The Power of Faith 3 - Hebrews 11:23-40

11:23-30 – On to Moses. Interestingly, Paul doesn’t start the story when Moses was old enough to make his own decisions, but cites Moses’ parents’ decision to have him and then hide him for 3 months because “they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.” That commandment of course was for baby boys to be killed to inhibit population growth, or maybe it was all babies, girls too. Anyway, Moses’ parents’ faith is commented on here, and even though it says they weren’t afraid of Pharaoh, I can’t imagine anyone who wasn’t. I mean it’s one thing to believe in God’s will for you, but actually thwarting imperial command as a slave is a very dangerous prospect. Most of us don’t have to demonstrate our faith that way, but Moses’ parents’ did. It’s a very interesting concept here because we are commanded to obey the law of the land, but I guess there wasn’t birth control back then so Moses’ parents’ probably weren’t actively trying to have a baby. Maybe the “faith” part came when they hid Moses for 3 months and then sent him up the river instead of reporting his birth to the Egyptians and letting him be executed. Moses himself, when he was a grown man “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” I used to love watching the movie “The Ten Commandments” so I always thought that Moses was really vying for the throne of Egypt against Ramses. In my logic as a child, if Moses wanted to free the Hebrew slaves, then he should have tried to become Pharaoh and free them himself. It never made sense to me that he gave up his share of the throne of Egypt to run off into the desert and come back with a stick. The reality was that Moses was probably never in line to be Pharaoh, but he would have been guaranteed a life of ease and luxury. Paul says that it was because of Moses’ faith that he gave up his position in the Egyptian hierarchy, but the way that the movie told it, it didn’t seem like he knew anything about Israel or Israel’s God. But if he was motivated by faith, he must have received personal revelation about God’s plan for him and then followed the promptings to be obedient. I don’t know much about Moses at all, I’m going to have to start learning because I’m hoping to be able to finish with the New Testament by the end of the year and I’m really excited to start on the Old Testament. Another aspect of Moses’ decision was that he was “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.” The way I’m understanding this is to say that Moses valued the future rewards promised by Jesus more than the immediate comfort of Egypt. This begs the question, was living a comfortable life in Egypt incompatible with faith in Christ? Maybe more so then than now because Pharaoh’s court was highly religious with idol worship. Plus if Moses identified as Hebrew, who were slaves, then the Egyptian hierarchy would probably have suspected that he was not Egyptian by birth. Imagine if a high ranking politician converted to the religion that came over from Africa with the slaves during the antebellum south. At minimum the social ostracizing would be intense, not to mention the loss of credibility and the potential for violence. Plus, Moses would have had to participate in idolatry while in his heart believing in Jesus and that is not acceptable. All this begs the question, how did Moses become so knowledgeable about Jesus when he basically spent his whole life surrounded by Egyptian idol worshipping royalty? Paul seems to hint at how in verse 27 saying, “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” The article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com quotes LeGrand Richards as teaching, “Further study of Paul’s teachings indicates that he had the same understanding as John: that while God is invisible to men generally, he is not invisible to the prophets, for he indicated that Moses saw the invisible God.” It seems that this might be another example that God is capable of doing his own work. For the magnitude of the work that Moses was going to have to do, it would make sense that he would need some extensive spiritual mentoring. But I think it’s also interesting that if Moses had in fact SEEN Jesus, Paul still describes everything he does afterward as “faith.” This indicates that even having SEEN God is not enough to replace faith with a perfect knowledge. So when we talk about the sons of perdition rejecting salvation even with a perfect knowledge, we can see that the standard considered a perfect knowledge doesn’t even come in this life if you’ve seen God. It’s just an interesting commentary on the height of the bar set for perdition and why it’s impossible to get there in this life, which in comforting for those of us who have been afraid that we’ve become a son of perdition because we have committed sin even though we knew what we were doing was wrong. Jesus will never reject anyone who wants to repent, ever, at any time, which means that sons of perdition are only missing out on their eternal reward because they are actively choosing to not have it. It’s like having a piece of cake in front of you and choosing not to eat it. It’s already there, it’s already meant to make you happy, but you choose to leave it there uneaten. It was through faith that the destroying angel passed over the Hebrew homes that had been “sprinkled with blood.” Talk about power. Moses’ faith brought death to the Egyptians and the faith of those believers who were willing to do something as simple and seemingly random as sprinkling blood on their door posts, were spared the same fate. Faith both brought death and spared life, according to God’s will. Paul continues that “by faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.” Did Moses want to drown so many Egyptians? I doubt it. Are Hebrew lives more important to God than Egyptian ones? I doubt that too. Was it Moses’ will that the Red Sea be parted and then the Egyptians drowned? It doesn’t seem like it, because that would make God the servant of Moses instead of the other way around. Why was it God’s will to perform these miracles and this destruction? I’m not sure exactly, psychology might play into it, helping teach the escaping Hebrews about the God who they are to serve. After the parting of the Red Sea is when “by faith the walls of Jericho fell down.” I don’t know a whole lot about this but it was a military victory that I am very excited to learn about when we get to the Old Testament. 11:31-40 - Paul now goes on to name several more people and then describes several more events wrought by faith, but doesn’t necessarily link them together with who did what. I’m just going to make a list here Rahab – a prostitute who was spared because in her faith she helped two Hebrew spies. There’s Gedeon, Barak, Samson, Jephthae, David, Samuel, “and of the prophets.” Through their faith they “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stoped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again.” The faith that caused all these miracles also has a suffering component. Paul lists some of the suffering, and he would know personally, of torture “not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.” He continues citing “cruel mockings,” more torture, “bonds and imprisonment,” being martyred in the most horrific ways such as being stoned, “sawn asunder,” stabbed and had to live “being destitute” wandering the landscape. “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise.” People were willing to submit to all of this because they had received a testimony of Jesus Christ. The pendulum of faith swings between power and suffering and it’s interesting because it would seem like the amount of power needed to work the miracles cited above would only be able to come from faith derived from the deepest wells of personal commitment to the Savior. Joseph Smith’s “Lectures on Faith” has been quoted a lot in the IM about this chapter and it’s an excellent exposition. One of the parts that made sense and spoke deeply to me was when he said something to the effect of “faith that doesn’t require absolute devotion and willingness to suffer doesn’t have enough power to grant salvation.” The JST finishes out this chapter saying, “God having provided some better things for them through their sufferings, for without sufferings they could not be made perfect.” Most of us aren’t going to be called on to suffer death or torture because we won’t renounce our faith in Jesus Christ. Most of us aren’t going to be called on to rescue an enslaved people, or raise the dead. That doesn’t mean that our faith is any less powerful or any less important to the work. We might be called on to suffer for Christ in our own way. In our lives today that might look like going to church on Sunday instead of an amusement park with our friends. It might look like being dismissed socially because we don’t drink alcohol or coffee. It might look like asking someone to not tell inappropriate jokes around you. In my life it’s looked like being called a diaper baby because I told someone I didn’t think their vulgar language was funny. It’s looked like being alone because I keep the law of Chastity. It’s looked like talking to people when I didn’t want to, calling or texting someone to see how they are doing when prompted even though I just wanted to watch TV. This isn’t being whipped by rival religious leadership, but it’s my life and it’s all I can offer to my God. And most of us aren’t going to make water come out of a rock, or part a large body of water, but our faith will work miracles in our lives in other ways. The power of faith might be knowing what to say to someone who needs counsel or encouragement. It might be feeling peace when there is social chaos. It might be trusting that everything is going to be ok in the middle of a pandemic. It might be feeling peace and comfort in tough times. It might be better opportunities because you pay your tithing. One last thing that I think is really interesting about this chapter is the kind of people that Paul used to demonstrate the potential power in faith. There’s the standard prophets, Moses, Abraham, Melchizedek, etc. But who else wielded power because of their faith? The depth and duration of the faith varied from a lifetime person born and raised in the covenant to gentiles who hardly knew anything. Anyone with just a little bit of faith was able to do the will of God in miraculous ways. This power in faith came to both men and women, Jew and gentile, saint and sinner. The power that comes with faith is available to anyone who is willing to believe and obey. And that’s the most incredibly powerful concept I’ve encountered in a long time.