Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Reading

Introduction

Living in this world requires many decisions to be made through the course of our lives.

‌

Most of those decisions are quite innocuous and don’t have a significant impact on the overall course of life.

But other decisions have serious impacts on life, and can very well change the course of our lives in a radical way.

‌But whatever the size of the decisions that we are making, there is a fundamental aspect to our decision making as Christians.

The question that we need to ask ourselves is, are our decisions being made in faith.

R‌omans 14:23 tells us that anything that is not from faith is sin.

That is a broad statement, but an exceedingly important one for us as Christians to keep in mind.

But I also want to suggest that it’s usually the more difficult decisions in life, or the more challenging circumstances in life that lead us to have to truly make decisions in faith.

James tells us that it is the trials and difficult circumstances of our lives that lead to the testing of our faith, and that we need our faith tested in order to grow and mature as Christians as we learn to trust in God.

‌

As we begin this morning, I’d like to pose the question to you, how much thought do you give to the decisions that you make, particularly some of the more significant decisions, and what does your decision-making say about your faith in God?

To what extent are demonstrating a deep trust in God in the difficult and trying circumstances in life?

‌We are going to consider these questions by looking at the decisions that Moses made at various critical points in his own life.

We find these moments in his life outlined in Hebrews 11 in what is generally known as the “Hall of Faith.”

In this section of Scripture, the writer to the Hebrews is presenting to his readers a series of great examples of faith in God.

Notice the opening verses of chapter 11...

The writer to the Hebrews is speaking here about these “men of old” that “gained approval” through acting out of faith, rather than fear.

They were those who trusted in God when the circumstances of life were difficult, and things seemed to be going against them.

They were those who acted in faith and trust in God when to do so often went against “common sense” approach.

‌Now, we must keep in mind that the reason that the author to the Hebrews is presenting these scenarios and demonstrations of faith to the Hebrew Christians, is because they were facing severe difficulty and testing of their faith.

They were being tempted and called to abandon the way of Christ.

The most likely situation was that these were Jewish Christians that were being tempted to go back to the types and shadows, rather than to look to the fulfilment in Christ.

I won’t delve into all the possibilities now, but the fact is that these Christians were facing immense trials, and these trials were tempting them to not trust in God.

They were tempted to act not in faith, but according to human wisdom and reasoning.

They were tempted to make decisions according to what would benefit or suit them from a purely physical or worldly perspective.

With that in mind, we must look to these few verses as we consider together the example of Moses, and how he made decisions that were extremely difficult to make.

He made Decisions Rooted in Faith… even when humanly speaking it wouldn’t make sense to do so.

‌With that in mind, let us consider these decisions that Moses took in Faith...

1.

A Decision to Forsake Worldly Comfort (vv.23-26)

The first decision of Moses that is outlined by the writer to the Hebrews relates to the growing up life of Moses, as he was raised by Pharoah’s daughter, and the decision that he had to take to rather identify with the people of God, despite the suffering and hardship it would bring him, rather than to continue enjoying these comforts and pleasures that he grown up with.

In verse 24 we read…

It’s helpful to consider the background story of Moses as we consider his actions here.

We know that he was born during a time of great danger for the Israelite people, particularly for children born in that day.

The Israelites had become very numerous, and the Egyptians were afraid that they were becoming too powerful.

The Egyptians were using the Israelites as slaves, and they would mistreat them (we’ll consider that further in a moment).

But the Pharaoh of that day made a decision to put all the newborn boys of Israel to death.

This was population control in the most extreme form.

It was horrific.

Moses was born right at this time when the command was given to put these sons of the Israelite women to death.

But when Moses was born, his mother acted in faith and hid her child.

And then when he grew too big to look after and care for, she hid him in a basket and placed him in the Nile River.

Pharaoh’s daughter found the basket with the baby, and had pity on him, and through God’s providential working, Moses ended up being raised by Pharaoh’s daughter.

What is important to note is the fact that even through these exceedingly distressful and troublesome times for Israel, Moses found himself in a position that most others, even in Egypt itself, would greatly envy.

