Hebrews 11:23

Heb_11:23

Moses … was hid.

., of his parents

The faith of Moses parents

I. WHAT IS COMMENDED. Faith. Natural affections sanctified are subservient and useful to faith; grace cloth not abolish nature, but perfect it. We are to obey God against our natural affections; as by faith Abraham offered his son Isaac; nature was against it. And we are to obey God with natural affection: by faith Moses was hid of his parents; there nature was for it. Many times Gods interests and ours are twisted together, and then nature is allowed to work, but grace must bear sway; sometimes they are severed, and then we must leave nature to keep company with God. Use

1. It informeth us, that to strengthen faith we may and must take in the help of nature; it is Gods allowance, that we may be carried out more cheerfully in the work of God (Phm_1:16).

2. That their wickedness is very great that sin against nature.

3. In all these mixed actions look to your principles, what beareth sway and worketh most--faith or natural affection. But wherein lay the faith of this action? Chiefly in overcoming fear, in trusting Gods protection for the preservation of the child; and possibly there might be something of a public regard and consideration, in believing the future deliverance of the Church and people of God out of Egypt.

II. WHO ARE COMMENDED. His parents. Husband and wife should go hand in hand to the throne of grace, and join together in every good thing; they should agree together in the worship of God, and promoting the good of their children. When the will of the wife and the will of the husband fall in, like the tenon and the mortise, the building goes on; but when one draws one way, and another the other way, like untamed heifers in the yoke, all cometh to ruin.

III. THE COMMENDATION ITSELF.

1. The action, where

(1) The time--When he was born.

(2) The action itself--He was hid.

(3) The duration--Three months.

2. I come now to the considerations on which it was done.

(1) The external impulsive cause--Because they saw he was a proper child, ἀστεῖον, comely, and fair (Act_7:20). Beauty is not always a sure sign of excellency--there is no trust to the brow; but they saw special lineaments of majesty, and of a heroical disposition in his countenance, which, being accompanied with some secret instinct, moved them to think that God had designed him to some eminent work, probably to the deliverance of his people.

(2) The internal moving cause--And they not afraid of the kings commandment, that bloody law of destroying their children. Here are three points

(a) Princes must not be obeyed in things contrary to the Word of God.

(b) The commands of kings and princes have been a usual trial of Gods children, as Nebuchadnezzars command was to fall down and worship the golden image.

Use: This should draw us off from men. To this end consider

1. We are bound to God more than to men.

2. None can reward us as God can.

3. None can punish our disobedience as God can (Mt

10:28).

4. We live longer with God than we do with men; therefore if a man would study to please, he should rather please God than men. God is eternal, man is but mortal (Isa_51:12).

5. God can make others our friends (Pro_16:7).

6. They that please men shall have enough of it (Hos_5:12).

(c) In such cases carnal fear doth betray us, and faith carries us through Isa_8:12-13). (T. Manton, D. D.)

The childhood of Moses

I. WHERE THERE IS AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE IN FAITH AND FEAR OF THE LORD, IT MAKES WAY UNTO A BLESSED SUCCESS IN ALL THEIR DUTIES: when it is otherwise, nothing succeeds unto their comfort.

II. WHEN DIFFICULT DUTIES BEFAL PERSONS IN THAT RELATION, IT IS THEIR WISDOM EACH TO APPLY THEMSELVES UNTO THAT PART AND SHARE OF IT WHICH THEY ARE BEST SUITED FOR. So was it in this case; Amram, no doubt, was the principal in the advice and contrivance, as his wife was in its actual execution.

III. THIS IS THE HEIGHT OF PERSECUTION, WHEN PRIVATE HOUSES ARE SEARCHED BY BLOODY OFFICERS, TO EXECUTE TYRANNICAL LAWS--when the last and utmost retreat of innocence, for that protection which is due unto it by the law of God and nature, with the common rules of human society, cannot be a shelter against wicked rage and fury. No doubt but during this season their diligence was accompanied with fervent cries unto God, and the exercise of trust in Him. The occasion was great on all hands, and they were not wanting unto any part of their duty. The outward act of hiding the child was but an indication of the internal working of their faith.

IV. IT IS WELL WHEN ANYTHING OF EMINENCE IN OUR CHILDREN DOTH SO ENGAGE OUR AFFECTIONS UNTO THEM, AS TO MAKE THEM USEFUL AND SUBSERVIENT UNTO DILIGENCE IN DISPOSING OF THEM UNTO THE GLORY OF GOD. Otherwise a fondness in parents, arising from the natural endowments of children, is usually hurtful, and oftentimes ruinous unto the one and other.

V. THE RAGE OF MEN AND THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH SHALL WORK OUT THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF GODS COUNSELS AND PROMISES, UNTO HIS GLORY, FROM UNDER ALL PERPLEXITIES AND DIFFICULTIES THAT MAY ARISE IN OPPOSITION UNTO IT. So they did in this instance in an eminent manner. (J. Owen, D. D.)

Faith the ground of parental courage:

I. A BELOVED CHILD IN GREAT DANGER. Children are always in danger.

1. There are the perils connected with physical well-being.

2. Those which come from the hardening influence of resistance of Divine grace. What if the child should steadfastly persist in evil habits which already show themselves!

3. Those which come through the malice of Satan. Satan is on the track of the children.

II. THE PARENTS FEARLESS FAITH. Parents. The strength of the faith may have been due to that; it was the joint faith of two. This faith showed itself

1. In a quiet confidence that God would protect their child.

2. In the adoption of all possible means to the right end.

III. THIS FEARLESS FAITH RESTING ON SUFFICIENT GROUNDS. What are they?

1. The intrinsic worth of a child. Who can tell what any child may become?

2. The fact that the child is fair to God. (See margin of Act_7:20).

3. The distinct promises of Gods Word. (C. New.)

The hiding of Moses by faith:

I. IT IS A GREAT BLESSING WHEN IN A FAMILY BOTH THE PARENTS HAVE FAITH. By faith he was hid three months of his parents. Moses himself (Exo_2:1-25.) ascribes this to his mother--When she saw that he was a goodly child she hid him three months. Stephen (Act_7:1-60.). says, In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his fathers house three months: thus mentioning rather his father than his mother. No doubt the apostle combined the two other inspired utterances. Do you wonder that Moses chiefly mentions his mother, Joehebed? I do not. What man is there among us but always delights to mention his godly mother, and though we would have no partialities about our parents, yet without controversy great is the mystery of a mothers love, and there are some points about it in which it makes a deeper impression upon the memory than a fathers care. Prize fathers as you may, and should, yet there is a tender touch that comes home to every mans heart when he thinks of his mother. It seems natural that Moses should, when he wrote the account, mention most of all his mother; and indeed a mother has more to do with a babe than a father can have: in its tender infancy she is naturally its chief guardian. Perhaps, too, though we cannot be sure, Jochebed may have been the stronger believer of the two, and may have been the main instigator of the childs preservation.

II. TRUE AND EVEN REMARKABLE FAITH MAY ACT IN A VERY COMMONPLACE WAY. What do we read? By faith they subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, and so on. Why these are great things, worthy of mention. Yes, but this also is great in its ways--By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents. It has no trumpet ring about it like stopping lions mouths and quenching fires, and subduing kingdoms, but in Gods point of view, the hiding of a little baby three months, may be as great an instance of acceptable faith as any of them: even turning to flight the armies of the alien may not be greater than defeating the malice of a king by saving a little child. But you say, Was it not natural enough that a mother should try to preserve her childs life? Can a woman forget her suckling child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, I know all that; but still the Lord is not praising the natural affections but the supernatural faith. We should say, Nature led them to conceal the babe, but God says, Faith led them to do it, and, in their degree, both are true. Nature prompted, but faith constrained, and enabled them to do what else their timidity would not have ventured upon.

III. FAITH WILL ACT WITH A VERY SLENDER ENCOURAGEMENT. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child. Stephen says in his speech that the child was exceeding fair; and if you look at Stephens speech you will see that the translators have put in the margin, fair to God. So it may run, when they saw that the child was fair to God. Now, I gather from that expression that the child was beautiful beyond the common run of children; that there was a charm about its features, and something superhuman, probably, since it was fair to God. In the babes face there were prophecies of the man of God. Surely among them that have been born of woman there has not been born a greater than Moses; and about him as a child there was a something so marvellously beautiful, that his parents were fascinated by him.

IV. FAITH HAS GREAT POWER IN OVERCOMING FEAR. There was, no doubt, appended to Pharaohs statute a punishment for anybody who should not obey the law. Perhaps four lives were in danger for the sake of that one little life--her husband, herself, Aaron, and Miriam, her daughter. Yet through faith she will run all risks, and so will all her family, that this promising child whom they believe God has sent to them for a noble purpose may still live. Now, if you have faith in Christ manifest it by overcoming all fear of the consequences of doing right. It is right to obey God rather than man.

V. FAITH IS OFTEN DRIVEN TO GREAT SHIFTS. The mother was put to great shifts to hide her child, and she used all her wits and common-sense. She did not put her child in the front room, or carry it into the street or sit at the open door and nurse it, but she was prudent, and acted as if all depended upon her concealing the babe. Some people suppose that if you have faith you may act like a fool. But faith makes a person wise. It is one of the notable points about faith that it is sanctified common-sense. It is not fanaticism, it is not absurdity; it is making God the grandest asset in our account, and then reckoning according to the soundest logic.

VI. FAITHS SIMPLE ACTS OFTEN LEAD ON TO THE GRANDEST RESULTS. Great wheels turn on little axles. There is a tiny part to each machine of unutterable importance. You never know the infinity of the influence of a word. To the wise man nothing is little; to the fool nothing is truly great. Make all things great by doing them by faith. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Potentialities in the life of a child

Who can say how vast are the potentialities involved in the life of a young child? More than nineteen hundred years ago, in the civil wars of Rome, the life of a beautiful child was again and again saved from the extremest peril. That child grew up to be a heavy curse to himself, a heavy curse to others; he grew up to be one of the worst men who ever lived; the Emperor Tiberius, in whose reign Christ was crucified. Again, some hundred and fifty years ago, a house in an English village was found to be in flames. The clergyman and his family--for it was the vicarage--were roused, and when they had escaped, itwas found that one little boy was still in the burning house. A ladder was placed to the window, he was rescued, and handed unhurt into his fathers arms. What would the world have lost had that little boy perished? For his name was John Wesley, and by his piety and zeal he fanned into flame once more the dead white embers of Christian faith. Now, who can tell what a little child may be! He may grow up, as has been said, like Beethoven, to lift the soul by the magic of Divine melody into the seventh heaven of ineffable vision and incommensurable hope; or like Newton, to weigh the far-off stars in the balance, and measure the heavings of the eternal flow; or like Luther, to scorch up what is cruel and false by a word, as by a flame; or like Milton and Burke, to awake mens hearts with the note of an organ trumpet; or like the great saints of the Churches and the great sages of the Schools, to add to those acquisitions of spiritual beauty and intellectual mastery which have, one by one, and little by little, raised men from being no higher than the brute to be only a little lower than the angels. You never know but what the child, in rags and pitiful squalor, that meets you in the streets, may have in him the germ of gilts that might add new treasure to the storehouse of beautiful things or noble acts. In that great storm of terror which swept over France in 1793, a certain man who was every hour expecting to be led off to the guillotine uttered this memorable sentiment: Even at this incomprehensible moment, he said, when morality, enlightenment, love of country, all of them only make death at the prison door or on the scaffold more certain--yes, on the fatal tumbril itself, with nothing free but my voice, I could still cry Take care to a child that should come too near the wheel. Perhaps I may save his life; perhaps he may one day save his country. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 11:23. By faith Moses — As if he had said, The parents of Moses believing, when he was a child, that God would make use of him at a future period, for some extraordinary service to his people; hid him three months — In their own house, to preserve him from falling a sacrifice to the cruelty of Pharaoh. It appears by this, that both his parents were engaged in the work of concealing him, although his mother only is mentioned, Exo 2:2; because they saw he was a proper child — Greek, ειδον αστειον το παιδιον, they saw the child beautiful; and doubtless through a divine presage of things to come, and not merely from his beauty, believed that God had designed him for some singular usefulness. And they were not afraid of the king’s commandment — Requiring all Israelitish parents, on pain of death, to give up their male children that they might be thrown into the river. Of Moses’s beauty, see note on Act 7:20.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

Heb_11:23. Proper child.—Goodly child; unusual for beauty and signs of intelligence; ἀστεῖον, goodly, fair, beautiful (Act_7:20, “fair to God”).

