choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to have [the] temporary pleasure of sin;
Hebrews 11 lists Moses among those who lived by faith. This verse records the choice that shaped his whole life. He turned down Egypt's court and joined a nation of slaves. Which is worth more: hardship with God's people, or pleasure that runs out?
The previous verse tells us what Moses turned down. This one tells us what he took instead.
We also learn what he chooses, and his choosing is as striking as his refusing. In his day there was a large number of people who formed the lowest class in Egypt. They were unwanted foreigners, treated with the utmost harshness as slaves. Their hard bondage made their lives bitter. They laboured at brick-making and worked in the fields under the scorching sun (Exodus 1:13-14). But despite their low position and hard bondage, these slaves were the people of God. Moses chose to throw in his lot with these people. He preferred to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
God's providence had surrounded Moses with honours. One question still decided the matter for him: where was God?
The people may be suffering, wretched, and disreputable. They may little understand and poorly repay the love and faith that could give up everything... but it was enough for Moses that the poor captives were God's people... His single eye judged all that Pharaoh's daughter could offer to be the pleasures of sin. He deliberately gave up the glittering honours and worldly influence that God's providence had spread around him... With whom was God identified? With Pharaoh's palace, or with Israel in the iron furnace?
The verse calls Egypt's comforts "pleasures of sin." One writer explains what made them sin.
The moment the truth of God fully awakened his heart, he saw that God completely disowned Egypt and its many attractions. No one knew God in Pharaoh's house. A nation that served other gods afflicted His people. To remain at Pharaoh's court with this conviction in his soul would be to despise the people of the living God. Both his education and his habits fitted Moses well to appreciate the pleasant things of Egypt. God's word promised him only unseen things, so the sacrifice it asked of him looked large.
The verse puts a time limit on the pleasures — "fleeting", or as older translations read, "for a season". Faith sees the same limit on the affliction.
Egypt's greatness may be attractive, its pleasures many, its power unlimited. But the words "For a season" stood over all the greatness of Egypt. So it is with everything this world has to offer. Faith says: those things are temporary. And, thank God, the affliction is temporary too. I will take the affliction. I will identify myself with my people.
Moses lived long enough to test his own choice.
Moses lived a long life — one hundred and twenty years. He turned his back on Egypt and its sinful pleasures at the end of forty years. He had forty years on the far side of the desert. Then a much worse forty years, worried and irritated by people who behaved in a very perverse way... But Moses never regretted turning his back on all the pleasures that could only have lasted another eighty years.
A choice like this takes courage. Faith needs that courage added to it.
Virtue is that energy and courage of soul that knows how to refuse as well as to choose. Moses is the example. He "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin"... You have the faith that connects you with God, and you believe in what you do not yet see. But now you must add virtue. That is the courage which knows how to say "No" to the thousand things that come up day by day, and how to press on without wavering in the path set before us.
- Refuse. Moses first gave up a name: "son of Pharaoh's daughter." A refusal is only half the story.
- Choose. He threw in his lot with brick-making slaves. They were God's people, and that was enough.
- Company. One question decided it: with whom was God — Pharaoh's palace, or Israel in the furnace?
- Season. "For a season" stands over Egypt's pleasures — and, faith adds, over the affliction too. Both run out.
- No regret. Across a hundred and twenty years, Moses never wished back the pleasures that could only have lasted eighty.
esteeming the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect to the recompense.
Moses stood in the richest court on earth and made a choice the world would call madness. Two questions run through this verse. Why is the shame of an enslaved people called the reproach of Christ, long before anyone knew that name? And what did Moses see that made shame look like wealth?
The wording is exact. Moses did not just take insult for Christ's sake. The insult falling on God's suffering people was Christ's own.
And notice what Moses "considered greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt" — it was the "reproach of Christ." It was not merely reproach for Christ. "The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me." The Lord Jesus, in perfect grace, identified Himself with His people. He came down from heaven, leaving His Father's bosom and laying aside all His glory. He took His people's place, confessed their sins, and bore their judgement on the cursed tree.
God Himself gives it that name.
"The reproach of Christ!" Think how the Spirit of God describes it. Here were a people suffering and rejected, and God calls it the reproach of Christ. "In all their affliction He was afflicted," and faith sees in that the affliction of Christ Himself. Later the Lord Jesus said to Saul of Tarsus, "Why are you persecuting Me?" It was the reproach of Christ, not only the reproach of His suffering people.
Moses lived long before anyone knew the name of Christ. So how can the phrase fit him? One answer: reproach has always marked those who believe.
So we find that Moses "considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt," when as yet Christ had not been named. But though Christ was not yet known or revealed, His reproach was always true of His people. That reproach belongs to faith and to those who confess it. It was seen in full in Christ Himself when He despised the shame. It is their distinguishing badge as they travel the road from earth to heaven.
Others point to what Moses himself was looking for.
The language here, no doubt, takes on a New Testament character; but Moses' faith, in fact, looked forward to Israel's Deliverer, who was to come.
The verb is about value. Moses put both sides on the scales.
Here are the treasures of Egypt: put in that side of the balance everything you can think of in this world's wealth and glory. Here is the reproach of Christ: put in this side all the suffering, the scorn, the self-denial, the poverty, the weakness, the trials that come upon us. As you look at the two, which one, in your judgement, weighs more? If we judge by sight, we would say the treasures of Egypt outweigh all that suffering. But Moses looks ahead to the reward. He thinks of the outcome and says: I will throw in my lot with those who are suffering reproach and affliction, rather than have all this other!
Everything in his circumstances argued the other way.
He gave up on purpose the glittering honours and worldly influence that providence had scattered around him. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt. With whom was God identified? With Pharaoh's palace, or with Israel in the iron furnace? Had he followed providence, he would have used the advantages of his position to help Israel, relieve them, and perhaps in the end deliver them. But faith led him to make himself a stranger to the world and to identify himself with the people of God.
The last clause explains the choice. Seeing the reward corrected his sense of value.
Because he had a view of the divine recompense, he could form a correct estimate of Egypt's treasures. He ranked them far below the reproach of Christ. If Egypt's glory cannot be compared with the reproach of Christ, how will it look next to the glory of Christ? Faith's penetrating sight led to faith's estimation, and this in turn led to faith's choice and faith's refusal.
Yet the reward was not what first moved him.
This principle is universal: in Scripture, reward is never the motive of action. It is always the encouragement of the one who acts from other motives. So, as we well know, it was love, eternal, divine love, and from that obedience to His Father, that led Christ in the path of sorrow. In that path, for the joy set before Him, He endured. Moses visited his brothers because God put it into his heart. He preferred suffering with the people of God over a life of godless ease in a court.
- Reproach named. God calls the shame on His afflicted people Christ's own reproach. He identifies Himself with them — "Why are you persecuting Me?"
- Reproach shared. Moses did not suffer just for Christ. He stepped into a company Christ counts as His, long before anyone knew that name.
- Reproach weighed. "Considered" is a word of weighing. Egypt's treasures sit in one scale, scorn and affliction in the other. Faith says which is heavier.
- Reproach chosen. Providence placed him in Pharaoh's palace. Faith led him out, because God stood with the slaves, not the throne.
- Reproach rewarded. Looking to the reward gave him a right estimate of Egypt. Reward encourages the one already moved by love; it is never the motive.