Moses: Faith to Endure Pharaoh's Wrath (Hebrews 11:27)

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All right, let's open in prayer before we begin. Our Father, we pray that you would speak to us this morning in your word.

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We have sung to you the desires and the affections, the sentiments of our hearts, as we have trusted in you, as we wait upon you, as we long to see you and to know you more deeply.

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It is our desire now that you would reveal yourself to us in the pages of Scripture. In your word is all of the wisdom that we need and all of the knowledge that we need concerning salvation and you and our future together.

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We thank you that your word is sufficient and we pray now that you would instruct us and teach us and encourage our hearts together as we look at your word.

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Open our eyes to it and our minds that we may see in your word, truth and wisdom and righteousness and light, that we may know you more as we leave here than we do even now as we open your word with great expectation.

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We thank you and we praise you in the name of Christ our Lord, amen. Hebrews chapter 11, beginning at verse 23, we'll read through verse 29.

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By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

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By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

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By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. He endured as seeing him who is unseen.

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By faith, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.

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By faith, they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned.

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Example after example in Hebrews chapter 11 shows us that faith is not just a New Testament principle or a

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New Testament idea, but rather that the men and women of the Old Testament, believers, were marked by faith and they lived their lives by faith.

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Their good works, which are highlighted in Hebrews chapter 11 flowed from their faith, their faith issued in and produced the good works in their lives.

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We understand that concept in the New Testament era that we are not saved by works, we do not please

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God by works, but rather that our good works are the results of faith. Faith comes first, the good works flow out of our faith.

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Our faith motivates those good works and actually gives life to those good works. That's a concept that we're familiar with from what is taught in the

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New Testament. And it is a concept that was true also in the Old Testament with all of the saints of old.

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Their works did not please God any more than our works would please God and they were not saved by works any more than we are saved by works.

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Their works likewise flowed out of faithful hearts, hearts that had faith and believed

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God and trusted God and out of that faith came all of the works and the good deeds that we read of in the

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Old Testament. The author reads the Old Testament through the lens of faith and I think that there's something instructive to that in us as to how we should approach the

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Old Testament as well. When we read the Old Testament, we should not read it as though we're just reading a bunch of stories that are told for our moral betterment as if they're a bunch of morality tales.

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You read the story of David and Goliath and David picks the five smooth stones and meets Goliath down in the valley and slays the giant and the preacher preaches through that or you read through that and then you're asked the question in your mind or by the preacher or in your study guide, what are the giants in your life that the

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Lord would like to slay and what are the five smooth stones that you need in your life in order to slay the giants?

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And that perspective on the Old Testament just makes the Old Testament into a series of morality tales or little stories like, not the parables but the

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Aesop's fables, like Aesop's fables that we can read and draw out little lessons here and there. And it is entirely unbiblical approach to the

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Old Testament. Instead, the author of Hebrews is showing us that we can read through the Old Testament and we should be able to read it through the paradigm of faith.

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To see in the lives of all of these men and women of the Old Testament, like the ones that are cataloged here in Hebrews chapter 11 to see how it is that faith motivated their good works.

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That these are men and women who responded to God on the basis of not of their works but on the basis of faith and how that faith issued itself out in lives of obedience and in submission to the word and to the will of God.

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By his own admission, the author of Hebrews is not giving us a comprehensive list of Old Testament characters.

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Look down at chapter 11, verse 32. What more shall I say for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, and David, and Samuel, and the prophets?

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It's a good indication that the book of Hebrews was originally a spoken sermon as opposed to a written word because this is what every preacher says.

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Look, time running out of time. Time would fail me if I were to go on to all of the other things that I could say on this subject.

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But he is admitting there that this list of Hebrews 11 is not comprehensive. He doesn't even go into Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, but he just lists them.

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And not only is the list of characters incomplete, but the list of examples of faith in the lives of the characters that he mentions is incomplete.

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See, when he camped on Abraham back a few verses ago, there are far more examples of faith in the life of Abraham, but the author cherry -picks a few of those examples.

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And when he slows down to talk about Moses in this passage, it's not just these incidences in the life of Moses that are examples of his faith or that are indicative of his faith.

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There are four of them that are mentioned here. By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

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Verse 27, he left Egypt. Verse 28, he kept the Passover. And verse 29, they passed through the

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Red Sea. That's not a comprehensive list. In fact, we could add to that list from the life of Moses the following.

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This is just, again, a cherry -picked sampling. By faith, Moses picked up the serpent that had turned and turned it into a staff.

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By faith, Moses picked up the serpent after it had been turned from a staff into a serpent. By faith, Moses returned to Egypt.

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By faith, Moses announced to the elders of Israel God's promise to deliver them. By faith, Moses stood before Pharaoh.

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By faith, Moses commanded Pharaoh to let God's people go. By faith, Moses commanded water to turn into blood.

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By faith, Moses stood before Pharaoh again. That list could go on. We could go through all the 10 plagues of Egypt.

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So this sampling that we have here, these are chosen from the life of Moses and they are instructive. And we've looked at the first incident of Moses' faith.

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He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter as he was looking forward to the reward. Now we turn in verse 27 to the next example of Moses' faith because we're not yet done with Moses.

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Verse 27, by faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is unseen.

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I want you to make a few, we're gonna make a few general observations before we get into the nitty -gritty of this verse and what it is referring to.

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I want you to notice the verbs that the author uses beginning in verse 24, Moses refused.

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These are all examples of Moses' faith. He refused, verse 25, he chose, verse 26, he considered, and verse 26, he looked.

