I N D E X
192
PERFECTION
PERDITION
192
OR
`And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one
of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: for he
supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they
understood not. And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one
again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust
him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian
yesterday? Then fled Moses' (Acts 7:23-29).
Stephen supplies us with the motive that prompted Moses' action. He supposed that Israel would have risen as
one man and acknowledged him as their deliverer. This was not to be. They rejected him. He left Egypt and
remained away for 40 years. Then, Stephen continues:
`This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a
deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out' (Acts 7:35,36).
It is very evident that Moses' two manifestations to Israel are typical of the First and Second Coming of Christ.
His flight into Midian is parallel with the Lord's rejection, ascension to heaven and present period of waiting.
Stephen, too, does not say that Moses forsook or left Egypt the second time, but that `he brought them out'. Let us
look at Exodus 2:11-14 again. Verse 11 opens with the words `When Moses was grown' which is translated in the
LXX by words identical with Hebrews 11:24. Exodus 2:12 gives a statement not repeated by Stephen:
`He looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the
sand'.
It is easy to say, Moses evidently looked `this way and that', to make sure that no man should witness the deed,
but is that truth? Stephen tells us that he assumed that Israel would understand his motive, and Isaiah seems to use
the expression in such a way as to compel us to believe that Moses was conscious of the Messianic foreshadowing
of his acts:
`He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto
him' (Isa. 59:16).
`And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm
brought salvation unto me' (Isa. 63:5).
While Exodus 2:14 says `and Moses feared' it does not say he `feared the wrath of the king'; but it appears that
he feared something less personal and more vital. Spurrell translates the passage:'Then Moses was afraid, for he
said, Surely this transaction is known', which endeavours to draw attention to what was passing in Moses' mind.
We know from Stephen that Moses expected Israel to see in this act his credentials as a Godsent deliverer, and that
when he was sent later, he said: `They will not believe me ... they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee'
(Exod. 4:1), and that the signs of the serpent and the leprosy were given to him.
Let no one judge Moses for the slaying of the Egyptian. Under God he was the instrument of slaying thousands
of Egypt's firstborn, and of overcoming the flower of their army at the Red Sea. We understand that at the reply of
the quarrelling Israelites, Moses was seized with some apprehension that his mission would miscarry, saying:
`Surely the intention of my act is evident to them', much in the same way the Lord said to His disciples after He had
washed their feet: `What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter', which refers to something
more than the external act of washing the feet. The only possibility therefore was, that Moses should forsake Egypt.
Pharaoh sought to slay him, and his flight out of Egypt was no more an act of unbelief than was the flight for much
the same reason of Joseph and Mary, as recorded in Matthew 2.
These points we submit to the reader for careful consideration, believing that many an action may be really `by
faith' which, casually judged, may seem the product of some baser motive.
Faith and the better thing (Heb. 11:28-40)
We now reach the concluding pair of characters in the sevenfold series of Hebrews 11, viz., Israel and Rahab.
The key thought is `deliverance from destruction'.