Hebrews 11:24

"When he came of age." Had an appointed time arrived in God's purpose? I think so. He was 40 when he did this. And there are, again, things that we need to consider in light of what he did—because there was probably nobody in the history of mankind who ever gave up so much in the way of material well-being as Moses.

First of all, he did what he did in the full maturity of his natural powers. He was not any kid. He was one of the best-educated people of the world in his day. Besides that, he was a man that had a great deal of natural ability to go along with those things. But he did what he did in the full maturity of his powers.

Moses here began to show some of the deliberate resolve that would later become of such great importance. This has to be seen. What he did was really impressive when you consider what you have had to give up in comparison to what Moses had to walk away from. You think that there were not people telling Moses, "You are dumb. You are stupid. You are idiotic. You are walking away from all this wealth, all this pleasure, all this honor, all this praise? You are going to walk away from this and you are going to go live in a hut? You are going to go to the brickyards? You are going to associate with slaves?"

You had better believe that he had the pressure put on him by his peers. You had better believe that he had the pressure put on him by his Egyptian family. They would have been thunderstruck that anybody could do something like that. "He must have gone crazy." "You are out of your tree, Moses." [Consider] all of the scorn that would have been heaped on him. I doubt very much if any of us had to take anything like he had to take. Everybody in the court would have been buzzing, and his name would have been mud. But he thought it all through, and he was committing himself to something.

Moses could not do what he did hidden in a corner. You just cannot help but be impressed with what Moses had to do. Remember that he did this in the full maturity of his powers. How much of life had he been witness to—from the top to the bottom? Warfare. As a statesman, he had been involved in their Parliament, or whatever it was that they had that was the equivalent of it. Who knows how many cases he must have argued, you might say, before the Pharaoh, or before their Parliament, or whatever. "Let us do this, instead of that."

It would seem as though he had everything to lose and absolutely nothing to gain by what he chose to do. He did this when Israel's fortunes were even lower than when Moses was born. It was even worse than it was before. And yet he still did it. He counted these things that he had within his grasp as nothing. That is what it says right here. He took the yoke, and he went on.

Now think of this. He was 40 years old. He was in the prime of his manhood. He was only one-third of the way through his life. I mean all the juices were flowing through him. He was at the time when the pleasures of sin that are mentioned here in the Book would have been their most tempting. Temptation has no power at all if it is not pleasurable—pleasurable to the eye, pleasurable to the ear, pleasurable to the mouth, pleasurable to the taste, pleasurable to the touch. And he did this coming from a court, from an environment, where purity and chastity must have been unknown. The Egyptians do not have a good record for chastity. That is a historical fact.

Do not forget this: The thought that led Moses to do what he did was by faith. Faith rests upon God's promise. Because God has said it, it is as good as done. Moses was convicted that God said He was going to release His people in the 4^th generation, and it was the 4^th generation. God would not fail. He believed it. He was convicted. And he put everything on the line. It was not a preference. Moses cherished a fervent belief that from the ranks of Israel, God would raise up a deliverer. He believed that there was a destiny awaiting the chosen … . . .

Hebrews 11:24-25

But look at Hebrews 11:24-25. It is an interesting lesson here:

Sin is appealing and it is pleasurable for a while as well. Moses showed us that a man can turn his back on fun even when the pressure against turning is almost to the point of being overwhelming because of the promise that seems to be there. The promise of power, the promise of riches, and all that those things will afford to us.

I know that I have thought from time to time that Moses, probably in a material way, gave up more than any single person ever in the history of this earth (if we want to exclude Christ). Maybe the only other one who came close was Abraham, but he turned his back on it, did he not? He was a well-educated intellectual, a leader, and he knew what power could do, he knew what money could do, but he walked away from it.

Sin appears to be pleasurable and to give one a sense of power, but if something is going to be pleasurable and fun it always has to be pleasurable and fun. And Moses knew that the pleasure and fun, the power, the wealth that Egypt would give him would only last until he died or until Egypt came under the heel, was subjugated by, another nation. Now you see what happens is that sin has a catch to it and it turns out to be either a useless vanity or exceedingly painful.

Hebrews 11:23-29

In that span of verses, faith is mentioned in relation to Moses five different times—two times indirectly in association either with his parents or with Israel (his parents when he was born, and Israel as they passed through the Sea). And even in going through the Sea, I think if we would look there in Exodus, we would find that most of the faith there was on Moses' part and not the Israelites. They were all shook up. But they did walk between the walls of water in a measure of faith, and so they are included here. However, Moses was the one who really had the faith. So we might raise that to four different times.