Friday, January 27, 2012
By Faith... Moses, Part 19 of 54
TEXT: “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. By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward” (Hebrews 11:23-26).
Idea: Sin is disobedience to what I know God wants me to do.
Purpose: To help listeners realize that sin is often an attitude more than an act.
When I was younger, I remember evangelists taking off on a phrase in Hebrews 11:25 about Moses: “He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.”
How do you think the evangelist applied the phrase “the pleasures of sin”?
I. The phrase probably isn’t referring to the indulgences of the appetites.
Notice two men who are mentioned next to each other and who had much in common: Joseph and Moses (Hebrews 11:22-23).
Joseph lived in Egypt from the time he was 17 years old. He rose to the top of the Egyptian government.
He was made the secretary of agriculture. He was in charge of all the grain in both lower and upper Egypt.
He enjoyed the perks of that position (Genesis 41:41-43).
Joseph was a wealthy man.
He had the confidence and ear of the Pharaoh.
Moses was also a man of power, wealth, and influence in Egypt.
He had the title “son of Pharaoh’s daughter.”
He had wealth and education (Acts 7:22).
II. Why do you think the writer of the letter to the Hebrews says that Moses turned his back on “the pleasures in Egypt”?
Do you think the lifestyle involved in being part of Pharaoh’s court was more wicked than in Joseph’s time?
Was Joseph’s position in Pharaoh’s court a compromise with evil?
Were the first 40 years that Moses spent as part of Pharaoh’s court lived in sinful indulgence?
III. The “pleasures of sin” would be the sin that Moses would have committed by turning his back on God’s people and God’s call.
Apostasy is choosing some value as being more important than Christ (Hebrews 10:30).
Joseph, as an official in Pharaoh’s court, protected God’s people by his position. But Moses, as an official in Pharaoh’s court, would have had to put himself in opposition to God’s people.
It isn’t necessarily wrong to be part of Pharaoh’s court, but it is a sin if God has called you to a different life or to another place.