Heb_11:24. Refused to be called.—This is based wholly on Jewish legends.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Heb_11:23-29

The Faith of Moses.—These verses cover and include all the references which this writer thinks it necessary to make to Moses. In comparison with the notices of other great men the reference to Moses is long and various, and this would be regarded as befitting by those who held Moses in almost supreme honour. There are illustrations of the practical power of faith in four distinct sets of relations.

I. The faith that could be disobedient.—Not to God, but to man, in loyalty to God. Often in life the expedient becomes a temptation to us. The will of those in authority over us may conflict with the will of God. Then the expedient is to keep straight with the human authority and risk offending God. In presence of that conflict faith gives the man power to disobey the local authority in order to obey the supreme Authority. This conflict appears—

1. In the case of the parents of Moses. Faith enabled them to disobey the command of the Pharaoh, and scheme to secure the life of their child. It is plain that there was more than parental love guiding their conduct. There was some inward witness, some word of God which they recognised as such, indicating that the child was sent for some Divine mission. Only motherly faith could persistently, and heedless of all peril, carry through such a scheme of disobedience.

2. In the case of Moses’ disobedience to his foster-mother. “He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” What but faith in God’s mission for him could have led to such a resolve—a resolve which, from all human points of view, was utterly unreasonable! It costs a man much to break away from the destiny that is arranged for him; he never can do it save as he believes in some other destiny that God has for him. Why it should be said that Moses “esteemed the reproach of Christ” does not readily appear. What the writer had in mind is difficult to trace. Perhaps he meant “the same reproach that Christ endured”—the reproach that comes when a man persists in doing the will of God as he knows it. That certainly was the mind of Moses at this time. He was quite sure that it was not the will of God that he should become an Egyptian prince, and his faith enabled him to bear the reproach of disobedience. It may be a power to help us in some of the grave perplexities of life to remember that faith in God can be—it has been—an inspiration of disobedience to man. Illustrate the martyrs.

II. Faith that can endure.—It is hardly possible to conceive a more burdened and anxious life than that which Moses lived. He had times of personal peril, but they are of far less importance than the constant strain upon feeling involved in leading the people, and mediating between them and God. The word “endure” is admirably chosen. Faith enabled Moses to keep on, and push through, and bear all—faith the inspiration of “patient continuance in well-doing.”

III. Faith that can meet great occasions.—Life is mainly commonplace and routine; but every life has its surprises, and occasions when supreme demands are made upon it. Such times came to Moses at the burning bush, Mount Sinai, and when smiting the rock for water. Faith helped; lost faith meant failure. The writer here mentions the climax of the visitation on Egypt, when with the unquestioning faith of an immediate deliverance, Moses made the people “keep the Passover.”

IV. Faith that can do the seemingly impossible.—Moses believed the word of God which ordered him to turn out of the route toward Canaan, and go down by the shores of the Red Sea. It was a strange command, wholly beyond man’s comprehension. That way they could neither get to Canaan, nor get to the desert of Sinai. Every step put a wider stretch of water between them and the land where they would be. Faith triumphed unto obedience, and faith was vindicated by so glorious a Divine deliverance as stamped once and for ever the supreme relations of Jehovah as God of the people Israel. That which is impossible with men is possible with God; and possible it becomes to man when he has such faith in God as Moses had.

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

Heb_11:24. Choice revealing Character.—There is no better sign of character than the manner in which a man makes a serious decision. It is something that

(1) he estimates the seriousness;

(2) that he considers before deciding;

(3) that he is capable of judging the value of considerations;

(4) that he judges in the light of duty rather than of pleasure, and of the future rather than the present.

Heb_11:24-26. The Choice of Moses.—It has been said: “Biography is a feeble struggle with death. It is an attempt to retain something of the man, his spirit and manner of thinking and feeling, that he being dead may yet speak.” In this temple of Jewish worthies, whose faith is recorded for our example, Moses occupies a conspicuous niche.

I. The choice of Moses.—The world placed before him its very best, and religion placed before him its very worst; and between the best of the world and the worst of religion he was called upon to make his choice.

1. What the world placed before him.

(1) Honour—that of being the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.

(2) Pleasures—the pleasures of sin, sensational and unhealthy mental excitement. Such pleasures of sin are, however, only for a season; and there are pains of sin as well as pleasures.

(3) Wealth—the treasures of Egypt. The three things which men so eagerly pursue, any one of which is deemed by the world a great inheritance, were all placed at the feet of Jesus.

2. What religion set before him. It came to him in its meekest, saddest guise, and placed before him—(a) Affliction. If Moses espoused the cause of the people of God, he must be prepared to share their burdens and endure their trials. (b) The reproach of Christ; or such reproach as Christ endured, such as always attaches to spiritual religion.

II. There is a sense in which we may have to make a choice as Moses had.—

1. In relation to our position in life.

2. In relation to companions and society.

3. In relation to the concerns, and some of the minutest acts, of our daily life. What was it that influenced Moses in making his good choice—faith. Such a choice has its reward in this world. “A mind conscious of rectitude is its own reward.” Our religion brings to us now its own reward. And it has also a recompense in the world to come.—Absalom Clark.

Heb_11:27. The “Endurance” of Faith.—This verse gives the key to the long, anxious, heroic life that Moses lived. “Endured” is the proper word. His life was full of difficulties. Circumstances seemed to be always against him, and he could not do the things that he would. He was always set under limitations; and out of the constant “bearing” and “enduring” of his daily life he came to be the meekest, most self-denying, least personally ambitious of all men who have ever lived. The secret of his wonderful power of endurance was his “seeing the invisible”—a vision which, in his earlier days, was simply the sight of the soul-eyes which we call “faith.” Afterwards it gained surprising help through symbols, and the sound of a heavenly voice. But, better than all visions, there was a heart-realisation, a soul-vision, which kept the invisible God ever closely near, and made him regard as an agony unspeakable the bare possibility that God’s presence would not go with him. What can we learn from the secret of Moses?

I. Life for us all is enduring.—It is for all who feel their nobility, who cannot regard life as man’s play-hour, who understand that man is set in the midst of disability, because the supreme purpose of God concerning him is his moral culture. It is for all who feel themselves to be above circumstances, and refuse to be mere waifs and strays, driven hither and thither with every wind, and tossed. In the morning outlook of life it seems to be all enjoying. Wonderful is the hopefulness of youth. But as years pass on the reality proves other than our dream. Soon we have to say that life is not all enjoying; it is enduring. Things will not be according to our mind. Circumstances are against us. Relationships are trying. And yet we know that we are bigger than life.

1. Can we endure the things that are, just as they exactly are?

2. Can we endure that which we ourselves are?

3. Can we endure those precise conditions under which God deals with us? It is not, Can we submit? It is, Can we endure? Can we keep on through it all, holding fast faith, never faltering, hoping on, working on, making love and loyalty master all disasters, all disabilities, and winning virtue out of woe. The endurance of Moses was self-restraint to win power to serve God and man.

II. Life for us all may have a Divine presence.—Man, and God with him, is the great mystery of the Creation. This is the idea of the theocracy—a nation, and God with it. Prophets spoke with authority, because they were men having God with them. Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us. The Holy Ghost is God making His abode in man.

1. There is the presence of God as providence.

2. There is the thought of God’s fatherly care.

3. But there is something higher and better—the sense of God’s presence, which is a special revelation to the Christian heart. Do men say of the Christian, “He is only a man”? He should let them know, he should make them feel, that he is not just a man, but a man having God with him—a man who has the invisible One so near that he can always see Him.

III. Life for us all may be glorified by this Divine presence.—

1. It makes life very serious. It is a solemnising influence. We have One with us everywhere who is grieved with wrong, who wants everything to bear the stamp of the holy.

2. It keeps before us high aims: not merely human ones, but those that God has for us, such as God may inspire us to attain.

3. It brings a consciousness of ability, so that we say with St. Paul, “I can do all things through Him which strengtheneth me.”

4. And it satisfies us concerning the future. It is enough; here God is with us; then surely there we shall be with God. This verse has been rendered, “He was stedfast towards Him who is invisible, as if seeing Him.”

The Invisible God.—Note—

1. The God with whom we have to do is an invisible God. He is so to our senses, to the eye of the body; and this shows the folly of those who pretend to make images of God, whom no man hath seen, nor can see.

2. By faith we may see the invisible God. We may be fully assured of His existence, of His providence, and of His gracious and powerful presence with us.

3. Such a sight will enable believers to endure to the end whatever they may meet with in the way.—Matthew Henry.

Seeing the Invisible God.

I. Consider the invisibility of God.—This is one of the negative attributes of God. Unchangeableness, unsearchableness, irresistibleness, invisibility, are all negative attributes of God. And we require such negative conceptions to assist our idea of an absolute, infinite, all-perfect Being. Job’s familiar words really mean this: “I cannot in any way penetrate the dark mantle of His invisibility” (Job_11:7). See also Deu_4:12; Deu_4:15; 1Ti_6:15-16. The same truth is implied when our Saviour teaches that “God is a spirit.” We are perfect, in relative creature perfection, with our bodies, not without them. But the perfection of a creature must be, in some points (and this is one of them), in direct contrast with the perfection of the Creator. He is not seen, because He is perfect. Because He will always be perfect, He will never be seen. Ten thousand happy souls do indeed see His face day by day. But what soul has ever seen His form? What form hath He to be seen? The fruits and traces of His perfections are seen in all His works, but He Himself is seen nowhere. In saying this we are of course remembering “God manifest in the flesh,” and the elevation of the visible humanity into the heavens in the person of Jesus Christ. But if it should be that our Lord will always, through eternity, retain His glorified humanity in heaven, and be seen in that, and beloved and worshipped in that, the question still is, What will be seen? The spiritual essence, the infinite power and presence of God, will still be deep within, quite beyond, high above, far away. What I can see can never be a portion to my immortal soul; a spiritual substance requires a spiritual portion; the child-spirits need the Father of spirits. It is the grand discovery of the Scriptures, and the good message of salvation, that God only is good enough for man. Spirit for spirit—Creator for creature—the Invisible for the visible. We have never seen our own souls; we shall never see their portion.

II. The seeing of the invisible God.—Moses really did see God by soul-sight, or, as we say, by faith. He believed in His actual presence in the world, in human life, in human affairs. He believed that He would be with him, according to His express promise, to cheer his heart, to guide his way, and to confirm his work to the end. He not only believed in God’s presence with him, but he relied on His strength. God’s presence was to him an actual power, on which he could lean. There is no use to us in this example of Moses if it is exceptional. His duties and his whole career were high and singular, but his sight of the invisible God was the same act of the soul by which all the faithful in the camp, however humble, were sustained, by which the faithful in every age have lived and triumphed. And at this day what we have to do is just to observe the Presence that is always near, and lean upon the arm that never faints. Then we shall “endure.”

