Choosing to "Go Dark" - Part A

D.L. Moody put it this way, Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody, 40 years learning he was nobody, and then 40 years God showing him what he can do with a nobody. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip begins a message called Choosing to Go Dark and examines the life of Moses and his choice to enter the dark room. But first this. Hi, this is Pastor Skip and we have prepared a package about seeing this life through the eyes of eternity.

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Give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Great. We're going to Hebrews 11 for today's teaching from Skip. Question, have you ever heard of a poem extolling the virtues of pain? Yeah, I didn't think so. Ever heard a song dedicated to the benefits of suffering? Probably not.

Country music might be like close to that, but all that aside. Ever seen a statue erected in honor of suffering? No, you haven't. Who would ever choose to suffer? Who would ever pick that? Well, the answer might surprise you. You would. You would.

Many people do it all the time. People eat spicy hot foods every day. They see scary movies. They have kids. They run long distances. They go to the gym and lift weights. They get deep tissue massage. Oh, it hurts so good. That's, to some degree, choosing a path of suffering.

Dr. Diana Hill, PhD, wrote in Psychology Today, this little clip, the more you engage in meaningful activities, the more likely you are to experience discomfort. That brings us to Moses, a man who made the choice, the choice, to go dark, to suffer, to go through a very difficult period of time, to engage in a meaningful activity where he was likely to experience discomfort. This is a series we call Dark Room. We started it last week, and it's all about going through the negatives in life and God developing those into positive experiences and making you a better tool for His glory. Last week, we looked at Joseph, and we saw that Joseph went through a series of hardships from his early years all the way throughout his life. But even though he went through some pretty dark times, God used his darkness to shine a bright light in the country that he was taken captive to, the country of Egypt, really the whole world.

He was a bright light in that time. Eventually, Joseph died, and that light dimmed. And people forgot about Joseph, so that was Genesis. The book of Exodus opens up with the story, and Exodus chapter 1, it says, there arose a king in Egypt who knew not Joseph. He had forgotten about the history. He didn't care about Joseph. He didn't care about what happened with this guy who came to town and came up with this plan. And so that Pharaoh, that king of Egypt, plunged the children of Israel into a period of severe darkness, oppression, even extermination.

He came up with a, I can only call it a Nazi-like plan to find the final solution to the Jewish problem. Let's just kill them, kill them all. Let's begin with the male babies, every male baby born, let's just kill it. Well, one of those babies who was born was a child named Moses. And Moses, as a baby, was growing, and it says in the Bible that his mother tried to hide him for a few months. Ever tried to hide a baby?

Yeah, good luck. So she took Moses and put him in a little basket and and dobbed it with pitch and sailed it down the Nile River. You know the story. That little boat ended up at the bottom of the Nile River, and it was a little story. That little boat ended up at the shore of a bathing party, and it was the daughter of Pharaoh who was bathing, and it says the baby was crying. And she looked inside, and two things came together, a woman's heart and a baby's cry.

It was love at first sight. She says, I'm going to adopt this child and bring this child into my home. She called for the child's mother to wean the child, and then eventually that baby, Moses, would be adopted into her own household. Well, that story is told to us in Exodus chapter 2. It is mentioned by Stephen in Acts chapter 7, but it is explained to us succinctly in the text that I have chosen, that is Hebrews chapter 11.

It is the story of a man who deliberately went into the dark room. He made that choice, and we see what God did in developing him into the greatest leader, at least the Jews to this day, regard as their greatest leader in history. So Hebrews chapter 11, we're going to look at the story of Moses beginning in verse 23 together. It says, By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's command. By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

By faith they passed through the Red Sea, as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians attempting to do so were drowned. Moses lived 120 years. 120 years. Deuteronomy 34 says he was 120 when he died. Most scholars divide Moses' life up into three periods of 40 years each. So, for the first 40 years, Moses was groomed and educated in the most advanced culture in the world at the time, Egypt. The next 40 years, Moses goes dark, off the grid, goes to Midian, becomes a shepherd, and then finally, when he's 80 years of age, takes us to the third period of 40 years at 80, life began for Moses at 80. At 80 years of age, he enters into successful ministry, leading the children of Israel out of darkness, the darkness of slavery.

D.L. Moody put it this way, Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody, 40 years learning he was nobody, and then 40 years God showing him what he can do with a nobody. Now, to understand the choice that Moses made, the choice to go dark, we need to understand who he was, what he had, and then what he refused, what he pushed away, what he got in return, and how he was able to do it. So, we're going to look at the five stages of Moses' life. It's Moses' whole life in a nutshell, but it's the five stages of Moses' life in a nutshell, and I want to begin with his status.

