Moses' Choice
Text: Hebrews 11:24-26
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Expository
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- State what Moses declined and explain why the specifics — wealth, honor, pleasure, safety — make his choice costly rather than easy.
- Identify the two-part motive of Moses' choice: preference for the people of God over the hireling of sin, and the desire to honor God rather than himself.
- Explain what "respect unto the recompense of reward" means and why this future orientation does not make Moses selfish but makes him wise.
- Trace the results of Moses' choice through his three forty-year periods, the transfiguration, and the heavenly choir, and show how the choice that looked like a loss became a gain of infinite proportion.
- Apply the question "what do you think of his choice now?" to their own life choices.
Thesis
Moses chose poorly by the world's calculation — forfeiting wealth, honor, pleasure, and safety for suffering with a despised people. The results of that choice, measured from eternity, are the most spectacular biography in human history. The question the sermon presses is not what Moses chose but what you think of his choice now.
Burden
"Most great decisions are made before middle life." This outline notes this in the introduction, and it is the sermon's pastoral urgency: the person who needs to hear this sermon is young enough that the choice is still open, still formable, not yet closed by decades of decisions compounding in the wrong direction. Moses made his choice as a young man at the crossroads of the greatest opportunity the world of his day could offer. The sermon asks the hearer to stand at the same crossroads.
Introduction
"By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward" (Heb. 11:24-26).
The writer of Hebrews places Moses in the faith hall of fame and names specifically what faith required of him: the refusal of an identity, the choice of suffering, and the forward orientation of his hope. The outline develops the choice in three movements: what was declined, the motive for declining it, and the results that followed.
Moses made his choice while young (Ex. 2:11 names the moment: "Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up"). Most great decisions are made before middle life — because the patterns of a life are most plastic early, and because the temptations that compete with faithful decision-making tend to accumulate with age. The window is open now.
I. Consider What Moses Declined
The cost of the choice is the first thing to be reckoned: What did Moses walk away from?
He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. This is an identity refusal — not merely a career change. He had been raised in Pharaoh's house, given an Egyptian education, and positioned as a potential heir of the most powerful dynasty in the ancient world. To refuse that identity was to refuse everything that came with it: the name, the standing, the access, the future.
The wealth of the ancient world was concentrated in Egypt. Egypt was called the granary of the world — the agricultural engine that fed the Mediterranean basin and accumulated the resulting wealth. Moses was positioned inside that system at its highest level. What he walked away from was not modest comfort but world-class abundance.
He declined worldly honor — the possibility of being king of Egypt. The wealth was attached to a position: the pinnacle of a great civilization. His refusal was not merely a choice of one career over another; it was the refusal of the most prestigious position in the world he inhabited.
He declined the pleasures of sin and chose to suffer with God's people. This is Hebrews' explicit framing: the pleasures he declined were real (Heb. 11:25: "the passing pleasures of sin") — not imaginary, not trivial. The Egyptian court was not an unpleasant place. The pleasures were passing — but they were pleasures while they lasted. What he chose in their place was "ill-treatment with the people of God": a community of slaves, despised by the culture, without political standing, without visible prospects.
II. The Motive of the Choice
What drove a man to refuse all this?
He had rather be with the humble people of God than the hireling of sin. This is not naive romanticism about poverty — Moses understood exactly what he was choosing. The preference is not for poverty as such but for the company: the people of God, however humble, over the company of those whose security and identity were purchased at the price of faithfulness. The "hireling of sin" is the person who has sold his loyalty to what sin provides — wealth, status, pleasure — and is paid for it. Moses preferred the un-hired humble.
Not a selfish choice, but one made to honor God. This is the crucial clarification. The forward orientation of Moses' hope (Heb. 11:26: "he was looking to the reward") might appear self-interested — he chose suffering because he calculated that the reward would exceed the cost. But the calculation was not about Moses' personal benefit; it was about which side of the ledger aligned with what God valued. He honored God by choosing what God had chosen and enduring what God's people endured.
He had respect unto the recompense of reward. "He was looking to the reward" (Heb. 11:26). The looking is not greed — it is the same orientation Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18: "For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." Moses saw what is not seen; he estimated by what is not visible; he chose accordingly.
III. Results of This Choice
The results vindicate the choice across multiple scales of time:
It shaped the course of his life — divided into three forty-year periods. Forty years in Egypt, learning the wisdom of the Egyptians (Acts 7:22). Forty years in the wilderness of Midian, learning humility and practical wisdom as a shepherd (Ex. 3:1). Forty years leading the exodus and the wilderness community (Deut. 34:7: "Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died"). Each period was made possible by the choice: the first prepared him; the second refined him; the third deployed him. The choice was the hinge on which the whole biography turned.
He became the leader of God's people. The man who refused to be the son of Pharaoh's daughter became the man who stood before Pharaoh — not as a son or slave but as the representative of God. "But indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth" (Ex. 9:16). Moses was the instrument of the proclamation. He became a type of Christ — the one who stands before the powers of this world as the representative of the God those powers have refused to acknowledge.
God buried him when he died (Deut. 34:5-6: "So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows his burial place to this day"). The God for whom he chose to suffer attended to his burial. He was not left to common graves.
