Hebrews 11:26, commentary and pictures

When grown to forty years of age Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter and refused Egypt's highest honor to stand with his enslaved brethren. The treasures he left were Egypt's wealth, honors, royal life, prospect of the crown and command of its armies, while the reproach he chose was hardship, disgrace, suffering and affliction borne for faithfulness to God and His oppressed people. By faith he weighed unseen eternal realities and valued sharing that reproach more than earthly ease and the temporary pleasures of sin, choosing affliction with God's people and the heavenly inheritance. He did this having respect to the recompense, looking beyond palace and crown to the better heavenly country, the imperishable crown of immortality and life of peace and joy without sorrow, pain or death. That choice was truly greater riches, for God's favor and eternal glory outweigh all worldly treasure, and losing heaven to gain the world profits nothing.

Moses's Words and Setting

The reproach of Christ is hardship, disgrace, suffering, insult and affliction borne for faithfulness to God and for standing with His oppressed people. It is suffering and disgrace endured with God's people, accepted in taking up their cause, involving affliction, self-denial and sacrifice rather than worldly honor and temporary pleasure. It was valued as greater wealth than Egypt's treasures because faith looked by faith to the reward God promised. Moses endured misunderstanding, danger and insult without retaliation because he trusted God as personally present and as the help he needed.

The treasures in Egypt were its wealth, riches, honors, grandeur, royal life and court luxury, high-sounding titles, glory, learning and qualifications. They included the position of the king's grandson in the then greatest kingdom of the world, the highest position of honor and Egypt's highest honor. They included the prospect of an earthly kingly crown, a prospective crown, a royal life and crown lying before him, the palace and the throne and the monarch's crown. They included leadership as general of the Egyptian armies, though Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and mighty in words and deeds.

When Moses was come to years and grown, remaining at court until forty years of age, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter and refused Egypt's highest honor. He turned to his brethren in servitude to encourage them that God would work for their deliverance, standing ready to maintain their cause and hoping they would rise to recover liberty. He chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, counting reproach borne for Christ as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt because he looked ahead to the recompense of the reward. His eye of faith was fixed on the glorious future, and he regarded the reward as so valuable that the richest things earth can offer appeared valueless.

He was fitted to take first place among the great of the earth, to shine in the courts of its most glorious kingdom and to sway its scepter. He was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and mighty in words and deeds, and his intellectual greatness as historian, poet, philosopher, general of armies and legislator stood without peer. He had the moral strength to refuse wealth and greatness and fame in Egypt despite that fitness and greatness.

His ability to choose came from early training by God-fearing parents, and especially his mother patiently and perseveringly planted principles of truth and loyalty to God in his soul. She taught him of the final reward to be given to the humble and obedient servants of God, and that teaching rooted faith that afterward grew as he studied the laws of God's government. Therefore court corruption, flattery, idolatry, association with evil, great temptations, Egyptian self-sufficiency, egotism and pride, and education in the Egyptian school did not pervert his sense of the evil of transgression or bring his standard down to the standard of the world instead of the true moral standard. Parents by family government lay the foundation of character with both worlds in view, so that children so trained may be a blessing to the church and to the world here and shine forever in the courts of the Lord hereafter.

He would not forget his despised, enslaved Hebrew brethren for the splendor and pride of the Egyptian court, for flattery, for being a favorite with the king and the influential, for the honor of being known as heir of the royal family, or even for the promise of wearing the crown of Egypt. He openly owned his parentage rather than conceal it for royal honor, holding firm to the Hebrew faith and to worship of God the maker of heaven and earth alone out of love for his brethren as God's chosen people and respect for the Hebrew faith. He would not identify himself with the Egyptians in their idolatrous worship of senseless objects, but reasoned with priests and idol worshipers. He refused to yield to threats of losing the crown and being disowned by Pharaoh's daughter or to promises of reward.

He knew the palace and the throne offered sinful pleasures that make men forget God, so worldly gain sank to its proper insignificance in comparison. In the very height of human glory he learned the foolishness of man's wisdom and the weakness of human strength, placed a very low estimate on his own abilities and Egyptian education, and lost self-confidence. He realized his utter helplessness and inefficiency without being upheld by the Lord Jesus, and refused to use his learning to show the unreasonableness of God's commands or the impossibility of obeying them. The wisdom of Egypt could not give him the humility, meekness and steady trust in God needed for his life's work, which came through God's training in the wilderness.

