The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is called the roll call of faith. It summarizes clearly the faith of many people throughout the history of the Scriptures. It sets forth a faith which believed God even in the days in which futility was imposed upon men. Men of God even refused deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. They had a faith in their hearts which stood against the spirit of futility and believed for God to deliver; they believed they could walk into that glorious deliverance themselves. We want to consider what this chapter reveals about Moses.
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin; considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the first-born might not touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. Verses 24–29.
If there was ever a period in the history of Israel in which everything seemed to be futile, it must have been the time when they were slaves in Egypt, without a leader, without hope, without any means to throw off the yoke of bondage. We can imagine how desperate was their plight. In the midst of this situation, one man came forth, Moses, whose name means “drawn out” for he had been drawn out of the river in a little ark in which his mother had tried to hide him. God saved him when he was a babe. When he was grown up, or as the King James version reads, “when he was to come to years,” he made a choice. A certain maturity had to come in his thinking before he was able to properly evaluate all the appearances, the circumstances, the possibilities, lest reason alone would lead him to a decision about the course of his life. Moses refused the best that the world could give him, and he did it quite deliberately: … Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Notice: “when he had grown up.”
Immaturity in Christians is evidenced by those who are still moved by the world’s passing scene, rather than by what the Lord says and by what He sets before them and that alone. Your discouragement does not come because you hear the word of the Lord; your discouragement comes because you do not see your circumstances change rapidly enough to match that word. You are faced with your own limitations, which are not really as valid as they seem, and with the circumstances around you, which are not as restrictive or as permanent as you think they are. Yet the illusion of these things overwhelms you with a deep sense of futility.
Some of this country’s greatest songs came out of the days of slavery in America. The spirit of slavery caused the blacks to create songs which the whites readily related to, although their situation was not the same as the blacks. Thus Negro spirituals became very important and are perhaps the only significant contribution that America has made in the field of music, with the exception perhaps of western music. Most of true folk music originated either with western-style music or with the spirituals. There really is not much difference between the spirituals and jazz, which was born in New Orleans. Both were expressions of the futility which overwhelms the human heart.
It takes a mature person to rise to the place where he can refuse even the best that the world can offer him. This actually amounts to refusing to submit to futility on any level whatsoever. This is the first mark of maturity. The sons of God, who will arise in this generation, will be noted for this one thing: no matter what advantages the world may be able to give, they refuse them because those advantages are wholly engulfed and wrapped in futility. Choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. The sons of God will refuse the best the world has to offer. They will choose the most difficult path in a walk with God rather than the most pleasurable one in a life in the world. The three Hebrew children were an example of this. They said, “We do not know whether or not God will deliver us from this fiery furnace, but one thing we do know: we will not bow down to the image” (Daniel 3:17, 18).
There comes a time when you are no longer trying to be the hero nor looking for recognition as a martyr. That does not even enter your thinking. Something has been wrought in your spirit that rejects the world with the best it can give, with all its pleasures of sin which last for only a season, and chooses rather to suffer with the people of God. Until that choice is fully made in your heart, you are not spiritually mature. This is the mark of maturity. This is the choice which separates the men from the boys, the mature from the immature.
There were three widows in the land of Moab. When Naomi started back to Bethlehem, she tried to convince her two daughters-in-law to return to their homes. Orpah did go back and probably married a Moabite man, but the Scriptures never mention her again. Ruth’s choice was different. She told Naomi, “Entreat me not to leave thee nor to return from following after thee. Where you go, I will go. Where you abide, I will abide. Your people will be my people; your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, if ought but death separate me and thee” (Ruth 1:16, 17). Such a choice took a great deal of faith. A word from God rested over Naomi’s life; and I believe Ruth knew it, for her heart was set. Naomi may have been a bitter old woman, but God gave Ruth a special knowledge which caused her to believe that Naomi had a word for her. All through the four chapters of the book of Ruth you find that Ruth took her mother-in-law’s counsel. She made a choice, and she stayed with the plan God had for her life.
Because of our choice, the world will bring persecution against us. Every effort will be made to take away our right to decide for ourselves how to serve God. We must pray about this, for continual attempts will be made to deprive people of freedom of worship. One of the realities which will save America is the preservation of our freedom of worship. Whether or not the majority wants to worship, the remnant should not be hindered in their worship of God.
The fact that we are making our decision will make the world unhappy. They will accuse us of having been subjected to force and mind control through hypnosis. Young people who want to serve God in their own way may find their own parents turning against them (Matthew 10:21). According to some people’s thinking, it is absolutely insane for anyone to serve God as we are serving Him. We are considered foolish in what we are doing, for the people of the world have no knowledge nor understanding of the Lord. They are not alive to the things of God, so they cannot know what is real to us, yet they try to pass judgment on our way of serving God. Nevertheless, the decision must be made by us, and no one can take this right from us.
