Moses: An Example of a Living Faith Hebrews 11:23-29 INTRO.:

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1 Moses: An Example of a Living Faith Hebrews 11:23-29 INTRO.: 1. The inclusion of Moses in the list of Heroes of Faith was not by accident. 2. To the Jews Moses was the most important figure in history, even greater than Abraham. a. The book of Deuteronomy ends with Joshua s great eulogy of Moses: Deut. 34:10-12: (Read). b. To Israel Moses was: 1) The greatest prophet. 2) The great lawgiver. 3) Israel s greatest historian (He authored everything from Genesis to Deuteronomy). 4) Israel s greatest saint, being called in God s word the humblest man who ever lived (Numbers 12:3). 5) Israel s greatest deliverer, delivering Israel from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. c. Because Moses ranked so highly among the Old Testament figures, to show that he lived by faith and not by perfect adherence to the Law would be a powerful argument to convince the Jews that God s way had always been the way of faith. 3. In Heb. 11:23-29 we find the faith of Moses described. 4. This AM let us notice 5 things that the writer of Hebrews tells us about Moses living faith. LESSON: I. 1 st : Moses was a man of faith because he had a heritage of faith: vs : (Read). A. The faith of Moses began with his parent s deep faith in God. 1. Vs. 23 says that when Moses was born his parents saw that he was a beautiful child. a. Every normal parent feels that their child is beautiful when they are born, even if they have A face that only a mother could love! b. Thus something more is implied here. c. It is not that he was a handsome or beautiful child but rather they saw that he was no ordinary child. d. There was something different about Moses as he was gifted and unusually promising. 2. This verse also tells us that Moses parents were willing to risk their lives to follow God s will. a. If you will remember the problem was that there had been a population explosion among the Hebrew slaves. 1) As a result Pharaoh gave an order for all of the male babies born to the Israelites to be drowned in the Nile. 2) When Moses was born, his parents knew what they were going to do - save the child s life regardless of the cost. 3) It was no small thing to defy the royal decree, but their faith was greater than their fear. b. To protect their newborn child Amram and Jochebed first hid him for three months 1) The great risk that Amram and Jochebed took in secretly keeping their son in spite of the command of Pharaoh was evidence of their faith. 2) But as the child grew they knew they had to do something. a) When it became impossible to conceal him any longer their faith was even more severely tested. b) It was their faith that caused them to place him in a specially prepared basket and place him in the reeds by the bank of the river near the place where the Pharaoh s daughter bathed (Ex. 6:20). (1) From a human perspective, his parents had no way of knowing even that his life would be spared, much less that, for all purposes, he would be given back to them. (2) Yet they willingly let him go, entrusting him to God.

2 Page 2 c. The Bible continues by telling us that after Jochebed put the baby Moses in the basket and in a place where she knew the princess came to bathe, she then sent Moses s sister, Miram, to watch and see what happens. 1) Perhaps they had rehearsed the whole plan carefully over and over again, watching every day and timing the princess arrival, helping Miriam memorize her lines so she sounded convincing. 2) And, the plan worked flawlessly. 3) As you know, the daughter of the Pharaoh found the baby Moses, fell in love with him and adopted him as her own son. 4) And then, without realizing it, she even hired his own mother, Jochebed, to nurse and raise Moses. d. The scriptures infer that she and Amram took care of Moses well past the age of weaning. 1) They probably had him into his mid-childhood years. 2) But the fact is that they had him long enough that they were able to firmly establish his Hebrew roots and teach him about the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. 3) As a result, when Moses became old enough and was challenged to make a decision, he decided to follow his parent s example and place his faith in the one true God rather than the gods of Egypt. B. There is a tremendous lesson to be learned by every parent today from the example that Moses parents set. 1. Did you know that every year approximately 6 million Americans have a baby? 2. And how they raise their child will have a greater impact on our society than anything else they will do in this life. 3. Depending on how they raise their child, that child will either become a part of the solution or a part of the problem. 4. I am sure that all of us have heard Prov. 22:6 quoted many times: Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it. a. What do these words really mean? b. Is Solomon giving us some form of a guarantee here? c. Notice what the text says. 1) The first word, train, comes from a Hebrew word that was used to describe the action of a midwife, who, soon after helping deliver a child, would dip her finger into the juice of crushed dates. a) Then she would reach into the mouth of the newborn infant, and massage the gums and the palate with this burst of flavor so the baby would be motivated to learn to nurse. b) So the word train here literally means to create a thirst in. 2) The second phrase, in the way he should go literally means in keeping with his bend. a) Each child born has some unique God-given characteristics. b) Thus each child will need to be molded in a different way. d. So this scripture is saying that if you want to increase the chances that your child will grow up and decide to embrace a faith in God, create in him or her, a thirst to use his or her unique talents for God s purposes. 5. While godly parents cannot pass on their faith like they do other family traits, they can create an atmosphere of faith in their homes and be examples to their children. a. Moses parents trained him and taught him of God s promises to Israel. b. They taught him that they were to inherit the land of Canaan and to be a great nation that would bless the world. c. His mother specifically instilled within him God s promise of a future redeemer. 1) She helped to build in him the faith that was to become characteristic of his life. 2) Her teaching would make him a man of faith. a) Her patient instruction built him into a faithful son. b) Her instructions and lifestyle led him to choose to serve God and not Satan.

