“They Were Not Afraid of the King's Command” (Heb 11:23-40)

“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command.” (vs23)

Faith removes fear, so that we obey God rather than men.   It reveals the Most High and puts our confidence in His salvation.  Faith is life changing and character building.

Faith is miraculously powerful, enabling us to do things that others cannot by God's power and approval.  It is the reason we're not condemned and able to love Christ more than everything else. We read, “By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned” (vs29).  Don't attempt holy living or even prayer apart from faith.

Faith puts its life on the line, chooses Christ over hell, and it lives the risky life. We read, “By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace” (vs31). It is heroic because it believes God and fights for the soul.  Men and women risk it all for the higher thing of soul salvation. 

Faith gets the miraculous. God works supernaturally for you in salvation and care. He changes "the laws of nature" to save the soul, raising us even from the dead! It says, “And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. (vs32-35)

Faith endures the hatred of the world, choosing life eternal over the “here and now”! We read again, “They were stoned, they were sawed in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented” (vs37)  How needful are these words, when men hate us over the gospel regularly? We, like soldiers, CHOOSE suffering before surrender.

We have much to endure, but the reward is guaranteed to all who lose their lives in this world, so that they may gain life in the world to come. “God having provided something better for us, that [these who've come before us] should not be made perfect apart from us” (vs40).