Author: Lamar Austin

We are talking about the faith of Moses, a faith that allowed him to give up a position of privilege and power, where he could have every pleasure and treasure his heart desired, opting instead for the yet unseen, but definitely real, “greater wealth” of the heavenly reward.  Like the patriarchs before him, he didn’t experience the greater treasures and pleasures in this life, but in the life to come, in the heavenly city (Heb. 11:13-16).

So turn with me again to Hebrews 11:24-28…

24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

We noticed last week Mose’s negative choice of “refusing to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter.”  Today we will talk about his positive choice in verse 25, “choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.”

By the way, this was a permanent decision.  Warren Wiersbe tells the story about the mayor of a large American city who moved into a dangerous and decayed housing project to demonstrate the problems and needs of the minorities.  But she also kept her fashionable apartment and eventually moved out of the slum.  He concludes, “We commend her for her courage, but we have to admire Moses even more.  He left the palace and never went back” (The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament, p. 836)

So Moses chose to be mistreated rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin.

Let’s see, pain or pleasure, which shall I choose?  Few of us would willingly choose pain over pleasure, but Moses did.  Moses chose the pain of mistreatment rather than the pleasures of sin.

Ultimately Moses’ potential sin, had he chosen these “fleeting pleasures” would have been to abandon his faith in God as he became more and more immersed in the mindset of godless Egypt, much like Solomon’s heart was turned aside from God because of his pagan wives.  There was constant exposure and then pressure there to engage with the world’s system and pleasures, which could have turned his heart against the God of his fathers.

Moses knew that to go God’s way meant persecution and pain “with the people of God.”  It is fascinating that in the next verse our author shows that Moses thought of this as “the reproach of Christ.”  Somehow he connected his own sufferings to the sufferings that Jesus Christ would experience in his humiliation.  Maybe this was an unconscious connection on his part but the author shows that it is a real connection that any saint has with Jesus Christ when we suffer for his sake.  It is very similar to what Paul talked about in Philippians 3 when he says, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…” (Phil. 3:10).

Paul wanted to know Christ, not just intellectually, but experientially.  Because Christ was no longer alive and walking about on earth Paul didn’t have that firsthand interaction with Jesus.  Nevertheless, Paul had experienced and wanted to experience more, “the power of his resurrection,” but Paul knew that to experience resurrection he had to go through death, so he longed, strangely enough to our ears, to “share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

Paul Miller discusses this fascinating idea in his book J-Curve.  The J-Curve is Jesus dying and rising.  Of course, positionally we die to sin and rise to God (Rom. 6) because we are united to Jesus by faith.  Also, we will one day die physically and ultimately we will rise physically.

But Paul Miller also shows that we can experience the J-Curve through suffering, repentance and love.  In suffering, we die to something.  It can be our health, a marriage, a loss of a loved one.  But if we perceive it as suffering “with Christ,” it turns what is wholly negative into something positive (an experience of deep fellowship and ultimately resurrection).  So see your suffering as “with Christ,” as engaging in His sufferings, and then expect and look for mini-resurrections.

The J-Curve also happens through repentance.  Here the evil is not outside us, perpetrated against us, but inside us.  We acknowledge that something needs to die, some sinful desire that we have, but when we give up that sin and experience fellowship with Jesus, we will experience the resurrection of joy and holiness and love.

Love is another J-Curve.  In this case we die to ourselves, our agenda, our pleasures, so that we can meet the needs of someone else.  We “put to death” some desire we have for our own pleasure, so that we can meet the needs or desires of someone else.  The result?  That relationship gets better and better!

This is what Moses was doing.  He didn’t know Jesus fully yet, but He knew God well enough to know that if he gave up the “fleeting pleasures” of sin for His sake, then something immensely more satisfying would be his in the future.