Think in our day, who wouldn’t love to be able to experience being raised in the royal palace of the son or daughter of the king / queen of England (apart of course from the paparazzi.... which didn’t exist in the days of Moses).

But think about the privileges of luxury and comfort of living in the palace, or in massive houses.

Dining at the table of the most wealthy and powerful of the land.

Feasting and pleasure as a normal part of life.

The education that you would receive is of the best you can imagine.

This is what Moses grew up with.

This is the context that he grew up in.

He had everything a man could wish for.

This was the context of Moses.

He really had it all, and he could well have continued to live this wonderful life of comfort and prestige in Egypt.

But he didn’t, because he made a decision that was rooted in faith.

Verse 24 goes on to say that…

Hebrews 11:24 (NASB95)

24 ...when he had grown up, [he] refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,

As Moses was growing up, he would have been aware of the circumstances that brought him to live as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.

He would have educated himself in the background and circumstances that led the Israelites to come to Egypt.

The writer to the Hebrews clearly demonstrates that Moses had a deep understanding of the promises of God to Abraham, and the subsequent genealogy, and all that took place in Israel’s history up until that point.

It’s this understanding of his own background as an Israelite that led him to one day go and look upon the labours of his own people.

This is probably when this decision of Moses is about to be made.

According to Hebrews 11:24, his decision took place when he had grown up.

In Acts 7:23 it says that he went out as he approached the age of 40.

This means that he had 37 years of growing up in Egypt with all its benefits.

But notice that Hebrews 11:24 says that he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.

The word used there speaks or points to a specific act of choice.

In other words, Moses was actively making a decision in this context...

And this decision was one that was rooted in faith.

It was faith acting in a crisis.

In other words, he had come to a realisation of his identity with the people of God, and had to make a decision to leave the courts of Pharoah, and to go and live as one of the Israelites, or to stay in the place where he had everything that he could have dreamed of in this life.

Notice what this decision involved, or what the implications were of this decision.

Let’s consider this scenario of Moses a step further.

It speaks here about the ill-treatment of God’s people.

We’ve already touched on this as we considered the birth of Moses and the context that brought him into the family of Pharaoh.

But in considering this decision of Moses, we need to recognise the extent of the suffering that the Israelites were facing at that time under the exceedingly oppressive rule of the Egyptians.

It was these circumstances that eventually led to Pharaoh instructing the killing of babies.

The severity of the workload and the oppressiveness would only have increased.

It was under these circumstances that Moses went out and visited his Israelit brothers at about the age of 40.

At this point, Moses is confronted with a crisis of faith.

What is he going to do?

Is he going to support Pharaoh and the people of Egypt, because he’s benefited all these years?

Is he going to now turn his back on Pharaoh and his household, which would lead to severely impacting his own life in terms of comforts and wealth etc?

This would be a costly exercise.

Ultimately, he chose to identify with the people of God.

He took a stand to say, he will not support and condone the acts of the Egyptians, but rather will place himself in the camp of those suffering, of those being mistreated, and face the consequences of that decision.

This was not an easy decision.

Notice what drove his decision, or what led him to make this decision…

This is what’s driving the decision in his mind.

We see here that Moses had some idea in his mind about a promised Messiah, a deliverer.

Although Moses never saw the Messiah, and never really knew very much about the Messiah apart from some of the very early types and shadows, he knew sufficient, says the author of Hebrews, for it to have an impact on decision-making...

Back in Genesis 3:15, when we read of the man crushing the serpents head, and the serpent bruising the heal of the man, there was a promise of a Messiah.

Something was going to take place in the future.

That promise was hinted at again as God spoke to Abraham in Genesis 22:17-18

We know that ultimate the “seed” referred to Christ Himself.

Paul makes that clear in Galatians.

The point over here is that even in this time of Moses (who wrote the Pentateuch) there was a knowledge that God would be sending a deliverer.

Whatever the extent of his understanding, the point that the writer to the Hebrews makes is that he was more committed to suffering for the sake of honouring God and His people, than he was to securing a comfortable and profitable future for himself.

He considered the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt...