QFD | Treasured - Entry 8: When Obedience Costs You

Treasured | Entry 8: When Obedience Costs You

Faithfulness Without Immediate Return

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”—Hebrews 11:1 (ESV)

Hebrews 11 does not open with a story. It opens with a definition.

Faith is not optimism. It is not courage under uncertainty. It is not emotional resilience.

Faith is assurance of what is hoped for and conviction about what cannot yet be seen. Scripture is careful with its words. Faith stands on what God has promised, even when nothing visible confirms it. This definition governs everything that follows.

And before a single example is given, Scripture adds a boundary that cannot be ignored:

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”—Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)

Faith believes two things at the same time. God is real. God rewards.

Any account of faith that removes either is no longer biblical.

Moses and the Cost Faith Accepts

Only after faith is defined does Moses appear.

“By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.”—Hebrews 11:24–26 (ESV)

Scripture does not pretend Moses faced imaginary options.

Egypt offered real security. Real influence. Real wealth.

Hebrews names them plainly. “The treasures of Egypt.”

Moses did not misunderstand what he was giving up. He refused it anyway.

What Scripture Actually Says He Chose

The text gives Moses’ reasoning without speculation.

First, it says he chose mistreatment.

Not discomfort. Not inconvenience. Mistreatment.

Scripture does not soften this. Faith does not shield Moses from harm. It places him inside it. Second, it says the pleasures of sin were fleeting. Not empty. Not imaginary. Temporary.

The issue was never that Egypt offered nothing. It was that Egypt offered nothing lasting.

Third, Moses considered differently.

“He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt.”

This is deliberate evaluation. The word signals judgment, reckoning, calculation.

Moses weighed visible wealth against invisible promise. He concluded that suffering with God’s people, aligned with God’s redemptive purpose, was greater wealth than everything Egypt could secure.

Scripture calls this faith.

The Phrase That Explains Everything

Hebrews does not leave Moses’ motivation unclear.

“For he was looking to the reward.”

Moses did not pursue loss for its own sake. He did not spiritualize deprivation. He looked ahead. This is Hebrews 11:6 embodied. Faith believes that God rewards those who seek Him. And Scripture presses the point further:

“By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.”—Hebrews 11:27 (ESV)

Moses endured because he saw what others could not. Not outcomes. Not protection. God Himself.

The Pattern That Repeats

Moses is not exceptional. He is representative.

Hebrews pauses to interpret the entire chapter:

“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”—Hebrews 11:13 (ESV)

They believed. They acted. They waited. They died.

And Scripture calls this faithfulness.

The author does not rush past the discomfort.

“But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.”—Hebrews 11:16 (ESV)

God’s approval is not tethered to immediate fulfillment.

Later, Scripture seals the point:

“And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised.”—Hebrews 11:39 (ESV)

Commended. Not rewarded yet. Still faithful.

What This Means When Obedience Costs You

Hebrews does not promise that obedience will pay off quickly. It promises that obedience will be seen by God. Faith acts on promises before possession. Faith endures loss without revision. Faith remains obedient without renegotiation. When obedience costs you financially, Scripture does not call that foolishness. When obedience costs you socially, Scripture does not call that waste. When obedience costs you temporally, Scripture does not call that failure.

Scripture calls it faith.

Christ and the Pattern Completed

Hebrews does not end with Moses.

“Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.”—Hebrews 12:2 (ESV)

Jesus obeyed without immediate return. The cross came before the crown. The shame came before the throne. This is not exception. This is fulfillment.

Christ-Shaped Closure

Obedience that costs you is not evidence that God has abandoned you. It is evidence that you are walking by faith. Faith sees what is invisible. Faith reckons differently. Faith endures without demanding proof. And Scripture says something astonishing about those who live this way:

“God is not ashamed to be called their God.”—Hebrews 11:16 (ESV)

Remain faithful.