(1) We shall endure when all that is visible threatens;

(2) when all that is visible allures;

(3) when everything visible decays, changes, passes away.—Alexander Raleigh, D.D.

The Christian Way of seeing God.—It is a full and exhaustive definition of Christ’s salvation to designate it—the Christian way of seeing God. For what is religious salvation but the perfect vision of God, the perfect restoration of man to God, the perfect enjoyment by man of God?” We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.” Not a distant glimpse of God, a trembling touch, a casual break in the dark firmament of life; but a full, unclouded manifestation, a Divine Pleroma, the true Pantheism. Not the old Oriental Nirvâna, our human personality lost in Deity, put out like a flame in the light of the meridian sun; but our true and perfect spiritual individuality, filled with the light, the life, the inspiration, of God.—H. Allon, D.D.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 11

Heb_11:24-25. Decision of Character.—The man will not re-examine his conclusions with endless repetition, and he will not be delayed long by consulting other persons, after he has ceased to consult himself. He cannot bear to sit still among unexecuted decisions and unattempted projects. We wait to hear of his achievements, and are confident we shall not wait long. The possibility or the means may not be obvious to us, but we know that everything will be attempted, and that a spirit of such determined will is like a river, which, in whatever manner it may be obstructed, will make its way somewhere. It must have cost Cæsar many anxious hours of deliberation before he decided to pass the Rubicon; but it is probable he suffered but few to elapse between the decision and the execution. And any one of his friends who should have been apprised of his determination, and understood his character, would have smiled contemptuously to hear it insinuated that, though Cæsar had resolved, Cæsar would not dare; or that though he might cross the Rubicon, whose opposite bank presented to him no hostile legions, he might come to other rivers which he would not cross; or that either rivers or any other obstacles would deter him from prosecuting his determination from this ominous commencement to its very last consequence.—John Foster.

Heb_11:26. The Reproach of Christ.—A curious discovery has been made in Rome. It is a rude caricature scratched on the ruined wall of the Prætorian barracks, representing a man worshipping another man hanging on a cross, the crucified figure being drawn with the head of an ass, and the words roughly written beneath, “Alexamenos worships God,” i.e. in effect, “See what a god Alexamenos worships!” Revolting and hideous as this caricature is, it is deeply interesting as a specimen of the ribald jests to which a Christian soldier was exposed, and also most valuable as a proof that the early Church believed in the Deity of Christ. A woodcut copy of this strange drawing will be found in Macduff’s St. Paul at Rome, p. 225. Genuine faith influences us to deny ourselves, to renounce the world, to cherish holiness, to bear reproach, and to look beyond the present scene to the world of light and eternal glory. Such an effect will be produced, more or less, on all who possess this Divine grace. The Marquis of Vico, in Italy, when he was come to years, and to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, refused to be called the son and heir to a marquis, a cupbearer to an emperor, and nephew to a pope, and chose rather to suffer affliction, persecution, banishment, loss of lands, living, wife, children, honours, and preferments, than to enjoy the sinful pleasures of Italy for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the honours of the most brilliant connection, and all the enjoyments of the most ample fortune; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.

The True Riches.—Elizabeth Christina, Queen of Prussia, was speaking one day to the little daughter of her gardener, and was greatly pleased with the wisdom and gentleness of the child. Some time after, as the queen was about to sit down with her ladies at table, the child was brought in, and the queen ordered her to sit beside her. The queen was curious to see what impression the gold and silver and bright ornaments would make on the little girl. She looked round in silence and astonishment; at last she folded her tiny hands, and said, with a clear voice,—

“Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness

My beauty are, and glorious dress;

Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed,

With joy shall I lift up my head.”

The ladies were deeply moved. “Oh the happy child!” one of them exclaimed to the queen, “how high she is above us!”

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

V

The example of Moses

Heb_11:23-29

23By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of [by] his parents, because they saw he was a proper child [that the child was beautiful]; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. 24By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; 25Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season [to have a transient enjoyment from sin]; 26Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt;16 for he had respect [for, he was looking away] unto the recompense of the reward. 27By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 28Through faith he kept [he has celebrated] the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest [in order that] he that destroyed.17 the first-born should [may not] touch them. 29By faith they passed through the Red Sea, as by dry land;18 which the Egyptians assaying to do, were drowned.

[Heb_11:23.—γενηθείς, on being born=when he was born.—εἶδον ἀστεῖον τὸ παιδίον, they saw the child (to be)fair, comely; ἀστεῖον, predicate.

Heb_11:24.—μέγας γενόμενος, on becoming large, on being grown up.—θυγατρὸς, of a daughter, without the Art.

Heb_11:25.—πρόσκαιρον ἁμαρτίας ἀπόλαυσιν, a temporary enjoyment from sin; ἁμαρτίας being here not the Gen. object., denoting sin as that which is enjoyed, but Gen. subject., denoting sin as conferring the enjoyment, or that from which the enjoyment comes. Here, as at Hebrews 3., the sin of apostasy. So Bl., Del., and Moll. Alf. denies, and makes it the Gen. obj.; but unnecessarily, and with much less force in the train of thought of the Epistle.

Heb_11:26.—ἀπέβλεπεν, he was looking away, as ἀφορῶντες, “so as to be waiting for it, or by regard for it determined or strengthened in a course of action” (Bl.), Heb_12:2.—μισθαποδοσίαν, the rendering of the reward (Heb_2:2).

Heb_11:27.—κατέλιπεν (κατά intensive), abandoned, forsook.—τὸν ἀόρατον—ὁρῶν, seeing the unseen, scil., perhaps βασιλεα; a paronomasia, as Rom_1:20, τὰ ἀόρατα—καθορᾶται.

Heb_11:28.—Πεποίηκεν, he has made; either instituted, or, in conformity with the common use of the word in such connections, celebrated. The Perf. indicates it as a thing standing recorded in history as done (Heb_11:17, προσενήνοχεν).—τὴν πρόσχυσιν, not strictly the sprinkling, but the pouring on (Angiessung) of blood.

Heb_11:29.—ἧς πεῖραν λαβόντες, of which, scil., either γῆς or θαλάσσης. The former preferred by Kuin., Böhm., Klee, Del.; the latter by Bl., Lün., Alf. Moll does not decide, but apparently inclines to γῆς.—κατεπόθησαν, were drunk up, swallowed up, drowned.—K.].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Heb_11:23. Inasmuch as οἱ πατέρες in Greek sometimes has the same signification as οἱ γονεῖς (examples in Wets. and Del.), and the mother of Moses is expressly mentioned in the original, we must refer the term to Jochebed and Amram, and not (with Beng., Menk., Stier, and others,) put in place of the mother of Moses, her father, Kohath.

Heb_11:24. Come to years (become large) μέγας γενόμενος.—Schultz and Bretschn. refer the μέγας to worldly power and honor; but the contrast is between the child and the grown up man, who has reached the period of independent choice and decision.

Heb_11:25. To have enjoyment from sin.—The ἁμαρτίας ἀπόλαυσις is not the enjoyment of sin (Theoph. Schlicht, Lün., Alf., etc.), but the enjoyment to which sin opens the way; for this enjoyment, indicated as for a season, stands in the same relation to apostasy from God and from His people (as that ἁμαρτία which we are to shun mentioned, Heb_3:13; Heb_10:26), as the suffering of affliction bears to fellowship with the covenant people of God.

Heb_11:26. The reproach of Christ.—Lün. understands by the ὀνειδισμὸς τοῦ χριστοῦ, the reproach which Christ bore; Ebr. (after the older interpp.), the reproach for the sake of Christ which Moses endured by virtue of his hope in the Messiah; Bl., Del., and others, correctly, the reproach which Christ had to endure in His own person, and has to endure in His members. The author’s warrant for ascribing to Moses a participation in this reproach is found by Hofm. in the typical connection, by virtue of which, the Old Testament people of God bear in themselves the impress of Christ, inasmuch as Christ is He whom the Old Testament history, in advance, represents, and whom the Old Testament Word promises. Stier finds this warrant in the mystical unity of Christ and His church; De W. and Thol., in the pre-existent presence of Christ as the Logos, in the Old Testament Israel (1Co_10:4; 1Pe_1:10 ff.); Baumg., (Theol. comm. on the Pent.) citing the authority of Augustine, in that preparation for Christ’s appearance in the flesh which runs through the entire history of Israel. Delitzsch unites the various explanations, and says: “The reproach of Christ is, to our author, the reproach of the Christ who was present as Logos in His people made one with Him, and there typically announcing His incarnation which was yet to take place.”

Heb_11:27. Forsook Egypt.—All the Greek and Latin intpp., except Nich. Lyra, refer this to the flight of Moses to Midian, Exo_2:15; but since, in that case, the flight was occasioned by fear of the king’s wrath (Heb_11:14), but here, on the contrary, is ascribed to Moses’ fearlessness, very weighty interpreters since Lyra (as Calv., Schlicht., Grot., Calov, Böhme, Bl., etc., and recently Ebr. and Bisp.) have referred it to the Exodus of Moses with the collected people. Justly, however, Zeger, Calmet, Bengel, De Wette, Tholuck, Lönemann, Delitzsch, and others, have adhered to the earlier view. In favor of this is the succession of events here recounted; the expression κατέλιπεν, abandoned, forsook, which, indeed, might possibly be referred to the Exodus, (Joseph., Antt., II. 15, 2), but in the present connection points to something personally, and exclusively pertaining to Moses; and finally, the circumstance that the Exodus (Exo_12:31) took place with the consent of Pharaoh. Nor is it necessary to the solution of the above mentioned contradiction, to assume, with De Wette, a decided failure of memory on the part of the author, or, with Lün., to distinguish a fear, taken objectively, from fearlessness as a purely subjective emotion. We might ask, with Tholuck, could not the author, without forgetting the fear inspired in Moses by the first rumor of the king’s wrath, wish to express that his faith had nevertheless overcome that fear? or we can say, with Del., that he, the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, quitted Egypt without consulting the king; that he did this without fearing the heightened wrath which he incurred by this voluntary sundering of his relation to the Egyptian court. Both interpreters appeal in support of their view to the reason stated in the following clause, “he endured, etc.”—[It seems to me that this is a case in which it is equally gratuitous to suppose, with De Wette, a failure in the author’s memory; and, with Alford and others, to feel any serious difficulty in the explanation. Looking at the withdrawal of Moses from Egypt, it seems to me that one might, with nearly equal truth, say that he left “fearing,” or, “not fearing” the wrath of the king; and that which one would be likely to say would depend simply on his point of view and immediate purpose in recurring to the event. That, in his earlier withdrawal, Moses did fear the wrath of the king is certain, and this was the immediate occasion of his flight as such. But, on the other hand, that his entire course at this time, alike in the act which occasioned his flight, and his general choice and state of mind, arose above considerations of fear, and were determined by a practical defiance of the wrath of the king, is equally certain. According, therefore, as the writer had his mind on the one or the other of these facts, the passing fear that dictated the flight, or the higher courage and trust in God which prevented that fear from being controlling, and which, in fact, led him to provoke the wrath of the king, he might use one representation or the other. Here it better suits his purpose to present the spiritual fearlessness which dictated his whole course of conduct, in connection with its ground, viz: his faith in Him who is unseen. I think that βασιλέα is to be understood with τὸν ἀόρατον. The author puts the unseen heavenly King, whom Moses saw with the vision of his faith, over against the seen king, at whom, without this vision, he would have trembled.—K.].

He endured.—It is grammatically unallowable to make (with Luth., Beng., Schultz, Paul., Ebr.) τὸν ἀόρατον dependent on ἐκαρτέρησεν. For the transitive signification of this verb is not to adhere to something, but to endure something, e.g.: hunger and thirst. Here the intransitive signification alone is possible.