We will do everything we can to walk honestly and sincerely, in all wisdom before God, but that will not be enough. People will still criticize and try to hinder our way of worshiping God. But we have made our decision: we are going to walk with God! At times the Lord Himself may say to us, as He said to the twelve, “Will you also go away?” The multitudes had gone; the twelve stood alone, only a remnant, and asked, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure thou art the Christ.… John 6:69.
That which has always distinguished a walk with God is the revelation the Lord brings to your heart. That revelation is so great to you that nothing can move you from it. The gates of hell cannot prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). I have often wondered why the Lord makes it difficult for people to come into a walk with Him. A quiet Bible study will not persuade people into it. It requires a real revelation, a revelation that is tested over and over again until a person stands because God has spoken to his heart. Why must a walk with God be based on revelation? Because in the days to come this is all that will stand. Nothing else will remain. If God has brought this deep revelation to your heart, be very grateful to Him for it, because that is what will be required in the days to come: the fact that the Lord has spoken to your heart. Some will even be killed because they hold to the truth that God has spoken to them. People will sneer and mock at the idea of God’s speaking to anyone.
No movement in the history of Christianity has had as clear a revelation to the individual heart as God has now made available. The movements of the past had great leaders and great speakers, who moved the people on a soulish level. No soulish appeal will bring you into a walk with God. Only a revelation to your spirit can make it real to you. This revelation is essential because it is the only thing that will last, the only thing that will stand.
A high level of revelation is necessary for a church to be the spiritual organism it is to be. A local church stands securely, and rarely fails, when the worship and word are on a high level of spirit. The people receive the revelation in their hearts, and they stay. The gates of hell cannot prevail against that revelation nor against those people who have received that revelation. But if the music is too soulish, or if the operation of the gifts of the Spirit is on a soulish plane, the turnover in a church will be great.
In this day, futility will be so great upon the whole earth that many people will have no reason for living. Everything will seem to be futile, pointless, useless, vain—not vain in the sense of arrogance and pride, but vain in a sense that it is all without use or purpose. The word “vanity” in the Greek means uselessness, pointlessness. Under the oppression of futility there seems to be no purpose or reason for living. Even when there is, Satan tries to overwhelm people with that feeling.
We must make a choice. We positively must make our choice against futility. Faith begins with a choice. Faith begins by refusing the best the world can offer and choosing God’s way. Refuse and choose is the pattern. Faith over futility brings real deliverance.
Let us continue in Hebrews 11:25: Choosing rather to endure ill-treatment.… It is a deliberate choice. I do not think that we necessarily want to be martyrs, but I am sure our choice is to walk with God, no matter what. We have chosen this way of life with all our hearts. That does not mean, however, that we appreciate some of the brethren in the ministry turning against us. Persecution is not some thing we want, but we would choose it rather than to walk in futility.
Considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. Often we are called foolish by the world because of the choices we make. The reproaches of Christ are greater treasures than the treasures of Egypt. We have a sense of values because we know the reward. That is the only true plus—the reality of the reward. However, to choose reproach rather than the treasures of Egypt is not reasonable to the world’s way of thinking. Again we see the necessity of being delivered from the whole realm of futility. Eventually this idea will become real to us: we cannot, either in our minds or in our spirits, coexist with that which embraces and accepts futility. We cannot coexist with it. We have to make a decision to refuse it in every form. As the years go on, our decision progressively commits a greater and greater part of our lives. Years ago we never dreamed that a walk with God would be this exacting and demanding. We did not realize all that discipleship would involve.
By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen. Again we are directed to that which is invisible.
Any censure on our part of large religious enterprises is often resented, because people hang on to their security and think such things are important. These Babylonian works, which reach out to the world to claim recognition, are not right. Whatever of God was in them in the beginning is gone. There must be something within us to enable us to see through the illusion, the futility, and the vanity of the Babylonian commercialization, which has become a prostitution of what God has given. There must be a way to wake up the people of God so they can see through the awful commercialism and financial extortion that is prevalent. For what purpose is all this carried on? To build up someone’s name or situation! In the corporate structures of these individual enterprises, there is no New Testament pattern, no scriptural organization, no authority over it whatsoever. It is completely private enterprise and commercialism.
Christians must turn away from Babylon, without fearing the wrath of the king. We are to look away from everything that is seen, from everything that would be effective in the world, and set our focus on the Lord, on the unseen! We must make a choice. We must evaluate. We must forsake Egypt. The seen must be completely overbalanced by the unseen. We must be ready to focus on the Lord, not on our circumstances, and walk with God.