He hoped his brethren would understand that God would deliver them by his hand, and he struck down an Egyptian who was smiting an Israelite. When his reproof of quarreling Hebrews was thrown back with accusation, the deed was made known and exaggerated to Pharaoh as a plot to overthrow the government and take the throne, Pharaoh sought his death and Moses fled toward Arabia. The slaying of the Egyptian was not faith but rashness prompted by a presumptuous spirit. By faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king and endured as seeing Him who is invisible, as one who confessed himself a stranger and pilgrim on earth seeking a better heavenly country for which God has prepared a city. His strength was connection with the Source of all power, and by simple, implicit, ever-abiding, unflinching faith in the power and loving intentions of his Deliverer he obeyed all the Lord commanded whether it seemed proper to human reason or not, did what God commanded without stopping to consider consequences, changed his way for the Lord's way even into strange untried paths, advanced when there was nothing ahead for his feet to tread upon, and led more than a million people forward step by step day by day, triumphing over enemies not by the teachings of the schools of Egypt but by faith, acting as seeing the Invisible and confiding in Him with whom all things are possible.

Faith's Deliberate Choice

By faith Moses weighed eternal realities beyond what sight could show and fixed his attention on unseen things. Valuing a share in Christ's reproach with God's oppressed people more than Egypt's wealth, riches and grandeur, he gave up the prospect of an earthly crown and chose the heavenly inheritance. He accepted the scorn, persecution, suffering and disgrace involved in taking up their cause because he looked toward the future reward and the recompense God promised. His faith trusted God's word and would not let the world's reproach turn him from integrity, giving up the apparent good of court life rather than be drawn into sin, because the reward of faithfulness made the hard and perilous path worthwhile.

That choice meant present affliction, self-denial, hardship and sacrifice with God's people rather than worldly honor, ease, luxury and the temporary pleasures of sin. He counted reproach suffered for Christ as greater wealth than all Egypt's treasures because he looked by faith beyond present loss to the reward to come. He gave up a prospective kingdom and life in kingly courts to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy sin for a season, turning from the world's attractions for the enduring crown of immortality and eternal glory. The same faithfulness chooses active labor in God's cause with privation and exposure over a life of ease, freedom from labor and care, and indolence, living not for self but to please and glorify God.

This faith was grounded in the Promised One and grew until it could endure as seeing Him who is invisible. Moses understood Christ's mission, expecting the reality foreshadowed by Israel's religious system to be revealed and that system to be completed in perfect fulfillment of God's instructions in types and shadows. He studied the laws of God's government until faith rooted in his earliest teaching grew, and his strength was connection with the Source of all power. So grounded, his faith led him to turn away from the lordly ones of earth and join the humble, poor, despised nation that had chosen to obey God rather than to serve sin.

Trials and temptations are sent so that faith may learn the lessons needed in preparation for the future immortal life. Fellowship with God that makes the world hostile refines believers, and they can accept persecution with joy knowing each conflict contributes to final triumph. Remembering the eternal reward gives resolve to choose truth and obey God at any cost. Respect for the promised reward is proper, and God wants people to trust Him and value His promised blessings, but it must not be the chief motive for service. Love for God and for other people, not eagerness for compensation, is to move the work, doing what is right regardless of gain.

Nature of Promised Reward

To have respect unto the recompense is to look by faith beyond the gorgeous palace and the monarch's crown to the high honors to be bestowed on the saints of the Most High in a kingdom untainted by sin. It is to seek the better heavenly country and the city whose builder and maker is God, confessing oneself a stranger and pilgrim on earth. It is to look to the imperishable crown the King of heaven will place on the brow of the overcomer, the unfading crown of immortality, and the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. It is to prize a life of peace, happiness and joy unspeakable without sorrow, sadness, pain or death, a life as enduring as the throne of God, above glittering worldly tinsel that eclipses the glory of heaven. The eye of faith fixed on that glorious future regards the reward as so valuable that the richest things earth can offer, even worldly riches and honor, high-sounding titles, a prospective crown and the glory of a kingdom, appear valueless.

Moses saw by faith the redeemed people crowned with glory, honor and everlasting life, and the riches of the coming kingdom outweighed the riches of Egypt. The unseen imperishable treasure, made vivid to the soul through the Holy Spirit and made to appear in attractive beauty, keeps worldly things from ruling affections bought with an infinite price by the Redeemer. That vision of the world to come balances the mind so that the things which are seen do not obtain control.