Disgrace suffered for Christ’s sake Moses valued as priceless honor.  Yes, Moses knew about Christ.  He himself said so in Dt 18:15 when he urged Israel to look for and listen to that greater Prophet who was coming.  Jesus also said so when he told the Pharisees in Jn 5:46, “Moses wrote about me” with the eye of faith Moses saw the coming Christ and identified with him by joining his people.  (Richard E. Lauersdorf, The People’s Bible: Hebrews, 143)

Notice how Moses viewed these pleasures, and it may shock us into realizing how we need to view our own worldly pleasures.  First of all, they are the “pleasures of sin” that we “enjoy.”  We sin because we enjoy it.  We sin because it is a pleasure. So let’s not deny that sin can be a pleasure.  That is the only way Satan can tempt us.  If it were a pain, we would avoid it.  If we got shocked every time we sinned, we would stop sinning.

But again, a shock is like Ulysses being tied to the mast.  It may stop us from sinning, but we still want to, we still long to.  We would just seek ways to get what we want without being shocked, like the addict who hides his addiction so that no one can see him and rebuke him.

John Piper recognizes the danger in the pleasures of sin, saying, “The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts.  And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth.  For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable.  (John Piper, A Hunger for God: Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer, 14)

Disobeying had many attractions.  Among other things, it would have been a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable in the short run.  It is hard enough to stop seeking worldly things.  It is even harder to give them up once we have them, and Moses had a great many of them by the time he was forty.  We have no reason to believe that he was ever involved in any immoral practices, but he enjoyed the pleasures of an extremely comfortable life.  He had the best food, the best living quarters, the best recreation, the best of everything that his age could provide.  These were not sins in themselves.  Joseph had enjoyed the same pleasures in the same place, while being perfectly obedient to God.  But they would have been sin for Moses, had he decided to stay in the Egyptian court, and he forsook them for the sake of God’s call.  (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 352)

Second, notice that these pleasures are “fleeting,” or some versions say “passing.”  They are temporary.  They don’t last.  You’ve experienced that.  You gave yourself to some illicit pleasure when you were all alone in the dark and it felt good…for a moment, for a brief moment.  Then, if you are fortunate, you began to feel guilty.  This is not the repressed conscience bequeathed to us by the Puritans, but rather is the precious gift of God.

The point is, Moses knew that these pleasures were real pleasures that could be enjoyed, but that they were also “fleeting.”  God’s reward is permanent, not passing; it is forever, not fleeting.

Remember that next time you are tempted.  Remind yourself: “I’ll feel good for a moment or two, but it won’t last.”  Then tell yourself that God’s way offers a better, more lasting reward.

As a family member in Pharaoh’s court, Moses enjoyed whatever pleasures anyone could seek.  He lived in luxury (picture the splendor of King Tut’s tomb!).  He ate the best food available.  He dressed in the finest clothes.  He could have any Egyptian beauty his heart desired.

Yet because he believed in a better reward—pleasures and treasures that were bigger and better than anything Egypt (or the whole world) could offer—he said “no.”  He chose rather to become an object of scorn and contempt along with the people of God.

Why?  Because by faith he believed in a better reward awaiting him.  Why would a man knowingly choose such suffering?  Was he a masochist?  Was he insane?  No, actually he was quite shrewd.  Like the man who sold everything he had to buy the pearl of great price (Matt. 13:45-46), Moses gained something better.

The “treasures of Egypt” were something that many coveted.  Discoveries such as the tomb of King Tutankhamen, who lived only a hundred or so years after Moses, have shown us how vastly rich Egypt was at its peak. Moses had access to a great deal of wealth, and likely had much in his own possession.  He had all the things the world holds dear.  He must have been strongly tempted to hold on to them; but he did not.  (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 353)

Moses shows us that men are known by their choices.  We make our choices and then our choices make us.  John MacArthur says, “Christian living involves making right decisions.  You can note the maturity of a Christian by the decisions he makes.  Holiness is making right decisions, carnality is making wrong ones.  Our Christian living rises or falls in maturity and holiness on the basis of the decisions we make.  When Satan tempts us, we decide either to say yes or no.  When we have opportunity to witness, we either take advantage of it or we do not.  We decide whether or not to take time to read the Bible and to pray.  It is not a matter of having time but of taking time, and taking time requires a decision.  In business we often have to choose between making more money and being honest and ethical, or between getting ahead and giving enough time to our families and to the Lord’s work.  Virtually everything we do involves a decision”  (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 346).  He goes on to say, “Right choices are made on the basis of right faith.  Often we cannot see the consequences of our choices.  Satan tries to make his way seem attractive and good and God’s way seem hard and unenjoyable.  When we know God’s will in a matter, we choose it by faith.  We know it is the right choice because it is God’s will, even before we see the results.  God’s will is the only reason we need.  When we choose God’s way, we put up the shield of faith, and the temptations and allurements of Satan are deflected (Eph 6:16). . . . The opposite of choosing God’s way is always Satan’s way, and not believing God is believing Satan.  Whenever we sin, we believe Satan; we believe that his way is better than God’s.  We believe the father of lies above the Father of truth”  (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 347)

