Home  Library  Donate

Hebrews 11:23-28

Sunday Morning Bible Study

November 25, 2018

Introduction

The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish believers.

The author expects the readers to be well acquainted with Levitical worship and sacrifice.

He will constantly quote the Old Testament in a way that expects that the reader understands what he’s talking about.

We also know that these believers were encountering very strong persecution.

Times were so bad that some were beginning to wonder if they shouldn’t quit following Jesus.

We will see three elements woven throughout this letter to the Hebrews.

1. Both Testaments

Even though the Old Testament has become “obsolete” (Heb. 8:13), the entire book of Hebrews is built upon the clear foundation of the Old Testament.
(Hebrews 8:13 NKJV) In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
You aren’t going to understand Hebrews, or even the New Testament correctly unless you learn the Old Testament.

2. Jesus is superior

He’s superior to angels, Moses, and the Torah.
He’s superior to the Levitical priests and their sacrifices.

3. Don’t quit

The ultimate goal of the book is to encourage those who are struggling with difficult times, and help them to endure.

We’ve seen that their survival is going to require faith.

Definition: Faith is trusting something you don’t see.

Faith is trusting when you don’t understand what’s going on.
We talked about other words for “faith” being “belief”, “trust”, or even “counting on”.

Our author has been showing how the great men and women of the Old Testament survived their difficulties because of their “faith”.

11:23-28 Faith and Moses

:23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command.

afraidphobeo – to put to flight by terrifying (to scare away); to put to flight, to flee; to fear, be afraid; to be struck with fear, to be seized with alarm

:23 By faith Moses

Who is the writer writing to?  Jewish believers

There’s nobody higher on the hero scale to a Jew than Moses.
While Abraham was seen as the “father of the faith”, Moses was the one who rescued the nation from slavery, and gave them their laws.
Abraham only gets three “by faiths” from our author, whereas Moses gets five.

:23 when he was born, was hidden three months

The backstory to Moses takes place at the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus.

When Joseph rose to power in Egypt, he and his family became rockstars – Joseph basically saved the nation (and the world) through his wisdom and interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams.
But three hundred and fifty years later, a new regime arose in Egypt, and they couldn’t care less about ancient history.
The Egyptians saw the growing number of Israelites as a threat to national security, and felt they needed to control them through slavery.
Video:  Ten Commandments – Egyptian Slavery
As the Israelites continued to grow in number, the Pharaoh’s paranoia grew to the point that he commanded…
(Exodus 1:22 NKJV) …“Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”

It was during these days that a baby was worn to a couple from the tribe of Levi wife.

(Exodus 2:2–3 NKJV) —2 So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. 3 But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank.
Why would Moses’ parents dare to disobey the Pharaoh’s command to kill all the male children?  Their faith caused them to not “fear” Pharaoh’s punishment.

So after three months, Moses’ parents felt they could no longer keep the baby safe, and they put him in a little waterproof basket and put him in the Nile River with his older sister Miriam watching over him.

The baby was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter, then adopted by her, and raised as a prince of Egypt.

The other day I was watching part of Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 classic, “The Ten Commandments”.

I’ve always cringed at the first part of the movie that deals with Moses’ early life – lots of things not mentioned in the Bible.
I had never paid attention to Mr. DeMille’s introduction, where he documents where they got certain ideas about Moses between his birth and when he flees to Midian.  He mentions that they used material from the ancient historians Philo and Josephus – historians who had access to historical records that we no longer possess.  So I got those works out and read them.  These are not inspired works, but they potentially add to the backstory.

The historian Philo (50 AD) wrote about Moses’ beauty and how his parents chose to hide their son from the Pharaoh’s proclamation.

Accordingly as the child Moses, as soon as he was born, displayed a more beautiful and noble form than usual, his parents resolved, as far as was in their power, to disregard the proclamations of the tyrant[1]

