Continuing on with our thought.
Hebrews 11:23a
"By faith Moses, when he was born,…"
The minute the little fellow hit fresh air, what did they know. Hey, he’s something special. He’s not just another little Hebrew. He’s not just another Israelite. This little fellow is something special. Just as with Abram he also had something special about him as well. This is known through the book of Jasher which was not made part of our Bible because they could not verify the author, not realizing that the name simple means to draw a straight line or a plumb line between two points, as we've shared else where. Jasher helps to fill in the missing parts of Moses narrative of the first five books.
Hebrews 11:23
"By faith Moses, when he was born, (because of their faith) was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper (or a special) child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment."
Here's a tough one, he parents did not name him as of that time, he was named by Pharaohs daughter with and Egyptians name meaning salvation through water or raised from the water, Mo-shes. Now I don’t think he was born with a halo around his head. I don’t think he was born with some kind of an intrinsic baby doll face. But there was something about that little infant that those parents knew right away; this isn’t an ordinary child. We can’t throw him into the Nile River. No he like Abram stood out from among the other children just as the babe Jesus did. And like the child Jesus, he was saved from execution through a divine process of events just as Abram had been.
So they secretly built that little crib that would float on the river because they had to keep this little child alive. All right, and so he was, "…hid three months because they saw he was proper, and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment."
Now stop and think a minute. We are now about 350 years after the call of Abraham, and the children of the Hebrews have never had a printed book. Think about it. What held them together? Trusting God, for they all knew him. But oh, how do you pass trust from one generation to the next? By word of mouth. And so the Patriarchs were faithful in passing on their trust in God's faithfulness. In the same way that Israel though scattered to the four winds and among the nations has retained its solidarity for almost 4000 years. Now how is this carried about? Through a spirit of Religion and the Idolatry that accompanies that faith by the worship of the things idolized ei...the scroll of the Law, the Torah, customs and rituals, and the utensils used both within and without the temple, even the Temple itself. This spirit of Religion causes a block and hindrance to God's activities and our receptivity of that activity.
That’s what’s happened to America. That’s what’s happened to the Western world. "Christendom." Parents have been guilty of not passing on their trust in His faithfulness. And I blame my grandparents generation the most of all. They were raised up in the Depression and they said, "My kids are not going to be deprived of everything like we are. And what have they done? They’ve ruined everything." They kept quiet and did not share what they may have known, if any thing of the Lord. Especially what we're sharing here. For the spirit of Religion causes silents and pride to swell up within us and a fear of sharing and caring for God through our activities as we train, teach, and tutor others because of our faith, trusting God's faithfulness through the ontological essence of Christ who is to be our all in all.
We're in Hebrews chapter 11 and we left off with verse 23 with the review of the faith of Moses. Remember that Hebrews chapter 11 is a chapter that just simply reminds us of the faith or the trust that the Old Testament Patriarchs held in God. I’ve been constantly reminding all of us, myself included, that this Epistle of Hebrews is written to Jewish-Christians who were primarily being plagued with the dilemma of keeping out of and not going back into Judaism and all of its Levitical Law-keeping and stepping into Paul’s doctrine of Grace. The promised New Covenant is a Covenant based on an Endless Life, spoken of by two OT prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah primarily. Within this Covenant God's pledges to do all necessary to bring us through His Grace activity as long as we remain receptive of His activity through the ontological essence of Christ restored to us.
And we have compared it with cult people today. It is hard for someone who has had these things drummed into them for years and years to finally just make the break and pull away from it and not be drawn back. Well, the Jewish people were under the same kind of a dilemma. Judaism was just pulling them back. We want to remember that when Hebrews was written, Jerusalem hadn’t been destroyed, the Temple is still operating with all the sacrifices. That’s why he said back in chapter 6, that if they were to go back into Temple worship and sacrifices (which had no validity whatsoever, any more and even though the Jews were still doing it every day in Jerusalem), by the continued practice they would be canceling out Grace. Paul used five stern warnings within the Epistle which we also need to know and listen to. Paul knew that God had made the practice of Judaism of NO value by the resurrection of Christ. And that He was about to end all of its customs, rituals, priesthood and even the Temple itself was about to come down as Paul knew the meaning of Daniels vision. For both he and the disciples were expecting the eminent return of Christ and the onset of the tribulation period.
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