Defying the Empire: Dropping the Crown to Carry the Cross

Spencer R. Fusselman D.Min

As we looked at this week in our sermon on Hebrews 11:23-29, the life of Moses is a stunning, 120-year saga of sovereign grace and holy defiance. It is a story that demands we evaluate the very core of our own faith. The Apostle Paul issues a staggering mandate to the church in 2 Corinthians 13:5: "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves." When we lay our modern, comfortable Christianity over the brutal, glorious reality of Moses’ faith, that examination becomes intensely uncomfortable. True biblical faith does not quietly blend into the empire; it openly defies it.

Moses was raised at the absolute pinnacle of global power. He had unhindered access to the vast wealth, elite education, and intoxicating sensuality of Egypt. Yet, his faith culminated in the ultimate "Great Exchange." He stared down the wrath of a monarch who believed he was a living god, categorically defying him to his face in order to secure the liberation of God's covenant people. Moses dropped the crown to carry the cross centuries before the cross even existed.

Holy Defiance: Fearing God Over the State
But the writer of Hebrews doesn't begin with Moses; he begins with the quiet, desperate faith of his parents, Amram and Jochebed. Forced into a devastating choice by a state-sponsored infanticide edict, they had to decide whether to comply with the visible Pharaoh or obey the invisible God. They chose God. Hebrews 11:23 tells us they hid their child because "they were not afraid of the king's command." Their faith produced a calculated, holy civil disobedience.

"They believed that God was going to use Moses in extraordinary ways because they had their eyes on the invisible God and his promises. Many of us would have had our eyes on Pharaoh, who had the ability to take life, but Moses' parents had their eyes on God. Their example teaches us that we should fear God, not man." — John Piper

This is where our self-examination must begin. Whose laws govern your home? In an increasingly secular culture that regularly issues edicts contrary to the Word of God, you cannot successfully raise a child for the kingdom of God if you are paralyzed by the fear of man. Faith requires spiritual vision—the ability to see the supreme authority of God towering over the petty tyrants of this world.

Rejecting the Seduction of Modern Egypt
At age forty, Moses made a definitive, highly consequential renunciation. He "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter" (Hebrews 11:24). This wasn't a passive drift; it was an active amputation. He deliberately weighed the entire Egyptian empire against the suffering of the promised Messiah, and he chose the suffering. Why? Because faith accurately measures the duration of worldly pleasure. It is "passing," temporary, and destined for judgment.

"Genuine saving faith is selective. If you have true faith… certain things you accept, certain things you reject... Moses operated in the spiritual realm not by law, but by faith." — John MacArthur

We are faced with the exact same choice today. We think we are too sophisticated for ancient Egypt, but we are seduced by modern Egypt daily. We worship the exact same entities in different clothes: the economy, scientific prestige, and the supreme power of the State. Modern believers must decide whether to quietly blend into the culture to enjoy its temporary privileges or openly identify with the reproach of Christ. You cannot have both. And hear this clearly: if you rely only on willpower to resist the world, you will fail. The only way to break the gravitational pull of worldly pleasure is to be captivated by a superior, eternal joy in Jesus Christ.

As we unpacked the Exodus narrative, we saw that God didn't just deliver Israel; He publicly humiliated the demonic entities behind the idols of Egypt. This is polemical theology. From turning the sacred Nile to blood, to blotting out the supreme sun god Ra with three days of thick darkness, God systematically crushed the Egyptian pantheon. He proved that spiritual warfare is asymmetrical. Satan is entirely subject to the sovereign command of God.

Yet, the climax of this warfare—the Passover—shifts our focus to the absolute necessity of the blood. The Israelites were not spared from the angel of death because they were morally superior to the Egyptians. They were spared because of substitutionary atonement. The judgment of God fell on a lamb so it would not fall on the family inside the house.

"There was no internal righteousness that could save them; salvation was entirely dependent upon the imputed value of the substitutionary lamb. Faith simply took God at His word and applied the blood." — Warren Wiersbe

This forms the very heartbeat of the gospel. You are not saved by your internal goodness. You are saved entirely by the blood of Jesus Christ, the perfect Substitute who absorbed the holy wrath of the Father on your behalf. The blood must be applied by faith.

The narrative culminates at the Red Sea, establishing a terrifying theological dichotomy. God intentionally orchestrated a geographical bottleneck, trapping Israel between the insurmountable waters and the elite, heavily armed chariots of Pharaoh. He did this not to induce panic, but to definitively slaughter the remnants of Egyptian pride and prove that salvation belongs exclusively to Him. The exact same waters that provided a miraculous highway of salvation for the covenant people became an inescapable graveyard for the enemies of God. The Israelites stepped into the sea channel guided by revelation and faith; the Egyptians stepped in driven by arrogant presumption, assuming their worldly military superiority would sustain them where faith was absent. You simply cannot borrow someone else's faith; mimicking religious behaviors without a regenerate heart leads only to destruction.

But there is a deeper, more agonizing application here for us. Sometimes, we stand at the edge of our own Red Sea, begging God for a bridge, yet secretly hoping we can drag our Egyptian baggage across it with us. We want the liberation of the Promised Land without the death of our past. Yet, God often engineers our circumstances so that the very "land" we are desperately clinging to must be crushed and swallowed by the waves. He traps us to separate us from our idols. If we are to be truly rescued, we must be willing to let our modern Egyptian captivities—our worldly comforts, our toxic relationships, our secret compromises—drown completely. God does not negotiate with our flesh; He annihilates it.

To cross the Red Sea is, theologically speaking, to pick up our cross. It requires the absolute crucifixion of who we used to be. You cannot walk in the resurrection life of Christ while simultaneously trying to resuscitate the Egyptian identity God is actively drowning. When God brings you through the waters, He destroys the things that enslaved you, requiring a total and violent break from the past. We must actively cooperate with this divine severing, deliberately killing our past allegiances and letting the waters crash down on the chariots of our former masters. Only when our modern Egyptian captivity is utterly drowned can we walk forward in the terrifying, glorious freedom of the sons and daughters of God.

If we are to obey the mandate of 2 Corinthians 13:5 and examine ourselves, we must put our faith to the test. Let the faith of Moses challenge your comfort zones this week:

Fear God Over Man: Identify one specific area where the fear of human opinion, cultural backlash, or professional consequence is keeping you from obeying God. Repent, and choose holy defiance.

Protect the Next Generation: Like Amram and Jochebed, take active steps this week to shield your family from the toxic, secular edicts of our culture. Fill your home with the Word of God.

Audit Your Affections: What "passing pleasure" of modern Egypt are you currently entertaining? Ask God to replace that temporary thrill with a superior, captivating joy in Jesus Christ.

Rest in the Blood, Not Your Resume: Stop trying to earn God's favor through moral performance. Remind yourself daily that your standing before God relies entirely on the substitutionary blood of Jesus.

Leave Egypt in the Water: If God has brought you through the Red Sea, stop looking back. Identify one past sin, addiction, or worldly comfort you need to leave permanently drowned at the bottom of the sea today.