From Egypt to Sinai: A Devotional Commentary on Exodus

By Paul S Meitner

Are you struggling to trust in God?If you are, you' re not alone. This devotional book explores the relationship between the events recorded in the book of Exodus and the Christian' s daily struggle to trust in God alone.This book features opening prayers related to each chapter' s main theme, helping you connect the important spiritual lessons of Exodus to your own life.In From Egypt to Sinai, author and pastor Paul S. Meitner uses his knowledge as a scholar of church history and biblical interpretation to give you a full picture of the Exodus account from the Bible. Exodus isn' t just a historical account of the Israelites' journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. It' s also the story of God leading Old Testament believers to the promised Messiah— Jesus Christ— and the personal journey of the Christian from trusting self to trusting God alone.In a world that is increasingly hostile to Christianity, this book will help you navigate the wilderness of the world with biblical wisdom and trust in God' s promises.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Northwestern Publishing House
• Release date: Jul 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9780810031708

Book preview

Chapter 1:

And a New Pharaoh Arose (Exodus 1)

Prayer: Gracious God, all good things come from you. We thank you that, through your Son, you have rescued us and called us to be your own and that we are your workmanship to do the works you prepared in advance for us to do. You promised that the consequence of faith will be suffering and that the world will give no quarter to those who follow you. You did not come to bring peace but the sword. Lord, use these forces arrayed against me to purge the dross from my faith and refine me evermore in your image. Let me see that those who stand against you are already defeated in Christ and that I have won the victory in you. Amen.

The proud motto of Harvard is the Latin word Veritas, meaning truth. Yet the original motto was Veritas Christo et Ecclesia, meaning, Truth for Christ and the church. The original stated purpose of the school was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust. But only two hundred years after its founding, Harvard became antitrinitarian. In 1998, the head of its religion school, Ronald Frank Thiemann, a Lutheran, was asked to resign when large amounts of pornographic material were found on his computer. Most recently, Harvard Divinity School was the birthplace of the Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast.

The degeneration of Harvard from faith to unbelief shows in a microcosm the sad history of the world. It is well for us to remember that civilization and the true religion are not synonymous.¹ What happened to the world following Cain’s murder of Abel, what happened to the world following the flood, gives us a clear understanding how the nation that was saved by Joseph could forget Joseph and enslave his descendants. The opening chapter of Exodus is a powerful reminder of what John warns us in our dealings with the world,

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, boasting about material possessions—is not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.²

The opening chapter of Exodus is a call to heed the Word of the Lord, both in its promise of blessing and its promise of suffering. It is a reminder that the servant is not above the master. Jesus reminds all of us that those who have been called to receive the crown of glory must first receive the cross of suffering. In the words of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, There are no crown-wearers in heaven that were not cross-bearers on earth.

Herein lies the great blessing of this book of Exodus. It calls us to stay the course—through trial, persecution, and the chastening rod of Christ. It calls the reader to resist the siren call of the world, the crossless and Christless Christianity of the prosperity-gospel preacher, and the casual Christianity of the megachurch teacher. It instead calls us to rely only, always, forever on the Lord who keeps his promises. Paul’s words to the Romans serve as a fitting summary of why the lessons of Exodus are so important to us today, when Christianity is so violently attacked around the world and increasingly viewed with hostility and distain here at home: Indeed, whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that, through patient endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we would have hope.³

We begin our sojourn through this great and noble book recorded for us by Moses, the man of God, the friend of God. Let its words break our pride and our trust in anyone or anything save the Lord God Almighty.

The Lord keeps his promises to Abraham

Should we be surprised at this at the opening of Exodus?

We are told that 70 in total arrive in Egypt under the protection and blessing of Joseph, the great vizier of Egypt. In Joseph, this faithful son who was despised and forsaken by his brothers and sold into slavery, the Lord raised up the savior of Egypt, Canaan, and other nations. The Lord had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would take their descendants to Egypt and make them a great nation there.

The Lord promises. The Lord fulfills. The 70 who went to Egypt were now a multitude that had filled the land. God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he changes his mind.⁴ The Lord promised that Abraham would be a father of many nations, and he would have descendants as numerous as the sands on the seashore and stars in the sky. The Lord keeps his word beyond our wildest expectations.