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So he refused and he chose, he considered and he looked. And now in verse 27, there are two more verbs.

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By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, and he endured, he left and he endured. Both of those verbs are examples of faith, they're expressions of his faith.

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Those two phrases in verse 27, not fearing the wrath of the king and as seeing him who is unseen, those two phrases really describe the manner or the how of Moses' action.

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He left and he endured. How did he leave and how did he endure? What sustained him through that?

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He left, not fearing the wrath of the king, that describes his faith, and he endured as seeing him who is unseen, that describes what it is that sustained

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Moses for his expression of faith, how it is that he was able to leave Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king.

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Now one of the main questions of verse 27 is what incident is this referring to? Verse 27, what incident in the life of Moses is this referring to?

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Because there are two times when we could say that Moses left Egypt. One of them we looked at a couple of weeks ago when

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Pharaoh tried to kill Moses after he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. Pharaoh tried to kill

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Moses and Moses heard that word had gotten out, he was afraid, and he fled Egypt and went out to Midian where he lived for 40 years.

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That is one of Moses' leavings of Egypt. The other one is in the Exodus proper, 40 years later after the 10 plagues and the

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Passover and Israel looting the Egyptians, Moses and all of Israel with him got up and left and went out of Egypt.

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So there are typically two times that Moses departed

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Egypt and the question now is which one of those two times is the author referring to? I want you to notice one last thing.

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Verse 27, 28, and 29, there is an order there. He left Egypt by faith.

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Verse 28, he kept the Passover. And verse 29, they passed through the Red Sea. He left

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Egypt, kept the Passover, and passed through the Red Sea. Just notice that order and keep that in your mind.

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Left Egypt, kept the Passover, and went through the Red Sea. Now in order to find out what incident is it from the life of Moses that is described in verse 27, he left

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Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king, I want you to turn back to the book of Exodus. Keep your fingers here in Hebrews 11 because we will be returning here.

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Turn back to Exodus chapter two. Exodus chapter two.

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There is some disagreement amongst Bible scholars and commentators as to which of these, which of these incidences is meant by the author in verse 27, by faith he left

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Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king. He endured as seeing him who was unseen. Now there are two options as I mentioned.

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The first is Moses' flight into Midian which is briefly mentioned at the end of chapter two, verse 11 and 15, or toward the middle of chapter two, verse 11 through 15.

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Now it came about in those days, this is the first possibility, I'm gonna give you these two possibilities. Now it came about in those days when

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Moses had grown up that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors. And he saw an Egyptian beating a

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Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the

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Egyptian and hit him in the sand. He went out the next day and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other.

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And he said to the offender, why are you striking your companion? But he said, who made you a prince or a judge over us?

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Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Look at the end of verse 14. Then Moses was afraid and said, surely the matter has become known.

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When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

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Now according to Acts chapter seven, Moses was 40 years old when he fled Egypt that first time and went out to the land of Midian.

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Midian is a little bit south of Egypt where Moses and the children of Israel were at in the land of Goshen and east over in the

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Arabian Peninsula. That was the land of Midian. So it was far enough out of Pharaoh's reach that Pharaoh could not find

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Moses. The second option is the Exodus itself, and we're gonna skip over a little bit of material, but flip over to Exodus chapter 12.

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This is after the Passover, after the death of the firstborn. Egypt drives them out in Exodus chapter 12, verse 40.

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Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years, and at the end of 430 years to the very day, all the hosts of the

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Lord went up out of the land of Egypt. That's Moses with them. So Moses leaves Egypt twice, once to the land of Midian and once alone, and once with the children of Israel in the

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Exodus itself. Now which one of those two events do you think is described in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 27?

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Don't turn back there just yet, but I'll read it to you. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, he endured to seeing him who is unseen.

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Nearly every source that you check, and I say nearly, because it's not all of them, but nearly every source that you check will tell you that verse 27 in Hebrews 11 refers to either

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Moses fleeing Midian, or Moses fleeing, sorry, Moses fleeing for Midian, or Moses fleeing

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Egypt with the children of Israel in the Exodus. All of those sources except for one, and if you count me as a scholar, you can now say two, because I have a third option, but before I give you the third option,

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I wanna set a little bit of the context for that and describe why it is that I don't think that either one of these two departures from Egypt is meant by this in verse 27.

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The first one, our first option, Midian, back in Exodus chapter two, it is interesting that that flight from Egypt is directly attributed to Moses' fear.

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Did you notice that? Exodus chapter two, verse 14. But he said, who made you a prince or a judge over us?

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Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? And Moses was afraid and said, surely the matter has become known.

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When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian and sat down by a well.

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Moses' first flight from Egypt is attributed to his fear. Now, there are Bible scholars who believe that that's the one mentioned in verse 27 of Hebrews chapter 11.

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They'll say, yeah, Moses was afraid, but he wasn't afraid afraid. I don't know what that means, but basically they're saying that he was, sure, he was fearful.

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Who wouldn't be fearful of the most bloodthirsty tyrant on the face of the planet at the time? A man with a military like that seeking to kill you, who wouldn't be afraid?

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So of course Moses was afraid, but it wasn't a fear that caused him to flee. He was just fleeing to save his life.

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I don't know, maybe Moses was not really afraid afraid. He was just afraid. But I think that the statement in Exodus chapter two is a little difficult to reconcile with the

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Hebrew statement, he left Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king. So I think there has to be an incident in the life of Moses where he stood before Pharaoh and Pharaoh's wrath was aimed at him and Moses did not fear that and Moses left instead.

