“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.” (Hebrews 11:24-28)
These five verses cover more than 40 years of Moses’ life, so there’s no point in trying to comment on everything included here. But let’s begin by noting what the Believer’s Bible Commentary calls three “noble renunciations.”[1]
First, Moses “refused Egypt’s fame.”[2] Most of us probably don’t have any idea what Moses was giving up. For some insight we must go to extrabiblical sources. In their John’s Gospel, Hebrews-Revelation commentary, Craig Evans and Craig Bubeck quote from Josephus and Philo:
“During the intertestamental period, the tradition developed that Moses was not only an honored prince of Egypt, but as the heir apparent to the throne. In one tradition, Pharaoh’s daughter presented Moses to Pharaoh with these words: ‘I have brought up a child who is of divine form, and of a generous mind.… I thought proper to adopt him for my son and the heir of thy kingdom’ (Josephus, Ant. 2.9.7 §232–234). Philo (Vita Mos. 1.13) also describes Moses as the only male heir to Pharaoh’s throne.”[3]
So, Moses was, at least potentially, giving up a lot. But in doing so, he makes that second noble renunciation when he chooses mistreatment in solidarity with his people. As Evans and Bubeck put it, “Moses, then, renounces a place of highest esteem in the eyes of the world, preferring a lower status in this world as long as it means being connected to God’s people and the promised rewards of God.”[4]
We might pause to think about all the good Moses could potentially have done for his people as a high-ranking official in Egypt. After all, think of all that Joseph did to preserve his family. But there’s a higher priority, a higher call, if you will, in play here. F. F. Bruce says,
“The privileges and advantages which are attached to high rank and political power are not sinful in themselves; they can indeed be used very effectively to promote the well-being of others and to help the underprivileged. Moses might have argued to himself that he could do much more for the Israelites by remaining in Pharaoh’s court and using his influence there on their behalf.... But for Moses to do this, when once he had seen the path of duty clear before him, would have been sin—the crowning sin of apostasy, against which the recipients of this letter [Hebrews] required so insistently to be warned.”[5]
The third noble renunciation involves giving up the pleasures and treasures of Egypt (verse 26), because he knew there was a greater reward ahead. How aware was Moses of what that reward might be? We are not really given much information to form a conclusion. But we can at least assume he was thinking of taking possession (finally!) of that land that God had promised to His people. How much better to be free in Canaan than to be in bondage in Egypt?
Of course, there was, as the saying goes, “many a slip between the cup and the lip”! First, Moses was forced to flee Egypt after he killed a man, spending the next 40 years in the wilderness before he would return to actually lead his people out of Egypt. But the time in the wilderness was not wasted. He was learning valuable lessons about himself, and about the “I AM” who would guide and direct his way, and help him endure challenges from Pharaoh and from his own cantankerous people along the way.
F. F. Bruce, who believes the “leaving” in verse 27 refers to Moses’ flight from Egypt into the wilderness, says, nevertheless, “As for Moses’ endurance, ‘seeing him who is invisible,’ this need not be taken as a specific allusion to the burning bush, but to the fact that Moses paid more attention to the Invisible King of kings than to the king of Egypt.”[6]
Another commentator, Douglas Mangum, leans toward the “leaving” as a reference to the exodus. He says, “Most certainly the author is aware of Moses’ fearfulness in departing Egypt earlier in his life (e.g., Exod. 2:14). The main point the author is making here pertains again to confidence in what, or whom, is unseen. Moses believed as if the invisible one were visible.”[7]
Donald Guthrie comments on Moses’ courage in leading his people out of Egypt at the exodus: “A spiritual explanation is given for Moses’ courage: for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. The eye of faith can see what is invisible to the eyes of others. Moses, in all the wanderings in the wilderness, was conscious of God’s presence in a remarkable way (cf. Exod. 33; Num. 12:7–8). The writer traces the secret of his endurance to a source beyond himself, which his opponents never even knew existed.”[8]
And now we come to verse 28, “By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.”
Have you ever stopped to think how odd this instruction must have been not only to Moses but to the Israelites? The Expositor’s Bible Commentary puts it like this: “Nothing in the previous experience of either Moses or the Israelites justified putting blood above the doors.”[9] In hindsight, of course, we see how this pointed forward to the death of Jesus who shed His own blood to redeem us from the death penalty we so richly deserve. But the Israelites could not have known, or even dreamed, that. It must have taken a great deal of faith on their part, perhaps bolstered by how they had seen God working in Moses, to prompt them to act—by faith—as Moses relayed God’s command to them.
Today, looking back, we see the rich message of grace here. As Donald Guthrie explains,
“The Passover occupied a place of considerable significance for the Jewish mind and came to have an even greater meaning for Christians because it was so closely linked with the passion of Jesus (cf. 1 Cor. 5:7). It was naturally an event of historic importance when the original passover was instituted. It centred in the faith of Moses, according to this writer. It was essentially performed in faith because the sprinkling of blood did not appear as a logical means of warding off the angel of death.”[10]
The Passover which was instituted by Moses has endured throughout the centuries, and we still celebrate it today. Most especially we celebrate Passover at Easter when we remember its fulfillment in the sacrifice of Jesus, the ultimate Passover Lamb.