Fearing the True King - Hebrews 11:23–29
William Gurnall was a 17th century preacher during very difficult times in England. Among other things, he ministered through a civil war and the beheading of a king. In a collection of his sermons published under the title, The Christian in Complete Armour, he makes a fascinating observation. He says, “We fear man so much, because we fear God so little. One fear cures another. When man’s terror scares you, turn your thoughts to the wrath of God.”
“We fear man so much, because we fear God so little.” Diminished or non-existent fear of God is a primary characteristic of our sinful nature. The apostle Paul quotes various OT verses in his argument for the sinfulness of all people, beginning with, “None is righteous, no, not one,” but he ends with these words from Psalm 36: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Dread of God, sober awareness of His power, humility before His holiness, reverence for His majesty, awe of His greatness and His wrath. These things do not come naturally to us.
This is why over and over in the Scriptures we read, “Fear the LORD” and “Fear God.” Humankind mistakes our true place in this world and in our own lives. Yes, we have dominion over many things, but only under God’s oversight. This world and everything in it belongs to Him and we should bow our hearts before Him and fear Him.
But instead, we naturally bow to worldly fears that hinder us from living by faith in God’s promises. God promises to be with us always; we fear He may not be. God promises that Jesus has overcome the world; we fear that the world may overcome us. God promises to work all things together for the good of those He loves and calls; we fear there is no purpose in our suffering and nothing good will come from our trials.
God promises contentment through knowing Jesus; we fear we must engineer our own contentment. We fear we may not have all we need to live life and live it for God, but He promises to supply all our needs in Christ Jesus. God promises us that He is in control of all things; worldly fear leads you and I to believe that we need control.
But God has made a way for us to reject our worldly fears and trust Him. Last week, we looked at how God’s people can display faith in His promises as we face questions, delays, and even death. We must fix the eyes of our hearts on the object of our faith, Jesus Christ.
Many things expose our worldly fears, but those who are born again by God’s grace, according to His sovereign election, through the power of the Holy Spirit, by faith in Jesus Christ, those who are born again possess the ability to trust God’s promises and reject worldly fear. Our only necessary fear is the godly reverence that we should have for the true King. There are temporary powers and pitfalls in this world, but they will fade away; we should fear Him who reigns forever.
But how do we do that? These verses of Hebrews today describe three ways. You can find an outline on page 6 in the WG. God's people fear the true King by obeying His command, seeking His reward, and dreading His wrath. The world will shout commands at us, dangled rewards before us, and threaten wrath against us. But we should only fear King Jesus.
Now, this section of chapter 11 focuses on Moses, from the time of his birth until he led the people of Israel across the Red Sea. During that time, the Egyptian pharaohs were a continual presence. They were the Egyptian kings. They considered themselves gods, and during the life of Moses, their power is compared to the power of the one true God.
Both “kings” gave commands, offered rewards, and poured out wrath. But God proves to be vastly superior. Notice verse [23], “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” Exodus 1 tells us that the pharaoh believed that the Israelites were becoming too numerous, so he commanded that any boy born among them should be put to death.
On the surface, this was population control. But we understand that it continued what God foretold in Genesis 3: the seed of the serpent versus the seed of the woman, Satan’s continual attempts to eliminate God’s messiah who would destroy him. Paul’s words in Ephesians 6 apply to that time just as they did in the first century and still today: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” That is the spiritual warfare that William Gurnall preached about.
So the king gave his edict, his command, but another command stood, and it stood long before God verbalized it in the Ten Commandments: “You shall not murder.” Exodus 6 says the names of Moses’ parents were Amram and Jochebed. They recognized the favor of God on Moses.
He was healthy. Many children died in infancy during those times; Moses was strong. So by faith they defied the king’s command. God’s promises to Abraham were still in effect. They believed that God would make a way for them even as they faced an evil king’s command.
Corrie Ten Boom lived with her family in Holland, and during WW2, their home was a hiding place for Jews in danger of execution by the Nazis. In 1943 and 1944, their family usually had 5-6 people illegally living in their home. Many other Dutch people did this as well. They refused to simply go along with the murderous commands of the Nazi regime.
There are times when civil disobedience is necessary. There are Christians in parts of the world who gather for worship on the Lord’s Day in defiance of their country’s government. May we all have the faith to trust God if the governing authorities command us to break His laws.
But also, we must ask ourselves whose commands we follow each day? Of course we follow the reasonable laws of the land. God’s Word instructs us to do so. But also, God gives these commands: “You shall have no other gods before Me,” “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might,” “You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.”
Do you obey these orders? Do you abide by those edicts? Or do you fearfully abide by the ways of the world? Where do you look for contentment, for hope, for peace, for success, for safety? The world says, “Buy this, get this, achieve this, look like this, believe this, embrace this!” If we fear the enemy of God, we will comply. But those who fear the true King obey His command.