The historian Josephus (90 AD) writes,

… that God gave a prophecy (vision) to Moses’ father Amram, that he would have a son who would deliver the Israelites from Egypt.
he shall deliver the Hebrew nation from the distress they are under from the Egyptians.[2]
… that as a young child, Moses was known for being quite “beautiful”.  People would see him and say, “Wow!”
and as for his beauty, there was nobody so unpolite as, when they saw Moses, they were not greatly surprised at the beauty of his countenance; nay, it happened frequently, that those that met him as he was carried along the road, were obliged to turn again upon seeing the child; that they left what they were about, and stood still a great while to look on him; for the beauty of the child was so remarkable and natural to him on many accounts that it detained the spectators, and made them stay longer to look upon him. [3]
… that when Moses had grown up, the land of Egypt was attacked by the Ethiopians, and the Egyptians made Moses their general, and he led the Egyptian armies to defend Egypt. 
He was quite the military genius. While laying siege to the last royal city, the Ethiopian king’s daughter was standing on the city walls when she saw Moses scouting the walls.  She fell in love with him and proposed marriage to him.  He said he would marry her if the Ethiopians surrendered, which they did, and he married her.  Perhaps this is the “Ethiopian woman” that Moses had married (Num. 12:1).

No sooner was the agreement made, but it took effect immediately; and when Moses had cut off the Ethiopians, he gave thanks to God, and consummated his marriage, and led the Egyptians back to their own land[4]

But we get ahead of ourselves…

:23 they saw he was a beautiful child

beautifulἀστεῖος– of the city; of polished manners; elegant (of body); handsome; beautiful; well-bread

It comes from astu (a city)
Our English translations handle it quite a few ways.  NLT has “unusual”.  The KJV has “proper”.  Most other translations have “beautiful”.

I was curious and went on a Greek rabbit trail…

ἀστεῖος is a word that’s only found twice in the New Testament, and both times it’s used for Moses (which doesn’t help.  see Acts 7:20)
(Acts 7:20 NKJV) At this time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s house for three months.
The word is also found in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (LXX) several times.
Of course it’s used to describe Moses as a baby:
(Exodus 2:2 NKJV) So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months.

Though the LXX Greek has ἀστεῖος, the original Hebrew is טוב (towb) – good, pleasant, agreeable

On to the bizarre… ἀστεῖος is used to describe Eglon:
(Judges 3:17 NKJV) So he brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. (Now Eglon was a very fat man.)

(Hebrew is bari’ – fat)

The Angel of the Lord uses ἀστεῖος to describe Balaam:
(Numbers 22:32 NKJV) …Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me.

(Hebrew is yarat – to cast, throw, be slippery)

What’s my point here about this word?

I don’t think baby Moses was fat or perverse.  I do want to point out that sometimes language is vague, and I can’t help but think that it’s vague on purpose.
Don’t get hung up thinking that Moses’ parents only protected him because he was a “pretty baby”.

Lesson

Seeing the treasure

I think I like the Hebrew word best because it’s common and easy to translate word.  They saw that their boy was “good”.
The point is that Moses’ parents saw in their baby boy someone worth saving.
No one else was saving their baby boys.
Their “sight” was something driven by their faith.

Faith is trusting in something you can’t see, it’s seeing the unseen.

How do you see the people around you?
Do you see something worth “saving”?
Parents, how do you see your kids?
I know there are times when kids can try your patience.

Video:  Funny Kids Vines

Parents need to work at seeing past the frustration and look to the treasure the child is.
I’m not talking about trying to make your children into what you wish you had become but seeing in them the treasure that they are.
(Psalm 127:3 NKJV) Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Do your kids know that you see them as a treasure?  Or as a nuisance?
Some of you may be thinking, “But it’s easy to see them as a treasure when they’re little.  But as a teenager?
That sometimes takes “faith”.
Find God’s promises about the future and learn to trust them.

(Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV) For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

(Ephesians 2:10 NKJV) For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Share God’s promises with your kids.

:24 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,

of agemegas – great; of rank having authority

refusedarneomai to deny; not to accept, to reject, to refuse something offered

:25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,

choosinghaireomai to take for oneself, to prefer, choose

Aorist middle participle

to suffer afflictionsugkakoucheo (“with” + “evil” + “to have”) to treat ill with another; to be ill treated in company with, share persecutions or come into a fellowship of ills

the passingproskairos for a season; enduring only for a while; temporary

to enjoyecho to have, i.e. to hold

pleasuresapolausis enjoyment

:25 the passing pleasures of sin

There is pleasure in sin, we wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t such fun.

But the pleasure is only temporary.  It doesn’t last.

:26 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

esteeminghegeomai – to consider, deem, account, think

treasuresthesauros – the place in which good and precious things are collected and laid up; the things laid up in a treasury, collected treasures

reproachoneidismos – a reproach

from oneidizo – to reproach, upbraid, revile

:26 the reproach of Christ

What would Moses know about the reproach of Christ if Jesus wouldn’t be born for another 1400 years?