Heb_11:28. Hath celebrated the Passover.—Since ποιεῖν uniformly appears along with φαγεῖν τὸ πάσχα, only of the celebration of the Passover (Exodus 9; Exo_12:48; Num_9:2; Jos_5:10; Mat_26:18), the assumption that here the significations of founding and celebrating are united (Böhm., Bl., Lün.), is not merely uncertain (De W.), but false: “yet the perfect πεποίηκεν may suggest the idea that the Egyptian passover, which stands before us as an accomplished fact, has become the foundation for the celebration of the Passover in subsequent times” (Del.).

Destroyer, etc.—The Heb. הַמַּשְׁחִית=destruction, the Sept. translates by ὁ ὀλεθρεύων, and certainly (as Asaph, Psa_78:49) conceives as an angelic minister of divine justice (comp. 1Ch_21:12; 1Ch_21:15; 2Ch_32:21; Sir_48:21; 1Co_10:10). It is grammatically impossible to connect τὰ πρωτότοκα with θίγῃ (Klee, Paul., Ebr.). This verb governs the Gen. (here αὐτῶν and τὰ πρωτότοκα is dependent on ὁ ὀλεθρεύων. Of course, in the connection “their first-born,” is readily understood to refer to the first-born of the Israelites, though the latter are not expressly named.

Heb_11:29. Of which the Egyptians making trial.—The relative ἧς can be equally well referred to the “dry land” immediately preceding (Böhm., Kuin., Klee, Del.), or to the “Red Sea.” Πεῖράν τινος λαμβάνειν may mean to make trial of something, or, to make an attempt at something, as here and Heb_11:36.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. When we believe that God has special purposes regarding a man, we not merely hope for his preservation, but we acquire courage in cöoperating for his deliverance; and we rely on God’s assistance in deeds of daring, and amidst circumstances of peril.

2. Worldly greatness, honor, power, and pleasure, have, indeed, a splendid appearance, and exercise a power of temptation by which many are led astray; but the believer recognizes the perishable and dangerous character of these possessions and enjoyments. He looks to the future, the divine judgments, and the recompense of reward; and allows himself to be influenced neither by the allurements nor by the threats of the world; is seduced neither by the fear nor the favor of man, but remains steadfast in his vocation, having God before his eyes and in his heart.

3. The power to deliver and to destroy, lies not in outward things and events, but, on the one hand, in the favor and in the wrath of God, who employs them as means and instruments; on the other, in the faith and the unbelief of men, who use these means for salvation, or abuse them to their ruin.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Faith looks to the purposes of God regarding the children of men, and to the means of their accomplishment.—The believer fears neither to encounter the wrath of men, nor to endure the reproach of Christ.—That which brings salvation to the believer, brings the unbeliever to destruction.—The believer looks, 1, not upon the outward appearance, but upon the inward form; 2, not upon perishable riches, but upon the eternal possessions; 3, not upon the visible world, but upon the invisible God.

Starke:—The world abuses in many ways the outward form and condition of men; but God frequently employs them as a means or occasion for great good. To many a one they serve as a means of trial.—Governments are in God’s stead, and are to be honored; but when they give ungodly commands, these are to be given to the winds, Act_5:29.—The friendship of God and the world cannot be enjoyed together (Jam_4:4).—The temporal afflictions of the pious are followed by eternal joy; the temporal joy of the ungodly by eternal affliction; consider well to which thou wilt devote thyself.—In sufferings and afflictions we must look to the gracious reward in heaven; this can alleviate and sweeten all (Psa_94:19).—To be despised and persecuted for Christ’s sake, is an honor and a token of our attaining to the heavenly glory (Mat_5:11-12).—Let the enemy continue to rage; ho cannot overpass the limits which God has fixed. When God chooses to bear with him no longer, He strikes him to the ground (Isa_41:10; Isa_43:16-17; Isa_51:9-10).

Rieger:—O how many of our natural impulses lack that right direction which faith would give to them! how often do we yield ourselves and our children to the disposal of men, and faith should strengthen us to yield them up at the good pleasure of God!—Faith frequently receives guidance and direction from the visible; but it transforms the visible not into food for vanity, but into nourishment for its trust.—One may, even out of the delicate and beautiful, weave subtle snares for his own children, and for the innocence of others.—Faith and foolhardiness are widely separated from each other.—Faith admits the judicious employment of all means of security.

Heubner:—Fellowship with the people of God leads to suffering, but apostasy brings after temporal gain eternal shame.—Faith is the spiritual eye which recognizes the nothingness of earthly treasures, and the value of the heavenly.—Faith at once foregoes and preserves.

Burckhardt (Ohly, 1862, II. 2):—The believing spirit of the Christian: 1. In its nature; it regards the reproach of Christ, spurned and contemned Christianity, more highly than, a, earthly life, Heb_11:23; b, worldly honor, Heb_11:24; c, sinful pleasure, Heb_11:25; d, temporal riches, Heb_11:26. 2. In its reward: a, it brings out of Egypt, the house of bondage of sin, Heb_11:27; b, secures against temporal death by the blood of Christ, Heb_11:28; c, goes confidently through death into the heavenly Canaan, Heb_11:29.

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11:23 Moses’ parents: See Exod 2:1-2. • unusual (or attractive, or beautiful): This word refers to something of superior quality. Their insight that Moses was extraordinary led them to act by faith in God. • the king’s command: Exod 1:22.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Heb 11:23. Πίστει, by faith) It is not the faith of Moses that is referred to in this verse, but that of his parents; as in Heb 11:30 it is not the faith of the citizens of Jericho, but that of the Israelites.—πατέρων, of his fathers) In Exo 2:2, the LXX. relate the fact as follows: and seeing that he was a goodly (ἀστεῖον) child, they [not she, as in the Hebrew] hid him three months; and when they could no longer hide him, the mother took to him an ark or wicker-basket. In the Hebrew, the whole is ascribed to the mother; by the apostle, to the fathers. By the term, fathers, the Syrians understand father and mother; but we can scarcely prove that this was the case among the Hebrews and Greeks. Chrys. on this passage remarks, ἄρχεται ἀπὸ τῶν γονέων τοῦ Μωϋσέως, ἀσήμων τινῶν ΑΝΔΡΩΝ: he begins with the parents (γονεῖς) of Moses, some undistinguished MEN. Hesychius explains πατέρες as πλούσιοι ἢ πρόγονοι, wealthy [men of note], or ancestors. So πατέρες, Heb 1:1, Heb 3:9, Heb 8:9; Eph 6:4, note. The LXX. never use γονεῖς for אבות, nor will it be found in the New Testament that πατέρας can be appropriately substituted for the word γονεῖς, which so often occurs. Moses was concealed by his fathers, that is, by his father (Amram) and by his grandfather, not the maternal grandfather, who was Levi himself, but by the paternal grandfather, who was (Kohath) Kahath. Therefore Kahath (Kohath) was alive when Moses was born. We find great advantage in the right explanation of this passage with respect to sacred chronology. See Ord. Temp., p. 68 [Ed. ii. p. 58].—εἶδον, they saw) with a kind of presage of great events.—ἀστεῖον, beautiful) Act 7:20, note.—οὐκ ἐφοβήθησαν, they were not afraid) The mental feeling is put for the effect, Heb 11:27, note.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb_11:23 he points to the faith manifested by the relatives of Moses at the time of his birth. Comp. Exo_2:2. The special beauty of the new-born child awakened in them the belief[110] that God had chosen him for great things and would be able to preserve his life, and in this belief they hid the child in opposition to the commandment of the Egyptian king.

ὙΠῸ ΤῶΝ ΠΑΤΈΡΩΝ] i.e. by his parents. For this elsewhere unusual employment of πατέρες, Wetstein aptly directs the reader to Parthenius, Erot. 10 : Κυάνιππος εἰς ἐπιθυμίαν Λευκώνης ἐλθών, παρὰ τῶν πατέρων αἰτησάμενος αὐτὴν ἠγάγετο γυναῖκα, as well as to the Latin patres, Stat. Theb. vi. 464: Incertique patrum thalami. Bengel understands πατέρες of the still living ancestors of Moses (a patribus, id est a patre [Amram] et ab avo … paterno, qui erat Kahath), and he is followed by Chr. Fr. Schmid, Böhme (yet with wavering), and others; while Stein, who expressly rejects both explanations, wonderfully supposes the mother, together with a few concurring friends, who as it were took the place of parents, to be intended. In the Hebrew, Exo_2:2, the ΚΡΎΠΤΕΙΝ is predicated only of the mother; the LXX., however, with whom the author agrees, have: ἸΔΌΝΤΕς ΔῈ ΑὐΤῸ ἈΣΤΕῖΟΝ, ἘΣΚΈΠΑΣΑΝ ΑὐΤῸ ΜῆΝΑς ΤΡΕῖς

ἈΣΤΕῖΟΝ] fair and graceful in form. Theophylact: ὡραῖον, τῇ ὄψει χαρίεν. In the Hebrew stands טוֹב.

ΚΑῚ ΟὐΚ ἘΦΟΒΉΘΗΣΑΝ ΤῸ ΔΙΆΤΑΓΜΑ ΤΟῦ ΒΑΣΙΛΈΩς] might, on account of the plural ΟὐΚ ἘΦΟΒΉΘΗΣΑΝ, be considered, together with ΕἾΔΟΝ, in opposition to the passive ἙΚΡΎΒΗ, as still dependent upon ΔΙΌΤΙ. But more logically exact is the taking of the words, as also is mostly done, as a parallel to ἘΚΡΎΒΗ). For much more natural does it appear that the author wished to represent that ΚΡΎΠΤΕΙΝ as an act from the accomplishment of which fear did not deter, than that he should think of fearlessness as the motive cause of that action.

ΤῸ ΔΙΆΤΑΓΜΑ ΤΟῦ ΒΑΣΙΛΈΩς] the command of Pharaoh, to drown all new-born male children of the Israelites. Comp. Exo_1:22.

[110] Kurtz is in a position to add further particulars on this point, inasmuch as he supposes the presupposition is to be derived from the state of things narrated, that a special divine admonition spoke to the parents out of the eyes of the child.

Heb_11:23-29 the author passes over from the patriarchs to Moses, dwelling upon a series of facts in the history of the latter which bear a typical character. First

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 11:23-31 . The writer passes from the patriarchal age to the times of Moses and the Judges.