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The second possibility is that this is referring to the Exodus. But if that's the case, the order of Hebrews chapter 11 does not work.

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Now, I mentioned before we went back from Hebrews chapter 11, he left Egypt, they kept the Passover and he went through the

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Red Sea. Now, if we're going through Hebrews chapter 11 and it's chronological, you'll notice that something is out of order there.

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They celebrated the Passover, then they left Egypt, then they went through the Red Sea. But Hebrews 11 says he left

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Egypt, then they celebrated the Passover, then they passed through the Red Sea. I would submit to you that the order does not work because everything in Hebrews chapter 11 so far has been chronological.

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Now, you might say, well, maybe the reference to these incidences in the life of Moses is not intended to be chronological.

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If it's not intended to be chronological, it kind of doesn't fit the rest of Hebrews chapter 11 because everything else in Hebrews chapter 11 has been chronological.

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Remember, we started with Cain and Abel back at the beginning of this chapter and every person that has come up has been brought up in a chronological order as you're going through time.

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And furthermore, when he focuses in on Abraham, zooms in on the life of Abraham and Sarah and gives us multiple examples of faith in the life of Abraham, those multiple examples are in chronological order.

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So if he is referring to the exodus of Egypt here, it doesn't fit the chronology of Hebrews chapter 11.

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It suggests that the author has something in mind, something that happened before they celebrated the Passover that refers to Moses leaving

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Egypt. Furthermore, it would be more proper for the author to say if he's talking about the exodus itself that by faith they left

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Egypt rather than to say by faith he, Moses, left Egypt. As he does down in verse 29 of Hebrews 11, by faith they passed through the

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Red Sea, refers there to the whole company, the whole host of the children of Israel passing through the

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Red Sea by faith. Now, of course, Moses was leading that but it's a reference there to the entire nation. So if this is referring in verse 27,

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Hebrews 11, to the exodus, it seems more appropriate they would say by faith they left Egypt, not he.

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So again, there seems to be some incident in the life of Moses where Moses himself was standing before Pharaoh in the face of Pharaoh's wrath that the author is and it means here.

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Third, when the children of Israel left Egypt, Moses was not full of wrath. Moses was a broken man.

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He was not full of wrath. In fact, check Exodus chapter 12. Look at verse 29. Now, it came about at midnight that the

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Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon and all the firstborn of cattle.

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Pharaoh arose in the night. He and all his servants and all the Egyptians and there was a great cry in Egypt for there was no home where there was not someone dead.

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Then he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel and go worship the

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Lord as you have said. Take both your flocks and your herds as you have said and go and bless me also.

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Does that sound like Pharaoh's wrath? Not at all. So the Exodus doesn't seem to fit that description.

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By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the king's wrath. There is a third option. The third option, and I didn't invent this out of whole cloth,

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I actually saw this in a commentary by John Owen. His series of commentaries, series of books, this commentary on the book of Hebrews.

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Owen suggests a different incident that is meant in verse 27. But in order to get that, I want you to go back to Exodus chapter two, we're gonna set a little bit of context so you can see what sort of leads up to this.

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In Exodus chapter two, Moses does escape to Midian. That's not what the author of Hebrews is referring to. He meets the daughter of a priest of Midian and marries her,

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Zipporah, and has a son. Pharaoh eventually dies. Exodus chapter two, look at verse 23. Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died, and the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out.

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And their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them. Now that doesn't mean that God was oblivious to their existence or oblivious to their plight before that, not at all.

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But it does mean that under their cry, when the time came about for God to deliver them according to his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that God took notice of them in the sense that his attention was directed to them with the intention of redeeming them and taking them out of Egypt.

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The time had come for that to happen. So it's not that God woke up suddenly and said, oh, that's right, Israel, I forgot.

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I made a promise to Abraham 430 years prior. I should probably do something about that. But rather that when in the providence of God that time came for them to be delivered by God's power,

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God's remembered his covenant when he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the actions that he takes from this point forward are intended to fulfill the word that he gave to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob.

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So in chapter three and four is the incidence of the burning bush and Moses' call. Moses being out in Midian now with a son and a wife, and he is shepherding his father -in -law's sheep.

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Moses is out in the wilderness now 40 years have passed, and Moses meets God at the burning bush in Exodus chapter three and chapter four.

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And Moses is called to be God's deliverer, his instrument through which he would go deliver the children of Israel from Egypt.

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And you remember the story Moses came up with, every excuse unto the son that he could possibly come up with? I don't know,

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Lord. I don't think that they're gonna know who you are. And God said, no, I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. My name is

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Yahweh. You're gonna introduce me to the sons of Israel, and I'll take care of this. Well, I don't think Pharaoh's gonna really pay attention to who you are.

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Pharaoh's not gonna care who you are. And God said, it doesn't matter whether Pharaoh cares who I am or not, I'm gonna do many signs and wonders in the presence of Pharaoh, and I will crush his heart, and I will bring up my people.

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And Moses said, but I'm not really a good articulate. I've never been to homiletics class or to speech class, and I've never really spoken in front of people.

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I'm not the guy, not my mouth, Lord. Choose anybody's mouth but mine. And the Lord dismissed that and said,

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I'll give you Aaron. And he said, well, the tent cleaners are coming on Tuesday, and the sheep shearers on Thursday, and we got the fam this week.

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This whole week, Lord, is just not good for me. Finally, the anger of the Lord burned against Moses, and Moses relented, and God humbled him, and directed him back to Egypt.