Our Lord Christ Jesus, in the parable of the mustard seed, tells how the tiniest seed in the garden grows so that all the birds of the air may rest in it.⁵ Ezekiel, in his parable of the sprig of the cedar, tells how one small sprig shall become a planting of the Lord and all the birds of the air shall rest in it.⁶ The Lord promises. The Lord fulfills. St. John saw it. He saw a multitude beyond counting, people of every tribe, tongue, and nation who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, waving their palm branches and singing their loud hosannas to the Christ.⁷ In the eyes of the world, the church is a small, harassed flock. It is always despised, weak, and on the verge of extinction. Yet, the number of souls is always increasing in Christ.

God’s plan, however, was not to bring this nation to fruition just so it could enjoy living in the land of Egypt. No, the Lord told Abraham in no uncertain terms that not only would his descendants go to Egypt, but there they would be enslaved and mistreated.⁸ God is not being mean, uncaring, or arbitrary in his ways. Rather, he uses suffering to train up his people to go in the way that he would show them. The Lord had a purpose for this people.

They were to be his kingdom of priests, his special possession to proclaim to the nations lost in darkness the light of salvation. They would be given the land of Canaan as a possession. In Canaan, by their worship, their preaching, and their lives, the Lord would bring to light the Savior of the nations, the Messiah. This was the purpose for which the Lord called and multiplied Israel throughout those silent centuries from Joseph to Moses. What tool would the Lord use to keep his people free from worldly entanglements and comforts and leaning alone on his promise?

A cold shudder radiates through the spine of every Christian at the word pharaoh.

There are all kinds of interesting conjectures as to how, historically, the Egyptians forgot the debt they owed to Israel, but it is not hard to understand. The history of America affords us valuable insight to how the truth is replaced with a lie. Has there ever been a country more blessed by the godliness of Christian men and women who carried out their faith in Jesus Christ according to their vocation? And yet, we live in an era where all references to God are excised. We live in an era where Christianity is openly attacked. Did an army of godless heathens invade our shores? Is there a secretive Communist or Marxist column that has slipped in unnoticed?

Sorry, no tinfoil conspiracy theories will be found here. The truth is far more banal. People do not want to put up with sound doctrine anymore. They want what their itching ears want to hear.⁹ People become much more interested in the glory they can see than the glory waiting for them in God. Material gain is more important than spiritual truth. People want their heaven on earth, not the heaven in heaven. People seek to build their own kingdom and no longer seek the kingdom of God. People don’t leave their churches for nothing. They leave it for a glory that they can taste, see, and touch.

Abraham gives the reason for the forgetfulness of Pharaoh as he explains to the rich man why he is in hell and Lazarus is in heaven, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, and you are in misery.¹⁰ Your good things! You had the material wealth and its enjoyment that you wanted. People sell their birthright for a bowl of stew, as Esau did with Jacob.¹¹ Pharaoh happily took the wealth and power that Joseph’s reforms and wisdom had bequeathed to Egypt, just as the prodigal son took with him the good things he valued before he left home.¹² Yet, just as that wicked son treated the source of those good things as dead, so Pharaoh forgot the godly man through whom Egypt had been blessed.

Yet, this trade of the spiritual for the earthly is no indifferent thing. It is hostile. The world will lay plans for its future comfort and enjoyment and fulfill them at any cost. Once people trade God’s truth for their own philosophy, then those who do not share in that vision become blood enemies. We have seen this in our own day. Politics has taken on a religious aspect, and those who differ in worldview must be feared and enslaved. We should not be surprised when Pharaoh moves from forgetting to fear, from distrust to enslavement. Pharaoh will break the spirit of the Israelites to his will. He will force them to build monuments to his gods and his glory. They will be fuel in the machine of his power.

This has been seen in our country at an alarming rate. Christians are forced to violate their own consciences for the sake of the glorious earthly vision the world seeks to accomplish. Christian schools are vilified for teaching correctly about God’s gift of gender and marriage. Christians are ridiculed as backwards for insisting that life begins at conception. Orthodox preachers are painted as hate-mongers for insisting that not all views of God are equal and only Christ Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Forgetting turns to fear; distrust turns to enslavement.

The folly of Pharaoh

Yet something happens that the world does not understand. The more the world tries to break Christians of their identity, the more firmly they are attached to it. The more the world tries to oppress and limit the people of God, the more they multiply. David understood this well:

Why do the nations rage?

Why do the peoples grumble in vain?

The kings of the earth take a stand,

and the rulers join together

against the LORD

and against his Anointed One.

"Let us tear off their chains

and throw off their ropes from us."

