MOSES REFUSING, CHOOSING AND ESTEEMING
I would like to refer to the passage in Hebrews 11: 23-26 (Darby Translation). There is one great issue in Christianity, namely, affection for the Lord Jesus Christ. “If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha”. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed at the coming of the Lord. I assume that you have affection for the Lord Jesus Christ, and I am sure of this, that things here are so arranged as to really put us to the test as to our affection for Him.
In Hebrews 11 it says as to Moses, “By faith”. Prior to Moses’ own faith there was the faith of his parents. It is a beautiful case; I do not know how to put it more simply than to say that Moses was a child of faith from the very beginning. He was no sooner born than the faith of his parents took account of him. To Amram and Jochebed, his wife, he was the child beautiful in his birth. They looked at him, and their eyes kindled with a gleam of light and joy; they said, as it were, ‘How beautiful!’ Then their faith came into exercise, and he was hidden for three months.
In the history in the beginning of Exodus it is attributed to his mother, but Hebrews 11 says, “his parents”. He was hidden for three months, and then the little ark was prepared, and Moses was placed in the ark, and the ark was placed at the edge of the river Nile and committed in faith to God.
It is a very simple thing to say faith has to do with God, and very often, as in this case, apparently in the very face of the most adverse circumstances. There was the decree from the lips of Pharaoh in regard to the male children of the Israelites, but Moses was put in the ark of bulrushes and laid on the edge of the river, and his sister was appointed to keep her eye upon him, and he was committed to God.
I want to come to what is pressing upon my heart; that is, as to Moses’ faith. It says, “By faith Moses”. In our King James Version it says, “when he came to years”, but the Darby Translation says, “when he had become great”. Some people become great by dint of their own effort and by sheer perseverance. It was not so with Moses, he became great providentially. ‘God moves in a mysterious way’. Moses became great—he was the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, and he was a mighty man and a learned man; he stood high in the councils of that mighty empire. “By faith Moses, when he had become great”.
I think he might have said to himself one day, ‘I have had a wonderful history—it is wonderful how God has interfered in my life providentially. Here I am, the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; I am a learned man, I am a great man, and I am going to use my position for God and the people of God’.
Some of us pat ourselves on the back in that way, and give ourselves credit for an immense amount of what is good, but when Moses became great he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. What do you think of that? That is faith!
What about your history spiritually? Has anything taken place in your history since you were converted that answers to what Moses did? He “refused to be called son of Pharaoh’s daughter”. My beloved friends, he made an abrupt, clean cut with this world. Have you?
It says in Galatians 5: 6, “faith working through love”. Oh! does faith work by love? Do you mean to say that love sets it going? Faith works by love. People say, ‘The idea of calling any person’s Christianity in question; I would never do such an ungracious thing, I would never think of it’. Are you having a ‘day off’ spiritually? Excuse me, faith works by love. There was faith in Moses, but it came into operation. “By faith Moses, when he had become great”. A good many of us perhaps know what it is to get stirred up when everything goes against us here. Oh! yes, we all know something about that, but what about it in the case of Moses? He had become great. You say, ‘Oh! my business is doing well, I am succeeding in all my undertakings and prospering, so you see what a good man I must be, God is so good to me. I have made such a lot of money’. There is something wonderful about faith. It is striking in Moses’ case. Has it been striking in your case? “By faith Moses, when he had become great, refused to be called son of Pharaoh’s daughter”. I say, has anything happened in your spiritual history like that? Do not think I am calling your Christianity in question. Oh no, beloved friends, I would not think of doing it. But look, have you made a definite break with the world? Where are you?
I must go a little further. “By faith Moses, when he had become great, refused to be called son of Pharaoh’s daughter”. Listen! There is the refusing and the choosing. What about you? Has there been the refusing, and has there been the choosing? What have you chosen? There was the definite, distinct refusing, but there was the definite, distinct choosing. “Choosing rather to suffer affliction”. In a little corner by himself? No: “along with the people of God”. Has God got a people on the earth to-day?
Have you refused? And then, has there been the choosing? “Choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God”. Have I touched you, my dear friend? I hope I have. If it is a tender point with you, I hope the Lord will touch it by what I am saying. We have been converted, and we have believed on the Lord Jesus—we have, in a sense, confessed the Lord. What about the refusing and the choosing? Where are you? Oh! beloved friends, that was a wonderful step of faith on the part of Moses. It was wonderful to refuse, and especially when we see what he refused. He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. But when we come to his choosing, what did he choose? “Choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God”. Who were the people of God at that time? A lot of despised and oppressed slaves! But they were God’s people. It is a serious question for some as to their present position in relation to the people of God. What is your present position in relation to them? Moses in the first place turned his back on the world in a very striking way—an unmistakable way. He “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter”, and then he went into fellowship with the people of God. The Holy Ghost says so. “Choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God”. Are you “along with the people of God”? It is a serious question. Somebody may say: ‘This question of Christian fellowship is a very perplexing one’. I have been a Christian forty-six years, and it has become as simple as A B C to me. I have not any trouble as to fellowship with the people of God. Beloved, how is it that it is so difficult with some of you? There is a screw loose somewhere. God has got a people, and if faith is acting in the soul, as it acted in the soul of Moses, you will find a plain path. Some may think it is pretension or assumption, but I can say soberly, if I was not clear about the people of God, I would not sleep again, or eat again, until I was clear. It meant something for Moses, and I presume it has meant something for a good many of us. Yes, it is a real thing, “Choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin”.
