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TITLE: FAITH AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
TEXT: HEBREWS 11:23
INTRODUCTION: By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment.

Jocebed (Moses’ mom, Ex. 6:20): resourceful, Ex. 2:2-3; decisive, loving and courageous, Ex. 2:9.

What kind of world was Moses born into. The rulers in Egypt were no committed to keeping them slaves, they were willing to follow Israel into the midst of the Red Sea and be drowned by the hand of God and His servant Moses.

Exodus 1:8-21
1. The conditions in Egypt were not what Paul was writing about in Hebrews 13:3-4, “For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
2. What was happening in Egypt to Israel was the worse kind of tyranny – slavery, torture, murder. I have heard more about the wrong of the midwives lie than the good of preserving the life of the newborn baby.

When obeying God conflicts with obeying the civil government, we follow the apostolic example in Acts 5:26-32 and obey God rather than man.

Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. 27And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, 28Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. 29Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. 30The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. 31Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. 32And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

Civil disobedience was as much an act of faith as building the ark, living in tents, bearing a miracle son, willingness to sacrifice that son. A mother’s love to save her beautiful baby boy is listed as one of the great acts of faith because it put her family in danger with the civil authorities. Rahab hiding the spies in Jericho; those who let Paul down over the wall in a basket in Damascus to avoid detection and arrest; Michael who deceived the soldiers with a statue saying it was David giving David time to escape.

I don’t think the modern church wants this kind of message preached. It is the kind of faith, or trusting in the unfulfilled promises of God, that directly interacts of institutions that can destroy our lives.

Up until this point in Hebrews 11 all the tension of trusting God has been personal or within a family. With Jochabed and Moses we see a transition of family issues to confronting powers that if caught exercising this faith, could result in persecution.

The American Revolution Was Fueled by Preaching
By Elizabeth Youmans • July 3, 2017

The years 1740 to 1790 marked an age of “mighty men of God!”—an era of remarkable patriot-preachers who, by their faithful preaching and their righteous lifestyle, laid the foundation for the American Revolution and the founding of the new Republic. “To the Puritan pulpit we owe the force that won our independence.”[4] England’s King George III referred to the Revolution as the “Parson’s Rebellion.”

George Bancroft, 19th century statesman and historian wrote, “the Revolution of 1776, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian measure. It was the natural John Witherspoon was instrumental in the American Revolutionoutgrowth of the principles which the Presbyterianism of the Old World planted in her sons in the New World—the English Puritans, the Scottish Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Calvinists, and the Presbyterians of Ulster [Ireland]. … The American Revolution was but the application of the principles of the Reformation to civil government.”

https://darrowmillerandfriends.com/2017/07/03/preaching-fueled-american-revolution/

25 June 2023 -- PVK

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