What Have You Found?

It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.   Hebrews 11:24-26

After Jacob moved his family to Egypt, Jacob’s descendants remained there and grew into a nation of over two million people. They began to face persecution from the Egyptians.

This is the Bible’s first recorded outbreak of violent racism, and especially of anti-Semitism, one of the great evils of history. The Egyptians subjected the Hebrews to forced labor, and eventually Pharaoh decreed that all of the male Hebrew babies were to be thrown into the Nile River.

When Moses was born, his mother defied Pharaoh’s decree and placed him in a basket on the river. Pharaoh’s daughter found him floating in the reeds and took pity on him, bringing him into the palace to care for him. In God’s wonderful providence, Moses’ mother was appointed to nurse him.

When he became an adult, Moses was outraged over the way the Egyptians treated his people. Eventually, he took matters into his own hands and killed an abusive Egyptian. When word of this got out, he ran for his life—all the way to Midian, where he married Zipporah and settled down to make a living as a shepherd.

On one occasion, Moses was tending his sheep in the area of Mount Horeb (also called Mount Sinai). It was here that God appeared to him in the burning bush and told him to go back to Egypt and confront Pharaoh. And he did.

The world sees little of value in Christ. But to us who believe, Christ is the treasure in the field, the pearl of great price. What Moses found in him made him glad to give up the comforts of a palace in Egypt and suffer with the people of God. The joyous response of finding Christ often results in worship and sacrifice. What have you found in Christ?

For further reading, see Exodus 3