CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Hebrews 11:23. Proper child.—Goodly child; unusual for beauty and signs of intelligence; ἀστεῖον, goodly, fair, beautiful (Acts 7:20, “fair to God”).
Hebrews 11:24. Refused to be called.—This is based wholly on Jewish legends.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Hebrews 11:23-29
The Faith of Moses.—These verses cover and include all the references which this writer thinks it necessary to make to Moses. In comparison with the notices of other great men the reference to Moses is long and various, and this would be regarded as befitting by those who held Moses in almost supreme honour. There are illustrations of the practical power of faith in four distinct sets of relations.
I. The faith that could be disobedient.—Not to God, but to man, in loyalty to God. Often in life the expedient becomes a temptation to us. The will of those in authority over us may conflict with the will of God. Then the expedient is to keep straight with the human authority and risk offending God. In presence of that conflict faith gives the man power to disobey the local authority in order to obey the supreme Authority. This conflict appears—
1. In the case of the parents of Moses. Faith enabled them to disobey the command of the Pharaoh, and scheme to secure the life of their child. It is plain that there was more than parental love guiding their conduct. There was some inward witness, some word of God which they recognised as such, indicating that the child was sent for some Divine mission. Only motherly faith could persistently, and heedless of all peril, carry through such a scheme of disobedience.
2. In the case of Moses’ disobedience to his foster-mother. “He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” What but faith in God’s mission for him could have led to such a resolve—a resolve which, from all human points of view, was utterly unreasonable! It costs a man much to break away from the destiny that is arranged for him; he never can do it save as he believes in some other destiny that God has for him. Why it should be said that Moses “esteemed the reproach of Christ” does not readily appear. What the writer had in mind is difficult to trace. Perhaps he meant “the same reproach that Christ endured”—the reproach that comes when a man persists in doing the will of God as he knows it. That certainly was the mind of Moses at this time. He was quite sure that it was not the will of God that he should become an Egyptian prince, and his faith enabled him to bear the reproach of disobedience. It may be a power to help us in some of the grave perplexities of life to remember that faith in God can be—it has been—an inspiration of disobedience to man. Illustrate the martyrs.
II. Faith that can endure.—It is hardly possible to conceive a more burdened and anxious life than that which Moses lived. He had times of personal peril, but they are of far less importance than the constant strain upon feeling involved in leading the people, and mediating between them and God. The word “endure” is admirably chosen. Faith enabled Moses to keep on, and push through, and bear all—faith the inspiration of “patient continuance in well-doing.”
III. Faith that can meet great occasions.—Life is mainly commonplace and routine; but every life has its surprises, and occasions when supreme demands are made upon it. Such times came to Moses at the burning bush, Mount Sinai, and when smiting the rock for water. Faith helped; lost faith meant failure. The writer here mentions the climax of the visitation on Egypt, when with the unquestioning faith of an immediate deliverance, Moses made the people “keep the Passover.”
IV. Faith that can do the seemingly impossible.—Moses believed the word of God which ordered him to turn out of the route toward Canaan, and go down by the shores of the Red Sea. It was a strange command, wholly beyond man’s comprehension. That way they could neither get to Canaan, nor get to the desert of Sinai. Every step put a wider stretch of water between them and the land where they would be. Faith triumphed unto obedience, and faith was vindicated by so glorious a Divine deliverance as stamped once and for ever the supreme relations of Jehovah as God of the people Israel. That which is impossible with men is possible with God; and possible it becomes to man when he has such faith in God as Moses had.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Hebrews 11:24. Choice revealing Character.—There is no better sign of character than the manner in which a man makes a serious decision. It is something that
(1) he estimates the seriousness;
(2) that he considers before deciding;
(3) that he is capable of judging the value of considerations;
(4) that he judges in the light of duty rather than of pleasure, and of the future rather than the present.
Hebrews 11:24-26. The Choice of Moses.—It has been said: “Biography is a feeble struggle with death. It is an attempt to retain something of the man, his spirit and manner of thinking and feeling, that he being dead may yet speak.” In this temple of Jewish worthies, whose faith is recorded for our example, Moses occupies a conspicuous niche.
I. The choice of Moses.—The world placed before him its very best, and religion placed before him its very worst; and between the best of the world and the worst of religion he was called upon to make his choice.
1. What the world placed before him.
(1) Honour—that of being the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
(2) Pleasures—the pleasures of sin, sensational and unhealthy mental excitement. Such pleasures of sin are, however, only for a season; and there are pains of sin as well as pleasures.
(3) Wealth—the treasures of Egypt. The three things which men so eagerly pursue, any one of which is deemed by the world a great inheritance, were all placed at the feet of Jesus.
2. What religion set before him. It came to him in its meekest, saddest guise, and placed before him—(a) Affliction. If Moses espoused the cause of the people of God, he must be prepared to share their burdens and endure their trials. (b) The reproach of Christ; or such reproach as Christ endured, such as always attaches to spiritual religion.
