Hebrews 11:26Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

When does the reproach of Christ occur? When we forsake ancestral customs and endure mockery, and when, suffering, we flee to God. Thus he also endured the reproach of Christ when he heard: "Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" (Ex 2:14). The reproach of Christ consists in enduring to the end, even to the last breath, as He Himself endured reproaches. He heard, "If You are the Son of God" (Mt 27:40), from those for whom He was being crucified, from His own kinsmen. The reproach of Christ occurs when a man suffers reproach from his own people, from those whom he benefits. So Moses also suffered reproach from the man whom he had benefited. Here the Apostle encourages them by showing that Christ and Moses, two renowned figures, suffered in this way. This reproach belongs more to Christ than to Moses, since it came from His own people. As Moses did not resist at all, so Christ did not send lightning. When He was reproached, He endured everything from those who wagged their heads. Since they, the Jews of that time, probably heard the same things and desired recompense, the Apostle says that Christ and Moses also suffered. Thus a life filled with pleasures is sinful, while a life filled with reproaches is Christ's. What, then, do you now desire? The reproach of Christ, or pleasures?

Thus the Lord also endured slander and was called a friend of publicans because He ate with them for their salvation. Therefore, as luxury is sinful, so reproach belongs to Christ. Do not be indignant, then, if you endure oppression from your own people. Look to so glorious a Moses, and, what is still greater, to Christ Himself. The murmuring against Moses at the rock was also the reproach of Christ. For "the rock was Christ" (1 Cor 10:4). "For he looked to the reward." Clearly, with the eyes of faith.

To save him from the death threatened by the Egyptians, they set him upon the river near the bank, with faith in God's providence. But there Pharaoh's daughter, the daughter of the king of Egypt, soon noticed him. She took him to herself and began to raise him as a son. Moses was raised in the royal palace and instructed in all the wisdom of that time (Acts 7:22). He was denied nothing. All that remained for him was to enjoy life in quiet and plenty. But his soul was drawn to his own people. When he came of age, he saw that, apart from him, all the Hebrews outside the palace walls were suffering grievously in Egypt. They were worn down with labor, beaten, feared because of their multitude, and marked for destruction. The heart of Moses could not look upon these sorrows. He sacrificed himself, renounced his pleasantly arranged life, and willingly went to suffer with his people. Moses condemned himself to every deprivation and hardship, not merely from a simple feeling of blood kinship. He did so chiefly because he believed the ancient prophecy about the liberation of the Hebrew people from Egyptian bondage. He also believed that the Hebrew people had been chosen by God and were to give the Savior to the world from among themselves. Moses had hope in the reward, in recompense from the Lord for the insults, labors, and reproaches he endured through faith in the promised Christ the Savior. And through his faith Moses was deemed worthy to become the cause of the Hebrews' liberation. He became their lawgiver, mediator between them and God, prophet and wonderworker, and a type of Jesus Christ.

How, then, did Moses consider the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt so many years before Christ endured reproach? As a prophet, foreseeing the sovereign authority of Christ the Master, he gave this command: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brethren. Him you shall hear. And the man who will not hear the words which that Prophet shall speak in My name, I will require it of him" (Deut 18:15, 19). Thus, having foreknown the reproaches of Christ, he wished to take reproach upon himself also, as a foreshadowing of those reproaches. Look also at the likeness of the reproaches. The Hebrews reproached Moses, saying, "Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?" (Ex 2:14). The chief priests and elders reproached Jesus Christ, saying, "By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?" (Mt 21:23). The robbers crucified with Him also reproached Him (Mt 27:44). The Hebrew people blasphemed Moses. "The people reviled Moses" (Ex 17:2), says the sacred history. The Jews blasphemed Christ, saying, "You are a Samaritan and have a demon" (Jn 8:48). In this sense David, king and prophet, also endured the reproaches of Christ courageously and said: "The reproaches of those who reproached You fell upon me" (Ps 68:10). Moses endured the reproach of Christ because, Paul says, "he looked to the reward." With his prophetic eyes the most blessed one looked toward the great rewards prepared by Jesus Christ for those who endure sorrows and reproaches for love of Him. Before his eyes he had blessedness, joy, gladness, and that great reward prepared in heaven for those reproached, persecuted, and slandered for the love of God (Mt 5:11-12). Therefore he considered the eternal rewards for the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the temporal treasures of Egypt. For this reason he abandoned and despised the treasures of Egypt. He wished to be in suffering and deprivation, joining himself to the people of Israel. Having said this about Moses, the God-speaking Paul enumerates the great deeds and God-beloved virtues of the other saints who pleased God.

He expressed still greater faith in God at his second and final departure from Egypt. Then he boldly led the people out, not fearing the vengeance of the king that threatened him for this. Finally, he showed his faith by using for salvation from the destroying angel a simple and seemingly insufficient means that God had indicated to him, the Passover, vv. 23-28.