From the worldly standpoint, he was sacrificing everything for nothing.  But from the spiritual standpoint, he was sacrificing nothing for everything.  (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 350).  Or, as Jim Eliot said, the missionary martyred by the Waorani Indians of Ecuador in 1954, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

God has designed this Christian life so that we would be motivated by rewards.  The emphasis in the Epistle to the Hebrews is: ‘Don’t live for what the world will promise you today!  Live for what God has promised you in the future!

People at Grace Bible Church have heard me quote this statement from C. S. Lewis often:

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith.  Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased.

We must not be troubled by unbelievers when they say that this promise of reward makes the Christian life a mercenary affair.  There are different kinds of reward.  There is the reward which has no natural connection with the things you do to earn it, and is quite foreign to the desires that ought to accompany those things.  Money is not the natural reward of love; that is why we call a man mercenary if he marries a woman for the sake of her money.  But marriage is the proper reward for a real lover, and he is not mercenary for desiring it.  A general who fights well in order to get a peerage is mercenary; a general who fights for victory is not, victory being the proper reward of battle as marriage is the proper reward of love.  The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consummation.  (C. S. Lewis; THE WEIGHT OF GLORY; Preached originally as a sermon in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford ‘, on June 8, 1941)

Moses knew that all the pleasures of Egyptian nobility would last only a short season, if he became ruler of Egypt himself.  But the reward of God, on the other hand, he believed to be eternal.  So it was a matter of trading the temporary for the eternal.  To him, the shame of being identified with the coming Messiah (Christ), was greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt. 

What were some of the blessings that Moses traded the “treasures of Egypt” and the “pleasures of sin” for?  Well, first of all, the company of God’s people.  Moses chose “to be mistreated with the people of God.”  Admittedly, they were not much to look at.  At the moment they were sweaty, dirty, poor slaves.  Certainly not the “in” crowd.  Later, these would be the very people that would give him a lot of trouble, grumbling about the conditions that he led them into.  Some would challenge his leadership. Eventually their grumbling frustrated Moses so much that he sinned by striking the rock in anger, so that the Lord kept him from entering the promised land. But in spite of all the problems he experienced with them, they were “people of God.”  Moses saw it as a far greater blessing to endure ill-treatment with them than to live in the worldly, superficial society of Pharaoh’s court.

Sometimes the “people of God” are not easy to live with, but Christian community really is a blessing.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his little book Life Together, written during the early days of the Nazi regime in Germany: “It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God’s Word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the Gospel in heathen lands stand alone. They know that visible fellowship is a blessing. They remember, as the Psalmist did, how they went ‘with the multitude . . . to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday’ (Ps. 42:4). Let him, who until now has had the privilege of living in common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: it is grace, nothing but grace, that we’re allowed to live in Christian community with Christian brethren.”

Second, as we’ve already mentioned, Moses participated in “the reproach of Christ.”  He was able to experience, through his reproach, the reproach of Christ; through his sufferings, the sufferings of Christ.  It allowed him to rejoice in a deeper experience of Jesus Christ.

Finally, he would gain eternal reward in heaven.  Like the patriarchs, Moses looked ahead, looked to eternity.  The reward that he looked for was, “the better country, that is, a heavenly one” (11:16). When Moses appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration with Elijah and Jesus, it was his first time to set foot in the promised land.  But I have a hunch that he was thinking, “OK, this is nice, really, but when you do think we could get back to heaven?”

And he did it all by faith.  He made these choices because he believed in God’s promises of something better ahead.