II. There is a sense in which we may have to make a choice as Moses had.—
1. In relation to our position in life.
2. In relation to companions and society.
3. In relation to the concerns, and some of the minutest acts, of our daily life. What was it that influenced Moses in making his good choice—faith. Such a choice has its reward in this world. “A mind conscious of rectitude is its own reward.” Our religion brings to us now its own reward. And it has also a recompense in the world to come.—Absalom Clark.
Hebrews 11:27. The “Endurance” of Faith.—This verse gives the key to the long, anxious, heroic life that Moses lived. “Endured” is the proper word. His life was full of difficulties. Circumstances seemed to be always against him, and he could not do the things that he would. He was always set under limitations; and out of the constant “bearing” and “enduring” of his daily life he came to be the meekest, most self-denying, least personally ambitious of all men who have ever lived. The secret of his wonderful power of endurance was his “seeing the invisible”—a vision which, in his earlier days, was simply the sight of the soul-eyes which we call “faith.” Afterwards it gained surprising help through symbols, and the sound of a heavenly voice. But, better than all visions, there was a heart-realisation, a soul-vision, which kept the invisible God ever closely near, and made him regard as an agony unspeakable the bare possibility that God’s presence would not go with him. What can we learn from the secret of Moses?
I. Life for us all is enduring.—It is for all who feel their nobility, who cannot regard life as man’s play-hour, who understand that man is set in the midst of disability, because the supreme purpose of God concerning him is his moral culture. It is for all who feel themselves to be above circumstances, and refuse to be mere waifs and strays, driven hither and thither with every wind, and tossed. In the morning outlook of life it seems to be all enjoying. Wonderful is the hopefulness of youth. But as years pass on the reality proves other than our dream. Soon we have to say that life is not all enjoying; it is enduring. Things will not be according to our mind. Circumstances are against us. Relationships are trying. And yet we know that we are bigger than life.
1. Can we endure the things that are, just as they exactly are?
2. Can we endure that which we ourselves are?
3. Can we endure those precise conditions under which God deals with us? It is not, Can we submit? It is, Can we endure? Can we keep on through it all, holding fast faith, never faltering, hoping on, working on, making love and loyalty master all disasters, all disabilities, and winning virtue out of woe. The endurance of Moses was self-restraint to win power to serve God and man.
II. Life for us all may have a Divine presence.—Man, and God with him, is the great mystery of the Creation. This is the idea of the theocracy—a nation, and God with it. Prophets spoke with authority, because they were men having God with them. Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us. The Holy Ghost is God making His abode in man.
1. There is the presence of God as providence.
2. There is the thought of God’s fatherly care.
3. But there is something higher and better—the sense of God’s presence, which is a special revelation to the Christian heart. Do men say of the Christian, “He is only a man”? He should let them know, he should make them feel, that he is not just a man, but a man having God with him—a man who has the invisible One so near that he can always see Him.
III. Life for us all may be glorified by this Divine presence.—
1. It makes life very serious. It is a solemnising influence. We have One with us everywhere who is grieved with wrong, who wants everything to bear the stamp of the holy.
2. It keeps before us high aims: not merely human ones, but those that God has for us, such as God may inspire us to attain.
3. It brings a consciousness of ability, so that we say with St. Paul, “I can do all things through Him which strengtheneth me.”
4. And it satisfies us concerning the future. It is enough; here God is with us; then surely there we shall be with God. This verse has been rendered, “He was stedfast towards Him who is invisible, as if seeing Him.”
The Invisible God.—Note—
1. The God with whom we have to do is an invisible God. He is so to our senses, to the eye of the body; and this shows the folly of those who pretend to make images of God, whom no man hath seen, nor can see.
2. By faith we may see the invisible God. We may be fully assured of His existence, of His providence, and of His gracious and powerful presence with us.
3. Such a sight will enable believers to endure to the end whatever they may meet with in the way.—Matthew Henry.
Seeing the Invisible God.
I. Consider the invisibility of God.—This is one of the negative attributes of God. Unchangeableness, unsearchableness, irresistibleness, invisibility, are all negative attributes of God. And we require such negative conceptions to assist our idea of an absolute, infinite, all-perfect Being. Job’s familiar words really mean this: “I cannot in any way penetrate the dark mantle of His invisibility” (Job 11:7). See also Deuteronomy 4:12; Deuteronomy 4:15; 1 Timothy 6:15-16. The same truth is implied when our Saviour teaches that “God is a spirit.” We are perfect, in relative creature perfection, with our bodies, not without them. But the perfection of a creature must be, in some points (and this is one of them), in direct contrast with the perfection of the Creator. He is not seen, because He is perfect. Because He will always be perfect, He will never be seen. Ten thousand happy souls do indeed see His face day by day. But what soul has ever seen His form? What form hath He to be seen? The fruits and traces of His perfections are seen in all His works, but He Himself is seen nowhere. In saying this we are of course remembering “God manifest in the flesh,” and the elevation of the visible humanity into the heavens in the person of Jesus Christ. But if it should be that our Lord will always, through eternity, retain His glorified humanity in heaven, and be seen in that, and beloved and worshipped in that, the question still is, What will be seen? The spiritual essence, the infinite power and presence of God, will still be deep within, quite beyond, high above, far away. What I can see can never be a portion to my immortal soul; a spiritual substance requires a spiritual portion; the child-spirits need the Father of spirits. It is the grand discovery of the Scriptures, and the good message of salvation, that God only is good enough for man. Spirit for spirit—Creator for creature—the Invisible for the visible. We have never seen our own souls; we shall never see their portion.