First the faith of the parents of Moses ( τῶν πατέρων αὐτοῦ , in Stephanus’ Thesaur , several examples are given of the use of πατέρες for “father and mother,” parents; and consider Eph 6:4 and Col 3:21 ) is celebrated. This faith was shown in their concealing Moses for three months after his birth and thus evading the law that male children were to be killed, called in Wis 11:7 νηπιοκτόνον διάταγμα . They did not fear this commandment of the king. It did not weigh against the child’s beauty which betokened that he was destined for something great. Their faith consisted in their confidence that God had in store for so handsome a child an exceptional career and would save him to fulfil his destiny. In Act 7:20 Stephen calls him ἀστεῖος τῷ f1θεῷ , extraordinarily beautiful ( cf. Jon 3:3 ) or as Philo, De Mos. , p. 82, ὄψιν ἀστειοτέραν ἢ κατʼ ἰδιώτην , indicating that he had a corresponding destiny. Moses himself when he had grown up ( μέγας γενόμενος , as in Exo 2:11 paraphrased by Stephen (Act 7:23 ) ὡς δὲ ἐπληροῦτο αὐτῷ τεσσαρακονταετὴς χρόνος .) refused to be called a son of a daughter of Pharaoh. The significance and source of this refusal lay in his preferring to suffer ill-usage with God’s people rather than to have a short-lived enjoyment of sin. συνκακ ., the simple verb in Heb 11:37 , also Heb 13:3 ; the compound here only. τῷ λαῷ τοῦ θεοῦ , it was because they were God’s people, not solely because they were of his blood, that Moses threw in his lot with them. It was this which illustrated his faith. He believed that God would fulfil His promise to His people, little likelihood as at present there seemed to be of any great future for his race. On the other hand there was the ἁμαρτίας ἀπόλαυσις , the enjoyment which was within his reach if only he committed the sin of denying his people and renouncing their future as promised by God. For “the enjoyment to be reaped from sin” does not refer to the pleasure of gratifying sensual appetite and so forth, but to the satisfaction of a high ambition and the gratification of his finer tastes which he might have had by remaining in the Egyptian court. Very similarly Philo interprets the action of Moses, who, he says, “esteemed the good things of those who had adopted him, although more splendid for a season, to be in reality spurious, but those of his natural parents, although for a little while less conspicuous, to be true and genuine” ( De Mose , p. 86). That which influenced Moses to make this choice was his estimate of the comparative value of the outcome of suffering with God’s people and of the happiness offered in Egypt. μείζονα πλοῦτον … εἰς τὴν μισθαποδοσίαν , “since he considered the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he steadily kept in view the reward”. The reproach or obloquy and disgrace, which Moses experienced is called “the reproach of the Christ” because it was on account of his belief in God’s saving purpose that he suffered. The expression is interpreted by our Lord’s statement that Abraham saw his day. It does not imply that Moses believed that a personal Christ was to come, but only that God would fulfil that promise which in point of fact was fulfilled in the coming of Christ. The writer uses the expression rather with a view to his readers who were shrinking from the reproach of Christ (Heb 13:13 ), than from the point of view of Moses. Several interpreters (Delitzsch, etc.) suppose that in virtue of the mystical union Christ suffered in his people. But, as Davidson says, “this mystical union cannot be shown to be an idea belonging to the Epistle, nor is this sense pertinent to the connection.” (So Weiss, “die vorstellung liegt unserem Briefe fern”.) Weiss’ own interpretation is ingenious: “The O.T. church was created by the pre-existent Messiah to be the people who were destined to introduce through Him perfect salvation; therefore each maltreatment of this people was contempt of Him as unable to avenge and deliver His people”. To say that it means merely “the same reproach that Christ bore” scarcely satisfies the expression. The “treasures of Egypt” must be supposed to include all that had been accumulated during centuries of civilisation. ἀπέβλεπεν , he habitually kept in view the reward. Cf. Xen., Hist. , vi. 1, 8 ἡ σὴ πατρὶς εἰς σὲ ἀποβλέπει , also Psa 11:4 , Philo, De Opif. , p. 4. κατέλιπεν Αἴγυπτον , “he forsook Egypt,” and fled to Midian. That this flight and not the Exodus is meant appears from the connection of the clause both with what precedes and with what follows. It exhibits the result of his choice (Heb 11:26 ), and it alludes to what preceded the Passover (Heb 11:28 ). The word ἐκαρτέρησεν , denoting long continued endurance also suits better this reference. The only difficulty in the way of accepting this interpretation is found in the words μὴ φοβηθεὶς τὸν θυμὸν τοῦ βασιλέως , because, according to Exo 2:15 , the motive of his flight was fear of the king. ἐφοβήθη δὲ Μωυσῆς . But what is in the writer’s mind is not Pharaoh’s wrath as cause but as consequence of Moses’ abandonment of Egypt. His flight showed that he had finally renounced life at court, and in thus indicating by this decisive action that he was an Israelite, and meant to share with his people, he braved the king’s wrath. This he was strengthened to do because he saw an invisible monarch greater than Pharaoh. Vaughan seems the only interpreter who has precisely hit the writer’s meaning: “the two fears are different, the one is the fear arising from the discovery of his slaying the Egyptian, the other is the fear of Pharaoh’s anger on discovering his flight. He feared and therefore fled: he feared not, and therefore fled .” Having fled and so cutting himself off from all immediate opportunity of helping his people, ἐκαρτέρησεν , “he steadfastly bided his time,” because he saw the Invisible, being thus an eminent illustration of faith as ἔλεγχος οὐ βλεπομένων . The aorist gathers the forty years in Midian into one exhibition of wonderful perseverance in faith. It was the upper form of the school which disciplined Moses and wrought him to the mould of a hero. Another point in his career at which faith manifested itself was the Exodus, πεποίηκεν τὸ πάσχα , “he hath celebrated the Passover”. Alford says the perfect is used on account of the Passover being “a still enduring Feast”. But it is Moses’ celebration of it that the perfect represents as enduring. The classical treatment of the question, Has ποιεῖν a sacrificial meaning in the N.T.? will be found in Prof. T. K. Abbott’s Essays . ποιεῖν is regularly used of “keeping” a feast; and this is a classical usage as well. Cf. Exo 12:48 ; Exo 23:16 ; Exo 34:22 ; 2Ch 35:17-19 . τὸ πάσχα originally the paschal lamb, Exo 12:21 , καὶ θύσατε τὸ πάσχα , Mar 14:12 τὸ πάσχα ἔθυον , hence the feast of Passover as in Luk 22:1 . It is written φασέκ throughout 2 Chronicles 30, 35, also in Jer 38:8 . καὶ τὴν πρόσχυσιν τοῦ αἵματος , “and the affusion of the blood” the sprinkling of the blood on the door posts as commanded in Exo 12:7 ; Exo 12:22 , the object being that the destroyers of the first-borns might not touch them. As θιγγάνω is followed by a genitive in Heb 12:20 it is probable that the writer here also meant it to govern αὐτῶν while πρωτότοκα follows ὀλοθρεύων . So R.V. ὁ ὀλοθρεύων is taken from Exo 12:23 . πρωτότοκα , first-borns of man and also of beasts, Exo 12:12 . αὐτῶν is naturally referred to “the people of God,” Heb 11:25 . It was a noteworthy faith which enabled Moses confidently to promise the people protection from the general destruction. On their part also there was the manifestation of a strong faith. διέβησαν τὴν ἐρυθρὰν θάλασσαν … “they passed through the Red sea as if on dry land”. The nominative must be taken out of αὐτῶν . διέβησαν , the usual term for crossing a river or a space. The Red sea is in Hebrew “the Sea of [red] weeds”. διὰ ξηρᾶς γῆς as in Exo 14:29 ἐπορεύθησαν διὰ ξηρᾶς ἐν μέσῳ τῆς θαλάσσης , also Exo 15:19 ; and cf. the various impressions in the Psalms which celebrate the great deliverance. The greatness of the people’s faith is accentuated by the fate of the Egyptians, whose attempt to follow was audacity and presumption not faith. ἧς πεῖραν λαβόντες … “of which [ i.e. , of the sea] making trial the Egyptians were swallowed up,” Exo 15:4 κατεπόθησαν ἐν ἐρυθρᾷ θαλάσσῃ . Another instance of the faith of the people and its effects is found in the fall of the walls of Jericho. The greatness of the faith may be measured by the difficulty we now have in believing that the walls fell without the application of any visible force. God’s promise was, πεσεῖται αὐτόματα τὰ τείχη , and believing this promise the people compassed the city seven days. The greatness of their faith was further exhibited in their continuing to compass the city day after day, for in the promise (Jos 6:1-5 ) no mention is made of any delay in its fulfilment and the natural inference would be that the walls would fall on the first day. That none should have felt foolish marching day after day round the solid walls is beyond nature, κυκλωθέντα , see Jos 6:6 ; Jos 6:14 and for ἐπὶ ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας , Jos 6:14 . “When applied to time, ἐπί denotes the period over which something extends, as Luk 4:25 , ἐπὶ ἔτη τρία , during three years” (Winer, p. 508). The fall of Jericho and the extermination of its inhabitants suggest the escape of Rahab. ἡ πόρνη , in its strict meaning (“ista meretrix” (Origen), “fornicaria” (Irenaeus), is introduced to emphasise the power of faith; she did not perish along with the disobedient (Heb 3:18 ); ἀπειθήσασιν , they knew that the Lord had given the land to Israel (Jos 2:9-10 ) but did not submit themselves to the acknowledged purpose of Jehovah. Rahab acted upon her belief in this purpose and instead of delivering up the spies as enemies of her country “received them with peace,” that is, as friends, risking her life because of her faith.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23.] Now the writer passes on to Exodus, and its chief example, Moses, who even in his preservation by his parents was the child of faith. By faith Moses when born was hidden three months (τρίμηνον is probably feminine, see ref. Herod., and cf. τὴν δευτέραν ἕκμηνον, Polyb. xxvii. 6. 2: τὸν χρόνον τὸν τῆς τριμήνου, Æschin. Ctes. p. 63. 34. τὸ τρίμηνον is also in use: Polyb. i. 38. 6; v. 1. 12, and in Plut. and Ptolemy: and we have ὃ ἑξάμηνος, Xen. Hell. ii. 3. 9) by his parents (οἱ πατέρες is explained by Bengel, al., “Occultatus est Moses a patribus, id est a patre (Amram) et ab avo, non materno, qui erat ipse Levi, sed paterno, qui erat Kohath. Vixit ergo Kohath, nascente Mose. Magnus loci hujus recte explicati usus est in chronologia sacra.” But whatever inferences are deduced from it rest, it is to be feared, on a very slender foundation: for there can be no doubt that οἱ πατέρες does signify parents. In a passage of Parthenius, Erot. 10, cited by Wetst., we have εἰς ἐπιθυμίαν Λευκώνης ἐλθών, παρὰ τῶν πατέρων αἰτησάμενος αὐτὴν ἠγάγετο γυναῖκα. See other Greek and Latin examples in Wetst. The instance given by Delitzsch from Plato, Legg. vi. p. 772 end, is not decisive, ἀγαθῶν πατέρων φύντι. In the Hebrew text of Exo 2:2, it is his mother only who does the whole: but the LXX have the plural as here), because they saw the child was comely (so in Exod. ἀστεῖον, τουτέστιν ὡραῖον, τῇ ὄψει χαρίεν, Thl.: καὶ νῦν ἀστεία εἶ σὺ ἐν τῷ εἴδει σου, Judith 11:23. Thdrt. says, εἰς γὰρ τὸ τοῦ παιδὸς ἀποβλέψαντες εἶδος, θείας αὐτὸ κηδεμονίας ἤλπισαν ἀπολαύσασθαι): and they feared not the command of the king (to destroy all the male children, Exo 1:22. So Philo, Vita Mos. i. 3, vol. ii. p. 82, γεννηθεὶς ὁ παῖς εὐθὺς ὄψιν ἐνέφῃνεν ἀστειοτέραν ἢ κατʼ ἰδιώτην, ὡς καὶ τῶν τοῦ τυράννου κηρυγμάτων ἐφʼ ὅσον οἷόν τε ἦν τοὺς γονεῖς ἀλογῆσαι. Their faith was, loving trust in God who had given them so fair a child, which led them to perform as far as in them lay, the duties of parents to it, and not the cruel part which the tyrant prescribed. διάταγμα is a word of later Greek: see reff., and Philo de Decal. § 4, p. 183).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Moses.

They were not afraid to bring him up.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

parents--So the Septuagint has the plural, namely, Amram and Jochebed (Num 26:59); but in Exo 2:2, the mother alone is mentioned; but doubtless Amram sanctioned all she did, and secrecy. being their object, he did not appear prominent in what was done.

a proper child--Greek, "a comely child." Act 7:20, "exceeding fair," Greek, "fair to God." The "faith" of his parents in saving the child must have had some divine revelation to rest on (probably at the time of his birth), which marked their "exceeding fair" babe as one whom God designed to do a great work by. His beauty was probably "the sign" appointed by God to assure their faith.

the king's commandment--to slay all the males (Exo 1:22).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 23. By faith Moses, c.] See the notes on "Ex 2:2", and See "Ac 7:20". We know that Moses was bred up at the Egyptian court, and there was considered to be the son of Pharaoh's daughter and probably might have succeeded to the throne of Egypt: but, finding that God had visited his people, and given them a promise of spiritual and eternal blessings, he chose rather to take the lot of this people, i.e. God as his portion for ever, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin, which, however gratifying to the animal senses, could only be προσκαιρον, temporary.