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Moses goes back to Egypt. Chapter five, Moses confronts Pharaoh and demands the release of the children of Israel, and Pharaoh politely declines.

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Chapter five, verse one, and afterward, Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go, that they may celebrate a feast to me in the wilderness.

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Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides,

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I will not let Israel go. It's gonna be a hard pass for me, bro, is what Pharaoh said. Not gonna do this.

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I don't know this God that you speak of. I'm not interested in this God that you speak of, so it's not gonna happen. And then,

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Pharaoh increased the workload of the children of Israel by taking away from them the straw and making them go fetch their own straw so that their burdens became heavy, and then the children of Israel lashed out at Moses and said to Moses, the

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Lord should judge you for making our burden heavy. Everything was better before you showed up and started demanding our release, and now things are worse than they have ever been.

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Chapter six, verse one, the Lord said to Moses, now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for under compulsion, he will let them go, and under compulsion, he will drive them out from this land.

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Now, the Hebrews would not listen to Moses. The Jews did not. They resented the fact that Moses came back, and because he confronted

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Pharaoh, their workload was worse than it had ever been, and they were suffering more than they had ever suffered prior to Moses' arrival.

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And Moses now doubts that Pharaoh is going to listen, but the Lord encouraged him, and now here's where everything heats up.

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Chapter seven, verse one. Then the Lord said to Moses, see, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother

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Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh, that he will let the sons of Israel go out of this land.

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But I will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

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When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring out my host, my people, the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments.

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The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.

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So Moses and Aaron did it as the Lord commanded them, thus they did. Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83 when they spoke to Pharaoh.

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So at this point, Moses is 80 years old, 40 years have passed with him being in Midian, and now he shows up in front of Pharaoh to demand the release of the children of Israel, and God says in verse three of chapter seven, look at it,

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I will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may multiply my signs and my wonders. Here's an interesting little sidebar homework assignment for you.

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Read through the first, let's call it 11, 12 chapters of the book of Exodus sometime, and take note of all the times when it says that Pharaoh hardened his heart, and take note, list all the times when it says that God hardened

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Pharaoh's heart. And you know what you'll find? That both of those things are true. And here's why.

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Because every time that Pharaoh responded to God's revelation and a deed that God did,

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Pharaoh's act of rejection and rebellion is described by Moses as Pharaoh hardening his heart.

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And because Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not repent, God's judgment upon Pharaoh was that he hardened

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Pharaoh's heart. So God ended up giving to Pharaoh exactly what Pharaoh deserved, and exactly what

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Pharaoh wanted in hardening his heart so that Pharaoh would respond by further hardening his own heart, by which

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God responded to Pharaoh's act of hardening his heart by hardening Pharaoh's heart. And back and forth it goes all the way through the

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Exodus narrative. So that we see two things working in tandem, the sovereignty of God in hardening

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Pharaoh's heart so that he would accomplish judgment upon the Egyptians, and the responsibility of Pharaoh in rejecting

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God's truth and God's revelation, and thus his heart was hardened. Now what follows in verses, chapters

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I should say, seven through 10 are what we call the 10 plagues of Egypt, or on Egypt. The first one, and we're not gonna go into depth on all of these, the first one is water turned into blood.

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Oh, one thing I will say about all of these in particular, the case has been made,

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I think it's a convincing case, that each one of these plagues is intend as something of a polemic against one of the gods of Egypt. Because the gods of Egypt and the multiplicity of gods and the way that they worship, they worship the

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Nile, they worship frogs, they worship flies, they worship all of these things. And all of these 10 plagues represent some aspect of Egyptian culture,

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Egyptian religions, or Egyptian polytheism, that God is assaulting with each plague. Showing them, it was almost like if you had a god, like if you worship cows for instance, and then

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God said, I'm gonna wipe out all the cows, and just wipes out all the cows, and you're an Egyptian, you'd be sitting there thinking, hold on, we worship a god who's a cow, like you couldn't keep the cows from living?

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And yet this god, this miracle, this Moses, does this to our cattle? That is the case with all of the plagues of Egypt.

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Everyone is intended to assault one of the Egyptian deities or one of the Egyptian false religions.

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The first one is the water being turned into blood. Pharaoh was rather unimpressed with that. The second plague was frogs all over the land.

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In response to that, Pharaoh promised to release the children of Israel, but then relented when the plague went away. The third plague was the gnats or the lice.

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Pharaoh was unmoved by that. The fourth plague was flies. Pharaoh promised release and then again relented.

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The fifth plague is the cattle dying. Like, for instance, if you worship cattle, for instance, there's an illustration

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I gave, it was right out of the passage. The cattle die. Pharaoh was unmoved by that one. The sixth plague was the plague of boils.

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Pharaoh was unmoved by that one. The seventh plague is flaming hail. And Pharaoh, in response to that plague, promised release to the children of Israel, but then again he relented.

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Chapter, sorry, the plague number eight was the plague of locusts. And Pharaoh's response to that was a shallow repentance.

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And finally, the ninth plague was a darkness that encompassed the entire land. And Pharaoh gave them permission to leave, kind of, sort of.

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And by this point, you should be in Exodus chapter 10. Look at verse 21. Now keep in mind with each one of these that the children of Israel were supernaturally protected from all of those plagues.

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So God made a distinction between Israel and Egypt just in how he protected his own people from all of the judgments that fell upon the land of Egypt.

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Exodus chapter 10, verse 21, the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness which may be felt.

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So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days.

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But all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings. Then Pharaoh called to Moses and said, go serve the

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Lord, only let your flocks and your herds be detained. Now here's Pharaoh's sort of quasi -repentance, his quasi -acknowledgement that they could leave.