II. The seeing of the invisible God.—Moses really did see God by soul-sight, or, as we say, by faith. He believed in His actual presence in the world, in human life, in human affairs. He believed that He would be with him, according to His express promise, to cheer his heart, to guide his way, and to confirm his work to the end. He not only believed in God’s presence with him, but he relied on His strength. God’s presence was to him an actual power, on which he could lean. There is no use to us in this example of Moses if it is exceptional. His duties and his whole career were high and singular, but his sight of the invisible God was the same act of the soul by which all the faithful in the camp, however humble, were sustained, by which the faithful in every age have lived and triumphed. And at this day what we have to do is just to observe the Presence that is always near, and lean upon the arm that never faints. Then we shall “endure.”
(1) We shall endure when all that is visible threatens;
(2) when all that is visible allures;
(3) when everything visible decays, changes, passes away.—Alexander Raleigh, D.D.
The Christian Way of seeing God.—It is a full and exhaustive definition of Christ’s salvation to designate it—the Christian way of seeing God. For what is religious salvation but the perfect vision of God, the perfect restoration of man to God, the perfect enjoyment by man of God?” We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.” Not a distant glimpse of God, a trembling touch, a casual break in the dark firmament of life; but a full, unclouded manifestation, a Divine Pleroma, the true Pantheism. Not the old Oriental Nirvâna, our human personality lost in Deity, put out like a flame in the light of the meridian sun; but our true and perfect spiritual individuality, filled with the light, the life, the inspiration, of God.—H. Allon, D.D.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 11
Hebrews 11:24-25. Decision of Character.—The man will not re-examine his conclusions with endless repetition, and he will not be delayed long by consulting other persons, after he has ceased to consult himself. He cannot bear to sit still among unexecuted decisions and unattempted projects. We wait to hear of his achievements, and are confident we shall not wait long. The possibility or the means may not be obvious to us, but we know that everything will be attempted, and that a spirit of such determined will is like a river, which, in whatever manner it may be obstructed, will make its way somewhere. It must have cost Cæsar many anxious hours of deliberation before he decided to pass the Rubicon; but it is probable he suffered but few to elapse between the decision and the execution. And any one of his friends who should have been apprised of his determination, and understood his character, would have smiled contemptuously to hear it insinuated that, though Cæsar had resolved, Cæsar would not dare; or that though he might cross the Rubicon, whose opposite bank presented to him no hostile legions, he might come to other rivers which he would not cross; or that either rivers or any other obstacles would deter him from prosecuting his determination from this ominous commencement to its very last consequence.—John Foster.
Hebrews 11:26. The Reproach of Christ.—A curious discovery has been made in Rome. It is a rude caricature scratched on the ruined wall of the Prætorian barracks, representing a man worshipping another man hanging on a cross, the crucified figure being drawn with the head of an ass, and the words roughly written beneath, “Alexamenos worships God,” i.e. in effect, “See what a god Alexamenos worships!” Revolting and hideous as this caricature is, it is deeply interesting as a specimen of the ribald jests to which a Christian soldier was exposed, and also most valuable as a proof that the early Church believed in the Deity of Christ. A woodcut copy of this strange drawing will be found in Macduff’s St. Paul at Rome, p. 225. Genuine faith influences us to deny ourselves, to renounce the world, to cherish holiness, to bear reproach, and to look beyond the present scene to the world of light and eternal glory. Such an effect will be produced, more or less, on all who possess this Divine grace. The Marquis of Vico, in Italy, when he was come to years, and to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, refused to be called the son and heir to a marquis, a cupbearer to an emperor, and nephew to a pope, and chose rather to suffer affliction, persecution, banishment, loss of lands, living, wife, children, honours, and preferments, than to enjoy the sinful pleasures of Italy for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the honours of the most brilliant connection, and all the enjoyments of the most ample fortune; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
The True Riches.—Elizabeth Christina, Queen of Prussia, was speaking one day to the little daughter of her gardener, and was greatly pleased with the wisdom and gentleness of the child. Some time after, as the queen was about to sit down with her ladies at table, the child was brought in, and the queen ordered her to sit beside her. The queen was curious to see what impression the gold and silver and bright ornaments would make on the little girl. She looked round in silence and astonishment; at last she folded her tiny hands, and said, with a clear voice,—
“Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, and glorious dress;
Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.”
The ladies were deeply moved. “Oh the happy child!” one of them exclaimed to the queen, “how high she is above us!”