The truth of a Messiah has been around since the time of Adam.

:26 for he looked to the reward

Lesson

Making Hard Choices

Moses had choices before him:
Enjoy the pleasures of sin?  Or suffer affliction?
Choose the reproach of Christ? Or the treasures of Egypt?
These are the same choices that our writer’s readers were facing.
They are the same choices that you and I face every day.
Video:  Kids Chanukah Donut Test
How did Moses make all these hard choices in life?  How did he choose affliction over pleasure and reproach over treasures?
He was looking to the future, to the “reward”.

His reward was bigger than just two donuts.

he looked toἀποβλέπω – to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on some one thing
Moses wasn’t just looking “to” the reward, he was also looking “away from” the pleasures of sin and the treasures of Egypt.
rewardμισθαποδοσία (“work for wages” + “pay off what’s due”) – payment of wages due
A related word was used in:

(Hebrews 11:6 NKJV) But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Moses is an example of the person in Heb. 11:6 who pleases God because he was looking forward to receiving His “reward” from God for his faith.

Jesus spoke of what that day of reward was like as he told the parable of the servants who invested the master’s treasure while He was away.

(Matthew 25:21 NKJV) His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

It’s important that we change what we’re looking at.
Change your gaze away from temptation, and put your eyes on what’s ahead, the reward.
Yet too often we’re like that guy who prayed, “Lord, if you don’t want me to have a donut today, then let there be no parking spots in front of Krispy Kreme today.”

But sure enough, there was a parking spot … the twelfth time around the block.

Sometimes the “reward” requires that we go through affliction and reproach.
Don’t forget to compare the hardship with the reward that’s coming.
It takes “faith” to look at the things “unseen” (like rewards), to look beyond our difficulty and to look to Christ.
Keep in mind who the writer is writing to.  He’s writing to people who are undergoing persecution. 
He’s writing to people who are faced with a choice:  Play it safe with the world, or endure suffering for Jesus’ sake.

:27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.

:27 By faith he forsook Egypt

Most translations have this verse as, “by faith he left Egypt” (NAS, NIV, ESV, NLT)

To be honest, Moses physically left Egypt “twice”.

He left the first time when he was forty years old because he had murdered an Egyptian (Ex. 2:14-15) so he fled to Midian.
He left the second time when he brought the nation out of Egypt at the Passover.

I’m just not sure those are the right ideas…

That idea can present a problem because Moses technically left Egypt twice, and we’re not sure which one our writer is referring to.

Here are the problems with each time Moses “left”.

He left the first time when he was forty years old because he had killed an Egyptian and was “afraid” because the murder had become public.
(Exodus 2:14–15 NKJV) —14 Then he said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” So Moses feared and said, “Surely this thing is known!” 15 When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.

The “not fearing” in our verse seems to contradict the Exodus account.

Yet perhaps the Exodus account isn’t about fearing the Pharaoh, but fearing his own people accusing him of murder.

He left the second time with the entire nation forty years later when he brought the ten plagues and Pharaoh finally let the people go.
Yet chronologically they “left” Egypt after the Passover, where in our passage the Passover isn’t until the next verse. Our author has been following a strict Biblical chronology, at least up to this point.
Or, it’s talking about Moses leaving Pharaoh’s presence after the ninth plague, saying he would never see Pharaoh again.

he forsookκαταλείπω– to leave behind; to leave a person or thing by ceasing to care for it, to abandon

BDAG – to depart from a place, with implication of finality
It’s an intensive (adding kata) form of leipo, to “leave”.
Aorist active indicative
I’m not sure this verse is talking about Moses physically leaving Egypt as much as it is him emotionally leaving Egypt.
He turned his back on the nation that had raised him and made him powerful.
He made a choice to “forsake” the world.
Paul wrote,
(Romans 6:11 NKJV) Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That’s seems like an impossible thing to do.  I can’t “see” myself being dead, let alone to sin.  But somehow God says it’s true, so by faith, I need to believe it and act like it.