Thank you for joining me today in our study of this great epistle, or better put “sermon of exhortation,” which we call Hebrews.  We started last week discussing Moses as an exemplar of faith.  In particular, we looked at Hebrews 11:23 which spoke of the faith of Moses’ parents.

Today we will begin looking at Moses’ own faith in Hebrews 11:24-28.

24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

Moses expressed faith in a greater reward, which allowed him to turn his back on the privileges of being high up in Egyptian society (“called the son of Pharoah’s daughter”) and choosing to eschew the “fleeting pleasures of sin.”  Why?  Because he was “looking to the reward.”  Moses willingly chose mistreatment and the reproach of Christ because he wanted to, because he longed for the reward that was “greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt.”

Faith is what allowed him to do that.  Faith allowed him to see something that was invisible, to long for something that was yet future (cf. Heb. 11:1).  His faith in something better and more lasting caused his heart to long for that rather than the pleasures of this life.

What about you?  Do you say “no” to sin because you fear the consequences, or because you feel external pressures from family or religious associations?  Or do you gladly say “no” to sin because you long to be holy, because you value it as better and greater than the pleasures of sin?

Years ago, and then again just recently, I read this illustration in Sam Storms’ book Pleasures Evermore.  What Sam was doing was illustrating the difference between saying “no” to sin because we have to and saying “no” to sin because we want to.  Or, another way of saying it is saying “no” to sin because of external restraints and saying “no” to sin because our heart is captivated by something better, what Scottish pastor Thomas Chalmers called “the expulsive power of a new affection,” a higher and better desire.

He illustrates with two stories from Greek mythology.   Don’t let that put you off, because the principle is actually quite biblical.

The story concerns two men.  The first is Odysseus, also known as Ulysses.  Ulysses was a devoted husband to his wife, Penelope, adored his son, and agonized at leaving his home of Ithaca. But he was also a Greek, and duty called.

Paris, the prince of Troy, had stolen away Helen, the woman “whose face launched a thousand ships.”  She was the wife of Menelaus, the King of Greece.  He, together with his brother Agamemnon, Ulysses, and a mighty Greek army undertook the daunting task of recapturing her and restoring dignity to their beloved land. 

To make a long story short, hidden in the belly of a huge Trojan horse, Ulysses and his men gained access to the city, slaughtered its inhabitants, and rescued the captive Helen.  But the return voyage to Ithaca, which lasted nearly a decade, would prove to be far more challenging.

People are intrigued by Ulysses’ encounter with the witch Circe and his careful navigation between the treacherous Scylla and Charybdis.  And who can forget his blinding of the Cyclops Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, god of the seas? 

My fascination, however, has always been with the infamous Sirens.  The Sirens were, for lack of a better way of describing them, demonic cannibals who disguised themselves as beautiful women.  Countless were the unwitting sailors who, on passing by their island, succumbed to the outward beauty of the Sirens and their seductively irresistible songs.  Once lured close to shore, their boats crashed on the hidden rocks lurking beneath the surface of the sea.  The Sirens wasted little time in savagely consuming their flesh.

Ulysses had been repeatedly warned about the Sirens and their lethal hypocrisy.  Upon reaching their island, he ordered his crew to put wax in their ears lest they be lured to their ultimate demise. He commanded them to look neither to the left nor right but to row for their very lives.  Ulysses had other plans for himself. He instructed his men to strap him to the mast of the ship, leaving his ears unplugged. “I want to hear their song.  No matter what I say or do, don’t untie me until we are safely at a distance from the island.”

The songs of the Sirens were more than Ulysses’ otherwise strong will could resist. He was utterly seduced by their sound and mesmerized by the promise of immediate gratification.  One Siren even took on the form of Penelope, Ulysses’ wife, seeking to lure him closer on the delusion that he had finally arrived home.  Were it not for the ropes that held him tightly to the mast, Ulysses would have succumbed to their invitation.  Although his hands were restrained, his heart was captivated by their beauty.  Although his soul said “Yes”, the ropes prevented his indulgence.  His “No” was not the fruit of a spontaneous revulsion but the product of an external shackle. 