After the 23d verse, there is a whole clause added by DE, two copies of the Itala, and some copies of the Vulgate. The clause is the following: Πιστει μεγας γενομενος Μωΰσης ανειλεν τον Αιγυπτιον, κατανοων την ταπεινωσιν των αδελφων αὑτου. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, slew the Egyptian, considering the oppression of his own brethren. This is a remarkable addition, and one of the largest in the whole New Testament. It seems to have been collected from the history of Moses as given in Exodus, and to have been put originally into the margin of some MS., from which it afterwards crept into the text.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. By faith Moses, etc. There have been others, and those heathens, who from no fear of God, but only from a desire of propagating an offspring, preserved their own children at the peril of life; but the Apostle shows that the parents of Moses were inducted to save him for another reason, even for this, — that as God had promised to them, under their oppression, that there would come some time a deliverer, they relied confidently on that promise, and preferred the safety of the infant to their own.

But he seems to say what is contrary to the character of faith, when he says that they were induced to do this by the beauty of the child; for we know that Jesse was reproved, when he brought his sons to Samuel as each excelled in personal appearance; and doubtless God would not have us to regard what is externally attractive. To this I answer, that the parents of Moses were not charmed with beauty, so as to be induced by pity to save him, as the case is commonly with men; but that there was some mark, as it were, of future excellency imprinted on the child, which gave promise of something extraordinary. There is, then, no doubt but that by his very appearance they were inspired with the hope of an approaching deliverance; for they considered that the child was destined for the performance of great things.

Moreover, it ought to have had a great weight with the Jews, to hear that Moses, the minister of their redemption, had been in an extraordinary manner rescued from death by means of faith. We must, however, remark, that the faith here praised was very weak; for after having disregarded the fear of death, they ought to have brought up Moses; instead of doing so, they exposed him. It is hence evident that their faith in a short time not only wavered, but wholly failed; at least they neglected their duty when they cast forth the infant on the bank of the river. But it behoves us to be more encouraged when we hear that their faith, though weak, was yet so approved by God as to secure that life to Moses, on which depended the deliverance of the Church.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(23) Because they saw he was a proper child.—“Proper” has its now obsolete sense of handsome, comely, a meaning not uncommon in Shakespeare. The word used in the Greek translation of Exo_2:2 is preserved both in Act_7:20 (see the Note) and in this place. It would seem that the remarkable beauty of the infant was understood by his parents as a divine sign given for the guidance of their conduct. The next clause should probably be closely connected with this—“because they saw . . . and were not afraid of the king’s commandment” (Exo_1:16). Their reliance on the protection of God enabled them to brave the anger of the king.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. Moses … was hid] The “faith” is of course that of his parents, Amram and Jochebed.

of his parents] This is implied in the LXX. of Exo_2:2, but the Hebrew only says that his mother concealed him.

a proper child] In Act_7:20 he is called “fair to God.” In his marvellous beauty (see Philo, Vit. Mos.) they saw a promise of some future blessing, and braved the peril involved in breaking the king’s decree.

the king’s commandment] To drown all male children (Exo_1:22; Exo_2:2).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God,.... The Israelites, who were God's chosen and peculiar people, and were the true worshippers of him; Moses chose to be with those: the company and conversation of such is most eligible to every good man, because God is with them; his word and ordinances are with them; there are large provisions of grace in the midst of them; so that it is profitable, delightful, and honourable, to be among them, and is attended with comfort, peace, and satisfaction: but then those are a poor, and an afflicted people; affliction is with them, for the sake of God, and Christ, and the truths which they profess, and the worship and service they are engaged in; and their afflictions are many and grievous: and now Moses chose to suffer these with them, to suffer the same afflictions they did, and to sympathize with them: and this was more eligible to him,

than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season: meaning, either the pleasures, honours, and riches in Pharaoh's court, attended with sin; as indulging himself in the luxury of a court, when his brethren were in distress; approving Pharaoh's cruelty and persecution, at least conniving at it, and not opposing it, which could not be without sin; carrying himself as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, when he was an Hebrew; and preferring his own ease to the deliverance of his people; and now these, had he continued at court, would have been but for a short season: or else sinful lusts in general are intended, in which men promise themselves much pleasure, when it is only imaginary, and lasts but for a while neither; and both may be intended, and are what the Jews call (m) , "pleasures for a moment", or momentary ones. And the reasons which might induce Moses, and so every good man, to such a choice, may be taken partly from the nature of afflictions themselves, which are such that God has chosen for them, and appointed them unto, and which he gives them to suffer for his name, and which are an honour to them, and issue in their good, and in the glory of God; and partly from the nature of sinful pleasures; there is no solidity, nor satisfaction, in the best of worldly enjoyments; there can be no true pleasure in sin; there is always bitterness in the end, and it issues in death, if grace prevent not: now it was by faith Moses made this choice, for it is manifestly contrary to flesh and blood: it showed him to be a man thoroughly acquainted with the nature of sin; and that he looked beyond the things of sense and time, to those of eternity.

(m) Aben Ezra in Psal. xxiii. 4.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.

Ver. 23. Hid three months of his parents] That they hid him no longer argued weakness of their faith, which yet is both commended and rewarded.

He was a proper child] αστειον, fair to God, Act 7:20, having a divine beauty and comeliness. Special endowments are a foretoken of special employment. The very heathen in choosing their kings had a special eye to bodily beauty. See 1Sa 10:23; 1Sa 16:19; 1Sa 17:42.

Not afraid of the king’s commandment] Because unjust and impious. {See Trapp on "Act 4:19"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By faith Moses, when he was born - That is, by the faith of his parents. The faith of Moses himself is commended in the following verses. The statement of the apostle here is, that his parents were led to preserve his life by their confidence in God. They believed that he was destined to some great purpose, and that he would be spared, notwithstanding all the probabilities against it, and all the difficulties in the case.

Was hid three months of his parents - By his parents. In Exo 2:2, it is said that it was done “by his mother.” The truth doubtless was, that the mother was the agent in doing it - since the concealment, probably, could be better effected by one than where two were employed - but that the father also concurred in it is morally certain. The concealment was, at first, probably in their own house. The command seems to have been Exo 1:22, that the child should be cast into the river as soon as born. This child was concealed in the hope that some way might be found out by which his life might be spared.

Because they saw he was a proper child - A fair, or beautiful child - ἀστεῖον asteion. The word properly means “pertaining to a city” - (from ἄστυ astu, a city); then urbane, polished, elegant; then fair, beautiful. In Act 7:20, it is said that he was “fair to God,” (Margin,); that is, exceedingly fair, or very handsome. His extraordinary beauty seems to have been the reason which particularly influenced his parents to attempt to preserve him. It is not impossible that they supposed that his uncommon beauty indicated that he was destined to some important service in life, and that they were on that account the more anxious to save him.

And they were not afraid of the king’s commandment - Requiring that all male children should be given up to be thrown into the Nile. That is, they were not so alarmed, or did not so dread the king, as to be induced to comply with the command. The strength of the faith of the parents of Moses, appears:

(1)Because the command of Pharaoh to destroy all the male children was positive, but they had so much confidence in God as to disregard it.

(2)Because there was a strong improbability that their child could be saved. They themselves found it impossible to conceal him longer than three months, and when it was discovered, there was every probability that the law would be enforced and that the child would be put to death. Perhaps there was reason also to apprehend that the parents would be punished for disregarding the authority of the king.

(3)Because they probably believed that their child was destined to some important work. They thus committed him to God instead of complying with the command of an earthly monarch, and against strong probabilities in the ease, they believed that it was possible that in some way he might be preserved alive. The remarkable result showed that their faith was not unfounded.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

By faith Moses....was hid three months, &c. It is not improbable what Josephus relates, (lib. ii. Jewish Antiquities, chap. 5) that the parents of Moses, by revelation from God, or by some extraordinary marks, were persuaded that he should deliver the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt, and conduct them into the land of promise. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents: the parents of Moses were as eminent in this faith as their progenitors; for by it Amram and Jochebed, both of them of the tribe of Levi, Exo 6:20, (πατερων) here put by a metaphrase for γονεις, and though in the history ascribed to the mother only, yet it was by the father’s direction, as Exo 2:2; compare Act 7:20), hid Moses, born under the bloody edict of a tyrant for drowning all the Hebrew males in the Nile. He was born three years after Aaron, and sixty-five after Joseph’s death. They kept him three months from the destroyers, and they adventured the penalties threatened by the edict, Exo 2:2,3; faith overcoming their fears and difficulties about it, and, in all probabililly, ordered their fitting the ark, and disposal of it for his preservation, with the other acts attending it.

Because they saw he was a proper child: the reason of faith’s work was their seeing of him to be αστειον, fair, beautiful, proper; and this not in himself only, but, as Stephen interprets it, αστειον τω θεω, fair to God, Act 7:20. Some glorious aspect was by God put upon him as a signal of some great person, and of great use in God’s design to his church; some extraordinary stamp of God on his countenance, which faith could discern there, and so influence them to conceal and preserve him.

And they were not afraid of the king’s commandment; faith made them fearless; for they were not afraid that the king’s edict should frustrate God’s purpose concerning the child, or keep him from its service to the church, wherein God would employ him, and of which he had given them a signal in that lustre cast on his person; and therefore they used means to preserve him, even when they exposed him, and which had a suitable success, Exo 2:3-10.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23-29. Example of Moses. An age of prophetic silence and national suffering intervenes, when faith again revives in Moses, initiated by the faith of his parents. And this was a new era of faith, when, from merely predicting, the illustrious leader, Moses, proceeded to take possession of the Palestinian inheritance. Faith went forth in heroic enterprise, and a new dispensation was founded, second in greatness only to the advent of the Messiah. And, as it were in one list, our author gathers under Moses all the heroic examples until the conquest of Canaan.

23. Parents—The word is literally in the masculine—fathers: and Bengel conjectures that the hiding was really done by his father Amram, and his paternal grandfather, (not his maternal, who was Levi himself, but his paternal,) Kohath: and Kohath was living at Moses’s birth. But Wetstein has abundantly shown that fathers was often a Greek term for parents.

Were not afraid—So but that they braved the king’s commandment to destroy all the male children.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw that he was a proper (asteion , the word used of the child in Exo_2:2, there translated "goodly," and in Act_7:20, "fair child; and they were not afraid of the king"s commandment. Here the usual following of the LXX again appears in the hiding being attributed to both parents (this is certainly the meaning of paterwn , not as some interpret because of the masculine form father and grandfather). In the Hebrew it is the mother only that is spoken of as hiding him; whereas in the LXX the verbs are in the plural, idontev de , etc., though with no expressed nominative. It is not necessary to understand a special faith in the fulfillment of the promises through the child thus hidden to be implied, though it may be so intended. But the mere fearlessness in obeying the dictates of heart and conscience in the face of danger, and the mere reliance on Providence, thus displayed, expressed faith.

The faith of the parents of Moses.