:27 By faith …not fearing the wrath of the king

fearingphobeo – to put to flight by terrifying (to scare away); to fear, be afraid

Aorist passive participle

Lesson

Faith and Fear

Moses was able to “disconnect” from Egypt because of his faith, because he was looking to an invisible God.
Faith results in healthy action, in Moses “forsaking” Egypt.
Fear on the other hand often leads to inaction … or the wrong action.
Can something invisible keep me going, hold me up?
Can air support you? Could I walk on air?
Video:  A Day in the Life of Air Traffic Over the World
The moving dots you’re watching are airplanes flying all around the world.
Initially we might think that air can’t hold anything up, and yet, every day four million people get on airplanes around the world and move and are held up by air.
We fly because the principles of aerodynamics.

You don’t even have to understand aerodynamics to benefit from an airplane flight.

God is just as invisible as the air.
Is God someone you can trust?

Can you trust someone who would pay the highest price to set you free from bondage?

If I trust Him, I will be held up.
Our entire chapter is filled with people who were strengthened by someone invisible, through their faith.
Here are some great verses to write down and memorize…
David wrote,

(Psalm 56:3 NKJV) Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.

Isaiah wrote,

(Isaiah 12:2a NKJV) Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid

Don’t be afraid to get on that airplane.  Don’t be afraid to trust God.

:27 he endured as seeing Him who is invisible

From age forty on, Moses led a difficult life.

How could he keep going when life was so tough?

“seeing Him who is invisible” is just like our definition of faith.

Moses was looking to the one he couldn’t see, and that gave him the strength to “endure”.

Is life difficult for you?  Paul taught these principles of Moses’ life when he wrote,

(2 Corinthians 4:16–18 NKJV) —16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

invisibleaoratos – unseen, or that which can not be seen, e.g. invisible

seeinghorao – to see with the eyes; to see with the mind, to perceive, know

Present Active Participle

he enduredkartereo – to be steadfast, be strong, to hold out

from kratos – force, strength
Aorist Active Indicative

:28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

he keptpoieo – to make; to do

sprinklingproschusis – a pouring or sprinkling upon, affusion

destroyedolothreuo – to destroy

from olethros – ruin, destroy, death

firstbornprototokos – the firstborn

toughthiggano – to touch, handle; to do violence to, injury

:28 By faith he kept the Passover

When Moses came back to Egypt from Midian at the age of eighty, the land of Egypt went on a wild ride.

With God’s guidance, Moses unleashed ten plagues on Egypt.
The plagues were designed to destroy the Egyptians’ confidence in one pagan god after another.
With each plague, it seemed as if Pharaoh would relent and let the people go, then he would go back on his word and keep his Israelite slaves from leaving.
The final plague was to be the death of every firstborn throughout the land of Egypt (Ex. 11-13).
This would even include the death of every firstborn Israelite children, unless the Israelites followed God’s careful instructions.
Each family was to select a lamb to sacrifice.

The lamb’s blood was to be painted on the doorframe of each house, the lamb was to be roasted, and eaten along with “bitter herbs”.

That night, the Lord would go through the land of Egypt, and kill the firstborn of every household, unless there was lamb’s blood on   the door posts.

If there was lamb’s blood, the Lord would “Pass Over” that house.

Video:  The Ten Commandments - Passover
Something like this had never happened before.
And yet Moses and the Israelites trusted God’s instructions and did exactly as God asked because they trusted God.
That night, every house in Egypt was mourning over the death of their firstborn, except those houses with lamb’s blood on the doorposts.

Lesson

Faith in the Lamb

The Bible tells us that the Passover was a picture of Jesus Christ.
It was no coincidence that He died on the Passover.
It was no coincidence that John the Baptist said,

(John 1:29 NKJV) …“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Maybe you don’t exactly understand why Jesus had to die on a cross.
Maybe you don’t see how His death could allow God to “pass over” your sins and forgive you.
The Bible doesn’t say you need to understand every single intricate detail of theology in order to be forgiven, it simply asks you to believe and to receive Him into your heart.
(John 1:12 NKJV) But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
 


[1] Yonge, C. D. with Philo of Alexandria. (1995). The works of Philo: complete and unabridged (p. 460). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.

[2] Josephus, F., & Whiston, W. (1987). The works of Josephus: complete and unabridged (p. 67). Peabody: Hendrickson.

[3] Josephus, F., & Whiston, W. (1987). The works of Josephus: complete and unabridged (p. 68). Peabody: Hendrickson.

[4] Josephus, F., & Whiston, W. (1987). The works of Josephus: complete and unabridged (p. 70). Peabody: Hendrickson.