Also, His people seek His reward. Look at verse [24] “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, [25] choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. [26] He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.”
Exodus 2 says that when Moses was about 3 months old, his mother could no longer hide him, so she put him in a basket, placed him in the reeds of the river bank, and he was discovered by the Pharaoh’s daughter, who took him in. Moses’ own mother wound up becoming his caretaker in the Pharaoh’s household.
Moses grew and eventually understood that he was a Hebrew. He observed his people being treated brutally by the Egyptians. At around age 40, Moses stood up for a Hebrew being beaten by an Egyptian, and he killed the Egyptian. He then fled, and did not return for 40 more years, when God commanded him to lead the Israelites out of slavery.
Moses could have remained in the house of Pharaoh all those years, protected from danger and insult. But as a result of God’s providential work in his heart and his life, he rejected worldly wealth and reward. Though he didn’t know the name of Jesus Christ, Moses was aware of God’s gracious promises to his ancestors.
There is a contrast in these verses between earthly riches and eternal wealth, siding with pharoah or with God. This theme runs through Moses’ return to Egypt, his confrontation with the Pharaoh, and his warning of the plagues. The plagues were proof that God was the powerful One. He was the one to fear, and a greater reward lay with knowing Him.
Moses endured insults because he knew that he was on the side of the true King. Thousands of years later, Jesus would say, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”
There are temporary rewards available to us, if we play by the rules of the world. But if earthly rewards are what you see, then when you get them, that is all you have. These struggles are not new. Another 17th century Puritan pastor, Richard Baxter, discusses it in a work he titled Making Light of Christ and Salvation. He says, “It is a most lamentable Thing to see how most Men spend their Care, their Time, their Pains for known Vanities, while God and Glory are cast aside! That he who is All, should seem to them as Nothing; and that which is Nothing, should seem to them as good as All!...What is it that you run after? And what is it that you neglect?”
What reward are you seeking? Think about it this way: in your pursuit of what you want, or what you feel you need do you break God’s laws? Do you sin against others? Are you driven by selfishness and jealousy? Do you let pride govern you? Do you make personal sacrifices, or do you hold back?
What price do you pay? Do you pick up your cross daily, do you die to self? What does it cost you to know Jesus and follow Him? What have you laid down? If your reward in heaven is measured by these things, what will you have when you get there? We must think about whose reward or prize we seek, and finally, whose wrath we dread.
Notice verse [27] again, “By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.” Pharaoh saw plague after plague, but still he would not release the Israelites from slavery. However, when God struck down the firstborn of every Egyptian family, he let the Israelites go.
But God did not strike down the firstborn in every family that followed His command to slay a lamb and smear the blood above and on the sides of their door. Look at verse [28] By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. Those homes were “passed over” by God; the plague did not affect them.
The Israelites were then released from Egypt, but the Pharaoh changed his mind, and sent his army to capture them. Notice verse [29], “By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.” You see, Moses, and those who followed him, had to choose whose wrath they would dread: the wrath of Pharaoh, or the wrath of God.
Listen once more to the words of William Gurnall: “We fear man so much, because we fear God so little...When man’s terror scares you, turn your thoughts to the wrath of God.” Proverbs 29 in the OT says, “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe. Many seek the face of a ruler, but it is from the LORD that a man gets justice.” It is a trap to tremble before and revere another person at the expense of your faith in God.
Rulers are put in place by God. Whether good or bad, no leader rises to power apart from God’s sovereign decree. And so far as we don’t break the moral law of God, we should honor and pray for them. But do not forget, do not lose sight of, who rules all things and whose throne is eternal.
The prophet Isaiah recognized that the idolatrous people of Israel feared the nations around them. He told them, “The LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.” Jesus later stated something similar in Matthew 10. He said, [28] “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Who do you dread, really? Who do you honor above all? In whom have you put your hope? Do you dread people? Do you dread a certain person, or the opinions of certain people? Does your dread of people cause you to dishonor God, to walk by sight rather than by faith? Of course, there are those in our lives who we should respect according to the will of God. But we begin with eyes fixed on our true King; we start with hearts that exalt Jesus above all.
Jesus is worthy to be exalted in this way. In fact, in all the ways that His people should display the fear of God, Jesus already has in his earthly life. Jesus obeyed the command of God the Father, resisting the demands of the sinful ruler of this world. Jesus pursued the heavenly reward. He did not get caught up in the rewards of earth.
And Jesus dreaded the wrath of God. The gospel of Matthew says that on the night before His death, Jesus fell on his face and prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will...your will be done.” Jesus bowed to no one but God the Father. Therefore, you must trust only in Him, the true King.
Bow with me please in prayer.