Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

550 Hebrews XI. 23-31.
word -poofKvvrjnev, which is peculiar to the LXX., there lay the
idea which induced our author to cite the passage ; he would hardly
have cited the passage on account of the circumstance that
Jacob " prayed" (as if in his habit of praying there lay a special
proof of that faith described in ver. 1). I rather think that he
quoted the words in order to call to the minds of his readers, who
were familiar with the Pentateuch, the context of the passage. In
the context of that passage, Gen. xlvii., it is recorded how Jacob
gave orders to carry his bones to Canaan ; thus, then, these words
lead quite naturally to the analogous command of Joseph mentioned
in ver. 22.
In ver. 23-31, follow examples of faith from the time of Moses and
Joshua. Ver. 23. The whole existence of Moses became jiossible
through the faith of his parents, who laid the child in the basket
of reeds, confident that the infant which appeared to them as
doTeiov would be an object of care to the paternal eye of God which
looks into the smallest things, and that God's power is superior to
all, even the most evident, dangers, and is stronger than the frown
of Pharaoh. Ver. 2-4-26. Moses himself had the choice, either to
remain at the court as an Egyptian prince, and to enjoy all the
splendour of Egypt—but then he must renounce his faith which his
mother as his nurse had im^^lanted in his heart, and his connection
with his people ;—or to remain true to the God of his fathers—but
then he must bid farewell to the court, and share in the difficulties
of his people. His God and his theocratical hope were dearer and
more precious to him than all present earthly fortune. He preferred
the ovyKaKovxdoOaL to the " enjoyment of sin ;" the " reproach of
the Messiah" was dearer to him than all the riches of Egypt. In
the expression " reproach of Christ," the author again puts into the
germ the development known to the Christian. Moses had as yet received
no revelation of the " Anointed ;" he knew only the theocratical
promise in the simple form in which it was given to the
patriarchs. But the New Testament believer knows, that that
simple hope was destined to find its fulfilment in the " Anointed
of God." And thus the reproach wliich Moses endurcil, because it
was a theocratical was also a IMessianic reproach—such as has received
(Matth. xvii, 1.), and will yet farther receive, its honourable
reward through the Messiah.
Ver. 27 docs not refer to Moses' wandering to Midian (Ex. ii.
15), where ho indeed " feared," but to the dc])arture from Egypt
(Ex. xiv. 13). That the two^w/t? of which this departure consisted,
namely, the Passover, and the passage through the Hed Sea,
are afterwards specially mentioned, is no reason why the event as a
whole might not also be mentioned first. The resolution, in general,
to undertake the dangerous work of delivering Israel from