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Verse 24, Pharaoh called to Moses and said, go serve the Lord, only let your flocks and your herds be detained.

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You can leave, but you gotta leave all your stuff. Can't take anything with you. It's just you guys wander off into the wilderness.

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The thought being, obviously, they would wander off into the wilderness, maybe find some animals to sacrifice.

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They would get tired of wandering around with nothing and think, well, we might as well go back to Egypt. I mean, that's where all of our stuff is.

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Verse 25, but Moses said, you must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice them to the

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Lord our God. Therefore, our livestock too shall go with us. Not a hoof shall remain behind.

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For some reason, I love that phrase. Not a hoof shall be left behind, but we shall take some of them to serve the

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Lord our God. And until we arrive there, we ourselves do not know what we shall serve with what we shall serve the

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Lord. In other words, we gotta take all of our stuff because we don't know until we get out there what the Lord is going to require of us in terms of service and sacrifices.

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So we obviously can't go out into the wilderness without any animals, so we're gonna take all of our animals because we're gonna get out there, then the

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Lord will reveal to us what it is that he wants of us, and we will have all of our stuff to offer to the Lord. Verse 27, but the

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Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he was not willing to let them go. Now, here's the crisis.

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And here, I think, is the third option. Just to remind you, since it's been a while since we covered the first two options, there are two options, right?

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Moses leaving Midian and Moses leaving in the Exodus, neither of which I think fit the description in Hebrews chapter 11.

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We're all up to speed now because it's been a while, so if you're waking up now, you've missed all of that, here's the third option.

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I think it is this exchange at the end of chapter 10, the beginning of chapter 11, between Moses and Pharaoh, verse 28.

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Pharaoh said to him, get away from me. Beware, do not see my face again, for in the day you see my face, you shall die.

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Now, does that sound like Pharaoh's mad? Just a wee bit? He's mad? That's Pharaoh's wrath.

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Verse 29, Moses said, you're right, I shall never see your face again. Does it sound like Moses is afraid? Moses run out of there?

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Moses didn't run out of there. In fact, this heated exchange continues. I want you to ignore the chapter division because that's not in the original.

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The heated exchange continues in chapter 11. Chapter 11, verse one. Now, in chapter 11, the

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Lord reveals something to Moses, something to the children of Israel, and something to Pharaoh. Chapter 11, verse one, is the

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Lord speaking to Moses. The Lord said to Moses, one more plague I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here.

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When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here completely. Again, after this plague, this last and final plague of the killing of the firstborn,

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Pharaoh is not angry when he drives them out. He wants them to get out. Pharaoh's anger has just been expressed.

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Leave my presence. If I ever see you again, I will kill you. That's the threat. That's the wrath of the king.

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Then the Lord has something to reveal to the children of Israel. Here's the instructions for them. Verse two, speak now in the hearing of the people that each man ask from his neighbor and each woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and articles of gold.

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The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Now, up to this point, you might be asking yourself, why is it that Pharaoh just didn't kill

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Moses at any point along this whole story until now? The very first moment when

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Moses steps into the presence of Pharaoh and says, thus saith the Lord, let my people go, why didn't

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Pharaoh just right then say, you, take him out of here, kill him, deal with him, I don't want him anymore, get rid of this guy.

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Pharaoh's the most powerful man in the world. Why didn't Pharaoh kill Moses at that point or after the first plague or after the second plague or after the third plague, you see where this is going, or after the fourth plague or at any point up until now?

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The end of verse three is the answer to that. Furthermore, the man Moses himself was greatly esteemed in the land of Egypt, both in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people.

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So Pharaoh threatened Moses and Israel was embittered against Moses and it is

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Moses' esteem in the sight of the Egyptians that has kept Pharaoh from killing him,

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I think, up to this point. This becomes very politically unfeasible to get rid of Moses before now because Moses was esteemed by the people of Egypt and he was not esteemed by his own people, esteemed by the people of Egypt and esteemed by those in Pharaoh's court.

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Pharaoh, it's not politically expedient for him to kill Moses, he doesn't want to do that, so he has avoided doing that until this very moment when his wrath finally has reached a boiling point and he says to Moses, get out of my presence or I'm going to kill you.

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It would have seemed very reasonable for Pharaoh to kill Moses any point before this because remember, the children of Israel were mad at Moses, they didn't want him there.

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Earlier, they had said to him, the Lord judged you for doing this to us, now our burdens are more. So the

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Hebrews didn't want to follow him, the Hebrews didn't like Moses, they resented the fact that he was there. They would rather have their comfort and their slavery than discomfort and freedom and if you don't think that the natural inclination of the human heart is to desire comfortable slavery over uncomfortable freedom, you have not been paying attention to what is going on around us.

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This was the inclination of the children of Israel. They would rather have had Moses dead and out of there and had their slavery and at least some of the workload alleviated than to be free and to have to go through all this suffering to get it.

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That was been their natural inclination but Pharaoh would never have killed Moses up to this point simply because he was esteemed in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of all the people but now it has come to a point where killing him is the best option.

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Verse four, here's what Moses says to Pharaoh. Oh, one other thing before we get to verse four. There's another thing that is ironic here in this passage in light of what we've covered up in recent weeks.

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Remember, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing instead ill treatment with the people of God than the passing pleasures of sin and the treasures of Egypt, right?

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So notice at this point where Moses is at. He's at a place in his life where the people to whom he has sworn his allegiance and he has chosen to be his people, they have rejected him and the very people that he has rejected, they highly esteem him.