The one who is seated in heaven laughs.

The Lord scoffs at them.

Then he speaks to them in his anger,

and in his wrath he terrifies them.

I have installed my King on Zion, my holy mountain.¹³

The harder and harder the Egyptians pressed, the deeper and deeper they drove the people of God into the promise that the Lord had given them. Why do they not break? I have deprived them of everything! I have taken their freedom, joy, and rest! Why do they not break? The reason was that the hope of God’s people was not based on the flimsy gossamer of worldly vision but on the eternal, living Word of God. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not despairing; persecuted, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.¹⁴ The promise of relief and redemption was always before the people of Israel.

In its desperation to break the believer, the world turns to madness. Pharaoh resorted to infanticide. He asserted his will over Israel’s right to live. Pharaoh would decide what life is worth living. Any life that threatened his power, comfort, or rule was not worth living. The first version of his monstrous decree was subtle. Even the hardened heart is squeamish about the open murder of infants. No, I will quietly kill the children as they come out.

Perhaps he, like abortion advocates of today, even fancied himself kind and humane for his discreet orders to Shiphrah and Puah, the midwives in charge of delivery among the Hebrews. How cool and rational his plan must have seemed. He could maintain his slave labor and lose the fear he had of the people. Indeed, how similar are the population controls that demand a limitation of children. How rational and wise the pro-abortion advocates are in thinking they can control the fate of humankind with the steely resolve of their own will. They use the scientific terms like fetus and evacuation to dehumanize the object of their wrath and even soothe their own conscience. Yet, it does not change the fact that abortion is infanticide. How terrifying is humankind when it is willing to kill its conscience to advance its own ego!

Yet, Pharaoh failed, for these women feared God above the king! How fitting are the words of Jesus, Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.¹⁵ Lutherans rightly are proud of the fearless stand of Luther at Worms. Yet, were these women of any less spiritual steel than he was? What bravery there is in those who refuse to go against the law of God out of love for God and their fellow human!

The Lord rewarded Shiphrah and Puah by granting them the great blessing of children of their own. No edict of Pharaoh could undo a single word of the Lord. The Lord promised Abraham to make this people into a great nation, and no edict, no army, nor a mad man with murderous intent can destroy that which God has ordained. Yet, the One in heaven laughs and mocks those pretenders to his power and majesty. The Lord uses the weak things of the world to shame the wise; he uses the lowly things of the world to shame the strong; he uses the despised things, the things that are naught to nullify the things that are.¹⁶ Here the most powerful man in the world was undone by two Hebrew midwives. How impotent is a man against the power of God!

How Pharaoh raged in his impotence! When the midwives thwarted him, all pretense of Pharaoh was set aside. He showed his naked aggression against Israel! A cold shudder fills us at the impenitence of a hardened heart that mercilessly orders the death of children. Now he ordered a house-to-house search and a drowning of all Hebrew male babies that are found. Just like the slaughter of the innocents by Herod in his mad search for Christ Jesus, Pharaoh knew no bounds in his bloodlust. Take a good look at the nature of the world opposed to God. There is no sympathy, no heart, no restraint. In Pharaoh’s order we see the madness of Melville’s Captain Ahab come to life: To the last, I grapple with thee, from hell’s heart, I stab at thee; for hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee.¹⁷

There is no happy face to put on Christ Jesus’ words to his disciples: If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. In fact whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. After all, what will it benefit a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what can a person give in exchange for his soul?¹⁸

Trust in the promise of Christ means enmity with the world. It means that every injustice and crime will be waged against the body of Christ just as it was waged against Christ himself. The world will hate us as it hated Jesus. Yet, he promises that our sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us in heaven. We who are united in his suffering will also be united in his glory.

The question is not if we will suffer for Christ but when and how much. The when is simple: as the Lord sees fit. The how much is even simpler. Our suffering must endure as long as necessary to kill our flesh and make us cling tighter to Christ Jesus alone for our salvation. That is what makes the cross of the Christian precious for the Christian. It forces us to seek God where he will be found—in the Word of promise. And in the finding of the Lord, we become what he fashioned us to be—his witnesses to the world.

Our churches are not museums of saints. They are hospitals for sinners seeking relief. Here, in the Word, we do not focus on what we see but what we do not see, for we live by faith and not by sight. No, we are not blind people acting contrary to reason and thought. Rather, we keep moving in the direction of the Lord over the inclinations of our mind, heart, and will. We are subject to the Lord.