The reproach connected with Christ and God's service was truly greater riches than Egypt's treasures because it truly was so. What looks like renunciation and sacrifice in giving up a prospective kingdom, the palace of the Pharaohs and the monarch's throne with its sinful pleasures that make men forget God, was not really so. Moses chose God's purpose and durable riches and righteousness, binding his life with God's purpose instead of the greatness of Egypt, and he was satisfied with his choice, judging he had made a wise decision in choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

Instead of giving laws to Egypt he by divine direction enacted laws for the world, becoming God's instrument to give principles that safeguard home and society, the cornerstone of the prosperity of nations and the foundation of all that is best in human governments. The greatness, power and civilization of Egypt are in the dust and have passed away, but his work and the great principles of righteousness he lived to establish can never perish and are eternal. His life of toil and heart-burdening care was irradiated with the presence of Christ, with Christ in the wilderness wandering, with Christ on the mount of transfiguration, with Christ in the heavenly courts, a life on earth blessing and blessed and in heaven honored. Though his trials were great, he enjoyed special tokens of God's favor, a rich experience in witnessing the manifestations of God's power and glory, and communion of His love, knowing his mission and work were of God's own appointing and not regretting the burdens he bore.

Those who accept humiliation and affliction with God's people rather than temporary sinful pleasure will share Christ's glory and reign with Him. In willingly sharing His humiliation before the world by choosing hardship with God's people over short-lived sinful pleasure, they become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. They receive the dignity of His name.

The reward is to war the good warfare and come off victorious so as to rest together in the city of God and appreciate that rest. It is to see Jesus and live in His presence, to see Him and praise Him and be crowned together, and for those who have suffered and labored together to enjoy the reward together and rejoice together, including rejoicing with souls helped to lead to Christ. Heaven is worth more than anything lost or suffered in this life, so believers can afford to toil in this life and afford to be pilgrims and strangers while seeking the crown of life and the joy of entering God's kingdom with most earnest efforts and with as many others brought into glory as possible.

Confidence that God rewards those who seek and obey Him gave Moses strength to remain faithful under temptation and difficulty and to carry out his work faithfully, relying on God's help. Attention to God's promised reward leads the faithful to accept reproach and remain humble before God, and God will honor His faithful children with eternal glory and honor.

Choosing the reproach and cross of Christ over worldly honor and treasure leads to the true riches kept in heaven and the reward of eternal glory, for the favor of God is worth more than the treasures of the world. To lose heaven is to lose everything, while gaining the whole world profits nothing if the soul is lost. Respect for that lasting reward means choosing life with Christ and acting with eternity in view, with the nobler world brought back into sight and the threshold of eternity flooded with the glory of God.

Pattern for Later Believers

Moses stands among the heroes of faith whose lives are patterns for the church, and their record is given as instruction for those working for God to go forward in faith. Their example calls believers to lay aside every weight and besetting sin and to run with patience the race set before them. It calls them to turn the mind from discouraging seen things toward unseen things and to seek the better country, the heavenly city whose builder and maker is God. His fidelity shines as an example to those in darkness, and as one of the great cloud of witnesses he met evils and difficulties and stood firm against opposing evil in the Lord's name while the Lord held him by the hand. The faith recorded in sacred history can work in believers today, sustaining servants through trials, preparing them for service, helping them go forward when providences are hard to understand, and becoming channels of divine power.

True followers in reform do not wait for truth to become popular but, when convinced of duty, deliberately accept the cross, inconvenience, disgrace and reproach. They count disgrace suffered for Christ as greater wealth than worldly advantage, comfort, ease, popularity or riches, holding faithfulness to duty more valuable than all of these. They choose the right because it is right and leave consequences with God, so that inconvenience and reproach standing in the way of accepting and spreading truth do not deter them, and by such principle, faith and daring the work of reform is carried forward.

The Waldenses made the same choice, prizing the love and favor of God far above earthly ease, comfort and riches, and esteeming reproach for Christ as greater riches than earthly treasure because of respect to the future reward. They endured persecution, being driven from homes, loss of possessions gained by hard labor, burned houses, flight to the mountains, homelessness, hunger, fatigue, cold, nakedness with only skins of animals for clothing, and sickness and death of children from cold and hunger, without yielding faith. They assembled to sing and praise God for being accounted worthy to suffer for Christ's name, encouraging and cheering one another, grateful even for a miserable retreat, receiving consolation from God. Their hopeful expectation of the reward gave them consolation, and they looked forward with pleasing anticipation to the recompense of reward as light affliction compared with eternal life.