Now we must go a little further. “Esteeming the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect to the recompense”. My point is this: we have had the refusing, and we have had the choosing, but we have got the esteeming now. “Esteeming the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect to the recompense”. It is all very wonderfully put in scripture. All the reproach for four thousand years before Christ came, and all the reproach while He was here and since He has gone back to heaven. I think there is a reason for that. There is a very interesting scripture, Christ is speaking Himself, in spirit, and He says to Jehovah, “the reproaches of them that reproach thee [Jehovah] have fallen upon me”, Ps 69: 9. That was what He did when He came here: He took up every issue there was in which God was involved, He took up every one, and He bore the reproach.
Moses went and identified himself with a lot of slaves in Egypt, and the Holy Ghost says that was the reproach of Christ. “Esteeming the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt”. Have you got on in the world? Moses got on well; he got on, as men say, splendidly. You may say God had providentially led him. Some people are great on providential leading; I wish we were as great on the actings of faith. Where providence may make you great and set you up, faith will take you clean out. Moses refused to be great, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
What about the refusing? These are dangerous days. Why, the profession of Christianity has become respectable in the world, and it is supposed to be compatible with being a Christian to achieve success in the world. All this makes it very dangerous. I remember a man years ago who came to Illinois State, and he rented about forty acres of land and farmed in a small way. Every one who knew him at that time said he was a most devoted Christian. He began to succeed, and I suppose when I knew him he owned some three thousand acres of land and had one hundred thousand dollars to his name in the bank—the richest man in that part of the country and thoroughly worldly. He got swallowed up in the things of the world.
The Lord knows how to touch our hearts. We are in danger of these things. It is only safe to be like Moses, a clean break. “Refused to be called son of Pharaoh’s daughter”. And then: “Choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God ... esteeming the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect to the recompense”.
Perhaps I am speaking to some who are children of Christian parents. Where are you? Is your life marked so that people who know you intimately can say of you, ‘There is some one who has made a clean break with the world’? And then: “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God”, &c. Some of you young people little know what pain you give us. Of course we believe that you are Christians, but it is uphill work to see the position you stand in. Some of you say, ‘I do not quite see my way to identify myself’. You have not seen your way to choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God. Are you going to do as Moses did: “choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God”? Oh, make the break! No matter what it costs, let it go, and decide for God and for Christ now. All sorts of things were said to me forty-five years ago; they told me I should go to the dogs. Thank God, I am just as well off as any millionaire you could find! I have had enough to eat to-day, and I have a good suit of clothes, and I have the prospect of a good bed to-night. Will you allow the devil to dangle a good prospect in this world before your eyes and keep you back? Perhaps it is something that is questionable. You must bear with this plain speech, but remember: “Choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt”. My beloved friends, there is another kind of day coming. There is a day of glory and a day of honour coming. Suppose you suffer a little now. When Paul heard that the Philippians were suffering he said, “It is given unto you on behalf of Christ”. He congratulated them. The Lord had put a badge of distinction and honour upon them, but what hurts my soul, and I know the Lord must feel it, is this kind of talk: ‘Yes, I am converted and would not think of giving up my link with Christ’. But what about the choosing and refusing and esteeming the reproach of the Christ?
I wanted to touch on that second scripture lightly and simply. You will not mind it, dear friends; I will tell you where the connection is between the two passages. It is in the word “reproach”. Moses esteemed “the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt”. And in Hebrews 13 we read: “let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach”. There it is. You perhaps know the history connected with that set of statements. You will have to go back to Exodus. There was the scene when Moses came down and found all the people given up to idolatry, and he took up the tabernacle, and carried it clean outside the camp and he pitched it there. If any one wanted to approach God, they had to leave the camp and go to the tabernacle outside the camp. That is the historical allusion, and, mark you, that took place among those who at that time were God’s people. They were the people whom God had brought under the shelter of the sprinkled blood in Egypt, and brought through the Red Sea, and brought to Himself at Mount Sinai. The apostle, writing to the Hebrews, says: “Wherefore also Jesus, that he might sanctify the people by his own blood, suffered without the gate: therefore let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach”, Heb 13: 12, 13.
You say, ‘I am a Christian’. Yes. A man might have said at that time, ‘I am a Jew’. I might have said, ‘If you are a Jew, you will have to go outside the camp’. Do you see where Moses has put the tabernacle? He called it the tabernacle of the congregation. But, you say, all the people did not go out to it. If any one did not go he disregarded Moses. It is just so now. Christendom has taken the character of the camp—not lately, it began to do so in the early history of Christianity. Beloved, “let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach”. “Outside the camp!” It is not much known now. I hope, however, that what I say will disturb a good many professed Christians. When I began I had the Bible, and, thank God, I had the Holy Ghost, I was not so badly off, and the Lord shewed me these things. I had this blessed book, and I will tell you what—it was real to me. I went forth without the camp, and I went forth to Him, and I have never had to regret it, nor to retrace my steps.
Out of my very heart I have tried to say these things to you, and I believe the Lord would speak to some of His beloved ones, and may the Lord, too, intensify these things in all our hearts. We get a good start, and then gradually decline and begin to settle down. I am afraid of it. I have prayed against it in my own case. I have been afraid that I might become old and dried up and rusty. I have prayed against it, and I still pray against it, and I pray that the Lord may intensify these things in all our hearts. We have the opportunity of suffering affliction along with the people of God. Moses was ambitious to suffer affliction along with the people of God, and he esteemed the reproach of Christ. May the Lord stir us up and cause us to take the same way as He did.
Date and place not given
From The Believer’s Friend 1915