"By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid, etc. The writer now passes from Joseph to Moses; from the time of the peace and prosperity of the Israelites in Egypt to the time of their heavy oppression and bitter persecution. This persecution culminated in the terrible edict that all their male children that should be born should be cast into the Nile. It was at this time that Moses was born. Hence the Jewish proverb, When the tale of bricks is doubled then comes Moses." Some of our own proverbs set forth the same truth. Mans extremity is God"s opportunity." "The darkest hour of the night is that which precedes the dawn." Our text tells how by faith the parents of Moses protected their child from the fate decreed by Pharaoh, and preserved his life in infancy. We notice

I FAITH IN THE DIVINE INTEREST IN HUMAN LIFE. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a goodly child." They seem to have believed that their lovely child was the gift of God, and that he was not unmindful of the gift which he had bestowed. Moses was distinguished for his beauty. "He was a goodly child". (Exo_2:2) He was exceeding fair," or "fair unto. (Act_7:20) Josephus tells that when the daughter of Pharaoh saw the babe, "she was greatly in love with it, on account of its largeness and beauty." He also tells that when he was three years old every one who saw him was greatly surprised at the beauty of his countenance: nay, it happened frequently that those who met him as he was carried along the road were obliged to turn again upon seeing the child; that they left what they were about, and stood still a great while to look on him; for the beauty of the child was so remarkable and natural to him on many accounts, that it detained the spectators, and made them stay longer to look upon him." Probably his parents believed that so strikingly beautiful a child was destined by God for some great and good end. They may have had a presentiment that God designed him for the accomplishment of some important work. His beauty was to them a presage of his illustrious career. It awakened or strengthened their confidence in the Divine interest in the life of the child. A truth of unspeakable preciousness is this. God is interested deeply and graciously in every human life. He cares not only for the young life before which a great career extends, but for the obscurest and feeblest human creature. "The Lord is good to all; and his tender mercies are over all his works." There is not a sparrow which "is forgotten in the sight of God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered." "He careth for you.

II FAITH IN THE DIVINE POWER AS TRANSCENDING THE AUTHORITY AND MIGHT OF HUMAN SOVEREIGNS. The parents of Moses believed that God could protect their child notwithstanding the cruel edict of the mighty Pharaoh. They showed their faith by concealing their cherished treasure in their house for three months. They showed it yet more clearly and impressively when they placed that treasure in its frail little vessel amongst the flags on the brink of the Nile. They committed their beloved child, not to the margin of the river and its flags, but to the ever-observant and almighty providence of God. Their faith was as reasonable as it was strong. God can either preserve from danger or deliver out of the very midst of it. The most determined edicts of the mightiest monarchs are utterly powerless against his counsels. "He shall cut off the spirit of princes; he is terrible to the kings of the earth." "He poureth contempt upon princes." "God is the Judge; he putteth down one, and setteth up another." He is able to guard his faithful servants against the wrath and the power of fierce sovereigns. He can preserve his people unhurt in the fiery furnace; (Dan_3:19-27) or can make even hungry lions to be unto them as gentle companions. (Dan_6:16-23) Trust in him is, therefore, the highest wisdom; for his gracious interest in humanity is infinite, and his power to defend and save is almighty.

III FAITH IN GOD INSPIRING HUMAN INGENUITY AND COURAGE. It did so in the parents of Moses. Notice:

1. Their ingenuity. For three months they successfully concealed their beloved babe. They managed to hide the infant from Egyptian eyes, and to prevent his cries from reaching Egyptian ears. They skillfully constructed the ark, and judiciously selected a refuge for it. They did these things by faith. Faith stimulates ingenuity; it quickens the inventive faculties. And when, as in the case before us, love is engaged as well as faith, and the object of affection is in danger, then the inventive faculties are stirred to their highest and utmost exercise. Great inventions and discoveries are impossible apart from great faith.

2. Their courage. "They were not afraid of the king"s commandment." It has been well said that "faith has an eagle"s eye and a lion"s heart. It has a lion"s heart to" confront the difficulties and dangers of the present, and it has an eagle"s eye to descry the success and blessing of the future. The servant of Elisha was terrified when he saw the Syrian army surrounding Dothan; but Elisha was perfectly calm, because by faith he beheld the hosts of his heavenly guardians. Faith nerves the soul with invincible courage. The most earnest believers are the greatest heroes. The ancient religious believers "through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness," etc. (vers. 33-38). How splendidly was the faith of the parents of Moses vindicated! God kept the infant in safety during the three months in which it was concealed in the house. His eye was fixed on that little ark of bulrushes on the brink of the Nile, making it more secure than if it had been enclosed by castle walls or guarded by hosts of mailed warriors. His hand, unseen and unsuspected, led Pharaoh"s daughter to that part of the river where the frail barque with its priceless treasure floated. And in his providence he ordered all things for the protection and education of the life of that Hebrew child, and for the fulfillment of his great destiny. Therefore, "trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. W.J.

Vers. 23-29. The faith of Moses.

These verses exhibit specimen deeds of faith done in connection with the redemption of Israel from Egypt. None of the heroes of faith in this illustrious roll is more eminent than Moses, and no other biography is more dramatic. He shines amongst the constellations of "the elders" as a star of the first magnitude. Consider

I THE FAITH OF MOSES" PARENTS DURING HIS INFANCY. (Ver. 23) Had it not been for their piety, the child would have perished. The preservation of his infant life was due to an act of faith in the covenant God of their fathers. On what revelation did this faith rest? It may be that Amram and Jochebed saw in the pre-eminent beauty of the child a forecast of the Divine favor. More probably, however, they had received a revelation from heaven respecting him, and had been taught to regard his beauty as a sign for the confirmation of their faith. So their confidence in the God of Abraham, and in the promise of deliverance from bondage, and in the testimony regarding the part which their newly horn son was to act in the emancipation, led them to disregard Pharaoh"s cruel edict. Jochebed was quite consciously resting the floating cradle of papyrus in the hollow of God"s hand when she left it among the reeds on the brink of the Nile. She believed that he would protect the child, although she herself could do so no longer. And the romantic rescue of Moses, and his adoption by Pharaoh"s daughter, were the reward which God gave to his parents" faith.

II THE FAITH OF MOSES, AS SEEN IN HIS LIFE-CHOICE. (Vers. 24-26) Being himself the only free Hebrew of his time, he occupied the unique position of having it within his power to make a life-choice. And he did this "when he was grown up;" i.e. after his judgment had ripened, and as the result of sober and manly deliberation. Moses elected to acknowledge Jehovah as his God, and to claim kindred with the Hebrews as God"s peculiar people. His choice was purely voluntary, and in making it he was actuated by principle and impelled by conscience. Notice:

1. His choice involved him in tremendous sacrifices. (Ver. 24) Moses" prospects in Egypt were very brilliant. He was a man of great natural genius and of extraordinary attainments. (Act_7:22) Wealth, refinement, ease, pleasure, power, were within his reach. He might have become a great statesman perhaps Pharaoh"s grand vizier. Josephus says that he was destined for the throne itself; and in those days Egypt was the most powerful of kingdoms. Yet, without any misgiving, he forsook the court, and renounced forever these dazzling prospects.

2. His choice exposed him to sore afflictions. (Ver. 25) It involved his identifying himself with a nation of wretched slaves, who were oppressed by a grinding tyranny. It brought him into close contact and companionship with hordes of ignorant bondmen. It called him to undergo persecution as the leader of the movement for their emancipation. Moses made his choice at the risk of his life; for, when he had avowed it in act, by killing the Egyptian slave-driver, "Pharaoh sought to slay" him. (Exo_2:15)

3. It was a heavenly-minded choice. (Vers. 25, 26) It was not patriotism alone that dictated it, although Moses was passionately patriotic. Neither was it mere sympathy with his distressed countrymen, although he had a tender and feeling heart. His choice was determined by his faith in Christ, in the future of his people, and in the realities of the unseen and eternal world. Moses chose

(1) reproach on account of Christ. " He was, so to speak, a Christian before Christianity. He knew about the promised Messiah, although he might not know him by that name. He believed on him as the Deliverer that was to come; as the "Prophet" who was to be "raised up;" as the seed of Abraham, in whom all nations were to be blessed. And he resolved, through grace, to adhere to the cause of Christ, however greatly it might be despised. He chose

(2) to join the people of God. " Moses had learned from his mother-nurse of the glorious destiny of the Israelitish nation; and had become persuaded that to belong to that nation, even in its miserable exile, was a greater honor than to stand upon the topmost step of the Egyptian throne. So, when he took God for his Portion, he allied himself with the people of God, whose were "the adoption" and "the promises." He chose

(3) the recompense of reward. " Moses" faith looked beyond the grave. His eye searched the eternal future until it rested upon the heavenly Canaan. Realizing that "better and abiding possession," he felt hat he could not remain a prince of the house of Pharaoh. To him even those pleasures of the court which were in themselves innocent would be "the pleasures of sin;" and these, such as they were, he could enjoy only for a few short-lived years. So, after comparing the best of the world with the worst of religion, Moses decisively resolved to choose Jehovah as his God and heaven as his final home. And this life-choice, from whatever point of view we regard it, is thus seen to have been determined by his faith.

III THE FAITH OF MOSES AS SEEN IN HIS LIFE-WORK. (Vers. 27-29) For he not only took Jehovah for his Portion; he served him courageously, and to the end.

1. His faith inspired the Exodus. (Ver. 27) "He forsook Egypt," the reference being, as we judge, to his final departure at the head. of the Hebrew nation. Moses believed the Divine promise regarding Israel"s redemption. His confidence in God nerved him for the unparalleled enterprise. He felt that he could not seriously be afraid of Pharaoh, for his faith saw always the approving smile of the invisible Lord. Had it not been, however, for his trust in Jehovah, the great leader could not for forty years have sustained so nobly his onerous offices. It was this humble confidence in the I AM who had sent him, that kept Moses from either developing into a despot or degenerating into a demagogue.

2. His faith prompted to the celebration of the Passover. (Ver. 28) Moses believed the Divine threatening respecting the destruction of the firstborn of the Egyptians, and- the promise of exemption for every blood-besprinkled Hebrew dwelling. His trust in God was the root of his fearless courage in observing the Passover feast amidst the bustle and. excitement of that last eventful night in Egypt.

3. His faith, together with that of the Israelites, led to the passage of the Red Sea. (Ver. 29) There was much unbelief, doubtless, mixed with the faith of the mass of the host, when they stood before the waters through which they were to march. Still, the fact of their obedience to the command to "go forward" did evince some faith on their part. The confidence of Moses, however, never wavered. And it was his faith and theirs that moved he arm of the Almighty to prepare a pathway for them through the bed of the sea. The Egyptians, pursuing them, sank in the sands and waves; for Pharaoh had received no revelation and no promise, and his pursuit was not an act of faith, but of presumption.

CONCLUSION. The chief lesson of this section centers in the choice of Moses. It requires faith still to enable one to make the right life-choice; for worldly advantage does not always seem to be on the side of godliness. The question is sometimes asked, "Is it possible to make the best of both worlds?" And from the point of view of sense the answer is No. Moses certainly did not make the best of this world, according to a worldly estimate of his life. He did not follow the principle of self-help, in the secular way in which unspiritual men do. Rather, his choice led him "to be evil-entreated," and to endure "reproach." But from faith"s point of view the unhesitating answer to the same question is Yes. Godliness is profitable for all things;" although the benefit of it in "the life which now is" consists almost certainly in the profit of affliction and tribulation, the profit of taking up the cross, and of treading in the footsteps of the Man of sorrows.

Faith in an infant"s destiny.

