“By faith Moses when he was come to years,” that is, maturity. Some translate it, “When he became of age” —gained his majority—these forty years. “By faith Moses when he was come to years, refused.” Very few of us have come to years as Christians. We remain as it were in a certain kind of childhood- infancy—I mean spiritually. We get that referred to in Corinthians and in another part of this Epistle. The apostle said to the Corinthians, “I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.” There it is babes in a sense of a state of weakness or weakling.
In the 6th chapter of Hebrews: “When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.” This is a test as to how far or near we have come to our majority come to years. It is a simple test—a very trying one!
“By faith Moses when he was come to years, refused.” What did he refuse? “To be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” Just think of the dignity of that! “Son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” Brought up there in all the luxury and in all the learning; it says, “Moses was learned in all the learning of the Egyptians.” He had been in that house—that court—for about forty years. He knew little or nothing outside of it. All at once he refuses it: turns his back on the whole thing. He has come to years; and faith come to years in that way, refuses in different ways, this poor world and all that it has to give. Egypt is the power of the world, and in that way we see and feel that is a simple but searching test. Don’t we feel our own infancy and lack of coming to years?
The child of God is supposed to be continually growing. As it says “Growing by the true knowledge of God.” Then the actions of faith or the path of faith, to the wisdom of this world, is a very foolish thing. He gave up one thing and chose another. What did he give up? All that this world had to give. All that he was heir to as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. A child of the court of Egypt.
What did he choose? That is very striking. “Rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.” Now it may seem contradictory—a paradox—to say in one breath as it were, foolish, but wise course. You can hardly put these two things together. But from the standpoint of human wisdom, what a foolish thing to give up the palatial home—that place in Pharaoh’s court as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter—here a man grown now able to enjoy it all—and give it up to identify himself with a suffering and an afflicted people.
God was unknown in the court of Pharaoh. Whatever else might have been there, God was unknown. You see, the Pharaoh of Joseph’s and of Moses’ time, or as we say sometimes, the Pharaoh of Genesis and the Pharaoh of Exodus, are two different generations of Pharaohs morally. It says, “There arose another Pharaoh that knew not Joseph.” In the time of Joseph, Egypt was friendly to the people of God; but in the time of Moses, Egypt was the oppressor of the people of God. They were an afflicted people—a nation of slaves, but faith never forms a wrong judgment, whatever appearance may be. Faith is faith, and always gets the mind of God.
“Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.” One says, Wise and happy choice! What is the portion of the people of God as God’s people in this world! Affliction; and the path of faith has always been and will always be a path of difficulty—no faith in heaven—but God’s people, as His people, are an afflicted people. Then the great thing is to know how far are we willing to, as it were, make this path of faith a path of choice? That is what we are called to. I speak this way because I am speaking to us as the people of God, not to unconverted people.
“Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.” God’s people to our shame and loss have become so identified with the world that we don’t know the affliction that is our due from the hand of the world, if we are faithful to our calling. Such a joining of hand in hand with the Christian and the world, or the church and the world, walking together. The communion, the intercourse with God, the spiritual and godly intelligence that should characterize us as the children of God, is unknown in that path of walking hand in hand with the world, but it takes energy to make this choice. That is why I said at the opening of the reading, so few of us have come to years. I don’t mean years in natural life, but in spiritual life and experience.
“Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy” —He gave up enjoyment, and such enjoyment! Enjoyment of the court of Pharaoh; that place of dignity, known and called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He gave it up. “Choosing rather to suffer affliction... than to enjoy the pleasures of” WHAT? Sin. We all, everyone of us, naturally love the pleasures of sin. They are pleasant. How long do they last? “FOR A SEASON,” and a very short season.
How happy every child of grace,
Whose sins are all forgiven;
“This world,” he cries, “is not my place
My happy home’s in heaven.”
“Its evils in a moment end,
Its joys as soon are past;
But all the bliss to which I tend
Eternally shall last.”
How transient. “The pleasures of sin which are but for a season” given up for a path of affliction—the normal path for the child of God through this world. We often see the poor world looking upon us with pity, don’t we? and saying, You don’t know what you are losing. The path of faith to this world is a path of folly. But at the same time, while the poor children of this world pity us, we pity them, and we say, You don’t know what you are losing.
Take the prodigal in the far country. When he came to the end of his own resources, what did he find? He found degradation for his position and calling, and he found husks for his food. And that, dear young Christian, is all this poor world has to give us. We crave it, but after all it proves to be husks, and what sustenance is there in husks?
Many years ago I was reading a little article in a well-known publication in those days called “Things New and Old.” In it a servant of God was giving an address to the young, and he alluded, if I remember rightly, to Nelson’s Monument in Trafalgar Square—some of us have seen it. It is quite a monument. But come closer home, and go to Washington’s Monument in Washington. That is a monument to Washington, isn’t it? Nelson’s monument is a monument to Nelson, but where is Nelson? Where is Washington? They are monuments to dead men. The very fact that the world raised monuments to them, is a pretty sure proof they held a pretty good place in its esteem, and that on the other hand is just as sure proof that they knew very little of identification with the people of God. We don’t raise monuments to living people, but to the dead ones; and as we often say, these monuments are to those who are where their monuments are not. I just refer to this to show “the pleasures of sin which are but for a season.”
Who ever thought of raising a monument to the apostle Paul? Which of those apostles came to a natural death? Not one as far as we know. What has changed things so? Has the truth changed? Has the character of the Christian’s calling changed? No. What has changed then? O, the Christian; and he has identified himself with the world; and the church of God, that which bears God’s name—the name of Christ in this world—has a marked place in it, a place it never would have had, had there been faithfulness. What the Lord says in the 12th of Luke would have been characteristic of them: “Fear not, little flock.” Is christendom a little flock? All this tells us the vast majority of us haven’t come to years, haven’t known what it is to choose the path of the people of God, which is a path of affliction.
“Pleasures of sin which are for a season,” and as we have already said, at the longest, a short season after all. I am no young man, and if the Lord tarry will soon be gone; but, dear friends, what are seventy-nine or eighty years compared to eternity? That is the proper way to estimate. Look things square in the face, and that is what the wisdom of faith does, and then makes its choice. That is a striking verse from the pen as it were of the Spirit of God: “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.”
(To be continued)