Many years ago when our children were little, we were riding in the car and passed a sign outside of Burger King. It read, “Have it your way!”
We may want to believe that we are the King, the almighty ruler, like Burger King says we are.
But, even at a very young age my daughter saw the flaws in this worldly message, and after reading it replied, “The flip side of the sign says, ‘just kidding.'” We all laughed at her dry and realistic humor, but we also recognized how right she was.
Let’s face it, never has there been a more “entitled” generation than now.
Worldly messages are sent to us from every direction telling us that “we have the right”, or “we are entitled.” Gone are the days when a school aged child has to work hard to obtain the trophy. Now, everyone gets a trophy just for participating. No more gold stars on your child’s math homework because he got a perfect score of 100. Now, every students gets a star, just because he cooperated and did his math. After all, he doesn’t have to do it if he doesn’t want to. It is his right!
In Hebrews 11 I see a much different picture. We read how the baby Moses, born of a Hebrew woman, was placed in a basket by his mother and floated down the river in order to save his life. (The Pharaoh had put an order in place to kill all male Hebrew children, age two and under.) Moses was drawn from the river by Pharaoh’s daughter. He was raised, not as an ordinary Egyptian, but as the Pharaoh’s daughter’s son. This promised him position, importance, prestige, power, riches, luxuries, control, and the list goes on and on.
Now we read in verse 24 that “when he was come to years” (grown up, wise, and mature) “he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” Verse 25: But rather he “chose to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” (In this verse, “suffer affliction” means to “endure trouble.”) In our human way of thinking to do such a thing seems nothing short of ludicrous! Why would he do such a thing?
We find the answer to that question in verse 26. It says that “Moses thought it would be better to suffer for Christ than to have all the treasures of Egypt.
He was looking only for God’s reward.”
You see, the bible tells us that there are two kinds of death, the death of the wicked and the death of the righteous. I will share a couple of scripture references for each kind. The death of the wicked: Ezekiel 18:23 and Job 21:13. The death of the righteous: Galatians 2:20 and Psalm 116:15. We are going to die, one kind of death or the other. We get to choose!
So Moses knew it was far better for him in the end to suffer in his natural life then, (not having all the power, prestige, and luxuries, etc.) than to live the life of luxury, enjoying all the amenities life had given him, and spend eternity is Hell because he didn’t accept Christ and His righteousness.
Just as the bible tells us that there are two kinds of death, it also says that there will be two feasts, the feast of the fowls of the air, (Revelation 19:17-20) and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. (Revelation 19:6-9) Which supper do you want to be a part of? Back to Moses, way back in Deuteronomy 30:19 the Lord told him to tell the children of Israel that He has set life and death before them, and tells them to choose one. That is one of my favorite scriptures. God not only gives us a text book, our instruction book for life, he also gives us choices. We get to choose our own course. What really excites me is that He also gives us the correct answer. He says, “choose Life!”
Looking again at Hebrews 11, we see that Moses obviously remembered that lesson all those years later, because he chose life. He chose to “die” to his own desires in his natural life, in order to obtain the life of Christ, in the present and when he passed through the veil.
Coming back to Paul who said in Galatians 2:20, “It’s no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me”, prompts me to ask you the following questions from a song:
“Have you counted the cost to walk this way? Have you paid the price to behold His face? For to behold the Living God means to walk away from yourself, to “die” to self, to leave yourself behind you. To be nothing. To be empty. That Christ in you may be all in all.”
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