I want you to know what he had. In verse 23, we are told, by faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents because they saw, notice this, they saw he was a beautiful child, and they were not born. And the next verse begins, by faith, Moses, when he became of age. So, verse 23 and that part of verse 24 covers the first 40 years of his life.

40 years, the Bible tells us, when he made a decision. But it says, it mentions to us his status, and let's begin with his status physically. It says he was a beautiful child. It's the same description in Exodus chapter 2.

That's why it's 11. In Exodus 2, it says his parents noticed he was a beautiful child. Now, that's Exodus. By the way, do you know who wrote the book of Exodus? Yeah, Moses wrote it. Just want you to know that.

That's just fun to think about. He wanted to make sure that people would remember he was a beautiful child. But because the Bible mentions it twice, it is noteworthy, and probably was a pretty good-looking guy. Acts 7, Stephen just says he was well pleasing to the Lord, but the Jewish historian Josephus says that Moses had outstanding physical features, and that the Egyptians would often try to catch a glimpse of him. And once they saw him, they were so amazed at how good-looking he was, they stared at him and couldn't take their eyes off him.

Now, I'm sure he's exaggerating a little bit. He never met Moses, but he wants to really extol how cool Moses was in their history. So, that's Josephus. Now, to me, Moses always looked like this.

Right? That's Charlton Heston in the movie The Ten Commandments. That's what I grew up thinking of Moses as like.

So, that's Mo. Okay, he's a good-looking guy, but I can take my eyes off him. I met him, by the way, once because I was so excited. I was like, I'm going to meet Moses. And I met him, and it was a neat experience. I was a little disappointed, but nonetheless, that's his status physically. Let's think about his status educationally.

Now, I'm piecing a few scriptures together. In Acts chapter 7, Stephen said about Moses, Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Remember, he is raised in the royal court. He's the adopted son of the daughter of Pharaoh.

Being raised in that environment, he would have access to a superior education, the best in the world. Egypt was very progressive educationally. I don't know if you know this or not, but the Egyptians at the time of Moses already had the theory of a round earth. They had pretty well figured out, almost pretty accurately, the distance between the earth and the sun. They were pretty amazing architecturally.

They were pretty amazing with chemistry. They could embalm people so that thousands of years later, they still looked pretty good. So that's Moses' upbringing. He probably went to a university called the Temple of the Sun.

The Temple of the Sun was the best university in Egypt, and it was sort of like the modern day Harvard or Yale or Princeton or Dartmouth, a little bit higher than UNM in that kind of status. So going to that university, he would have learned hieroglyphics. He would have learned languages of that area. He would have probably learned, I don't know, advanced mummy making or how to walk like an Egyptian. I don't know what he learned, but it was pretty hefty. And then think about his status positionally.

Positionally. Again, Acts chapter 7 says, Moses was mighty in words and deeds. Mighty in words and deeds, simply meaning he had skill in leading and communicating.

Now, we don't get that. When we read the story of Moses, we see a man who was afraid to talk in public, stuttered a little bit, and we think, that guy couldn't leave much of anything. That was Moses after the dark room. I think he lost a lot of his self-confidence. I think he was now at a place of having just to trust in the Lord. Again, Josephus tells us when the Ethiopians attacked Egypt and the Ethiopians were about to destroy the Egyptians, Moses became the general of the army that led out the Egyptians to defeat the Ethiopians.

So that was his status positionally. Then, look at our text and you'll notice his status financially. Look at verse 26. It talks about the treasures in Egypt. Now, just imagine the wealth he had access to. How many of you have ever seen pictures of the tomb of King Tut? Raise your hand.

Okay. It took nine months to take all the things out of that tomb to find out what was in it. That's just one Pharaoh's tomb. And King Tut lived only a hundred years after Moses.

So it's right around that time period. If you are the adopted son in the household of Pharaoh, you have access to the kind of money that people only dream about. He could do anything he wanted, any lustful pleasure he wanted to do it. Nobody would question.

He could party hardy all day long. Then consider his status relationally. Look back at verse 24. It says he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. According to Josephus, the Pharaoh at the time had no sons, only daughters.

Which, according to Josephus, would have placed Moses in line as the next heir of the throne of Egypt. So if that's true, you mean this guy had it all. He had brawn, he had brains, bucks, and background. And I don't know, maybe he had a, like, his own private personalized license plate on his chariot, you know, number two or something.

So that's his status. That's what he had. Let's look at his spurning, what he said no to.

