Hebrews Chapter Eleven, Material Or Spiritual Riches?

 

Hebrews 11:24 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, [25] choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, [26] esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

 

Verse 24 relates the events that begin in Exodus 2:11. The verse, in part, states, “Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens.” Moses had grown up the son of pharaoh’s daughter, indulging in the riches and learning of ancient Egypt. One need only look to the paragons of architectural genius to glimpse what the brilliance of the Egyptian mind was capable of. The Egyptian culture aided in pioneering mummification, medicine, agriculture, architecture, and advanced mathematics. The Egyptians used astronomy to predict the flooding of the Nile, and to align the pyramids to the polestar.

To say that Egyptian culture and learning were advanced was an understatement. This is the milieu from which Moses emerged as the adopted child of Egyptian royalty. Stephen reports that Moses was 40 years old by this time, Acts 7:23. It is interesting that, despite being raised in Pharaoh’s court, it is written that Moses regarded the Hebrews as his brethren. He looked at their burdens, but this was with much more than detached interest; it implies sympathetically, since he considered them his brethren, and that they suffered affliction. What happened next appears to have been impulsive; perhaps a step too far as Moses was witnessing the cruelties his fellow Hebrews endured while he had been saved from such a fate. “And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand,” Exodus 2:11, 12.

 

If there was any doubt about who Moses regarded as genuine brethren, verse 11 reiterates that it was the Hebrew slave, not the Egyptian, that was family. Perhaps wanting to alleviate or avenge the perceived wrong, Moses murdered the man responsible. Stephen once more contributed to this narrative by saying Moses believed the Hebrews would understand they were being delivered, Acts 7:25. Interestingly, this remark must have implied that Moses had read the Genesis account and was motivated to begin God’s purpose for Israel by releasing them from the oppression God said they would endure until the fourth generation, when the iniquity of the Amorites was full. The final words of Joseph must have inspired Moses: “but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,” Genesis 50:24.

 

Though his attempt to deliver his brethren resulted in failure, it was clear whose side Moses was on. The next day he halted a fight between two Hebrew men, but rather than murdering the man who struck the other, he endeavored to play mediator by asking, “Why are you striking your companion?” Exodus 2:13. Notice how the Hebrew observed precisely what Moses’ intention was, since he asked Moses why he exalted himself, mocking him with the titles of prince and judge. A prince governs the people; a judge settles civil matters. The question, rhetorical as it was, forced Moses to consider by what authority he did these things. If he had access to the Genesis account (which seems likely) then he knew he was the fourth generation that dwelt in Egypt, Genesis 15:16. The four generations seems to begin with Levi, who followed Jacob into Egypt. Levi begot Kohath (Exodus 6:16), and then begot Amram, who in turn begot Moses, Exodus 6:18, 20.

 

Egypt had acquired much on the back of their Hebrew slaves, treating them so contemptuously that Pharaoh ordered the death of the firstborn sons, partly because the newest Pharaoh to ascend the throne, “did not know Joseph,” Exodus 1:8. They plundered the Hebrews, forgetting how Joseph’s wisdom (truly, God’s wisdom) delivered the nation, and all adjacent nations from certain death by famine. Truly, Paul reported that, “[God] in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways,” Acts 14:16. But when Moses became aware of these things, or when the responsibility of his awareness finally settled upon him, he would not endure the fleeting pleasures Egypt offered, publicly associating with the slave caste Egypt kept to make bricks for their great building projects. They had built gods of gold, and turned mere men into avatars of the gods, or gods on earth, as Pharaoh was construed to be. Yet Jesus our Lord warned, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Matthew 16:26, KJV.

 

The author of Hebrews links “to suffer affliction with the people of God,” to, “esteeming the reproach of Christ.” It is the same affliction the Hebrew Christians already suffered in times past, which the author points to as evidence of their genuine faith, Hebrews 10:33, 34. Like the Hebrews had a better and enduring possession awaiting them in Heaven, Moses likewise, “looked to the reward.” The Greek term rendered, “reward,” at the end of verse 26 is, “misthapodosia.” The term appears three times in Hebrews (2:2, 10:35, and verse 26), and is the same Greek word. It stands for, “payment of wages due.” The confidence of the Hebrew saints, for instance, yielded “great reward,” Hebrews 10:35. Since salvation is not a reward, the writer clearly infers the judgment seat of Christ, where believers will stand to have their works judged. The translation of the term speaks to this, that Moses, the Hebrew saints being written to, and all of God’s people will receive apart from eternal life, great reward for serving the Lord God faithfully, Mark 10:30.

 

The Jewish believers being taught in this letter had already reaped fruit by supporting those that suffered, and suffering themselves because of their association with the hated Nazarene. The Greeks believed that the resurrection was nonsense, Acts 26:14, 1 Corinthians 1:22, 23. The pious Jews believed that Christianity, or the Way, was a sect of Judaism that was heretical, Acts 24:5, 28:22. Moses bypassed the treasures of Egypt, not only the gold, but the power and privilege of being adopted into the household of Pharaoh. Paul suffered a similar decision. When he was still Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, he had a promising career and much esteem among his peers. But then he met the living Christ and went on to report this change of heart: “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ,” Philippians 3:7, 8.

 

Speaking from a worldly viewpoint, Paul’s trade, and Moses’ for that matter, was, as the Greeks would have put it, foolishness. But God’s person and will are not revealed by human wisdom, which is contrary to God and opposed to His Spirit. Moses and Paul looked through the lens of faith and saw something greater; I employ this term to denote something both proportionally more substantial, and of infinitely superior value. Jim Elliot is reported to have said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” If true wisdom really does begin by knowing the Lord, then we must agree with Job’s assessment of life under the sun, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord,” Job 1:21. Material gain benefits our physical comfort, but not our spiritual betterment. Drowning in wealth, which was a very real danger for Moses, could have been a very real temptation, 1 Timothy 6:10, Matthew 6:24.