Hebrews: The New Covenant Administration of Christ Max A Forsythe (c) Anno Domini 2005

From the Pulpit at Pilgrim's Rest Presbyterian Church in America

Moses
For the Lord’s Day:  the 19^th of June 2005 

Hebrews 11: 23-28

Introduction:  A couple weeks ago, our scriptural outline here counted Abraham as good as dead before the birth of Isaac.  And when Isaac was almost sacrificed, Abraham received him back from the dead.  All of this peradventure was within the providence and purpose of the God of heaven and earth.  Today, we come to the report on Moses and just as in the case of Abraham and Isaac – the life of Moses is not without serious risk.

Before he was even born, the Pharaoh of Egypt had determined to murder the children of the Hebrew people.  As a child of Amram and Jochebed, he owed his life to the fortitude and faithfulness of their decision to hide their son for three months.  The translations vary of course in the wording used as an excuse for their actions.  The original NIV catches it best when it translates that Moses “was not an ordinary child.”  And we might add, neither were his parents just ordinary law abiding parents when they were instructed to go against the revealed will of God by handing their new born son over to the authorities to be terminated, even as some might dispose of surplus kittens and puppies.

Jewish literature, apart from the revelation record – is especially rich in its fictional suppositions for the bare bones outline presented here and in the testimony of Stephen.  At any rate, the life of Moses was saved and by a fortuitous event, within the providence of God – Moses was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter and raised as a prince of the royal Egyptian court.  Given the best education available at the time, still when he realized who his own people were, he did not hesitate to put the ancient glories of Egypt behind.

Development:  He identified himself with the outcasts, the nation of slaves who were driven like cattle to build the estates and cities of a godless Pharaoh.  No one makes a dramatic choice like that outside the providence and purpose of God Almighty.  By faith Moses did this and in verse twenty-six we are made to understand the extra-worldly nature of the final reward.  He counted the courts of Egypt as nothing and went to live in the deserts of Sinai where we would meet his wife and even appear before the personal presence of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

By all measure of the age in which he lived, Moses counted upon the One who is invisible!  F.F. Bruce narrates a fact that often escapes the commentators.  “Moses paid more attention to the Invisible King of kings than to the king of Egypt.”  We may also take this twenty-seventh verse in the sense that Moses’ lifelong vision of God was the secret of his faith and perseverance.

The Jewish commentator Philo describes Moses as the “beholder of the world of nature which cannot be seen,” and by contrast with Pharaoh, who “did not acknowledge any deity that could be discerned by the mind alone or any apart from those that could be seen.”  Instead, Moses – who would not only see the burning bush, but also the person of God from afar and after the Lord God had walked before him; he did believe in the person of God and obeyed Him faithfully through thick and thin.  Twice thus far, Moses’ life was at risk, and the Lord led him into the desert for humbling and preparation for the great day, when he would indeed lead the children of Israel out of Egypt.  And so, into the deserts of Midian did Moses depart, there to learn the life of a shepherd and to meet with the Lord God Himself.

At the appointed time, Moses returned with his wife and family to Egypt.  He did all that God required of him and finally, the people of Egypt tossed all Israel out into the desert.  Not only Israel, but also a vast multitude of peoples went out as well, a group who would find assimilation into the people of God a difficult calling.

Application:  All of this, and much more he did at the instigation of the voice and person of God.  What ordinary mortals could have done all that was done through Moses by the power of God?  Ancient history is full of tales, tall and otherwise of men beyond measure.  However, few there were who had the character of a Moses, adopted to the purple – destined to a life of leisure, pomp and power.  Yet, he gave it all up to fulfill the will of Him who called.  Mighty indeed is the person of God, a Creator God who can bend individuals and nations to His divine will: some to serve His cause and others apparently to stand against His purpose in order that it might be proved who really controlled and ruled all things.

What a dramatic recitation to prove to the people who read or heard this grand chapter of Hebrews.  The Apostle has written to believers whose own “perseverance was in danger of faltering because of the stigma attached to the name of Christ.”  And as F.F. Bruce continues, this “example of Moses was calculated to be a challenge and encouragement.  It would help them to fix their eyes on the ‘recompense of reward’ held out to faith if they remembered how Moses weighed the issues of time in the balances of eternity.”

There is another special book in the Bible not unlike this letter to the Hebrews.  The earlier version is that of the two scrolls of Chronicles wherein the whole Old Covenant economy is explained in terms of the Covenant established by God.  Chapter after chapter of names and samples from their lives spell out the complete and absolute faithfulness of the Lord God Creator of heaven and earth down through the ages before the Messiah was to come.

In this book, that same chronology – less intimidating, is cast in the terms of further encouragement that the same God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses would lead His people into a New Covenant understanding.  Again F.F. Bruce notes an essential point:  “Here again there is a suggestion to the readers of the epistle that the invisible order is the real and permanent one, and not such a visible but transient establishment as Judaism enjoyed up to A.D. 70.”

And this is the essential point that we must understand well and true!  Christ’s Kingdom is not of this world, the Old Covenant Church failed finally in not making the necessary transition from the visible Temple, the sacrificial rituals and the daily grind of pithy slavish obedience to ancient rituals now suddenly worthless, because the One to whom they pointed had arrived and established all things new in a Kingdom of the Spirit.

Now I do not know where our contemporary world and culture is headed any more than the man in the moon.  However, we have within the last four hundred years realized a temporal kingdom in these United States that not only reflected the grandeur of a Western Civilization founded on biblical foundations, but also engaged a necessary prosperity to feed a growing country and world.  Not unlike the Jews of Jesus time, all that we were and are is being challenged greatly to prove the resourcefulness and usefulness of the visible Kingdom, that is the Church.

Unfortunately, the New Covenant Church is run down like the Old Covenant Church found by Christ.  And unless we are willing and able to temper the contemporary trends and prove our loyalty to the otherworldly kingdom in which we hold citizenship – that which we see and own may well be taken away by a world that knows neither Christ nor God His Father.

There is a new saying, reminiscent of the rapidly changing technology: “to think outside of the box!”  The Apostle is writing to a generation to which he is pleading to think outside of the Temple!  How many churches are there, that are dedicated to the structure erected by their parents and grand parents – and without that building, their whole life and faith would be shattered?  Oh yes, indeed – we do enjoy having our own property here and we must continually be challenged to realize that our essential possession in Christ our Lord.

But, we must also realize that the real structure of the church is the bond of faith that we share with one another.  Our lives, just as much as those of the saints listed in this chapter, is one of a pilgrim path.  The essential elements are spiritual and those whom the Lord has called know full well how the events of their lives have played out within the context of His providence and purpose.  If we are to share the dearness of the faith once given to us, we need to learn how to communicate the ongoing leading of the Spirit and the love of Christ that has set us on this path.  A path that is so sharply different from the ordinary world in which we live.  If we can do that – then we will have something to say to those around us.  Let us look at our faith and life in this perspective and pray that the Lord will challenge us to share His love and grace in our day and time.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

 Brown, John.  A Geneva Series Commentary:  Hebrews.
Bruce, F.F.  The Epistle to the Hebrews.
The Holy Bible:  English Standard Version.

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