THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
Do you see how, here on earth, they hoped for what was to be after their death? And much was indeed accomplished after their death. This is said against those who say: after their death is fulfilled what they did not receive in life, and what they did not hope for after death. But Joseph did not say: God did not give the promised land during my life, nor to my father, nor to my grandfather, whose virtue deserved honor. How then will He deem corrupt men worthy of what He did not deem them worthy? He did not speak so, but by faith he overcame and conquered all this. After speaking of Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, all of them glorious and renowned, the Apostle then strengthens the consolation further by presenting unknown persons as examples.
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It is not at all surprising that renowned persons acted so, and to be found lower than they is not so grievous. But it is grievous to be found lower than unknown persons. He begins with the parents of Moses, unknown people who had nothing of what their son possessed. Then, continuing his discourse, he expresses more strongly the absurdity of unbelief, pointing to harlots and widows. "By faith," he says, "Rahab the harlot, having received the spies with peace, and sent them out another way, did not perish with those who were disobedient" (Heb 11:31). He presents the consequences not only of faith, but also of unbelief, as, for example, in the case of Noah. Yet we must speak about the parents of Moses. Pharaoh ordered all male infants to be destroyed, and no one escaped the danger. Why, then, did they hope to save their child? By faith. What faith? "For they saw," he says, "that the child was beautiful." His very appearance disposed them to faith. Thus great grace is given to the righteous from the very beginning, even from swaddling clothes. This is not the work of nature, but of God. Look indeed: the newborn child was at once beautiful, not misshapen. Whose work was this? Not nature's, but God's grace. It moved even the pagan Egyptian woman and inspired her, so that she took the infant and received him as her own. Meanwhile their faith, that of his parents, did not have a sufficient basis. What could one hope from outward appearance alone? But you, he says to his hearers, shrink from works, though you have many pledges of faith. Truly, to accept the plundering of one's goods with joy and the like is the work of faith and patience. Yet since they had believed and afterward became fainthearted, he shows that the faith of the ancients was enduring, as, for example, Abraham's faith, although circumstances seemed to hinder it. "And they were not afraid," he says, "of the king's command." Although it was being carried out, they simply waited. This was the work of his parents, and Moses himself contributed nothing to it.