I pray that God will help you to make the choice in your heart not to be a part of the futility that engulfs the world, but to be free from it. At any price—whatever reproach, whatever necessity, whatever it takes—this decision must be wrought in your spirit. Once it is there, you will not lean on anything visible or tangible, for it will not mean anything; you will always be able to walk away from it. The Lord can strip everything from you; and you can walk on with no fear, no insecurity to grip you, because you know that only one thing has meaning: to walk with God. Moses knew that. All the treasures of Egypt, position, honor, advantage—none of it mattered. He could leave it all and identify himself with the slaves who were being beaten and worked to death. Nothing mattered but that one choice to walk with God.
By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the first-born might not touch them. Moses had a faith that kept moving ahead. He also had an obedience which gave the only immunity possible when judgment came. By faith he kept the Passover. The Word says that when judgments begin over the earth, the Lord will judge the circumcised and the uncircumcised alike (Jeremiah 9:25). The only thing that will make the difference and separate us from the world will be this one thing: like Moses, by faith we keep the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood. Like Israel, we will miss the judgments. The only way whereby anyone will be spared will be by the obedience of faith. We must walk with God just as Moses did, not going by illusion or deception, not holding on to anything, but stepping out with God, walking with Him, and daring to believe Him. That which now appears to be very real and secure will surely fall. The world will find this out.
By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. Later on the Israelites did not make such a good showing of faith, but at this point they did. Following the cloud, they walked through on the dry path with the water piled up on either side. Many an Israelite may have been wondering what in the world he was doing there. The Egyptians were behind them; they were hemmed in by mountains; and the waters of the sea towered over them on either side. Where were they headed? Out to the dry wilderness without enough food to sustain the cattle for a single day. Believe me, it takes faith to follow a cloud!
You too must leave all that seems secure behind. Actually, you cannot evaluate things by their appearances—at least not yet. The waters rushed in upon the Egyptians, and they were not seen again. You must accept the fact that the deliverance is yours. Half of the deliverances that occur happen while you have your eyes on the cloud. The deliverances occur behind you, while the circumstances on either side are very alive and real. You must constantly choose to follow the Lord instead of looking at the circumstances. You do not dare to look back. You must keep your eyes on the cloud and keep moving ahead. This is exactly what the Lord is trying to tell you.
What are you facing? What are you expecting the Lord to do for you? Have you faced the same circumstance year after year wanting to see it changed? Probably you think it would be marvelous if just for once you did not have to lean on the Lord, but instead had a good crutch. Nevertheless, this one thing has always been true: there is nothing you can lean on except the Lord, and God is quite touchy about that!
One couple once reasoned together, “We do not know how this Way will turn out.”
“Ananias, when we sell that farm, we had better hold some money back, just a little nest egg in case something happens.”
“Okay, Sapphira, we will hold some back. It’s a good thing they are doing up there. We will give a certain amount, and the rest of this we’ll save back. We are agreed on that” (Acts 5:1–10).
The Lord always takes a dim view of that human reasoning which cries for security.
We learn to walk in sacrifice with nothing to lean on but God’s support. We borrow money and put everything into the Lord’s work. Someone may think we are foolish for following a cloud, a cloud that could disappear or blow away. But this cloud is not one of those fairy-tale clouds with a silver lining. There is fire inside this one. At night it shines brightly like a pillar of fire. In the daytime it is a real protection against the heat and blazing sun.
I want to encourage those who know they must look to the Lord for a deliverance from this spirit of futility. Even though you know that your spirit is uninvolved with futility, yet that spirit will try to overwhelm and depress you. Sometimes it even causes different symptoms of pain in various parts of the body. The battleground is against the physical realm, because you are to experience the redemption of your body (Romans 8:23). Satan is making his last stand against the great thrust into that manifestation of the sons of God.
The spirit of futility is Satan’s desperate attempt to prolong that which was originally imposed upon creation by God, but which now has been lifted from us in Christ. People come into a walk in the spirit to be delivered from the spirit of futility. That is the reason the maimed, the halt, and the blind come (Luke 14:21). The spirit of futility has been so clearly defined in their minds that they see the necessity to be delivered from it. People who have been brought into a walk with God come to the point of not loving their lives unto death (Revelation 12:11). The fear of death is removed from them, yet the spirit of futility can hit them so hard that death sometimes seems preferable.
It would be very foolish for you to give up at this particular point. This is the time to stand in faith as Moses did and simply press on. Everything God has ever set before His people is before the remnant in this day. You will walk in it, and as you do, the breakthrough for all creation must come! Just open your heart and determine to walk with the Lord. When the devil torments you with a thousand different things, just throw them off! Shake the viper into the fire as the Apostle Paul did.