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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 Matt. 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. We will reserve Moses' last act of faith, `the passover', together with
Israel's faith in passing through the Red Sea, with which it is so clearly connected, to a
further article.
No.51.
Faith and the better thing (11: 28 - 40).
pp. 221 - 229
We now reach the concluding pair of characters in the sevenfold series of Heb. 11:,
viz., Israel and Rahab. The key thought is "deliverance from destruction".
Moses is linked with Israel in the keeping of the passover, "lest He that destroyed the
firstborn should touch them". Israel pass unscathed through the Red Sea, "which the
Egyptians assaying to do were drowned". "Rahab perished not with them that believed
not".
The faith of Moses is very comprehensive, and at either end of the record in Heb. 11:
it overlaps and includes the faith of others. In both it was a preserving faith, and
connected with birth:
"By faith Moses, when he was born . . . . ." (verse 23).
"By faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest He that destroyed the
firstborn should touch them" (verse 28).
There is no warrant for the change of expression from "by faith" to "through faith" in
verses 27 and 28. It was the same faith acting in the same way that actuated Moses
throughout. There is a real distinction intended between "by faith" and "through faith" in
Rom. 3: 30. Here, however, it is a variation in the English version only, and no
doctrinal difference is intended.
The passover.
Several items of interest are given concerning Moses and the passover. "By faith he
kept the passover." The word "kept" here is poieo, and in its true translation has a wider
significance than "kept". It is used of the sprinkling of blood just as much as the
passover, and it would be hardly true to say, "he kept the sprinkling of blood". Paul
follows the LXX version here, which in its turn faithfully translates the Hebrew. "To do
the passover" (Exod. 12: 47, 48) does not seem good English, and it is not suggested as
an alternative, but it points out the meaning, which is expressed in Exod. 12: 50: