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HOLY HELP FOR THE HOPELESSWHO OVERCOME FEAR BY FAITHHebrews 11:23-27INTRODUCTION In the summer of 1977 Jane and I joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ. Our first responsibility after completing our initial training that summer was to raise financial support to cover our salary and ministry expenses. We lived with my parents in Oregon, WI from August to Thanksgiving talking with individuals and churches about our ministry and our need. Fear was a daily companion throughout those four months. I feared calling people to ask for an appointment to come talk with them about giving us money. I feared asking them to prayerfully consider giving to our work. I feared calling them back to find out what they decided. I feared not being able to raise the money and thus having to quit and go do something else. We had no backup plan. Every day was a battle to overcome my fear and get on the phone and call people. On many days I lost the battle and would spend the day reading old issues of National Geographic. Miraculously, in spite of my fears, God provided the financial support we needed and we were able to report to our first assignment at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, MI. Fear and its first cousin worry are powerful and influential emotions. What you fear and what you worry about determine what you do and what you do not do perhaps more than any other single emotion. On more than one occasion fear of being misunderstood or fear of rejection has kept me from saying what needed to be said to a friend or family member. Fear of what people will think about me has many times kept me from talking about Jesus. Fear of being inconvenienced has often stopped me from volunteering to help another person. Fear of losing friends or of losing face has motivated more than one teenager to do something they know they ought not to do. Fear of not having enough money or time or some other resource is perhaps the greatest inhibitor of generosity and hospitality. Fear of failure keeps many from trying new things or from doing things to improve themselves. Now it is true that fear does not only motivate cowardly, irresponsible and evil actions but it also can provoke good behaviors. Fear of death and injury motivates people to wear their seatbelts in cars and helmets on bikes. Fear of not having food to eat or a place to live does motivate people to work and stay within their budget. Fear of God’s judgment moves some to seek Christ as their savior from sin. But for most of us, most of the time, fear and worry are troubling emotions. They prevent us from doing what we know we ought to do. They make doing the right thing unpleasant through their gut churning, dry mouth producing, nervous twitch creating and joy robbing presence. You cannot live the Christian life without figuring out how to face and overcome fear. Being a follower of Christ requires that you do scary things like love your enemy, sell your possessions and give to the poor, when someone slaps you on the right cheek turn to them the other cheek, be insulted because of the name of Christ, die to your right to a happy life on earth, bless those who persecute you, confront and seek to help other Christians who are trapped in sin, offer hospitality to others without grumbling, lend to others and do not expect to get repaid, share the gospel with people who view Christ as their enemy, submit to the governing authorities, love your wife, submit to your husband, honor and obey your parents, etc. It is simply not possible to be a Christian without having to do things that you are afraid to do and so you and I have to figure out how to overcome our fears. This morning, as we think about the life of Moses with the author of the letter to the Hebrews we are going to see how trusting in Jesus Christ as our high priest and mediator and once for all sacrifice will enable us to not be paralyzed by our fears. MAIN POINT Only faith in Christ can conquer fear because those who trust Christ…I. See Christ no matter how dark the circumstance (v. 23) The context in which Moses’ parents exercised faith in God and his promised Messiah is the context of extreme racial hatred. The majority race, the Egyptians, have enslaved the minority Hebrews. Not only are they oppressing them through slavery but they also, out of fear of their growing population, have begun a program of state sponsored infanticide. All male Hebrew babies are to be thrown into the Nile River and thus drowned. The entire Egyptian population is engaged in this violent pogrom against the Jewish people. It is a plan designed to both keep the Jewish people as slaves and to destroy their racial unity by creating a situation where Jewish women will be forced to marry non-Jewish men and thus to have children who will not be fully Jewish but yet slaves. So during this reign of terror and the daily reality of watching the baby boys of their friends and neighbors ripped from their arms to be thrown into the Nile River that the parents of Moses witness his birth and then by faith they hide him for three months. Now what we are told here in Hebrews is that the reason they hid the baby boy was because they saw that the boy was literally, “beautiful”, as the ESV has it. The Greek word used here is the same one used in the Greek translation of the OT in Exodus 2:2. However, this Greek word is translating a Hebrew term. The original Hebrew says they saw that the child was good. In other words, the reason the parents of Moses hid him was because by faith they saw that the child was good or beautiful or as the NIV has it, “no ordinary child.” What is it that they “by faith” saw when they saw this baby and thus motivated them to hide him at great risk to themselves and their other children Aaron and Miriam? Please don't miss this, they did not hide the baby out of natural parental concern for the child's safety but by faith because they saw something in this child. Seven times in Genesis 1 we are told that God saw what he had made, that it was good; just like Moses’ parents saw that