Useful Bible Studies > Hebrews Commentary > chapter 11
When God saved Moses’ life as a baby, God did it in an astonishing manner. One of the king’s daughters rescued Moses. She brought him up, as if he were her own son (Exodus 2:10). He lived in the palace. He learned well from his teachers there. And he became a great man (Acts 7:22).
But Moses was not content to be an important man in Egypt. Moses knew who his real family were. He probably learned this from his real mother. She had continued to look after him until he was about 5 years old (Exodus 2:8-9). And it seems that she had taught him something about God and his promises (Acts 7:25).
Moses saw how his relatives were suffering in Egypt. He cared about them and he wanted to help them. But he did nothing about this matter until he was about 40 years old.
At some time, Moses made an important decision. The Book of Exodus does not record that decision. It only records the result of his decision, in Exodus 2:11-14.
Moses’ decision was that he did not consider himself still as the son of the king’s daughter. Instead, he considered himself an Israelite (one of the people who came from the families of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob).
The result of that decision was that he tried to fight on behalf of the Israelites. He wanted to rescue them from their hard lives as slaves in Egypt. But he failed for several reasons. The Israelites refused to accept him as their leader. He did not yet know God well enough. His methods were wrong. And the time for God to free his people had not yet arrived.
Moses had to escape from Egypt. He would not rescue the Israelites for another 40 years. But something important had happened in Moses’ life. He had started to have faith, that is, to trust God.
Next part: The decision to join God’s people (Hebrews 11:25)
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© 2014, Keith Simons.