Sunday, February 26, 2012

Sunday, February 26th

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Numbers 7
Today's scripture focus is Hebrews 11:24-28

24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

This passage makes it very clear that acting in faith is a choice.  Every day we are faced with choices - to choose good or evil, to choose the way of the cross or the way of the world.

Joshua 24:15 choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.


Deuteronomy 30:19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live

Faith is a choice.  God has given us the ability to choose.  And how, what and who we choose will determine our life's course - both now and in eternity.

Moses made some huge choices!

He rejected worldly prestige when he refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh.  He was Prince of Egypt!  And he rejected it in order to fulfill God's will for his life.

He rejected the worldly pleasures of sin.  Sin if fun - for a time.  Sometimes a long time, sometimes a really short time.  But the pleasure of sin always comes to an end - ultimately in eternity, but oftentimes much sooner than that.

In this section of his sermon. MacArthur has an amazing portion about sexual sin.  Here's just a bit of it (emphasis mine)...
I believe real love doesn't court sexual sin. You people say, "Ohhhhh, you know, we just...it's so hard, because we love each other sooooo much." I always say, "Baloney. If you're doing that, you love each other too little, because if you really loved each other, you would never steal purity from the one you really love. When you do that, you don't love too much, you love too little. It's not the genuine stuff." And when a...when a guy comes to you, girls, and he says, "Oh, you know, I really love you. Man, you're the greatest. I really love you, and I wanna marry you. Now, let's, shooom, go to bed." Check it out. He doesn't love you. He loves himself way too much for you to tolerate. He's really saying, "I love me, and me would like to use you." That's what he's saying. Vice versa, same thing. You know, I mean, and you girls, you know, be pure about it. You know what Ann Landers said, "A lemon that's been squeezed too many times is garbage." She's right...Who wants it?...

I love the line - you would never steal purity from the one you really love.  That's amazing and so, so true.  That isn't true love - it's lust, plain and simple.

Moses also rejected the world's plenty - all the treasures and wealth of Egypt were at his fingertips as Prince of Egypt.  And he rejected it.  This doesn't mean that all Christians are destined to be dirt poor.  But rather we are to pursue righteousness and allow God to determine our wealth, instead of pursuing wealth as our heart's desire.

Moses had pressure on him that we cannot even fathom.  He had the right family name (by adoption), he had the best training Egypt's money could buy, he had wealth unimaginable, he had power, he had prestige. And he rejected it all.  The amount of faith it would take to do that is almost incomprehensible.  What a man of faith Moses was!

Pursuing fame, money, prestige and power is inconsistent with our faith.  God may choose to bestow those on a Christian, but they should not be our goals.  When our faith is genuine we will make choices that reflect the priorities we really have, not just the ones we claim to have.

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Hebrews 11:29-31
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Numbers 8-10

2 comments:

Miriam said...

Great post, Tammy. I never really thought about Moses from the point of view of what he gave up. Although, I suppose in great part he ran away from it because he killed an Egyptian more so than making a conscious choice to give all that up to follow God.

I wonder if it was easier for him later not to be power hungry and start demanding that the Israelites give him tribute and wealth as their leader because he'd had it before and he realized it hadn't made him happy?

Tammy said...

I guess he choose to identity with his Israelite heritage when he made the choice to kill the Eqyptian.

It may have made it easier. Though it probably also made it frustrating when all they did was complain - he gave that up for THIS?! ;)