Beware, Christian, of the loosening of God’s Word in your life and the drift into worldly thinking. As a wise pastor once said, If God is distant in your life, guess who moved? Trouble is not meant to move you from God but to move you to him. Therefore, in the face of aggression, the Christian simply stands and delivers, trusting God to work in his own time and way. With God, victory is assured.

Why should cross and trial grieve me?

Christ is near With his cheer; Never will he leave me.

Who can rob me of the heaven

That God’s Son For me won When his life was given?

When life’s troubles rise to meet me,

Though their weight May be great, They will not defeat me.

God, my loving Savior, sees them;

He who knows All my woes Knows how best to end them.¹⁹

____________________

¹ George Lillegard, From Eden to Egypt (Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1956), p. 47.

² 1 John 2:15-17

³ Romans 15:4

⁴ Numbers 23:19

⁵ Matthew 13:31,32

⁶ Ezekiel 17:22,23

⁷ Revelation 7:9

⁸ Genesis 15:13

⁹ 2 Timothy 4:1-4

¹⁰ Luke 16:19-31

¹¹ Genesis 25:29-34

¹² Luke 15:13

¹³ Psalm 2:1-6

¹⁴ 2 Corinthians 4:8-10

¹⁵ Matthew 10:28

¹⁶ 1 Corinthians 1:27,28

¹⁷ Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, edited by Hershel Parker and Harrison Hayford, 2002.

¹⁸ Matthew 16:24-26

¹⁹ Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal (Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1993), 428:1,2.

Chapter 2:

I Drew Him Out of the Water (Exodus 2:1-22)

Prayer: Lord, you never forsake your elect. You delight in bringing about their glory through the shame that the world heaps upon them. Let us never despise your word of promise nor the work we carry out at your command, even if it seems weak and ineffective. Lead us faithfully to place all things into your hands and, according to your good and gracious promise, know that all things work for the good of those who love you and have been called according to your purpose. Amen.

Abbie Johnson had operated a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas for years. She described herself as liberal, pro-choice, and an advocate for women’s rights. Then she assisted with an actual abortion. She saw the cold and cruel inhumanity of tearing apart a baby limb from limb and then evacuating the contents. It left her shaken to her core. Who could she go to?

As it turned out, she went to the nearby Christian family counseling center. She had crossed swords with the managers of that center outside the clinic on more than one occasion in the past. Yet who else could she talk to about her conflicted feelings? She drove to their lot, asked for permission to come in, and, due to that Christian witness and kindness she received, she herself is one of the most vocal pro-life advocates today.

Often, Christians feel their resistance to the world is hopeless. A type of neo-Stoicism is found in many Christians. They rage against the forces of this world yet harbor little actual hope that anything will change. Nothing could be further from the truth. We accept the pain the Lord in his wisdom has put upon us for our good. Yet there is a hope in us that surpasses our tears. What is impossible for people is possible for God.¹ How can we doubt this when our Lord Christ Jesus rose from the dead after three days? Therefore, our labor for the Lord is never a noble defeat, no matter how painful it may be. Rather, all things in Christ will end in victory. Though now for a time we share in Christ’s sufferings, we will also share in his glory.²

The bravery of Moses’ family

The murderous hunt for Hebrew infants instigated by Pharaoh terrified Moses’ parents. Yet their faith in the Lord and his Word was stronger than their fear of Pharaoh. Like the devout ten Boom family³ who would not let the Nazis kill their Jewish neighbors, Moses’ parents would not surrender their newborn son to Pharaoh. The Christian is always subject to the governing authorities until the governing authority exceeds the authority delegated to it by demanding to occupy the place that only God may dwell. Though many may eagerly choose to worship the state as a god, the Christian refuses both in principle and according to conscience to obey such demands.

