“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and chose to suffer with the people of God rather than to enjoy the short-lived pleasure of sin” (Hebrews 11:24-25 HCSB).
Moses’ decision to leave the security and privilege of Egyptian royalty led to several consequences. For instance, the Biblical account of Moses’ life reveals that he was a man who suffered a great deal. In Moses, we also find someone who was clearly apprehensive about following God’s direction at one point in his life.
In addition, Moses repeatedly faced large groups of unappreciative people who turned against his leadership. Even after Moses stood against Pharaoh, the most powerful political authority of his day and worked to lead the people out of Egyptian servitude, many of them responded in the following manner…
“They also complained to Moses, ‘Wasn’t there enough room in Egypt to bury us? Is that why you brought us out here to die in the desert? Why did you bring us out of Egypt anyway? While we were there, didn’t we tell you to leave us alone? We’d rather be slaves in Egypt than die in this desert!'” (Exodus 14:11-12 CEV, see also Exodus 16:1-3, Exodus 17:1-2, Numbers 14:1-4, Numbers 16:1-3, Numbers 16:41, Numbers 20:1-5, and Numbers 21:4-5).
Nevertheless, Hebrews 11:24-25 tells us that Moses faithfully accepted mistreatment along with the people of God and renounced the fleeting pleasure that sin might bring for a while. Moses could have taken an easier road, but he chose to follow God by faith instead. Because of this, God has honored Moses with a place among the other heroes of the faith mentioned here in Hebrews chapter eleven.
This has led one source to make the following observation…
“In his adult years [Moses] made his choice; he would not hide his true nationality to win a few short years of earthly fame. The result? Instead of occupying a line or two of hieroglyphics on some obscure tomb, he is memorialized in God’s eternal Book. Instead of being found in a museum as an Egyptian mummy, he is famous as a man of God.” (1)
We will complete our look at this passage by starting where we began this portion of our study. From a human perspective, none of these events from Moses’ life would have occurred if his birth mother had not made the faithful decision to trust God for his protection when she set him afloat in the Nile River as an infant. That decision led to a series of positive consequences that continue to this day.
Moses’ birth mother saw him as someone worth saving. Thus, her example should prompt us to prayerfully consider what God might do with the investments we make in others today.
(1) William Macdonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary Edited by Arthur Farstad, Thomas Nelson Publishers [pg. 2199].