he was good. In some way that we are not told about, these parents when they saw this child saw that God’s favor rested upon him in an extraordinary way. They believed that he was in some way connected to God's plan to remake his world into that original "good" world. They knew that somehow and someway he was going to be involved in the salvation of God’s people. This vision of the goodness or beauty of Moses is their seeing in him the focus of God’s promises to save his people and give them their own land. Thus their preserving Moses’ life is viewed as an act of faith in the Savior who was going to come into the world to rescue God’s people from their slavery to the world and the powers of evil in the world. In short, they saw Christ as they saw their child. They saw God's purposes being fulfilled in and through their son and the one whom he foreshadowed. It is not an accident that this reference to the conditions of Moses’ birth is also an accurate summary of the birth of Jesus. Did not Mary and Joseph see that the baby Jesus was good, that is, that he was the promised Messiah and Savior of the world as the angels had told them both and the shepherds had confirmed after witnessing the angel choir? What happened after Jesus’ birth? Did not an evil tyrant command that all the Jewish baby boys in the region of Bethlehem be killed? Did not the parents take the baby Jesus and hide him in Egypt, just like Moses was hidden? What the author to the Hebrews wants us to see is that the parents of Moses saw the foreshadowing of the Messiah when they saw their baby and it was because they saw Christ in the midst of this horrible darkness that they acted to protect Moses. They were not overcome with fear of the king but acted out of their faith that God had secured a good future for them and for his people through this child and ultimately through another child born to another couple during another violent time. They knew their efforts could not fail, no matter how furious was the king because of God's promise to save the world by a Savior. The faith of these parents in the future salvation to be gained by Christ is the reason they not only hid him but they set him adrift in the Nile River. Despite the threats and intimidation and violence of the Egyptian king they acted in faith, without fear because they saw Christ when they saw Moses. They saw the certainty of God’s promised salvation and thus were able to act. What happened to this little baby boy, born under the reign of a king furious at his existence? Pharaoh’s daughter took the baby up out of the Nile River and returned him to his mother and paid her to care for him. Then when the baby was weaned, somewhere between 3-6 years of age, he went to live in the palace of the king who wanted to kill him. This child who has been specially favored by God grows up in Pharaoh’s own home, the home ruled by his enemy, and plays with the children and grandchildren of his enemy and enjoys all the rights and privileges of belonging to the royal family. This is one of the most amazing reversals of fortune every seen, 2nd only to the criminal death of our Lord Jesus which led to his exaltation to the right hand of God. God’s promised salvation cannot be thwarted even by the most violent and evil actions of men. A murderous, racist regime cannot halt God’s plan to save his people. Therefore we never need be afraid, no matter how dark things become. Christ is always present and always at work saving his people. We don’t need to fear because we see Christ by faith, working out his salvation, even in the darkest circumstances. People betray one another, people die, people get sick and have accidents, we experience financial ruin, racists ruin our lives, children rebel, in short circumstances can get really dark. But God’s saving his people through his Messiah cannot be derailed and so if you are one of his people you cannot be harmed. Jesus is at work in every circumstance working to save you and one day to bring you out of the darkness into his kingdom of light. Jane and I have a dear friend who was sexually molested by a neighbor and physically abused by her mother as a child. Through some Christian neighbors who brought her into their home and church she came to see Christ even while in the midst of this great darkness and to trust him as her Savior from her sins. She is now a faithful Christian, married to a pastor, mother of five with a sixth on the way. The darkness did not prevent her from seeing the light of Christ and it was in seeing the light of Christ in the darkness that she had the courage to endure and survive and to forgive her oppressors and not be permanently harmed by the darkness. There is no darkness that can prevent us from seeing Christ and being saved by him and so we do not need to fear. Only faith in Christ can conquer fear because those who trust Christ…
II. See suffering and loss in the light of heaven (vv. 23-26) For forty years Moses grows up in the household of Pharaoh, enjoying all the rights and privileges and luxuries of the household of the most powerful man on earth. When he grew up Moses looked at all that he had in the way of privilege and power as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and he looked at the plight, the misery of the people of God and he chose sharing the misery of the people of God over the pleasures of the Egyptian court. We are told that he did this “by faith.” What does this mean that he did it by faith? Moses knew, from the testimony of his parents that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he was going to come to the aid of Israel and take them up out of Egypt into the land of promise. He also knew, based on their testimony that he was the one God had chosen to lead the people out of Egypt. What Moses saw in the physical world was a powerful Egyptian king and nation cruelly oppressing his people. What he saw in the visible world was the opposite of what the word of God had promised. It appeared that all the power and pleasure belonged to Egypt and all the weakness and misery belonged to Israel. However, what faith sees