It infuriated Nebuchadnezzar when faithful men of his court refused to bow down to his image. It angered Ahab and Jezebel when Elijah would not bend to their power. The world may think anger or fear motivates Christians, but it is neither. It is love for God. As Solomon says, Love is as strong as death. Its passion is as relentless as the grave. Its flames are flames of fire, a mighty blaze. Many waters cannot quench such love. Rivers cannot wash it away.⁴

Moses’ mother and father went to great lengths to conceal the birth of their son. They saw he was a fine child. The book of Hebrews says that he was no ordinary child.⁵ In faith, they hid him. For this, they are listed as heroes of faith. Jesus says, Whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink because he is my disciple—Amen I tell you—he will never lose his reward.⁶ The names of millions upon millions of faithful Christians who acted in faith are all just as precious to the Lord as the great names in Scripture—and perhaps greater! Jesus says of John the Baptist, Among those born of women there is no prophet greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.⁷

How often the Lord points to little children as great in the kingdom of heaven! How he commended the widow who gave her mite! We know not the name of the Roman centurion or the Canaanite woman, yet the Lord praised them both for their great faith!⁸ Faith is not measured by how famous our name becomes or the size of the accomplishment. The mark of a truly good work in the eyes of the Lord is a work done out of trust in the Lord. As our Lutheran Confessions teach, Faith is bound to bring forth good fruits, and . . . it is necessary to do good works commanded by God, because of God’s will.⁹

When the danger of discovery became too great in their house, Moses’ family hid him in the Nile in his own ark.¹⁰ With the floating crib complete, the family hid it among the thick reeds of the banks of the Nile. They sent their daughter Miriam to stand at a distance to keep her silent vigil. How gut-wrenching that vigil must have been for her! How her heart must have skipped a beat with any passerby! How her stomach must have been tied in knots as Pharaoh’s own daughter approached with her retinue of ladies-in-waiting and her own private guard!

How Miriam must have prayed in that watch, Dear Lord, God of my fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, rescue and protect my brother from any harm! What power there is in prayer! How all Christians in anxious times are urged to call upon the Lord! The Lord urges this, Call on me in the day of distress. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.¹¹ St. Paul urges the Philippians, themselves under great persecution for their faith, Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.¹² St. Peter concurs, Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.¹³

Why is prayer such a comfort to the Christian? God is already well acquainted with our problems and cares. In prayer, our dear Lord entreats us to unburden our problems upon him as a child lays his cares upon a parent. That is why Christ our Lord tells us not to worry. He points to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. If our Lord takes care of these in such magnificent fashion, will he not much more take care of us? Christian prayer seeks the kingdom of God in the day of trouble, knowing that, in finding God, we have everything we need.

When we behold the bravery, the care, and the watchfulness of the family of Moses, is there a more beautiful picture in all of Scripture of the great blessing of a family and how it may serve as an earthly mirror of the divine love that the Lord has for his children? Do not the actions of Moses’ family resemble the love expressed by the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, Can a woman forget her nursing child and not show mercy to the son from her womb? Even if these women could forget, I will never forget you. Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are never out of my sight.¹⁴ The Lord heard the family’s prayer and answered it in the most magnificent way. The Lord brought the daughter of murderous Pharaoh to this spot on the river to be the instrument for the salvation of Moses.

God’s gift of an active conscience

We live in an age of rationalism and scientism. Humanity has more and more ignored or denied its conscience and the cosmic power of God on display in creation. The 20th century bore witness to that. The Holocaust, the Gulag, the Great Leap Forward of Mao, and the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge were perpetrated by people who believed themselves beyond good and evil.

But the superstitious, though separated from God’s revelation and led by mute idols, are still conscious of the existence of God and the dictates of their conscience. Paul says to the Romans,

Whenever Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires—even though they do not have the law—they are a law for themselves. They demonstrate the work of the law that is written in their hearts, since their conscience also bears witness as their thoughts go back and forth, at times accusing or at times even defending them.¹⁵

When a Hebrew baby drifted into the bathing area of Pharaoh’s daughter, she was moved with compassion and perhaps even trepidation. Was not the Nile a god? What was the life-giving god of Egypt saying to the daughter of Pharaoh if a Hebrew baby was delivered to her very bathing area? Her conscience was struck, and her heart was opened.

It is easy to think of a group as less than human when one does not see, touch, or hear them. In our own country, the violence and bigotry heaped upon African-Americans for generations was tolerated primarily because the majority of white people never saw or interacted with African-Americans. But when one beheld the eloquence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when one saw four little girls murdered in a church bombing, when one witnessed the ugliness of racial bigotry on live television, the conscience was pricked. Yes, the conscience is a hard thing to kill.

The conscience of Pharaoh’s daughter commanded her, Take this child as your own! She called him Moses, for she drew him out of the river. The Lord not only answered the prayers of the family of Moses but poked the proud eye of Pharaoh using his own daughter as the stick. In one adoption, the entire bloody holocaust of God’s people potentially was put to an end! Would Pharaoh defy the gods who had clearly given his daughter this Hebrew as a warning against his policies?

