Enduring As Seeing Him Who Is Invisible

The picture that Scripture paints of Moses reveals a complex individual. If we have in mind only Charlton Heston from Cecil B. DeMille’s Ten Commandments then we miss much. Captured in several Old Testament books, is the long account of his leading Israel from the bondage of Egypt through the wilderness wanderings to the edge of the Promised Land. In that record we have a man who is at one point fearful of Pharaoh, who then stands boldly before him demanding in Yahweh’s name to let his people go. He pleads mercy for when Yahweh is angry with Israel, but himself strikes out in frustration on account of their complaints. He leads God’s people to the border of Canaan only to have them refuse to enter. As a result, he must spend forty years leading them in circles until the rebellious generation is dead before they might cross over Jordan. In the end, however, he himself is denied entry, allowed only to look upon the land from afar.

In addition to the Pentateuch, we have the testimony of Stephen in Acts 7. In it, he relates how Moses, at age 40, understood that God had chosen him to deliver Israel from Pharaoh’s clutches, yet it would take another 40 years and an encounter with a burning bush before it would be undertaken. Also included is Moses’ poignant reflections in Psalm 90 on the frailty of human existence and the mercies of God. But it is the writer of Hebrews who explains the nature of the faith that sustained Moses during his long, extraordinary life. It was a faith that offered “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” His faith was manifested when he chose identification with God’s people over the court of Pharaoh. Eschewing the “fleeting pleasures of sin” for “he was looking to the reward,” he exhibited courage in the face of Pharaoh’s wrath, because “he endured as seeing him who is invisible.” 

Moses had confidence that Yahweh, maker of heaven and earth, existed and that he was as good as his word. He had chosen Israel as his own special people and had promised them land and an enduring future. Whatever pleasures Egypt offered, they were not eternal. He chose therefore to defer gratification, believing that the reward God offered would prove more satisfactory than the “treasures of Egypt.”

This is the choice put before us each time we are tempted to settle for something less than God’s best. Will we, in faith, patiently wait for the blessing he promises for faithfulness, or will we yield to the voice that urges immediate gratification? Will we become discontent with our lack of “fulfillment,” or, by faith, be satisfied with God’s pleasure in us being pleased in him? As the writer of Hebrews teaches, “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” This was the faith of Moses. It is to be our faith as well. Such confidence in God will allow us, like the great patriarch, to look “to the reward” and endure “as seeing him who is invisible.”