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By faith he forsook Egypt.
We must now consider a different passage.
"By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as
seeing Him Who is invisible" (Heb. 11: 27).
It is generally reckoned that this cannot refer to the time when Moses fled unto
Midian, but to the second time that he left Egypt, at the time of the exodus. There is no
need to comment upon the obvious "faith" that enabled Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt,
so we ask a moment's attention while we look once again at that earlier flight from
Egypt.
"Not fearing the wrath of the king."--When we have read through the chapters of
Exodus detailing the attitude of Moses toward Pharaoh, the mighty miracles that were
wrought, the power that moved heaven and earth and even the angel of death, it seems
rather tame to say of that triumphant departure from Egypt, the Israelites loaded with the
"spoil" thrust upon them, that Moses "forsook" Egypt, and did not fear the wrath of the
king. He had forsaken Egypt 40 years before, and his return was with the express
purpose of leading Israel out, not with any intention of settling down himself. Time after
time he stood before Pharaoh, calm, unflinching, master of the situation. There was no
wrath of the king to fear when, at the last, Israel moved out of the land, and the attempt of
Pharaoh to overtake them at the Red Sea hardly fits the passage in Heb. 11:
There are several points of contact between Heb. 11: and Stephen's speech in
Acts 7: Stephen gives a very full account of the occasion that led to Moses' flight from
Egypt:--
"And when he was full 40 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 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 ascension to