Hebrews 11:25

Hebrews 11:25. Choosing rather to suffer affliction— Three months after Moses was born, he was exposed in a bed of bulrushes on the river Nile. Pharaoh's daughter coming by, and guessing it to be one of the Hebrew children, committed him to the care of a nurse of that nation. As he grew up, Pharaoh's daughter had him educated, and adopted him for her own son: and Pharaoh, havingno male child, designed him for the heir of his kingdom. Thus arrived to maturity of age, brought up in a manner which kindles the fires of ambition, and surrounded with dignities and honour, he deliberately refused to be the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, and to succeed to so opulent a kingdom. The Egyptians he knew, from what had happened to Joseph, were so strongly bigoted to idolatry, that they would not be persuaded to quit it: and unless he complied with the national religion, he was certain that he could not possess the throne. He nobly rejected the offer; he not only rejected this offer, but likewise chose to suffer with the Hebrews, a circumstance which illustrates his character. For, had he refused the kingdom, and chosen the quiet condition of a subject in the middle vale of life, his self-denial had not been so great; and it is too rare to find a man that would choose rather to be oppressed and persecuted, than to receive honour, and to command reverence.