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That seems entirely backwards, doesn't it? The people that he has rejected esteem him, the people that he has embraced are rejecting him.

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I think there's a whole message to be preached there, not by me but by somebody else. Verse four, Moses said,

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Thus says the Lord, about midnight, I'm going out into the midst of Egypt and all the firstborn of the land of Egypt shall die from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones, all the firstborn of the cattle as well.

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Now this is what Moses is saying to Pharaoh, keep that in mind, you're gonna see that here in a moment. Moses is saying this to Pharaoh.

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Verse six, Moreover, there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before and such as shall never be again.

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But against any of the sons of Israel, a dog will not even bark, whether against man or beast, that you may understand how the

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Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. All these your servants will come down to me and bow themselves before me saying, go out you and all the people who follow you and after that I will go out.

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And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. Now that's an interesting exchange, isn't it? Lord revealed something to Moses, one more plague and after this you're out of here, revealed something to the children of Israel, ask everybody for silver and gold items, they're gonna give them to you.

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Israel ended up plundering the Egyptians and then to Pharaoh, Moses announces the judgment of God on Pharaoh and then announces to Pharaoh that he is leaving

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Egypt. This I think is the incident that the author of Hebrews has in mind. First of all, it fits the chronology of Hebrews chapter 11 because Moses here is leaving

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Egypt as it were, as he announces it to Pharaoh and leaves to pack his bags, that is a departure and a leaving.

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It fits the chronology of the passage in Hebrews chapter 11 because after this in chapter 11, they celebrate the

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Passover in chapter 12 and then they pass through the Red Sea. So it fits the chronology. Second, Moses faced

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Pharaoh's wrath without any fear. You'll notice what was Moses's temperament when he went out from Pharaoh at the end of verse eight.

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Hot anger, hot anger. So Moses stood in front of Pharaoh, Pharaoh gave him all of his wrath, you either see your face again,

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I'm gonna kill you and Moses stood up to that, was absolutely unflinching and unbending in the face of that, announced to Pharaoh the judgment that was going to come, announced to him what was gonna happen after this, when this happens, you're gonna drive us out, we're leaving, we're out of here and then

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Moses turns around, not fearful at all and walks out of there. Drops the mic, walks out of Pharaoh's court, never to be seen again as far as Moses is concerned.

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This is Moses, I think, leaving and this is the event that I think the author of Hebrews is describing. You could say that the reference to he left

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Egypt by faith in Hebrews chapter 11 refers to all of these events, right, the plagues, it could be just a blanket term to refer to that but it culminates in this exchange between Pharaoh and Moses, where Pharaoh now, the most murderous, bloodthirsty tyrant in the face of the planet, a man with unlimited power in terms of his, visibly what it would look like over Moses and the children of Israel, he's threatening

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Moses' life and Moses is absolutely undeterred by it. It is in faith that he stood up to Pharaoh's wrath.

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John Owen is the only commentator that I read who believes this and takes this incident as the incident that the author of Hebrews is describing and as I said,

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I think it answers all of the problems. It matches the chronology, it describes, it matches what is here in Hebrews chapter 11 and it seems to answer exactly what it is that the author of Hebrews is saying.

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After all of those incidences, Moses stood in front of Pharaoh and was absolutely unbending in the face of the king's wrath.

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Pharaoh's wrath was at its peak and Moses was unfearful in the least and he turned and he walked out and he said to Pharaoh, we're done here,

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I'm leaving, I'm packing my bags by this time tomorrow morning, your servants will be bowing down to me and begging us to leave, so bye -bye.

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That's what Pharaoh said, that's what Moses said. Absolutely unafraid in the presence of Pharaoh.

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Now turn back to the book of Hebrews because now with all of our time gone, we have to find out what the author of Hebrews says about this incident.

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Moses did not fear the wrath of the king, again chapter 11 verse 27. By faith he left

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Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, he endured to seeing him who is unseen. The most powerful man in the world was threatening

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Moses' life. Moses had no army, he had no armed militia, he had no armaments, all he had was a staff and every time he showed up in front of Pharaoh, he just had a wooden staff.

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That was all he came into Pharaoh's presence with each time and yet Pharaoh had an army at his disposal and Moses' courage in the face of that is notable.

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Moses' faith made him as bold as a lion in front of Pharaoh each and every time. God would tell

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Moses, you're gonna go and you're gonna announce the next plague and Moses would do so and Moses had these exchanges with Pharaoh, always never fearing for his life, always unbending and Moses left

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Pharaoh's presence in anger. Pharaoh was angry when Moses left and God had told

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Moses, look, you're not gonna die in the land of Egypt and here's where Moses' faith comes into play. Here's why

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Moses knew he could stand before Pharaoh and be unafraid for his life because God had said to Moses, I'm gonna use you to take the children of Israel out of here, you're going to stand before Pharaoh, you're going to announce to Pharaoh what he is going to do,

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I'm going to do signs and wonders in their midst after which they're gonna beg you to leave and you're going up from here, you are taking the entire nation out into the wilderness where you're gonna sacrifice to me and all of that is how this is going to unfold.

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Now Moses had no reason at all, no earthly reason at all to believe that any of that could happen.

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Moses had never seen any of those miracles. Moses had never seen any of those kinds of signs in his own life.

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Moses had never seen anything on that scale, all of that was unseen to Moses and yet he was convinced because he believed

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God's word, Moses was convinced, I'm not gonna die in Egypt. Why? Because God said I'm going out to the wilderness and that was it.