Ulysses’ encounter with the Sirens, together with his strategy for resisting their appeal, is all too similar to the way many Christians try to live as followers of Jesus Christ.  Like him, their hearts pant for what Hebrews 11:25 refers to as “the fleeting pleasures of sin.” Their wills are no match for the magnetic power of sensual indulgence.  Although they understand what is at stake, they struggle through life saying No to sin, not because their souls are ill-disposed to evil but because their hands have been shackled by the laws and rules imposed by an oppressive religious atmosphere.  It is the extra-biblical taboo that comes thundering from a legalistic pulpit or a long-standing denominational prohibition that accounts for their external complicity.  Their obedience is not the glad product of a transformed nature but a reluctant conformity born of fear and shame. 

I have no desire to live that way.  Neither do you, I suspect.  So, is your “obedience” the expression of your deepest heart-felt joy?  Is it the product of a passion that spontaneously and urgently springs from the depths of your being?  Or are you firmly bound to the mast of religious expectations, all the while yearning for the opposite of what you actually do?  What is the most effective scheme for confronting the sinful sounds of Sirens? 

Jason, like Ulysses, was himself a character of ancient mythology, perhaps best known for his pursuit of the famous Golden Fleece.  Again, like Ulysses, he faced the temptation posed by the seductive sounds of the Sirens.  But his solution was of a different sort. Jason brought with him on the treacherous journey a man named Orpheus, the son of Oeager.  Orpheus was a musician of incomparable talent, especially on the lyre and flute.  When his music filled the air it had an enchanting effect on all who heard.  There was not a lovelier or more melodious sound in all the ancient world. 

When it came time, Jason declined to plug the ears of his crew.  Neither did he strap himself to the mast to restrain his otherwise lustful yearning for whatever pleasures the Sirens might offer. But this was not the reckless decision of an arrogant heart.  Jason had no illusions about the strength of his will or his capacity to be deceived.  He was no less determined than Ulysses to resist the temptations of the Sirens.  But he chose a different strategy.  

He ordered Orpheus to play his most beautiful and alluring songs.  The Sirens didn’t stand a chance!  Notwithstanding their collective allure, Jason and his men paid no heed to the Sirens.  They were not in the least inclined to succumb.  Why?  Was it that the Sirens had ceased to sing?  Was it that they had lost their capacity to entice the human heart?  Not at all. 

Jason and his men said No because they were captivated by a transcendent sound.  The music of Orpheus was of an altogether different and exalted nature.  Jason and his men said No to the sounds of the Sirens because they had heard something far more sublime.  They had tasted something far sweeter. They had encountered something far more noble.

Here’s my point. Ulysses may have survived the sounds of Sirens.  But only Jason triumphed over them.  Yes, both men “obeyed” (in a manner of speaking).  Neither succumbed. Neither indulged his desires. Both men escaped the danger at hand.  But only one was changed. 

The vice-grip the pleasure of sin exerts on the human soul will be broken only by trusting God’s promise of superior pleasure in knowing Jesus.  The only way to conquer one pleasure is with another, greater and more pleasing pleasure.  Whether it’s the sound of Sirens in ancient mythology or the all-too-real appeal of contemporary society, the principle is the same. Our only hope is in maximizing our pleasure in God.

These are the options.  Like Ulysses, you can continue to fight against the restrictive influence of religious ropes and the binding power of fear, reprisal, and guilt, while your heart persists in yearning for what your hand is denied, or, like Jason, you can shout a spontaneous and heartfelt “No!” to the sounds of Sirens because you’ve heard a sweeter sound!  Either you devote your time and energy to demonstrate the ugliness and futility of sin and the world, hoping that such will enable your heart to say No to it as unworthy of your affection, or you demonstrate the beauty and splendor of all that God is for you in Jesus and become happily and joyfully enticed by a rival affection.  

So let’s examine how Moses came to make this decision, to say “no” because he could see greater joy and happiness and satisfaction and contentment, even pleasure and treasure, in God’s will and ways, than in the treasures and pleasures of Egypt.

Between verse 23, which speaks of Moses’ birth and his parents’ faith, and verses 24-26, which presents Moses as an adult making a choice to identify with his Jewish ethnicity, forty years have elapsed.

His identification began with a negative choice: “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter” (v. 24).  First, Moses said “no” to being called “the son of Pharoah’s daughter.”  He had a choice and he could have said “yes” to what was a great privilege and something he had been immersed in for 40 years.