I THE POSSIBILITIES IN EVERY INFANT LIFE. These must often be in the view of every thoughtful parent, and the view must be mixed with a good deal of confidence and sanguine expectation. Parents sometimes wish to stamp their own views and purposes on their children, and it is a dreadful shock to them when they find individuality, originality, strength of will, asserting themselves in wholly unexpected directions. Where one thing is expected another thing is found. Where much is expected little is found. And, on the other hand, where little is expected much is found. One knows not what may have been lost to the world through the deaths of so many in early life. The possibilities need to be constantly borne in mind. Not that we are to be particularly on the look-out for genius and exceptional ability. As a rule, these have to be manifested and strongly asserted before they are recognized. But we never know what the opportunities of people of ordinary abilities and acquirements may be, and so all children should be guided in the ways of Christ and guarded from the snares of evil, so far as guiding and guarding will avail for this. Men think it is an awful sight To see a soul just set adrift On that drear voyage from whose night The ominous shadows never lift; But "tis more awful to behold A helpless infant newly born, Whose little hands unconscious hold The keys of darkness and of morn.

II THE CERTAINTIES WITH RESPECT TO SOME CHILDREN. MOSES is by no means the only child mentioned in Scripture for whom a memorable future might be predicted. Isaac, Samuel, John the Baptist, all stand in the same category. And if we believe that there is a Divine purpose in every human life, then in every generation we are certain some will be raised to do a great work. There will come the needful correspondence between character, circumstances, and opportunities. And one very noticeable point in the biographies of some distinguished men is their neglected childhood. They seem to have grown up anyhow plants that should have been in a garden left to the chances of the wilderness. But all the time God is really watching over them, guiding them in a way they know not, making hindrances and vexations to turn out for their good. As we look back on the past of the world and count up its eminent saints, its evangelists, its philanthropists, its discoverers, its pioneers in paths of usefulness, we may assure our hearts with the confidence that the future will not be lacking in men of the same sort. We have not the wisdom, and there is no need, to make predictions with respect to particular individuals. But we may infer the future from the past, and say that somewhere now there are "proper children" who will rise to do their work in the Church, the senate, the university, the exchange, in every place where men may be made better and the legitimate comforts of life increased. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They saw - Doubtless with a divine presage of things to come.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The example of Moses:

v. 23. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.

v. 24. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,

v. 25. choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

v. 26. esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.

v. 27. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.

v. 28. Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first-born should touch them.

v. 29. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land; which the Egyptians as saying to do, were drowned.

The first incident from the history of Moses is that which illustrates the faith of his parents: By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was well formed, and they did not fear the order of the king. Exo 2:2. Moses was born at the time when a new dynasty had arisen in Egypt, and Pharaoh the king had, for political reasons, given orders that all male children among the children of Israel should be thrown into the Nile to die. But the parents of Moses, having in mind always the promise of deliverance out of Egypt, which was connected with the Messianic promise, and seeing that their new-born son seemed to be intelligent as well as well formed, defied the command of the king, Jochebed, the mother of Moses, therefore kept him at home for three months, managing to conceal him from the many spies of Pharaoh. Eventually the life of Moses was preserved in a miraculous manner. But this act of the parents of Moses was an act of faith and a fine example for all times.

Moses proved himself worthy of such parents: By faith Moses, when he had reached adult age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, preferring rather to suffer with the people of God than to have the enjoyment of sin for a time, since he considered the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he steadily kept in view the reward. Exo 2:3-10. When the daughter of Pharaoh found the child Moses at the river’s brink, his own mother became his nurse, thus receiving an opportunity to instruct him as to his descent. The instruction which Moses received in his early years was not driven out of his heart by all the subsequent studies which he took up as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter. When he had grown up, at about the age of forty years, Act 7:23, he renounced his adoption as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He preferred to suffer ill usage and persecution with his countrymen rather than to have a short-lived enjoyment of sin. In his position as the adopted prince of the land he could have satisfied his highest ambitions and gratified all his finer tastes. But his stay at the Egyptian court brought him into daily contact with idolatry and sins of every description. His faith, which had been implanted in his heart through the teaching of his mother, caused him to hold that God would surely fulfill His promise to His people, even though the outlook at that time was rather gloomy. It would mean disgrace for him, so far as this world was concerned, but he was willing to bear this scorn, this reproach, since it came upon him for the sake of the Messiah, in whose coming he believed. Although he saw Christ only in hope, yet the riches which his faith brought him even so were immeasurably greater than everything that the civilization of Egypt was able to offer him instead. So he resolutely turned away from the glittering promises of this reward and steadfastly fixed his eyes upon, constantly directed them to, the reward which the promise of God held out to him. Such an action, to forsake an apparently certain enjoyment of all that this world has to offer for an uncertain and hazy promise, as the children of unbelief see it, that is the characteristic of faith to this day.

A second incident from the life of Moses is held up as an example: By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he bided his time as seeing Him who is invisible. What Moses had openly confessed in renouncing his adoption as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter he just as openly carried into execution by casting his lot with his own people. He not only left the court of Pharaoh and Egypt proper, but he also made his home in Goshen, where his countrymen lived. By faith he braved the king’s wrath, because he saw an invisible monarch greater than Pharaoh on his side. He could afford, then, to bide his time, to wait till the Lord would show him what step to take next. That opportunity came after his flight to, and sojourn in, Midian: Through faith he celebrated the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer might not touch their first-born sons. Here again it required simple faith and trust in the word of the Lord to make all the necessary preparations for the first Passover in the history of Israel. It was a case of simply obeying the order of the Lord concerning the lamb and the entire Passover meal, and especially the act of painting the door-posts and the upper lintel of the doors with the blood of the slaughtered animal, Exo 12:7-22. The Lord had stated that the object of this sprinkling, or painting, of blood was to keep the great destroying angel, the angel who, by God’s command, went through the land of Egypt and slew the first-horn in every family, from the houses of the children of Israel. It certainly was no small act of faith which caused Moses confidently to promise the people security in the midst of the general destruction.

But just as the people, as a whole, had joined Moses in the keeping of the first Passover in the manner enjoined by God, so the Israelites showed their faith soon after: By faith they passed through the Red Sea as if on dry land, of which the Egyptians, making trial, were swallowed up, Exo 14:22-23; Exo 15:4. The Red Sea proved the first hard test of the faith of the Israelites after they had left Egypt. Before them was the sea, behind them was the army of Pharaoh; they seemed doomed to extinction. It was then that the Lord commanded the people through Moses to keep their peace, since they were going forward. In this promise they trusted, and when the sea opened up before them, the water forming solid walls on the right and on the left, they forgot the doubt and distrust with which they had been battling and boldly went forward under God’s protecting arm, passing over to the other side in safety. The Egyptians, however, that had no such trust, but were enemies of the true God, challenged the sea by their pursuit of the Israelites, the result being that they all perished, being swallowed up as the water once more followed the law of nature. Again a victory of faith.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In these words the faith of Moses’s parents is celebrated: the birth of Moses fell out in the very height and fury of Pharaoh’s persecution, when the king had given commandment to destroy all the male children; Moses was then born and hid by his parents, and preserved as a deliverer of the church of God.

Oh! how blind are all the persecutors and opposers of the church of God! When they think all things secure, and their counsels so deeply laid that God himself cannot deliver out of their hands, then doth the Almighty lay in provision for his church’s deliverance, and their destruction. Now was Moses, a deliverer, born and hid.

But observe a double cause of Moses’ hiding: the first external, they saw he was a proper child; they had a persuasion that God would provide a person to be their deliverer; and they saw something divine in Moses to stir up their faith, and raise their expectation, that he might be the person.

The second, the internal and moving cause: They were not afraid of the kings’ commandment, or bloody decree.

Learn hence, 1. That the commands of kings and princes have oft-times been a very great trial to the children of God; so was Nebuchadnezzar’s command to worship the golden image, and such was Pharaoh’s command here.

Learn, 2. That kings and princes must not be obeyed in things contrary to the word of God: obedience without reserve is to be paid to none but God. They were not afraid of the king’s commandment.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23–27. By faith Moses. See Exod. 2:2; Acts 7:20. Through faith in God the parents were led to disobey the king's cruel edict, and to hide the child. A proper child. A promising child.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents

This can be stated in active form. AT: "Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born" (See: Active or Passive)

had grown up

"had become an adult"

refused to be called

This can be stated in active form. AT: "refused to allow people to call him" (See: Active or Passive)

the disgrace of following Christ

This can be reworded so that the abstract noun "disgrace" is express as the verb "disrespect." AT: "the experience of people disrespecting him because he did what Christ would want" (See: Abstract Nouns)

following Christ

Obeying Christ is spoken of as if it were following him down a path. (See: Metaphor)

fixing his eyes on his reward

Fully concentrating on achieving a goal is spoken of as if a person were staring at an object and refusing to look away. AT: "doing what he knew would earn him a reward in heaven" (See: Metaphor and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

translationWords

faith

Moses

month

king

command

Pharaoh

people of God

sin

disgrace

Christ

Egypt

reward

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

23. Μωϋσῆς … ἐκρύβη. The “faith” is of course that of his parents, Amram and Jochebed.

τῶν πατέρων. This is implied in the LXX. of Exo 2:2, but the Hebrew only says that his mother concealed him.

ἀστεῖον τὸ παιδίον. “That the child was fair.” In Act 7:20 he is called ἀστεῖος τῷ θεῷ. In his marvellous beauty (see Philo, Vit. Mos.) they saw a promise of some future blessing, and braved the peril involved in breaking the king’s decree. The Hebr. word is simply טוֹב. Theophyl. ὡραῖον, τῇ ὄψει χαρίεν.

τὸ διάταγμα. To drown all male children (Exo 1:22; Exo 2:2). In D, E we have the interpolation (from Act 7:23) πιστι μεγας γενομενος μωυσης ανιλεν τον αιγυπτιον κατανοων την ταπινωσιν των αδελφων αυτου.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Of his parents [υπο των πατερων αυτου] . Lit. by his fathers. Comp. Exo 2:2. Paterev fathers, according to a late Greek usage, is employed like goneiv parents. Similarly the Lat. patres and soceri, including both parents, or father and mother in law.

Proper [αστειον] . Only here and Act 7:20, on which see note. Rend. "comely."

Commandment [διαταγμα] . N. T. o. Rend. "mandate."

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. π᾿ Μ... ὑπὸ τῶν πατέρων αὐτοῦ] In Kx. if. 2 (IIobr.) tho mother of Mosca only is montionod as concealing the child; but the Lxx. renders the text ἰδόντες αὐτὸ ἀστεῖον ἐσκέπασαν. There is no ground for supposing that the reference is to Kohath and Amram to the oxclusion of Jochebed. The gonoral torm (Vulg. α parentibus suis) marks, so to speak, the social (like patres) is used in tho same John ix, 2 ff).

διότι.. τοῦ βασιλέως] Faith under two forms moved the parents of Moees to preserve him. Something in his appearance kindled hope as to his destiny; and then looking to God for the fulfilment of His promise they had no fear of the king’s orders.

Tho word ἀστεῖος (Vulg. elegans) occurs in this connexion Ex, ii. 2

(Lxx.); Acta vil. 20; (Jud. iii. 17; Judith xi. 22) Compare Philo, de vit. Mos. i. § 3 (ii. 82) γεννηθεὶς οὖν ὁ παῖς εὐθὺς ὄψιν ἐνέφηνεν ἀστειοτέραν f κατ᾽ ἰδιώτην ds καὶ τῶν τοῦ τυράννου κηρυγμάτων ἐφ᾽ ὅσον οἷόν τ᾽ ἦν τοὺς γονεῖς ῆσαι, De cons. ling. ὃ 22 (i. p. 420 ΜᾺ . |

The word διάταγμα occurs hero only in the N. T.

Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901), The Epistle to the Hebrews (1889) and The Epistles of St John (1883) — public domain (pre-1929). Text recovered from Internet Archive / Google Books OCR scans. Westcott’s Gospel of John commentary is not included (its OCR lost the chapter running-heads required for reliable verse-keying). Some Greek quoted in the Hebrews volume is imperfectly rendered by the OCR.