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If God said you're not gonna die in Egypt then there was no way that Moses would ever fear dying in Egypt. So he could stand in front of Pharaoh and Pharaoh could say, next time

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I see you, I'm gonna kill you. And Moses said, well I guess that means you're never gonna see me again because I'm not dying. I'm going out into the wilderness, the children of Israel, about this time tomorrow, all of us and our firstborn.

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And that's gonna be real powerful watching us walk out with all our firstborn while you're burying yours. That's how this is gonna go down.

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Moses was undeterred by Pharaoh's anger because Moses believed God's word that it would unfold exactly as God told him that it would unfold.

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So Psalm 27 verse one which we read earlier, the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? That question, let that ring in your mind.

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The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? A dementia patient who lives at 1600

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Pennsylvania Avenue, should we fear him? Should we fear the FBI, the CIA, the NSA? Should we fear the

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US military? Should we fear government agencies? Should we fear the Supreme Court? Who is there that we should fear?

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If the Lord is our light and our salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life, whom shall

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I dread? Psalm 118 verse six, the Lord is for me, I will not fear. What can man do to me?

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Fear is the devil's most powerful weapon. It is his most effective weapon and by it, that is by fear, the devil keeps us from exercising faith, from enjoying peace and joy and assurance.

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By faith, he handicaps our service to him. Sorry, by fear, he handicaps our service to him. By fear, he keeps us out of being fruitful in our own

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Christian life. And one of the most powerful types of fear is the fear of man, which all of us are tempted to fear man in some way or to some degree.

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Proverbs 29 verse 25, the fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted. All of the great, even the heroes of faith had moments in their lives when they feared men.

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Abraham feared men at times, that's why he lied about his wife Sarah. The children of Israel out in the wilderness when they were told to go in and spy out the land and they came back and the entire nation responded with the fear of man.

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Elijah, after slaying 450 prophets of Baal, he's overcome by the fear of man when some cackling herod in the palace says,

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I'm gonna kill you. And rather than responding in bold faith, Elijah himself begins to cower.

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Gideon was afraid, Joshua needed to be reminded, fear not, God is with you. Peter denied the

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Lord, Timothy was a bit fearful. And Paul had to remind Timothy that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

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So all of us are tempted to this fear of man, it manifests itself in hundreds and thousands of ways in our life, we're all tempted to it, but faith is the antidote.

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A resolute trust in the word of God and in his promises and in his presence, that is the answer to fear of every kind.

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So that faith and fear are mutually exclusive, which is why Moses' parents did not fear the edict of the king, but instead hid their son, trusting in God's providence to protect their son.

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It is by faith that Moses stood before Pharaoh and was undeterred because he did not fear the wrath of the king.

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There was nothing that Moses needed to fear. And because he saw who God was, and because he trusted in God's promises, and because he believed what

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God had said, Moses was absolutely full of faith and not fear. And he stood before the mightiest of the mighty, and he was unbending, unrelenting.

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Like Paul, you remember the examples in the book of Acts? Paul would stand first before the

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Sanhedrin, and then he stood before Felix, and then Festus, and then Agrippa, and then eventually Nero. Here was a man who stood in the presence of the mightiest men in the

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Roman Empire, in his region, the rulers, and he was absolutely bold and faithful in his explanation of the gospel and his defense of the truth, because he was not afraid of men.

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Notice this last phrase in verse 27, he endured as seeing him who was unseen. Endurance is not a new theme for us in the book of Hebrews.

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You remember at the end of chapter 10, the author, in that warning passage, is describing to them their own need for endurance.

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Chapter 10, verse 36, you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. The author looked at his audience and said, here's what you really need is endurance, to bear up and to endure under these trying times and these difficulties, and to do so in faith and not in fear.

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Chapter 11, verse 25, says Moses endured, chose to endure ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.

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And the word for endure or endurance, in chapter 10, verse 36, and chapter 11, verse 25, is a different word than the word used here in chapter 11, verse 27, when it says he endured as seeing him who was unseen.

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It's a different word with similar meanings. The meaning here has to do with the idea of the strength, the fortitude, the obstinacy, and the power of enduring or putting up with something.

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It's one thing to endure something in fear. We can endure something in weakness. We can endure something flinchingly and terrified, but it is another thing to endure something with an unflinching obstinacy, without becoming weary in it, with strength and power and fortitude, bearing all the evils that come upon us, and to do so with patience and strength and courage, unbending in strength is what is being described here.

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So Moses endured, that is, he was unflinching in it, and he put up underneath of it, he bore up under the wrath of the king he endured.

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Notice that phrase, as seeing him who was unseen. That phrase perfectly describes the definition of faith that we saw back in chapter 11, verse one.

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Faith is what? It is the conviction, it is the assurance of things, it is the conviction of things not seen.

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Moses was convinced of something that he had not seen. It says he endured as seeing him who was unseen, that is, as seeing

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God. And notice that the author does not say he endured as if seeing him who was unseen.

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That's different, by the way. He endured as if he saw one who was unseen, because if the author had said that, it would suggest that Moses endured almost as if he was able to see somebody who was unseen, even though he didn't see the one who was unseen.

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But instead, the author says he endured as seeing him who was unseen. And the author is intending there to call our minds back to chapter 11, verse one, where it describes the definition of faith.

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Moses endured, not because he pretended to see somebody who was unseen, but Moses endured because he actually saw, with the eyes of faith, a

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God who cannot be seen. In other words, in the life of Moses, God was as real and tangible to him as the wood of this pulpit is to you and me.