Moses was known by the royal designation “son of Pharaoh’s daughter”—a title of self-conscious dignity that is emphasized here in the Greek by the absence of definite articles.  A modern equivalent might be Duke of York.

To be such during Egypt’s Nineteenth Dynasty would have meant immense prestige and wealth.  Any pleasure that the oriental or occidental mind could conceive of was his for the asking.  Like being a sports celebrity today, this could be intoxicating.  A man could have anything, or anyone, he asked for.

Such privilege and prestige could be delusional, as Boris Pasternak observed of the Russian aristocracy in Dr. Zhivago when the doctor remarked that wealth “could itself create an illusion of genuine character and originality.”

But Moses suffered no such delusions.  Fortunately, although the “son of Pharoah’s daughter,” he had been raised by a godly Jewish mother and had learned the stories about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.  He had heard about their faith and the courageous decisions they had made.  Now he was an adult and it was time to define himself.

So Moses publicly refused the title, which would be a grievous affront and insult to Pharoah.  Kent Hughes says, “True faith will announce its discord whenever God and conscience call for it.  Believers can love their culture, and there is much to love in most cultures, but they will refuse to be identified with the godless zeitgeist or spirit of the age.”

The “world,” in Scripture, is one of our three adversaries, along with our own flesh and the devil himself.  Of course, we acknowledge that this world was originally created “very good,” but since the Fall creation has been infected with pride, lust, and all manner of ungodliness.  The world’s fallen systems have no love for God and in many cases will be decidedly anti-God.

The apostle John told his disciples at Ephesus:

15 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. 16 For all that is in the world–the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions–is not from the Father but is from the world.  17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

And James writes in his epistle, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?  Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).

John MacArthur, in his commentary on Ephesians, writes:

[The “world” is the system] which men are in basic agreement about what is right and wrong, valuable and worthless, important and unimportant.  Sinful men have many different ideas and standards, but they are in total agreement that the network of things in this world is more important than the divine perspective of God. In this most basic world outlook they are of one mind.  They resolutely work to fulfill the goals and values of their system, though it defies God and always self-destructs.  Sinners are persistent in their rejection, and the worse their system becomes, the more they try to justify it and condemn those who speak the Word of God against it.

And pastor Randy Smith says…

The world is the system of every age, the philosophy that opposes the things of God.  The world is forever brainwashing, seeking to squeeze people into their mold.  If the Bible calls for something, most often the world will be against it.  The world will persecute people that oppose its standard.  Nobody opposes the world more than Jesus. In biblical times confessing Jesus would put you out of the synagogue.  Now confessing Jesus will put you out of the good graces of politics, Hollywood, the press, academia and personal acquaintances.

This almost unconscious, inexorable pull away from God was present in Egypt’s culture as it is in ours today, and as Christ followers we have to be aware of it and fight against it.  Moses showed faith when he let God chart his destiny instead of allowing the values of Egypt or raw ambition for Egypt’s values to do it.

And that choice came freely from an imagination, and then a heart, that was captured by a greater vision, a more beautiful song, a more appealing story.  That motivated Moses’ heart to choose another course of action rather than going with the flow of culture and “enjoying” the pleasures and treasures of Egypt.

Moses “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter” so that he could say “yes” to something better and more satisfying.  Just like Jesus told his disciples that they must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him (Matt. 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 14:27).  We say “no” to ourselves so that we can say “yes” to Jesus Christ and follow Him.

Moses decision to renounce his relationship to Pharaoh’s daughter was the turning of his back on immeasurable wealth, unending pleasures, and unspeakable power and glory.  Who would do that?

Only those who by faith grasp that greater treasures and pleasures, even more abundant power and glory, are available to those who choose Christ.  The only way to liberate the heart from servitude to the allure of this world and the passing pleasure of sin is by cultivating a passion for the joy and delight of beholding the beauty of Jesus. 

Try to imagine the kind of life that is available to the billionaires of the day and the world leaders of the day.  That is what Moses gave up.  He surrendered all that pleasure and treasure and power and glory only because he considered “the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward” (Heb. 11:26).

And I hope you will too.