Fifteen hundred years after his death we get a glimpse of him with Christ on the mountain (Matt. 17:1-8). The transfiguration — where Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus, talking with him — is the first moment in the New Testament where we see Moses alive and present with the one whose reproach he had counted as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. The man who saw God in the burning bush stood with the Son of God on the mountain. The choice made in Egypt was vindicated at the transfiguration.
The heavenly choir sings the song of Moses and the Lamb (Rev. 15:3). This is the final attestation — the eschatological perspective on the choice Moses made in Egypt. In the vision of Revelation, those who had conquered the beast were singing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. The man who chose to suffer with the people of God is eternally associated with the Lamb who suffered for the people of God.
Application
Three time-stamped questions the sermon presses:
What do you think of his choice now? — meaning: in the perspective of this biography, knowing how it turned out, does the choice that looked foolish in Egypt still look foolish? The purpose of the question is to break the spell of the immediate: what looks like the obviously correct choice from inside a moment often looks very different from the outside.
What does the world think of his choice now? — meaning: the world that despised the choice has had to revise its verdict. The culture that would have celebrated Moses as Pharaoh's grandson has had to acknowledge that he is one of the defining human beings in all of history — precisely because he chose what the world despised.
Will you make such a choice today? — the question the whole sermon has been building toward. The structure of Moses' choice is not unique to Moses. The choice between the wealth/honor/pleasure offered by the world and the suffering/people/promise offered by God is the same choice every generation faces. The specific options differ; the structure is identical.
Conclusion
"The heavenly choir singing the song of Moses and the Lamb" (Rev. 15:3). That is the last word on the choice Moses made in Egypt. The man who said "no" to Pharaoh's household said "yes" to the Lamb — before the Lamb was born in Bethlehem, before the cross was raised at Golgotha, before the resurrection changed everything. He said yes to what the Lamb stood for: suffering with the people of God, reproach counted as greater riches, reward looked for rather than received.
What do you think of his choice now?
Invitation
The choice Moses made is the same choice the gospel requires — not suffering for suffering's sake, but the willingness to belong to the people of God at the cost of whatever the world offers instead.
Believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God — the one who "for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:2). The choice Moses made, Jesus made perfectly. Repent of the life that has been choosing what Pharaoh's household offers. Confess his name. Be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38). And join the company Moses joined — the humble people of God who are looking to the reward.
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Refused | ērnēsato | to deny, to disown, to say no to | to deny, to disown, to say no to | the verb is the same root used for Peter's denial of Christ (Matt. 26:70); to refuse the son-of-Pharaoh's-daughter identity was a full, deliberate disowning, not a casual preference. | Heb. 11:24 |
| Reproach of Christ | oneidismon tou Christou | the shame associated with the Messiah's people | the shame associated with the Messiah's people | the writer of Hebrews applies a Messianic concept retroactively to Moses; he bore what would later be known as the reproach that comes with belonging to the anointed one; the Messiah's reproach is the reproach his people share (Heb. 13:13: "Let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach"). | Heb. 11:26 |
| Looking to the reward | apeblepē gar eis tēn misthapodosian | he looked away from the present toward the payment to come | he looked away from the present toward the payment to come | apoblepō suggests looking away from what is immediately visible toward something not yet seen; it is the orientation of faith (Heb. 11:1: "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen"). | Heb. 11:26 |
| Passing pleasures | proskairon echein hēdonēn | pleasures for a season | pleasures for a season | proskairon literally means "for a time"; the pleasures are real but temporary; Moses weighed temporary pleasure against eternal reward and chose by weight. | Heb. 11:25 |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| Moses refused to be called son of Pharaoh's daughter | I | Heb. 11:24 |
| Chose ill-treatment with God's people over passing pleasures of sin | I | Heb. 11:25 |
| "Reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt" | II | Heb. 11:26 |
| "He was looking to the reward" — forward orientation | II | Heb. 11:26 |
| Three forty-year periods — choice shaped his whole biography | III | Acts 7:22; Ex. 3:1; Deut. 34:7 |
| Moses stood before Pharaoh as God's representative | III | Ex. 9:16 |
| God buried Moses — attended to the one who chose his people | III | Deut. 34:5-6 |
| Moses with Christ at the Transfiguration | III | Matt. 17:1-8 |
| The song of Moses and the Lamb — eternal attestation | III | Rev. 15:3 |
| "For the joy set before Him, endured the cross" — Christ's same logic | Invit. | Heb. 12:2 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 104. Primary text: Hebrews 11:24-26 (stated by Boles). OCR corrections: "l'dOTIVE" → "MOTIVE"; ",-\That does the world" → "What does the world"; "suffet" → "suffer"; "Pharoah" corrected to "Pharaoh" in the conversion (Boles's spelling). Doctrinal audit: Moses as a type of Christ retained and developed (representative of God before Pharaoh; bearer of Messianic reproach per Heb. 11:26); the forward-looking reward orientation (Heb. 11:26) distinguished from selfishness — it is alignment with God's values, not personal gain; the three time-stamped questions preserved as the application structure; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).