is the certainty of what is promised. Moses was absolutely convinced that what God had said was going to happen; would happen. Therefore, it was a no-brainer to renounce his allegiance and affection for his adoptive mother and all the power and prestige of his position and join with the people of God in their misery. What we see in Moses as it is recorded for us in Hebrews is so important. Every human being is confronted with the same problem that confronts Moses. First, there are the visible facts. For Moses the facts are as I just stated them. Egypt is powerful and Israel is not. Moses is currently in a position of power and influence and if he chooses to go with the people of Israel he will lose all that power and all that pleasure. The second thing that every human being has to do is explain what the facts mean. Moses could have looked at the facts and like a good Hindu said, “too bad for those slaves but they are simply getting what they deserve from what they did in their former life and I am getting what I deserve from what I did in my former life.” Or like a good naturalistic materialist he could have said, “The universe operates through random processes and therefore without meaning and I’m just happy that those random processes made me rich and not poor like those folks so I will just enjoy what I have because this is all there is.” Or like a good American consumer he might have said, “Our entire economy is built on slavery and so we can’t very well get rid of the slaves or our whole economy will collapse. I’ll send some money home to mom and dad and Aaron and Miriam and I’ll serve in the soup kitchen once a month but I’ve got to keep this economy going through my government duties and my being a responsible citizen and consumer.” Or he might have reasoned like a good religious person, “God has put me in this position of power, just like he put Joseph in power, to use my influence to help make life for the slaves a little better. I can work for their relief more effectively here, on the inside, than if I abandon this position and go join them in their slavery. I can do way more good as a prince than as a slave.” Look at how Moses reasoned by faith. He viewed his life of power as sinful and temporary. When the text tells us that Moses’ life as a prince was sinful it is not saying that simply being a prince in Egypt was sinful. We know that because Joseph was a prince in Egypt for close to 75 years and God never told him that it was sinful for him to be one. Also, Moses has been in the house of Pharaoh for some 35 years and he hasn’t been sinning all that time by being there. God put him there. However, it would be sinful for him to remain in that house. He knew that God had called him to go lead Israel out of Egypt and thus to remain as a prince would be sinful. He would be choosing the pleasures of a sinful life over loyalty to God and his people. God was calling him to leave his current position and to take up another and for him to not leave would be preferring the pleasures of sin to God. Please note that the Bible recognizes that sin is pleasurable. The reason we sin is because it makes us feel good. The only thing that will enable you to stop sinning is the promise of a greater pleasure. The faith of Moses was exactly that: he believed that knowing Christ and having his salvation was a greater pleasure than that offered to him as the prince of Egypt. He saw that if he stayed a prince of Egypt the pleasures would only be temporary. What does that mean? If the reason for not pursuing the pleasures of sin is because they are temporary that must mean that there was some other pleasure that was permanent. We are given the answer in v. 26. Being mistreated along with the people of God is the same thing as “disgrace for the sake of Christ” (NIV). The first thing that Moses knew was that the only way to be affiliated with the savior of the world, the promised Messiah, the seed of Abraham, was to be joined to the people of God. Moses believed what God had said in Genesis 3:15 that there was going to be a male descendant of Eve who was going to crush Satan. He knew that there was going to be a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He knew that it was only through the descendants of Abraham that the all the nations of the world would be blessed. He saw that the pleasures of living as a prince of Egypt were temporary but the promised reward of belonging to Christ was permanent. He knew that God’s reward of life with him forever could only be obtained through the Messiah and the only way to be joined to the Messiah was to be joined with his people. He looked at the situation in this way, he had two choices: Temporary pleasures of sin and then eternal misery cut off from God and his people, living under the curse of God OR temporary mistreatment with the people of God and then eternal pleasures with God and his people in the new heavens and the new earth. Nobody except those who have faith in Christ would look at a situation like the one Moses was in and say that being a Hebrew slave was way better than being a prince of Egypt . However, when you trust in Christ you see the world very differently. We regularly choose the way of suffering and loss of earthly pleasures here in order to obtain eternal wealth in the kingdom of heaven. We know that life only comes through death. We know that if you want to save your life, you must lose it. It isn’t only missionaries who make these kinds of calculations. When you go for a bike ride with your children instead of watch football this afternoon you can be doing it because you consider the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the pleasures of watching football because you are looking to your reward. When you refuse to passionately kiss the girl you’re dating and are planning on marrying until you are actually married you could be doing it because you are choosing to suffer mistreatment with the people of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. When you volunteer some of your time to help out with one of the ministries in the church or in the community