ON THE VANGUARD

PASSING UP ON PLEASURES
“[Moses] chose being mistreated along with God’s people rather than enjoying the passing pleasures of sin.”
Hebrews 11:25

Yesterday I shared some with you concerning the discipline of fasting. Today I want to in some degree continue on it that thought, but relate it also to a sacrifice made by Moses. It is in Hebrews 11 that we read the list of those who advanced in God’s ways because of their faith. Although it is not a complete list, we find ourselves reacquainted with the faith of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to name but a few. But then we also read about Moses. Starting in verse 24 we read that by faith, after Moses had grown up, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. We know that per the account of Moses in Exodus 2:15, because of the murder he had committed, Pharaoh was wanting to kill Moses, causing Moses to escape. This then seems to work in tandem to show us how indeed Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, giving up all of Egypt in his escape.
In Hebrews 11:25, however, we read that Moses chose to be mistreated alongside God’s chosen people instead of enjoying the pleasure of sin. At his encounter with the burning bush, God called Moses to return to Egypt and deliver His people. Moses’ going back was the fulfillment on Hebrews 11:25, where he chose to be mistreated along with God’s people. Following on in the Exodus account we find that the people of Israel were delivered from Egypt and eventually made it to the Promise Land.
However, I want to focus more on what Moses gave up. The Exodus account does not give us all the details of what Egypt was like at that time. History, though, informs us that Egypt was the happening place. I am assuming that in this Moses had everything at his beckoning when he was in Egypt. If he wanted a woman, he could have a woman. When he wanted a meal, he was served a meal. On and on and on this idea could go. But when he escaped the hand of Pharaoh he left these pleasantries behind.
So why do I point this out? I point this out for one reason alone. As I have been taking inventory of my life this past year and preparing for what is ahead, I have begun to realize that there are ‘pleasures of sin’ that I have not forsaken. Yes I have given up many things that so called made me happy, but I cannot say I have forsaken all of them. And what does this have to do with fasting, as I referenced in the beginning of this devotional? Well as I stated yesterday in looking up the key words of Isaiah 58:6, the type of fast that God elects for His people encompasses the complete freedom of His people and the complete ceasing of attacks from the enemy. If I am still embracing as opposed to forsaking these pleasures, then am I not still in bondage and allowing the attack of the enemy? Quite honestly, yes I am.
I posted the following questions of my Facebook page today, and I write them again here now. What pleasures of sin are we enjoying? And isn’t it time we choose different? I do not want to enter 2013 still chained to the same junk that bound me in 2012. I do not want these momentary pleasures that promise the world to still be my ruin in the near and distant future. So how do I rid this chance? I fast and pray. Again, it was Jesus who told His disciples that some spirits come out only in prayer and fasting (Mk 9:29). So then, what better time than now to begin? Let us enter this new year free of the chains that bound us last year. Let us be like Moses who forsook the pleasures of sin and received greater riches from God.