The seventh-month movement shows the same faith that acts on what God has spoken even when obedience costs worldly attractions, valuing the promised reward above worldly pleasures and possessions. Its believers devoted themselves to preparing for Christ's coming because they expected soon to stand in His presence and face to face with the Redeemer. At the cry of the Bridegroom the most humble and devoted heard and obeyed first, studying the Word with intensity of interest, leaving crops and tools with tears and rejoicing to give the warning. They prayed much with and for one another and met in secluded places for communion with God, seeking each morning the evidence of acceptance and counting assurance of the Saviour's approval more necessary than daily food, feeling unutterable solemn joy as the softening, subduing power of the Holy Spirit melted the heart. Moses himself endured in this same way because he saw Christ accompanying Israel in their travels and looked ahead to Christ's coming in the flesh, trusting God as personally present and as the help he needed to bear misunderstanding, danger and insult without retaliation.

Call to Christian Living

God's owned and approved people must live by faith looking into the great beyond, choosing divine honor and God's future reward above every earthly gain or preferment, for approval by God brings no recognition and honor from the world. The very names owned as sons and daughters and joint-heirs and honored among angels are often spoken with contempt and mockery by the ungodly, and steadfast souls delighted in are for His sake defamed, imprisoned, mobbed, hunted and slain, so that while probation continues God's people must expect the world to know them not. Choosing with Moses is to suffer affliction with God's people rather than seek a life free from hardship, counting shame and suffering borne for Christ as greater riches than Egypt's treasures because the eye looks toward the reward, for suffering for faithfulness belongs to the path to the promised reward. That choice turns from the world's attractions and sin's brief pleasures for the enduring crown of immortality and eternal glory.

It is the ambition of those professing present truth to be written in heaven as rich in spiritual graces rather than written poor while appearing successful on earth, to have lives hid with Christ in God, and to be those whom gold cannot buy, valuing reproach for Christ above all Egypt's treasures though tempted. Faith values loyalty to Christ and future heavenly riches more than worldly success, wealth, honor and security, even when following Christ brings hardship and loss, prizing spiritual riches and the eternal kingdom and choosing self-denial rather than gaining earthly advantages at cost of spiritual life. Worldly success gained at loss of spiritual life is disaster and death, while poverty, the cross, self-denial, self-sacrifice and shattered worldly hopes are far better than sitting with princes on earth and forfeiting the kingdom of God. For God's people this means staying distinct from the world instead of aping it by cherishing selfishness and covetousness, refusing unfair dealing and sharp practice in order to be successful, using talents for the spiritual ends for which they were given, vindicating God as owner of all in the earth, and testifying to the reality of Bible religion, because copying the world puts Christ to open shame.

It means choosing to suffer reproach for Jesus and showing that choice before a disobedient and crooked generation rather than conforming to the world, to its customs, vanities and fashions. For Christ's sake and for the soul's sake it requires shunning human commandments that obscure God's holy commandments and shunning pleasure-seeking that is ever unsatisfied, such as excitement of the ballroom, the theater and the party of pleasure, and spending time granted to prepare for eternity poring over fictitious stories. Such practices pervert God-given intellect, neglect the Word of God, and rob mind and soul of moral power needed to wrestle against faults and errors, habits and practices that disqualify the soul for enjoying Christ's presence here and immortal life hereafter. Each must therefore ask seriously and with intense interest how it is with his soul, whether by habits and practices he works against his Redeemer, whether he brings glory to Christ, and whether he proves he chooses reproach for Jesus.

Moses gave up prospective kingdom and life of worldly honor and luxury in kingly courts, choosing hardship with God's people instead, counting reproach connected with Christ greater wealth than Egypt's treasures because he looked toward the reward. The same faithfulness means choosing active labor in God's cause with hardship, privation and exposure over a life of ease, freedom from labor and care, and indolence, living not for self but to please and glorify God. It is applied to choosing active difficult service for God over an easy life, and investing time, effort, influence and money in His cause as treasure kept in heaven beyond reach of loss, presenting service as choice of lasting reward over worldly ease, wealth and honor rather than living for self or storing earthly treasure. His choice is an example of sacrifice and obedience, valuing faithfulness and suffering and disgrace of belonging to God's people above wealth and status because he looked ahead to the reward. Choosing God means yielding the will to Him and obeying His requirements, for obedience brings happiness and joy while disobedience brings sorrow, and like Moses God's children choose to serve Him rather than enjoy worldly pleasures.

