THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS FAITH (Heb. 11:24-27.)

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews has been called the "picture gallery of faith," inasmuch as in it God has furnished His beloved people with an inspired account of personal acts of faith in Old Testament worthies, from Abel to Rahab; thus to encourage and stimulate faith in us by their example. May our hearts be stirred up to follow in the wake of these dear saints of old, for the same Spirit that enabled them to overcome in days of trial and difficulty is with us, and in us, as the needed power in conflict and the walk of faith, while pointing us to the hope before us.

Important characteristics of faith are exemplified in the life of Moses, as leader and deliverer of God's chosen people from Egypt to Canaan. He is the first saint called in Scripture a "man of God" (Deut. 33:1). As God's messenger, he appeared before Pharaoh and said:"Let my people go that they may serve Me" (Exod. 5:1); as their deliverer he opened the sea to pass out of Pharaoh's dominion (Exod. 14:21); thus he became the honored instrument of God's deliverance for Israel. As "man of God" he stood for Jehovah's honor when His covenant people had turned away from Him.

The "man of God" is one who stands true to God; true to divine principles in a day of declension. This Moses did with all his heart. In the present day of unfaithfulness in spiritual things, the man of God is one to whom Christ and His truth is everything. Timothy, in the New Testament, earned for himself that honored title. May both the reader and writer seek to maintain the rights of our absent Lord in this day of His rejection; and thus be practically men of God. (See 1 Tim. 6:11,12; 2 Tim. 3:14,15.)

The first out-shining of Moses' faith to which Scripture calls our attention is his REFUSAL of the world's honor:"By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter" (ver. 24). The man of God must first disentangle himself from what hinders or prevents the activities of faith. Herein lies the first great hindrance to faith:we are not sufficiently in the good of our spiritual blessings in order to refuse as worthless what the world may have to offer. In Genesis 14:17-24, we get a beautiful example of this in the life of Abraham. How was it that the victorious patriarch could say to the king of Sodom, "I will not take anything that is thine?" It was that Melchizedek had filled the vision of Abraham's soul with greater and higher blessings than all that the king of Sodom could offer. Being strengthened and cheered by Melchizedek, "priest of the Most High God," coming to meet him with bread and wine (type of our Lord's sacrifice for us), he was able to meet the king of Sodom's offer like our Lord in Matt. 4:1-11-refuse all that Satan could offer. It must have cost Moses much to refuse the emoluments and dignities of Egypt, and it will cost us something to refuse this world's offers, but if we accept them, it will cost us more at the judgment-seat of Christ. May our hearts be in the joy of our heavenly inheritance with our Lord in glory, that, like Moses, we may refuse the world's attractions here.

In verse 25 we see the CHOICE which Moses' faith made:"Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." Our hearts must have an object, and the object of our choice will form our character and direct our walk. "Lot lifted up his eyes on the well-watered plains toward Sodom," and his feet soon carried him there (Gen. 13:10,11). Joshua chose to serve the Lord, because His heart was right with God (Josh. 24:15); and our blessed Lord could choose the poor of the flock as those in whom He found His delight (Ps. 16:3). Is it so with us, dear reader? Is the Lord's choice our own? Have we cast in our lot with them? Were the children of Israel so attractive as to draw out the heart of Moses? In themselves they were no more so than the Egyptians. Why then did Moses choose to associate himself with them? Ah, here is where Moses teaches us a lesson:he looked at them as the people of Jehovah's choice, and said, in effect, "Jehovah's people is my people;" and if we look upon our brethren today as the people of God's choice (Eph. 1:4)-if we look at the saints with the anointed eye, would not we choose them and their company, as the objects of our affection? I believe we would. May we, then, like Moses, " the man of God," view God's people from His standpoint.

Then we have his FAITH'S ESTIMATE (ver. 26):'Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." Through faith, Moses was able to estimate things aright- like our dear apostle Paul, who was able to count all that was dear to him according to the flesh, as loss, for Christ (Phil. 3:4-7). It is a moral impossibility for a child of God who is walking after the desires of the flesh, to have the divine estimate of things, inasmuch as his spiritual perceptions are clouded; his mind is not above the sordid things of the world; he "cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins" (2 Pet. 1:9). But Moses was not that sort of a man. Faith enabled him to enter into the sanctuary, and to form his estimate according thereto. Faith sees eye to eye with God; it views things as God views them. May we too form our estimate of things here according to the value which our all-wise Lord puts upon them; then, like Moses, we shall esteem the reproach of Christ of more worth than the pleasures and smiles of the world.

Next is the REWARD that Moses' faith looked to:"For he had respect unto the recompense of the reward" (ver. 26). It does not mean that the motive of reward governed Moses. No. The glory of Jehovah and the good of His people, was what controlled Moses, but God sets the glory before us as encouragement to faith; like Paul in his day, who served the Lord in a way that draws out the admiration of every heart that loves the Lord. Let any read 2 Cor. 11:16-33, and see what that dear servant of Christ suffered; and what reward did he have here? Alas! "All they which are in Asia have turned away from me," he has to say (2 Tim. 1:15); yet listen to his joyful note from his Roman prison on the eve of his martyrdom:"Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness" (2 Tim. 4:8). The Lord's reward to His faithful servants will be a worthy and glorious one, for as the same apostle says, "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18).

Lastly, we notice the COURAGE of faith in Moses:"By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king:for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible" (ver. 27). This courage was not of human resolution, but in the sense of God's presence, who had appeared to him in the burning bush, and would be with him in the conflict with the king of Egypt. "In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence"(Prov. 14:26). Thus the fear of God in the heart of Moses imparted to him that courage and calm confidence which is essential in service for the Lord. The wrath of the king was little to him, for he knew the Lord was with him, and thus "he endured." Oh that we knew more of this heavenly courage which frees from the fear of man, while we walk before the face of God!

Dear young fellow-believer, beware of the sunshine of the world's smile; it would fain seduce thee from the path of loyalty to our absent Lord; but with the courage which faith begets, say with the apostle:"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14). James F. Turnbull