3 Page 3 6. The point is that the best thing that you can give your children in this life is not possessions, not even an education, but rather a living faith...a faith that leads them to thirst to use their uniqueness to serve God. II. 2 nd : Moses had the faith to make a hard choice: Vs : (Read). A. There are three words in these verses that I want you to pay special attention to. 1. In vs. 24 underline the word refused - This word literally means to reject, to deny or to totally disown. 2. In vs. 25 underline the word choosing - This word literally means to select or decide. 3. And in vs. 26 underline the word considering - This word literally means to weigh in the balance, to evaluate the worth or to consider the value. B. When Moses reached the age of forty he was faced with a crucial decision. 1. He had to decide whether to identify himself completely as an Egyptian with absolute loyalty and without any reservation or join himself with his people, the children of God. 2. The deciding factor would be his faith in God. 3. But to get the full impact of this decision we need to understand just what this decision involved. a. It is hard enough just to make a decision not to seek after worldly things, but it is even harder to give them up once we have them, and even have the promises of much more. b. By the time Moses reached the age of 40 he had everything this world would define as successful. c. According to Acts 7:22: Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians. 1) Being a part of Pharaoh s family it meant that Moses attended the best school the Oxford of the ancient world. 2) In this ancient center of learning probably the best of those times Moses learned science, medicine, astronomy, chemistry, philosophy, and law as well as the arts - sculpture, music, and painting. 3) Moses also learned to be a soldier - studying the battles, combat tactics, and the enemies of Egypt s military history. 4) In fact, extra-biblical historians tell us that by the time he reached 30 Moses had already led the Egyptian army in a powerful victory over the Ethiopians. 4. The choices that Moses made ultimately can be attributed to the training he received from his godly parents a. In other words he came to a fork in the road of his life and he looked both ways and he calculated which way was best. b. He considered and weighed all the world would give him against what God promised and he made a choice. c. Moses had enough "faith sense" to calculate that doing God s will was of more value than even the riches of Egypt. d. Faith enabled him to see the sinful pleasures of life for what they really were: a temporary source of pleasure that separates us from God and eventually leads to pain and death. 5. He saw and understood the temporary nature of sin. 6. And he believed that eternal riches in God are of far more value than what the world can offer. III. 3 rd : Moses had the faith to endure even when he could not see: vs. 27: (Read). A. Moses did more than just leave Egypt. 1. He turned his back on Egypt and all that it represented. 2. Like Peter, James, John and all of the apostles in the New Testament (Luke 5:11), he left all to follow God. 3. For the next 40 years Moses would be a shepherd rather than a prince in Egypt, and during that time God would be preparing him for something even greater. 4. Slowly over the next 40 years God would be shaping him so that when he was called through the burning bush, Moses was prepared to do what God asked of him, even though Moses did not think so.

