Hebrews chapter 11

vs 21

I guess leaning on your staff might be an idiom for old age. I'm not actually sure why the blessing of Joseph's sons is an act of faith. Is this really the thing we remember Jacob for in regards to faithfulness? Perhaps it is. He's not exactly a model citizen otherwise. Perhaps this is about Jacob accepting God's plan at the end of his time, and so blessing these two boys to show that his blessings will continue past his own children.

vs 22

Now this is a much more easily seen faith position. Joseph trusted God that the exodus would come. Why he wanted his bones moved, well, that's a bit more iffy. But I guess it was because he wanted to be buried with his father.

vs 23

While I am sure that every parent thinks their child is no ordinary child, it's interesting to think that Moses was special in and of himself. That is, Moses was a great man, and even as a child, according to Scripture, this was obvious.

When you think about it, the king's edict must have been pretty scary, because if people were choosing to obey it rather than face the consequences - I mean, you would have to be hella scared to throw your kids into the Nile.

vs 24

Even though it marked him out as a Jew - the slave race in Egypt at the time.

vs 25

I don't know what "pleasures of sin" means. Does this indicate that the people of Pharoah's court were all alcoholic, chain-smoking, whoremongering gamblers? Or does it simply mean sin in that they were not following God' desires for his people? "Pleasures of sin" really does seem to indicate the former, hence the pleasures. Or it could just mean richness and the dispassionate detachment that comes from it.

vs 26

Of course, he didn't know who Christ was, but you get the idea. Moses did talk about a prophet to come who would be better than him, so he obviously saw something on the cards.

The mention of treasures, though, perhaps lends creedence to the aloof rich idea of pleasures of sin.

vs 27

I don't know about you, but sometimes I think I forget just how difficult some of the things people in the bible have done would have been to do. You sort of get into this mode of thinking, "Yeah, well if God spoke to me through a burning bush, then I'd do that stuff too." But that's bollocks. I know I for one read stuff in the Bible, which I consider to be God speaking to me, and that doesn't make it any easier for me to obey it. And I'm not even considering having a king be angry at me for doing it.

vs 28

Which, when you think about it, is a kind of weird thing to be told to do. But hey, when God says jump, you don't question the why. If he told you to walk funny for a day, it's obviously some part of his master plan.

I think our problem today is far less with being asked to do weird things, but discovering what God is telling us about doing normal things.

vs 29

Regardless of how you think the Red Sea thing happened, it had to be dangerous, because the Egyptians drowned. So it was a dangerous thing they were being asked to do.

vs 30

Again, do something weird, and something cool happens. I remember hearing someone once say something about taking risks for God. That's what this is. Waitara church probably took a risk running those conversational English classes. That's not even a crazy thing to do. Hopefully the building work at St Ives is a risk we're taking for God, and it will pay similar dividends. That would be nice.