of Hebrews 11, And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Up to this point in the examples of Hebrews 11, we’ve mostly seen how faith empowers personal acts of piety and sacrifice. Abel and Enoch worshipped God and walked with God by faith. Abraham sacrificed comfort and security to become a nomad in the promised land. But in our passage that we’re looking at this morning, we see the importance of faith when there are hostile forces involved. While Abel was killed for his faithful sacrifice, he probably wasn’t conscious of the risk of his obedience at the time. In our passage this morning, we encounter numerous instances in which faithful obedience involved great risk and could only be followed through by faith.
What does it mean to live by faith? So in Hebrews 11, the great hall of faith, we see ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Not because of their strength, but because their eyes were fixed on something greater, the reward. This isn’t a fleeting prize like a lottery ticket or a promotion at work. The eternal inheritance promised by God, his presence, his glory, and the unshakable kingdom that outlasts every earthly empire. Today as we unpack Hebrews 11, 23 through 31, we’ll explore how faith reshapes our reality when we look to that reward. We’ll see it through three lenses. Number one, faith makes facing fear feasible. Number two, faith turns reproaches into riches. And number three, faith makes realignment rewarding. These three elements, which are found woven all throughout our passage, of course they aren’t abstract ideas. They’re battle tested truths from Moses to Rahab calling us to the same kind of bold reward focused living.
So number one, faith makes facing fear feasible. We see this concept present in the first verse of our passage, verse 23. 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. Some of you might read this verse like I did and ask, what does Moses being beautiful have to do with faith? That’s a good question and I’m not sure what the answer would be. But I don’t think that’s what the author of Hebrews is focused on here. The word for beautiful is just the Greek word for aesthetic. But really it’s just a quote from Exodus chapter two, verse two. The woman conceived in Boris’ son and when she saw that he was a fine or a beautiful child, in the Greek it’s the same word, she hid him for three months.
I don’t think the author of Hebrews is intending for us to find deep meaning in the fine features of Moses. Instead I think our focus ought to be on the next phrase, they were not afraid of the king’s edict. Moses’ parents refused to comply with Pharaoh’s new order that all the baby boys be killed. It’s quite likely the first readers of this letter to the Hebrews were facing hostile authorities in their own context. Moses’ parents, in their context, they had already had at least two children. We know they had Aaron and Miriam. They could have just said, two is enough, we’ll comply with the king’s horrible edict and kill our third child. But despite the danger, of course, they knew this would be wrong and of course I’m sure they loved Moses. So they took this quiet stand, refusing to comply with the command to kill their child.
They had no idea who Moses would grow up to be and what he would do, but they faced their fear of the king through faith, obeying God. Because of their faith, they took a stand against the king of Egypt. By faith, Moses was hidden for three months because his parents were not afraid of the king’s edict. But Moses’ parents aren’t the only ones facing fears in our passage. In verse 27, Moses faced down his fear of Pharaoh as an adult. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. This verse poses a couple of challenges at first glance. Moses is not fearing Pharaoh. When we just read earlier in the service, Exodus 2, 14 and 15, 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. But I think we can resolve this by considering that the author of Hebrews is doing what he already did with Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac earlier in chapter 11, when he spoke of their overarching faith, which ultimately characterized their lives and actions. Moses did experience initial fear. He did leave Egypt, but ultimately, instead of succumbing to fear, he faced it by faith. In fact, we know he returned to deliver his people. The second challenge comes in the next phrase of this verse, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. The word endured seems a little out of place. What is Moses enduring, the wilderness? The fact is the translation is a little bit challenging here.
The author of Hebrews writes very compactly, requires the translator to put in a little bit of work to figure out how the words are relating. The ESV translates the word endured as something Moses is doing because of what he’s seeing. Now endured is the main verb in that clause, but it’s not meant to stand alone. In fact, it might be better translated as persisted in this case. One reason for the slightly confusing grammar is that you can’t actually see someone who is invisible by definition. So the writer of Hebrews sticks in the word as to say that it is as though Moses saw him who was invisible. If we look down at verse 29, we see a similar use of as. By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land. A more literal translation would say as if or as though it was dry land.