He said no to all of it. Verse 24, by faith Moses, when he became of age, we're told in scripture that was when he was 40 years of age. When he became of age, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. The Bible says when he got to be about 40 years of old, it came into his heart to visit his people. He knew that he was a Hebrew. I'm sure that he was taught that as a young child by his own personal mother, and then reminded of that even in school when he was at the temple of the sun, he knew that there were this group of people, the Hebrews, and any adopted child usually comes to a point in their life where they want to discover who their parents were or why they got adopted.

Moses was no different. And so he found out, he went to visit them, and apparently he made a choice to link up with them. Moses made the kind of choice that Napoleon spoke about. He said in every battle there's a period of about 15 minutes where the leader makes the choice that will either bring his defeat or victory. It's a very crucial time period. Moses came to that period where he had to make a choice about his future, which people he's going to associate with.

So he made a choice to do the right thing, which was not the easy thing. The easiest thing for Moses to do was nothing. I mean, I have it all. I'm the next Pharaoh, perhaps. I certainly have a lot of money. I have the best education. I can kind of do what I want. I'm going to leave well enough alone.

I like it right here. But he didn't make that choice. And choice is the hinge of destiny. You make choices, then your choices make you. Choice is one of the greatest privileges we have.

It's also one of the weightiest responsibilities we have. Think of it. For 40 years, Moses had been prince of Egypt. For 40 years, he enjoyed the wealth of Egypt. For 40 years, he hobnobbed with the elite and the powerful and the cultured and the educated.

For 40 years, he enjoyed all the perks afforded him by the royal court. Now, he's giving it all up. He is refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. What? What do you mean you're giving it all up? Moses, you are groomed for success. You are headed for the top. No, I'm giving it up. I'm refusing it. I don't want it. I'm spurning it.

Why? It's an important question to ask because usually when people say no to something, it's because they want to say yes to something else. And it's usually something better. Bigger, bolder, brighter. It's a better job, a better company, or a better location.

It's much better. Let's just say you won the lottery. I'm not advocating you go buy lottery tickets. I'm just saying let's say you win the lottery. And I don't know, what is the lottery up to now?

Anybody know? Okay, so a lot. Millions of dollars. So you win the lottery and they come to your house and they write you a check for a bazillion dollars. And they have the check in their hand.

The cameras are there. They hand you the check and you look at it and go, nah, I don't want it. I refuse this check. I don't want it.

You don't want it? Why? I've got something better. Really? Better than this?

Better than the kind of money that you could do anything in the world with? Well, pray tell, what is it? So here it is. Let's look at verse 25. Now we go from the status and the spurning to the selection. Here's what he chose. Verse 25, choosing rather to suffer. Let's just stop right there. I'm saying no to all the wealth and prestige and education and perks of Egypt and my choice.

I'm picking, I'm selecting suffering. Take me to the dark room. Now we know what happened. Moses left Egypt, went to Midian for 40 years.

Off grid he went dark. Midian, I know that is a word you've heard. You don't know what it means necessarily. I've only been to Midian once in my life. It's in Saudi Arabia. In fact, it is on the western shore of the eastern flank of the Red Sea, and just down from the Gulf of Aqaba, and it is so desolate. It's like a whole new level of desert. I'll put it to you in a way you can understand.

It makes Rio Rancho look like the Oregon coast. Does that help? Is that a little bit better? Okay, that's Midian. That's where he goes. He goes there and hooks up with the people of God eventually, the Israelites.

But I want you to go back to the text. Notice that Moses chooses two things. Number one, he chooses to identify with a new family.

A new family, it says, by faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God. Mom, I'm leaving home. My new people are my old people, the people of God. I'm going to go link up and link arms with them. That's Skip Hyten with a message from his series, Dark Room.

Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Now, let's go in the studio with Skip and Lenya with news about a trip to Israel you can take. Well, if you've ever dreamed about visiting Israel, let's make that happen. Lenya and I are leading a tour group to Israel next summer in 2024. We'll start up north visiting Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan River. We'll spend several days in Jerusalem, see the Temple Mount, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Upper Room, and more. Now, visiting the places where the scriptures unfolded, where Jesus lived out his earthly ministry, it never gets old.

That's why I keep going back. Join Skip and I and our friend Jeremy Camp next summer in Israel. See the itinerary and book this Israel tour with Skip Heitzig and Jeremy Camp today at inspirationcruises.com.

That's inspirationcruises.com. God has revealed himself through his word so that we can know him intimately and personally. That's why we share these messages to help you connect to God through his word and grow in your walk through an intentional relationship with him. And when you support this ministry, you keep these teachings you love available to you and so many others around the world so they too can grow and connect with God. Just call 800-922-1888 to give a gift today. That's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you. We hope you'll come back tomorrow for part two of Skip's lesson, Choosing to Go Dark. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.