The Price of Faith

“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.”

There is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist have been instituted by him. Whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. So says the apostle Paul, in one of the most quoted Bible passages of the last five years.

Well, the writer to the Hebrews says that the parents of Moses resisted the authority of their day as an act of faith.

That’s interesting. The vast majority of the time, faith in God makes itself known by submitting to the human authorities God has appointed and by obeying their will, an act that is often as scary and potentially costly as disobedience to it. That’s what the word of God teaches. Trust and obey, there’s no other way. But there are exceptions to the rule. Sometimes faith does something quite different.

The parents of Moses were one of these rare exceptions. Their faith in God gave them the confidence to do something that scripture teaches us, normally speaking at least, is forbidden by God. Yet they did not resist the edict of Pharaoh as a forgivable exception to a command of God, or because they chose the lesser of two evils, though both are probably true. They defied Pharaoh for three months as an act of faith: they believed God wanted their son to live rather than die. The God-appointed authority of their day wanted one thing, and they believed a higher authority wanted something different. They recognized something rather basic about the character of God: he does not approve of killing babies. Believing that, they acted to preserve the life of their son, possibly at risk of their own lives. They were not afraid. They trusted and disobeyed.

Please note that their faith was not simply a belief that everything would work out fine, either for them or for Moses. It might and it might not. The child might have cried at the wrong time. A neighbor might have spilled the beans at any moment. The scriptures teach that those who resist God’s delegated authority will incur judgment. Sometimes that happens. In this case, Moses’ parents did not, though they well might have.

But let’s be clear about whose judgment they would have incurred, because it would not have been God’s: his Holy Spirit commends them for their edict-violating faith in his own precious word, and the Lord does not simultaneously judge that which he also commends. When we disobey a delegated authority that has gotten out from under the authority of Heaven, we may well incur the judgment of the delegated authority. That’s to be expected, and it’s the price of faith.

James the brother of John paid that price during the reign of Herod Agrippa. He was killed with the sword by a delegated authority because he would not stop preaching the gospel at the command of a higher authority. On the other hand, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did not pay the same price. They were preserved despite defying the edict of Nebuchadnezzar, a delegated authority. “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace,” they said, “and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” Their faith was not in the certain prospect of some miracle, but rather in the power of their God and in his right to be the final arbiter of what they should do, regardless of what the usual authority structure had to say about it. They believed he was able to deliver them should he wish to. And he did.

I have no doubt that some of our younger readers will have to resist delegated authority in days to come, not in defiance of ultimate authority, but in obedience to it. For some, perhaps all, there will be a price to pay for that. But God commends a faith that overcomes the very natural fear of punishment in order to choose the option more pleasing to him, no matter the risk involved.

That’s worth keeping in mind.