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There's no human capacity that makes that a reality. It is the gift of faith which makes that a reality.

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It is only by the gift of faith that Moses could endure, because he saw something, and the author is not speaking here of physical sight, but by faith,

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Moses saw something that is completely unseen. This is what faith does. We can go back to chapter 11, verse one.

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Listen to the explanation of that that we did a couple of months ago when we were in Hebrews chapter 11, verse one. That ability to see what is unseen, that ability to be convinced of what you hope for, something that you cannot touch, you cannot feel it, you cannot sense it with any of your five senses, but by faith, by that divine gift, you are actually able to see it as a tangible reality.

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And the idea is that Moses could stand in Pharaoh's presence and Pharaoh could come after him with all of that wrath and threaten to kill him, but Moses, with the eyes of faith, could look in that room and say,

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God is as real to me here in this room as Pharaoh is and as all of his army is.

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And so if God is on my side because I can apprehend him, almost like he is physically here with me, because faith gives me that capacity to trust that, then

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I can stand in the face of Pharaoh's wrath and be unbending and unflinching. Faith, by faith,

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Moses was assured of what he had not seen. He was convinced as a substance.

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He saw as a substance what he only hoped for. That is why he was able to stand before Pharaoh because he did so, endured as seeing him who is unseen.

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It's only the eye of faith that allows you to do that. And that is why faith is absolutely mutually exclusive with fear.

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Moses endured because he saw by faith a God who cannot be seen. He saw his power, he saw his promises, he saw his word, he saw his reward, he saw his future, he saw truth and reality, things that Pharaoh could not see.

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Moses, by the eye of faith, could see it and he felt it. And because God was present there with him, Moses was not fearful at all.

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To illustrate that, imagine for a moment that Moses was actually physically able to see the presence of God with his physical eyes.

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Do you think that Moses would have feared Pharaoh if he could just look over in the corner and see the angel of the

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Lord there with his flaming sword about ready to take Pharaoh's head off? Do you think Moses would have feared that? He would not have.

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So Moses' spiritual perception of those real, divine, spiritual truths was as real to him as if he physically saw with his eyes the angel of the

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Lord with a flaming sword. You and I need this kind of faith, this strong, resolute confidence in the word of God, and the only way that you can endure for God's glory, the only way that you can endure life's vicissude, no, whatever, life's trials and afflictions, the only way you're gonna be able to endure that is if you have this kind of faith that is unflinching in the face of the wrath of the king.

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The original audience to the Hebrews, by the way, they had many reasons to fear just as you and I do. They had the kings to fear.

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They had their own pharaohs. They had their own things that threatened their life, their well -being, their occupations, their families, their finances.

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They had all of the same realities that you and I face on a daily basis. They had people in their lives, unbelievers who threatened them and hated them and responded to their faith with vitriol and rejection and hostility.

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And so here's this reminder that Moses was able to stand before the most powerful of men and be absolutely full of faith.

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And the word of God is the very thing that strengthens that kind of faith, it informs our faith. How do you get that kind of faith?

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I'll tell you how you don't get it. You don't get it if your only diet and your only intake of scripture is Sunday mornings from 11 to 12.

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You can't have that kind of faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

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You say, oh, but Paul's talking about salvation there, right? He is talking about salvation, but is the faith that saves different than the faith that sanctifies?

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It's not. Is the faith that saves different than the faith that secures us? It's not. In fact, in Hebrews chapter 10, the author of Hebrews says, it is the just shall live by faith, not just that we are saved by faith, but we live by faith.

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And all of the examples in Hebrews chapter 11 are men who lived day by day and did these things by faith.

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How do you get faith? Faith comes when I hear the word of God, I study the word of God, I memorize the word of God, and my daily intake, my daily nutrition comes from the word of God.

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That creates that kind of faith. It sustains that kind of faith. It informs and energizes that kind of faith.

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And if you neglect the word of God, then your faith will shrivel up and shrink, and you will be full of fear. But the man who has

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God's word at the center of his heart and his mind and his life, through whom, through whose mind and through whose heart the word of God courses like the blood through his veins, that person has the kind of faith like Moses.

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And you can only be unbending and unyielding if you have the word of God at the center of your heart and your life like that.

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Otherwise, you will respond with fear every single time. Scripture is the food that feeds your faith.

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And without it, your faith will just collapse like a house of cards in a strong wind. Every time, because you have nothing to sustain it.

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You have nothing to create it, nothing to nurture it, nothing to base it upon. Because faith, after all, is taking

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God at his word. Where is his word? It's in Scripture. When you take God at his word and you believe what he has said, you have to know what he has said, you have to know what what he has said means, and you have to know how what he has said applies to your life.

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And when that is true, that will sustain and strengthen and undergird your faith. And it is then and only then that we can be like Moses and stand before the wrath of any king and say,

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I'm resolute and unbending. I will endure as seeing him who is unseen. Let's bow our heads. Our Father, we are grateful for your grace and your mercy to us in Christ.

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We are thankful for the faith that is ours, not because we have done anything to deserve this great gift, but because you, by your grace, have granted it to those who are yours.

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We pray that you would strengthen our faith and strengthen our resolve to feed our own faith through your word. We pray that you would give to us a confidence in your promises and in your presence, and that you would help us by faith in all of our lives to see you who is unseen.

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Unseen to the physical eye, but manifest to the eye of faith, that we may behold you, that is our desire, and we pray that you would strengthen our faith to that end.

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We pray in Christ's name, amen. Amen. Amen.