And so enduring or persisting that Moses did was persisting in seeing the invisible one. The best Greek lexicon paraphrases the end of verse 27 as Moses kept the one who is invisible continually before his eyes in faith as it were. Moses was unafraid because he persistently fixed his eyes upon God. That is what he persisted in, looking upon the face of God. And of course, God speaks in the account in Exodus of how Moses uniquely saw the face of God and God spoke to him face to face. Now the point in this verse is that the writer of Hebrews is saying Moses left Egypt and conquered his fear by persistently seeing God even though he was invisible. Of course, how do you see something that is invisible? Well, you have to use a different faculty than your eyes.
Eyes can only see things that are visible. If you want to see someone who is invisible, you need faith. Remember verse 1 of Hebrews chapter 11. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen or the proof or the reality of things not seen. And that’s precisely what Moses did. He used his faith to see God. The examples of faith facilitating the facing of fear continue throughout our passage. Verse 28, Moses led all the Israelites to face down fear by sacrificing the Passover lamb smearing its blood on their houses. Then verse 29, when facing a horde of angry Egyptians, Moses led the Israelites to walk through the heart of the sea, which promptly closed back over their enemies. And in verse 30, they march around a heavily fortified city waiting for God to give them victory.
The writer of Hebrews knows the checkered reality of Israel’s faith throughout this time. That was chapter 3 and 4 of Hebrews. His focus in our passage is on the factor of faith in facing fear. And it does this by making the invisible more real than the visible. Jesus told his disciples to consider reordering their fear in Matthew chapter 10 verse 28. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. There is a right and proper fear of the Lord. But when the Bible talks about fearing the Lord, it means more than just being scared of God more than anyone else. It’s a way of treating God as more real, more holy, more important than anything else. Moses’ parents feared Pharaoh a little, but they feared God more.
The same with Moses, Israel, and the other examples. You and I, of course, must adopt a similar mindset. Facing fear with faith means seeing the invisible as more real than the visible. Having an eternal perspective will allow you to face fearful situations because it will put them into perspective. You must look to the reward. Now another perspective shifting thing that we see faith doing in our passage is number 2, faith turns reproaches into riches. Look at verses 24 through 26. 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. Therefore he was looking to the reward. Although Moses’ parents saved him from immediate death in the Nile, his mother did eventually sort of obey Pharaoh by putting Moses in the river.
Of course she put him in a basket, but I’m not sure that basket would have stood much chance against crocodiles and hippopotamus. However, she put him in the basket and perhaps according to her plan, Pharaoh’s daughter discovered the nautical infant. Moses was preserved from death, but he was raised from childhood in the household of Pharaoh. This was not the same Pharaoh that had been friendly to Joseph and the Israelites. This Pharaoh was utterly opposed to Israel and to their God. We don’t know how much contact with the Israelites or his birth family Moses had while he was growing up. Once he went to the palace, we don’t know if he ever came back. Yet despite this, Moses somehow came to understand that his own identity was not originally Egyptian and rather than embracing his life of luxury and prestige, he chose poverty and reproach as an Israelite.
Presumably the author of Hebrews is talking about the incident that we read earlier from Exodus chapter 2 verses 11 and 12. As we read earlier, 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 seen no one. He struck down the Egyptian and hit him in the sand. This act put Moses at odds with the Egyptians, but it didn’t immediately endear him to the Israelites either, requiring him to flee Egypt entirely. But the author of Hebrews is looking at Moses’ act in a larger context, its greater significance and implications. The author of Hebrews is writing his letter to Christians who are facing some of their own challenges and hostilities for their faith.
They were being insulted, called names, possibly threatened for their identity as Christians. So the author of Hebrews pauses in his story on Moses to make sure that his readers get the point. Moses had a similar choice before him that they also might face, except Moses’ choice was perhaps more stark. Moses was royalty in Egypt, but as an Israelite he would be a slave. He had the right of Egyptian sonship by adoption, one of the most prominent empires in the world at the time, yet he gave that up for an Israelite slave identity. As the author of Hebrews makes this point, the parallels are too strong between this Moses, the redeemer of God’s people, and the one whom Moses pointed to, to not mention him. Paul’s letter to the Philippians was likely in the mind of the author of Hebrews as he wrote the passage in Hebrews 11.