Seeing Jesus rightly turns love from earth and earthly things to heaven and heavenly things, makes the short hours of probation precious, keeps believers watchful so surfeiting and cares of life do not leave them unready for the day of God, keeps Christ living within as hope of glory and His soon coming always in view, and lets the infinite sacrifice made move them to look steadily to the eternal reward. Christians must count reproach suffered for Christ as greater riches than all treasures of earth, breaking the spell of earthliness resting on human beings in a busy world full of clamor and confusion, learning that gaining the whole world profits nothing if the soul is lost, with the nobler world lost from sight and the threshold of eternity flooded with God's glory as true wealth to seek. Keeping the second coming and eternal realities continually before the mind makes the world's attractions, vanities, praises, riches, honors and enjoyments appear altogether profitless vanity. It means living as pilgrims and strangers waiting, hoping and praying for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ, bringing that belief into practical life with vigorous faith and hope, fervent love for one another, careful holy living for God's glory and distinct separation from the world, pressing on toward Canaan the land of promise rather than turning back toward Egypt.

Respect for the promised reward should guide choices and work and be shared with others through faithful influence and Christlike example, leading to value faithfulness to God above worldly gain. The reward is eternal, and neglecting opportunities to serve, choosing self-pleasing ways and refusing Christ's conditions for heavenly life show it has not been valued, for choices and character during probation determine eternal destiny. Having respect to the recompense means being diligent in doing the Master's work to the uttermost, continuing while compassed with infirmities and pain, seeking strength and wisdom from God to do the work according to His will, and doing double work for those who will not work in Christ's service. It means carrying forward a large work in entire trust in the Redeemer, in which trust believers are perfectly safe, keeping Christ uplifted as author and finisher of faith and following His example to do His will irrespective of consequences, with willing mind receiving light and help from the source of all power while the Lord leads everyone who places the hand in His and never lets go unless withdrawn, letting the heart repose in confidence in God as present help in every time of need without needing to work through other minds to lead His chosen ones, and using every God-given faculty so others through influence and Christlike example gain the same respect. Looking toward the reward is reason to labor zealously for Christ's glory in bringing people to the Master, for each person saved adds to the praise of the redeemed and every person is precious as purchased by Christ's blood, with His interests bound up with souls He ransomed.

Having respect to the reward means living to be fitted without fault or wrinkle for the mansions God prepares, knowing time is very short and death may come at any moment, calling sin wrongdoing and sin and accepting reprove, rebuke and exhort instead of sympathizing to take off sharpness of reproof, working to save the sinner as lost while refusing to treat faults as of no account or excuse them with trifling sentimentalism about the way learned at home. It illustrates faithfulness through choosing God's service over worldly fame and ambition, with will submitted to God and highest aim to do good and save souls. Hope of future reward outweighing worldly wealth and family approval gives courage to keep preaching Christ and sharing light given even when called disgrace, for heaven's reward is greater. Choosing Christ and accepting reproach is worth more than worldly wealth, rank or recognition, and victory comes through meekness and lowliness, not through worldly splendor.

Sharing Christ's reproach is worth more than worldly honor and riches because God's promised reward outweighs them, and the choice is between honor the world offers and faithfulness to God looking toward the reward. Christ Himself endured shame, agony and death for the joy of accomplishing salvation, and the value of the redeemed makes earthly treasure seem insignificant. Defending God's honor and remaining true to right may bring trials, conflict and reproach, but faith gives strength to resist wrong and wins rich reward, and like Moses those who stand firm may have to stand almost alone, their integrity and moral strength kept pure through dependence on God. Respect for the promised reward gives reason to pursue obedience and the heights God makes possible, oneness with God through Jesus Christ, for through God's power and divine working human nature need not remain corrupted by sin but through Christ becomes allied to angels and even to God.

The eye of faith is not to fix on things seen but on eternal unseen realities, and this applies especially to those bound up with afflictions and necessities of humanity in work for blessing and relief of sufferers, that they may grow more intelligent in God's great plan to bring suffering ones to discern the value of the human soul by counting identification with Christ's reproach as greater wealth than earthly treasure. Believers at Corinth were enabled while Paul was with them to gladly choose to suffer affliction for Christ rather than enjoy pleasures of sin, by his firm faith, fervent prayers, words of instruction, and above all his own example to inspire and encourage them. Those called to God's service should be ready, as Moses willingly valued reproach associated with Christ above Egypt's treasures because he looked to God's reward, to accept reproach and give up worldly advantages for God's favor at Christ's call.