The Lord caused Pharaoh’s daughter to cherish Moses as her own for another reason. Stephen tells the crowd, Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in his words and actions.¹⁶ The Lord would forge a leader of Moses by giving him the best education in the world. He would become well-versed in diplomacy, law, astronomy, geography, and the martial arts—all of which would serve him well when he was called to lead God’s people throughout 40 years in the desert. Yet, perhaps the most important aspect of his education would be his mastery of the rhetorical and literary arts.

It is no accident that Moses was educated in such a fashion, as he would one day be carried along by the Holy Spirit to record for us the events of creation and the fall, of Noah and Abraham, and of Isaac and the nation descended from Israel. He was the first of those chosen writers used by God to draw the outline of Christ Jesus. On the evening of his resurrection, Jesus calls upon Moses as his witness to revive the dour and dejected Emmaus disciples, ‘How foolish you are and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.¹⁷

Moses’ upbringing would not result in a complete separation from his people or his God. After all, what does it profit a person if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul?¹⁸ Miriam boldly came forth to offer a nurse for the child. With Pharaoh’s daughter’s blessing, Miriam brought Moses’ own mother to fill the position! In the palace of Pharaoh, under the very nose of the pantheon of Egyptian gods and goddesses, the true Word was shared and faith was kindled in the heart of Moses. Though he was raised in the courts of Pharaoh, was privileged to receive all the blessings of a royal and diplomatic education, and was taught to be a warrior and leader of people, he refused to identify himself as an Egyptian. The author of the letter to the Hebrews tells us,

By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter when he grew up. He chose to be mistreated with God’s people rather than enjoy sin for a little while. He considered disgrace for the sake of Christ as greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.¹⁹

When Moses was 40, he was at the peak of his mental and physical strength. His faith would not allow him to go along with the regime that had educated him. In Moses’ decision to cast his lot with his enslaved people, we see the aspects of faith like knowledge, assent, and confidence. He knew the truth, he accepted the truth as true, and he acted in accordance with the truth. This is what Martin Luther meant when he gave his courageous stand at the Diet of Worms, My conscience is captive to the Word of God. He had seen the truth, he had accepted the truth, and he could not return to the lie.

When the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V tried to reimpose Catholicism upon the Lutheran territories, Jakob Sturm of Augsburg responded to those who threatened him with death for his Lutheran faith, You may kill people by fire, but even in this you cannot force their faith. The citizens of the city of Magdeburg, known as God’s Chancery, stayed true to their faith even unto death.

What can produce such ardor? Certainly, it was not earthly glory or kingdoms. Rather, God had planned something better for us, namely, that they would not reach the goal apart from us.²⁰ They held to the promise that life resided only in the one the Lord God had promised. Only in this Savior, promised and prefigured in the Old Testament through God’s chosen people, was peace between God and humankind found.

No, our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in heaven.²¹

Moses, the man of faith, did not fear Pharaoh any more than his parents had. He too lived by faith, so he chose to be mistreated along with his people rather than enjoy the luxuries of this world. His faith caused him to see the lie that ensnares so many. The devil and the world would have us believe that the choice of being a Christian or a worldling is a choice between suffering or pleasure; that to be a Christian means to be a dour-faced, miserable, and prudish lout eaten away by envy and repression, whereas the worldly person is enlightened, balanced, and able to suck the marrow out of life.

It is true that Christianity comes at a cost. Christ Jesus informs us, in no uncertain terms, that to follow him means we are going to suffer in this world. However, do you really think that choosing sin does not also come at a cost? Do you really think that self-indulgence does not come at a cost? Adam and Eve had the satisfaction of a moment, but it was followed by the shame and terror of a guilty conscience before God. David enjoyed his adultery with Bathsheba, yet it cost him his child, his dignity, his reason, and even his faith for a time. It would hound him in shame for the rest of his life.

You can curse God and receive the laughter and adulation of millions, but it will come at the cost of your eternal soul in hell surrounded by the unrelenting screams of the damned. Even in this life, as you walk the halls of treatment centers, prisons, and hospitals, you know that sin comes at a cost. But how much costlier is it to face judgment with sin-stained hands? Though almost three centuries removed from Jonathan Edwards, his words remain as true today as when he spoke them,

It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is not visible danger, in any respect, in his circumstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world, in all ages, shows this is no evidence that a man is not on the very brink of eternity and that the next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of