Hebrews 11:24-26

‘By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, accounting the reproach of the anointed one (Christ) greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked to the recompense of reward.'

The same faith was found in Moses. Once he had grown up he had to choose between the privilege and glory of being Pharaoh's daughter's son, with all the glorious future that held for him together with all the pleasures that came with it, the pleasures resulting from sin (the sin being that of disloyalty to God), or being faithful to God and to His people, God's anointed ones (Psalms 105:15). He had to choose between what offered temporary temporal benefit, or what offered eternal reward. In a smaller way this choice faces all men and women.

‘Refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, (resulting in everlasting reward), than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.' He made his choice by faith in the promises of God. He refused his high position and chose to identify himself with his oppressed people. Rather than being disloyal to God and enjoying the pleasures of Egypt, he chose to share his people's mistreatment.

This would certainly seem to have in mind the time when he first visited his people and killed the Egyptian, thus rejecting his position of loyalty to Pharaoh, but that was not really a positive choice of suffering ill-treatment with the people of God. At that time nothing was probably further from his mind. That was thus not really such an act of faith. The act of faith came when as a result he fled and later chose (rather unwillingly, but in obedience to God which revealed his faith) to return to Egypt to live among his people and share their ill-treatment.

‘Accounting the reproach of Christ (or ‘of the anointed one') greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.' This may be interpreted in a number of ways.

1) By translating as ‘the reproach of the anointed one' with Moses as the anointed one. This might suggest that the writer is indicating that at God's calling Moses chose to be leader of God's people, ‘the anointed one', sharing their reproach, rather than being a prince of Egypt. God's people were called ‘the anointed ones' (Psalms 105:15). And those whom God chose to rule over them were anointed with oil to demonstrate that they were God's ‘anointed one' (LXX ‘Christ'). See Psalms 2:2; 1 Samuel 2:10; 1 Samuel 2:35. So the concept of being an ‘anointed one' (a ‘Christ') was linked with being the chosen of God and leader of His people. The writer may therefore here be saying that Moses chose the ignominy of being God's ‘anointed one' (His Christ) over His people rather than the glory of being a prince of Egypt. He treasured reproach for God's sake through being His anointed, rather than all that Egypt could offer him. Faith in God and His promises rendered all else comparatively unimportant, and he recognised no higher honour than to be ‘the one anointed by God' as watcher over His people, even though to be over such a people could only bring reproach. (The language, of course, being the writer's in the light of later Old Testament Scriptures and not Moses').

2) That ‘the reproach of Christ' was used in the sense that Moses deliberately chose to share the reproach of the nation from whom would come the Messiah, the future Messianic people. The people of God were God's anointed ones (messiahs) - Psalms 105:15). And they were in embryo the people of Messiah, the great Anointed One Who was coming. They were the ‘anointed' people of the future hope, who looked ahead for the coming king promised by God (Genesis 49:10), so that all raised up by God on their behalf to rule them would be His ‘anointed ones' (compare Psalms 2:2; 1 Samuel 2:10; 1 Samuel 2:35) until the final ‘Anointed One' came. The idea is then that Moses, aware of this in part, chose to be within the Messianic line of promise and to suffer reproach for it.

This would indicate that it was Moses' faith in the promises concerning God's people, and his faith in God's promise of a future Great King (Genesis 49:10), (what we and the writer would call Messianic promises), that made him opt to choose leadership of the people of God rather than princely authority in Egypt. He did it because his faith was in the living God of Israel and His promises. So, like the Messiah would after him, he chose to bear reproach for God's people as being God's ‘anointed one' (as David would be later), prefiguring what Messiah Himself too would suffer. He looked for and believed for the fulfilment of the promises through his suffering, and to the reward that would be his when his people were safely established in God's inheritance, which would be a recompense for all that he had given up. For if God's people ceased so would the ‘Messianic' promise of Genesis 49:10. That is why he could be said to bear the reproach of the Messiah (compare 1 Peter 1:10).

In the same way are the readers of this letter, having seen the actual fulfilment of the Messianic hope, to welcome the reproach of Christ rather than the commendation of the world, for it leads to a full recompense of reward (Hebrews 10:35).

3) That the thought is similar to 1) but with ‘the anointed' being the people as a whole. Moses would share the reproach of God's anointed (Psalms 105:15), His firstborn (Exodus 4:22).

4) ‘The reproach of Christ.' The writer may however by this simply mean, ‘reproach similar to that poured out on Christ', reproach for obedience to the will of God.

5) Or he may be seeing Christ (as God's Son or as ‘the Angel of Yahweh') as having been with His people in the Exodus and in the journeying through the wilderness (compare 1 Corinthians 10:4) so that Moses was seen as serving Christ there and bearing reproach for His sake (see Exodus 14:19; Exodus 23:20; Exodus 23:23; Exodus 32:34; compare Daniel 3:25: Joshua 2:4; Joshua 5:14 for a similar idea).

Whichever way we see it, the final purpose of the writer in this is to encourage those to whom he is writing also to bear the reproach of Christ because they believe God's promises.

‘For he looked to the recompense of reward.' What Moses had in mind was the future hope compared with the temporary pleasures of Egypt. From Moses' point of view the recompense of the reward was the promise of God's inheritance in Canaan. That was what motivated him. He looked to see the people of God established in God's wondrous land flowing with milk and honey, under God's rule for ever. But the writer sees further ahead to the Kingly Rule of God in Heaven, which Moses would enjoy, as would all who are faithful to Christ.

So the emphasis here is on what, because of his faith, he was willing to put aside and sacrifice, and what he was willing to endure, as he looked to the great recompense that would come from trusting and following God. This is now followed by emphasis on his boldness in facing up to the greatest power on earth.