Faith's Key Choices

It would have taken great faith to hide a newborn infant from the prying eyes of soldiers and inquisitive ears of neighbors, but Moses’ parents were people of faith (23). God honored their faith and saved their son by bringing him under the protection of Egypt’s royal court. It is easy to lose one’s faith when surrounded by opulence and worldly knowledge and power. As an adult, Moses had to make some critical choices.

The first choice had to do with his identity. He gave up his identity as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter–what many others would have paid any price to attain–and chose to be identified with the people of God (24,25). Second, he gave up what Egypt could offer–pleasures and treasures (25,26)–so that he could receive what God offered. In other words, Moses chose to gain a lasting inheritance by giving up a worldly title and royal comforts (Phil. 3:8). Moses “saw” him who is invisible (27) and that made all the difference. He became a man of faith by focusing on the invisible God who speaks and directs, and by placing his hopes beyond the best the world could offer. Thus, Moses was used powerfully by God to lead his captive people to freedom into the Promised Land (28,29).

We face daily choices, many of which might appear to be mundane, but behind our day-to-day choices are key decisions that we must make. Our baptism reminds us who we really are–the children of God. It is this identity that must displace all other false identities that are placed on us by a deceiving–and deceived–world (Rom. 6:4-7). We must know who we are and then reject anything (no matter how tempting or promising) that would draw us away from the true blessings of knowing and obeying God (Matt. 4:1-11).

We choose our identity and who we want to identify with. What evidence is there that you have chosen well? What identities must you reject?