instead of watching your favorite TV show or finishing that project at home you could be doing it because you believe that the reward of heaven is more than adequate compensation for the loss of this earthly pleasure. People who have faith are good accountants. We evaluate the costs and benefits of our decisions in light of the fact that we will live forever. We see that pursuing short term pleasure here in this life without any regard for God and his will leads to eternal loss while pursuing a life here that is full of short term loss and pain for the sake of Christ leads to eternal happiness with Christ. So we gladly die to our right to have a happy life here in order to identify with the people and sufferings of Christ so that we can live with him forever. We believe what the martyred missionary Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: "A man is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Only faith in Christ can conquer fear because those who trust Christ…
III. See the one who is invisible (v. 27) This verse has caused trouble every since it was written because it appears to be in conflict with Exodus 2:13-15. These verses follow right after Moses murders an Egyptian slave master who was beating up a Jewish slave. “ The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?" The man said, 'Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?' Then Moses was afraid and thought, 'What I did must have become known.' When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.” The problem is that Hebrews says that Moses left Egypt by faith not fearing the anger of the king and while the passage in Exodus doesn’t directly say that Moses feared the king, yet it sure looks like he left out of fear and not faith. Some commentators try to resolve the problem by saying that Hebrews 11:27 isn’t referring to this event but rather to Moses’ “leaving” Egypt at the head of the people of Israel in the "exodus" after he successfully confronted Pharaoh. However, it is hard to see how that could be when the author is so careful in his chronology throughout this chapter. The celebration of Passover precedes the Exodus in the book of Exodus but if v. 27 refers to the Exodus then he has switched the order because v. 28 describes the Passover. So v. 27 is saying the Moses left Egypt after Pharaoh put out a “wanted dead” warrant on Moses and he goes to Midian by faith and not fearing the anger of the king. The way to resolve the problem can be seen in two ways. First, the Greek phrase used here can be translated: “By faith Moses left Egypt , not because he feared the anger of the king.” The New English Bible translates it this way. In other words, the author is emphatically stating that while the OT text might lead you to think he left in fear, he did not. He did it in faith. This then means that while he was initially afraid he overcame his fear by faith in Christ. This is helpful because it shows us that Moses was just like us. He was afraid but he overcame his fear by faith. How did he do that? He knew that he was supposed to deliver Israel out of their slavery and so if he remained in Egypt he would be killed by Pharaoh. He knew that it was not yet time to deliver Israel and so he fled from Egypt to Midian. I think this is right because it so clearly foreshadows the ministry of Jesus. How many times did Jesus avoid being killed prior to the crucifixion? He regularly was on the verge of being killed but then he would slip away because it was not yet time to deliver his people by his death (see John 7:30 & 8:20). In the same way Moses slipped away from a premature death because it was not yet time for him to deliver Israel and he did this on the basis of his faith, his certainty that Christ would come and establish God's eternal kingdom. The last clause in v. 27 tells us how it was that he left Egypt and then how it was that he successfully completed the ministry to which God called him. Remember this ministry included living for forty years out in the wilderness of Midian as a shepherd all the while knowing that his people were still in slavery and he was still going to be the deliverer. He was able to patiently wait in Midian for forty years before he returned to deliver his people because by faith he saw him who is invisible. He endured the fear of confronting Pharaoh because by faith he saw him who is invisible. He received the law on Mt. Sinai because by faith he saw him who is invisible. He led the rebellious people for forty years through the desert because by faith he saw him who is invisible. The Psalmist expresses what was true for Moses: "I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand I will never be shaken." Over the next 80 years of his life Moses received many blows of various kinds but he was never shaken, he endured because, by faith, he saw the invisible God. He saw God at work everywhere and in everything and thus he did not give into his fear. He believed God's promises were true, that no matter what happened he could never be excluded from them. His future was secured by the invisible God and his future, as well as his present, was going to be lived with him. God was with him and so he would not fear. Right now what are you afraid of? What are your fears preventing you from doing that God wants you to do? What are you doing because of fear that God doesn’t want you to do? The invisible God who made this world and rules over every detail in this world and in your life and who is full of love for every sinner who trusts in Christ is with you. He it is that stands behind and supports this visible world. Knowing that the invisible God is with you and that nothing that happens to you on this earth can ever separate you from him can enable you to do the right thing, even though you are afraid. It is possible to endure in a life of love for God and others in spite of fear inducing threats because you see him who is invisible through faith in Jesus. Only faith in Christ can conquer fear because those who trust Christ…
© Copyright 2007 John Swanson.
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