In Hebrews 11:26, “Moses regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as much greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.”
So Moses knew that God richly rewards, but how did he know? He got his first clue when God spoke to him in Exodus 3:6, saying, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” – the same God, in other words, who’d made that amazing promise to Abraham to “bless all peoples on earth.” And the reason God was saying this to Moses was to kick that promise into reality by sending Moses himself back to Egypt to go see “Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt” (10).
It was the greatest blessing Moses could have asked for, having tried to do something himself about the plight of his fellow Israelites forty years earlier, but he’d had to flee the country after murdering an Egyptian. And now God was offering him the chance to do what he’d dreamt of, the salvation of his fellow Israelites from the clutches of those who had no interest in God or his masterplan for humanity.
Moses, however, begged God to send someone else (4:13) – which made God very angry (14), and angry enough to want to kill Moses at one point too (24), because here was God offering Moses the chance to kickstart the salvation of the whole world for eternity from the deadly poison of evil, starting with Moses himself – but Moses himself wasn’t tuning in. Fortunately, when his brother Aaron told the Israelites what God had in mind, “they believed” that “the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery” (30-31).
They loved the idea of being saved from their misery by a God who clearly cared. And for their belief God richly rewarded them, not only saving them from their misery in Egypt, but also loading them up with whatever they asked the Egyptians for (12:36). They had no idea this was what would happen when Moses first appeared, but it got the point across that there’s a marvellous reward waiting down the line for those who believe God and get on board with what he’s up to.
And that was the message to those in Hebrews as well, that for their belief and getting on board with God’s will they’d also be “richly rewarded” (Hebrews 10:35-36). And there was a real need for keeping that in mind, because like Moses, they too faced “Disgrace for the sake of Christ”….(next blog)