Paul writes in Philippians, a well-known passage, chapter 2, verses 5 through 11, Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Christ traded royal treatment for a season of servanthood for the sake of our salvation.
Moses made a calculation when he gave up Egyptian riches and took on Israelite poverty. On the surface it looked like a terrible deal. Moses was never welcomed back into Egypt, and he never even made it into the promised land. He left jaw-dropping wealth to wander in the wilderness for eighty years with the people that often hated him and tried to kill him multiple times. But Moses was looking far beyond his brief one hundred and twenty year lifespan. He was looking at eternity. With an eternal perspective, suddenly everything shifted for him. Only decades of Egyptian wealth, comfort, and power looked instead like fleeting pleasures of sin. What good is a few decades of sinful pleasure that ends in never-ending punishment, or what’s a few decades of slavery and reproach and treasures in heaven forever? That’s what Moses thought.
I’d rather spend eternity as one of God’s people, even if that means spending my whole life here as a slave or just wandering in the wilderness. What’s eighty years in the wilderness when I get eternity with God? Verse twenty-six, he considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. Moses wasn’t making a foolish calculation, he was making the calculation of faith. Faith doesn’t ask, how can I be miserable? That’s what the world, Satan and your sinful flesh, tell you faith is all about. They do your best to convince you that faith is foolish, obeying God is miserable, while sin is satisfying, fulfilling. Sin asks, how can I be happy right now? Faith asks, how can I truly be happy forever? What truly makes the most sense in the grand scheme of eternity?
And when you look at it that way, there’s no question. But that’s our problem, even as believers. We get sidetracked, we get distracted, we start to lose sight of the reward. But that’s why the letter to Hebrews was written and preserved for us to read. It’s why Jesus said in Luke six, twenty-two to twenty-three, blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For so their fathers did to the prophets. Not all believers will have the exact choice that Moses faced. But all believers will suffer in one way or another. The apostle Paul says it’s part of their union with Christ, which is what the author of Hebrews is picking up on, the reproaches of Christ.
Paul puts it this way in Philippians again, chapter three, eight through eleven. Indeed, I count everything as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. This is all so that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may obtain, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Christ’s crown came after his cross, and he has ordained that the same is true of those who are his by faith.
The suffering of believers is not the basis or means of their salvation. Christ’s suffering for our sins is what brings us peace with God, cleansing from sin and a new life, but if we’re truly connected with Christ, we will experience collateral damage from the world’s hatred of Christ. But instead of being something to be discouraged by, we are to see it by faith as a sign that we are connected to Christ, which is a reason to be very happy. For if we suffer with him, we shall also be rewarded with him, just as Moses was. The third aspect of faith in our passage is number three, that faith makes realignment rewarding. In many ways much of what was said about Moses would fit under this third heading as well. Moses made a conscious choice to realign himself with God’s people, rather than the Egyptians that he was raised with.
But we also see this idea in the stories in verses 30 and 31, verse 30, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. When Joshua was on his way to Jericho, he encountered an imposing warrior, we find the account in Joshua chapter 5, Joshua chapter 5, verses 13 and 14. When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold a man was standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and he said to him, are you for us or for our adversaries? And the man said, no, I am the commander of the army of the Lord, now I have come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said, what does my Lord say to his servant?