4 Page 4 B. Like Moses, we are called to leave all to follow Christ. 1. And like Moses, God may be preparing us for something even greater in the later years of our life. 2. The question is, Are we willing to put our trust in God s leading and be ready to let God use us when He calls? 3. Our focus must be on the One that the world does not see, rather than on the things that this world offers that we can see. 4. And when we choose to trust in God we will not fear what men may do to us. IV. 4 th : Moses had the faith to trust in God even when he did not understand: vs. 28: (Read). A. In our text the author skips over the story of the return of Moses to Egypt and his confrontation with Pharaoh. 1. He does not even mention all the plagues that were used to convince Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to go free. 2. Rather he skips to the Israelites last fateful night in Egypt. 3. The tenth and last plague that God sent on the Egyptians was the death of all the first-born (Ex. 11:5). 4. To protect the Israelites from the plague the Passover was instituted. a. In addition to the slaying of a lamb to be eaten, they were instructed to take the blood of lamb and sprinkle it on the doorpost of every Israelite house (Ex. 12:7). b. Think about what God commanded Moses here. 1) Here was one of the most educated men of his day, a man with an advanced degree from the Egyptian university. 2) And he was directed to smear blood on the sides and top of the door or entrance into his house, and told that that blood would protect him and his family. 3) Without a doubt this made absolutely no logical sense to an educated and sophisticated man like Moses, but he had the faith to do what God instructed. 4) He believed that God s way was the only way to avoid death. B. Sadly, to our modern sophisticated mind much of what God calls for us to do seem foolish. 1. How could the blood of Jesus really save us from our sins? 2. How can baptism do anything besides get one wet? Where does anything change through such an action? 3. How can the simplicity of worship as described in the N.T. possibly be pleasing to the God who made the universe? Surely, he would want much more than that. 4. Like Moses and the children of Israel, it will take a strong faith in God for us to obey Him even though we do not understand what He is really asking of us and what He plans to accomplish in us. V. 5 th : Moses had the faith to stand still and let God work: vs. 29: (Read). A. In Ex. 14 we find the story that the writer refers to here of Israel s crossing the Red Sea. 1. The miraculous story presents some real problems for people who see God as too small, or not powerful enough to do something like this. 2. Many may be like the boy in the following story: a. On Sunday afternoon his mother asked him, What did you learn in Sunday school today? b. He said, Mom, we had a great lesson. The teacher told us how the Jews crossed the Red Sea. They had these big helicopters and they had pontoons that they used to put out on the water. Then they put steel runners on the pontoons and they built this bridge across the Red Sea and all the Jews crossed over to the other side. Then when they got across and they blew up the bridge and all the Egyptians drown and not one of them escaped. c. His mother had a started look on her face and asked, Son is that really what your teacher taught you this morning? d. The little boy said, No Mom, but if I told it way she told it, you would never believe me.

5 Page 5 3. People who refuse to believe the miracles of the Bible, also try to explain away what happened here. a. Some say the Red Sea was really the Reed Sea and was only a few inches deep. b. But such explanations have their own problems, such as, if the Reed Sea was only a few inches deep how did all of Pharaoh s army drown in it? c. I think it is a lot simpler just to believe the Bible then try to explain it away. B. Let us notice what Ex. 14:13-16 says really happened: (Read). 1. Moses gave the people something to believe in. 2. He said, Do not be afraid. a. In reality that is harder than in sounds. b. When you look behind you and see the mighty Egyptian army is coming to get you and you look in front of you and see is the impassable Red Sea, it is not easy to not be afraid. 3. Next Moses says, Stand Still. a. Now this is even worse than the previous command. b. You can just about hear some of the people saying, With my ears I heard you say stand still but who is going to convince my feet of that? 4. But through the faith and courage of Moses they were given the courage to stand still and let God deliver them: Ex. 14:21-22: (Read). a. By faith Moses obeyed and by faith the water was driven back all night long by a powerful east wind. b. By faith Israel believed Moses promise from God and started walking across the seabed as soon as the water parted. 1) This took considerable faith, since the waters piled up on either side must have been terribly threatening. 2) But they passed through the walls of water and arrived safely on the opposite shore. 3) And when the Egyptians tried the same thing, Moses stretched out his staff, the waters returned and Pharaoh s army was drown (Ex. 14:26-28). C. The point here is that the path to victory or deliverance has always been the pathway of obedience to God. 1. The pathway to victory is one that is always saturated with God. 2. The fact is that we must obey God even when obedience does not seem appealing to us. 3. Sadly in our religious world today many people do not find God s way all that appealing. a. Many are unwilling to trust God at His word. b. And many are unwilling to simply obey God, rather than follow their feelings. 4. But as we see with Israel, when the victory is won you can then look back and see that only God could have done it. a. There is no way that man could have accomplished the deliverance and victory over the Egyptians that Israel experienced. b. And there is no way that a sinner can change into a saint except by what God has done for us. CONC.: 1. Because of His faith Moses became a living example of what it means to live a life of faith in God. a. That faith began with his parents. b. It was nurtured in him after his birth. c. It continued to grow as he was challenged time and again to simply trust in God. d. And it culminated with Moses being unlike any other man, as Joshua described in his eulogy. 2. That is the same type of faith that you can also have today. a. A faith that perhaps began with your parents of grandparents. b. A faith that makes hard choices even to the point of enduring even though you cannot see the end. c. A faith that trusts God even though you do not understand. d. And a faith that is willing to stand still and let God work. 3. What type of faith do you have?