Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Hebrews 11:23 -- By faith, the law was disobeyed

It's interesting the reason given why Moses parents hid him for three months: He was a goodly child.
Consider that for a moment. Is Paul saying that Moses parents would have allowed him to be murdered if Moses hadn't been lovely?
I know nothing about why people commit infanticide. There are many cultures where parents kill disabled children, female children, or the child that is one extra mouth to feed. There are also people who kill fetuses before birth, people who feel abortion is the way out of a complicated situation. I would think that any parent would think that his/her child is the greatest child in the world. Isn't that human nature? Don't we all believe our own children are born to do great things? But maybe some people don't believe that.  
It's interesting that Paul writes about the decision to keep a child after writing about three patriarchs who blessed their decendants and one who almost killed his own son but trusted God would find a way.
But I won't go into a pro-life screed; I will move on.

We are here shown an example of the faith of Moses' parents. Their faith is demonstrated by their decision to simply disobey the law. American Christians tend to believe that God created public authority and that all law and order must be obeyed. Yet, when Paul commanded his believers to obey those in authority, Paul was aware that those in authority were against the growing Christian movement and any kind of Christian misbehavior or uprising could cause trouble for Christianity. In addition, Paul's letters were sent via Tycichus, Paul's traveling mailman, and it would be dangerous for Tycichus for Paul to tell those in Christian churches to rise up against the Roman government. And we cannot say for sure what Paul said in his face-to-face sermons about Roman ruling authority. In Paul's Philemon, however, we see Paul urging Philemon to be a Christian brother to Onesimus a runaway slave. Christians at that time were already considered counter-culture because masters and slaves sat together as equals in home churches. This did not happen anywhere else in Roman society. But Paul was asking even more of Philemon. Another non-Christian "master" would have the legal right to kill his runaway servant.

In addition, much of the Bible has people disobeying authorities in order to obey God's law. Consider Shadrach, Mesach, and Abed-Nego disobeying the king. Consider those who helped David against Saul. Moses' parents will forever go down in history as faithful because they disobeyed the king's law.      

23By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

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