Joshua had an understandable inquiry of the heavenly warrior, whose side are you on? But he had overlooked a more fundamental question, whose side is Joshua and Israel on? The commander of the Lord’s army reoriented Joshua and asked if Israel was on God’s side. Joshua wisely immediately renounced allegiance to himself and changed his allegiance to God alone. Joshua’s renouncing of allegiance to himself was rewarded by sharing in God’s victory over Jericho. It wasn’t Israel or even Joshua’s powerful stomping around Jericho that brought the walls down. It was the Lord’s army in response to Israel’s faith, which was demonstrated by their marching obediently around. And we see another instance of realignment being rewarded in verse 31. By faith Rahab, the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
The story referred to here is found in Joshua chapter 2, with the conclusion coming in Joshua 6 when Jericho fell. Joshua sent spies into Canaan to understand what he was up against, since it had been 40 years since he and Caleb had spied out the land under Moses. One of the major cities the spies came to first was Jericho. By this point, the word had apparently gotten around Canaan. The nation of Israel was coming to conquer. Looking for a place to stay, the spies found a prostitute offering lodging. We don’t know if they were originally there for other reasons besides a place to stay, but it turned out to be very providential, because it wasn’t long until someone who saw the spies enter Jericho realized who they were, and what it was they were doing, and reported it to the king.
He ordered a furious search to be made immediately, starting with Rahab’s house where they were last seen. But instead of turning the Israelites over to the authorities, Rahab bravely hid the man on the roof, and claimed that they had already left the city. When she got rid of the authorities, she told the spies that the reason she had hid them was because she wanted to renounce her own allegiance to Canaan. She asked the spies to remember that, remember her and her family when they came back to conquer Jericho. Joshua chapter 2, verse 8 and 9. Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the earth melt away before you.
Verse 11, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, you will also deal kindly with me and my father’s house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death. Rahab was not merely trying to extract a favor from the Israelites. She made clear that because of her faith in God, she had switched her allegiance to the God of Israel. Her fraternizing with the enemies of Jericho was the fruit of her faith in God who was coming to conquer Canaan. Like Joshua, Rahab desired to be on the Lord’s side, and like many others to come, Rahab’s faith saved her from perishing.
Rahab’s act of hospitality was treason. It put her life in jeopardy. But the writer of Hebrews may have been particularly interested in it for that reason. In the previous chapter, we saw the author command his readers for similar actions. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 34. He commands his readers, for you had compassion on those in prison. You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. And later in chapter 13, we will find another exhortation to practice hospitality. Chapter 13, verse 2. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Many of the first readers of this letter to the Hebrews might have been tempted to pull back from offering dangerous hospitality. But the author wants to remind them to press in.
You’re in good company, and it won’t go unrewarded. Of course, Rahab has always been a controversial figure in biblical history. Not only was she a Gentile outside of the Israelite community, but as a prostitute, her profession was not reputable either. She had nothing to command herself before God, and every reason to be rejected. Yet, she came in repentance and in faith. In faith, she could see that there was no going against God. But instead of doubling down like the rest of the people of Jericho, even the rest of the land of Canaan, she laid down her arms, surrendered, and sought to be realigned with God’s people. That’s what repentance is. It’s a realignment from being an ally of sin, trying to be God of our own lives, and asking God instead to make us one of his people.
What’s amazing is that Rahab wasn’t just made one of God’s people. She was woven into the Israelite community and became an ancestor to King David, and even to Jesus himself. All throughout our passage this morning, we’ve seen how looking to the reward by the faculty of faith transforms our view of reality. We’ve talked a lot about people looking to the reward, but in case the reward is still a little fuzzy in your minds, here’s how God sums it up in the words of the prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 62, verses 11 and 12. Behold, the Lord of the world has proclaimed to the end of the earth, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your salvation comes. Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him, and they shall be called the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, and you shall be called sought out, a city not forsaken.
The reward is being with God as one of his people. When you belong to God, you can face fear, and when reproaches come, they indicate that you belong to Christ by faith, and they become riches. And when you lay down your arms and realign with God, you find the reward of salvation, being one of his people. Amen. Let’s pray. Father in heaven, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, thank you, you are a God who rewards those who seek you. You reward those who lay down their arms and come in repentance and faith, believing that you will reward with making us your own. Lord, we ask that you would give us repentance. We might realign with you. We might become enemies of sin and friends and sons and daughters and people of God. We pray this in Jesus’ name.
Amen. Let’s conclude by singing hymn 480. Let’s stand as we sing and turn to number 480.
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