It’s a hard lesson: you can’t have everything. Moses knew that and made a surprising choice.
I’m happy that many of these stories have New Testament commentaries. Otherwise we might misunderstand exactly what happened. Let’s see the New Testament view of Moses leaving Egypt. It seems his mother had taken advantage of those early years to lay the Lord’s claim on little Moses’ heart. Here’s how the Hebrews epistle describes Moses’ leaving: “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible” (Heb 11:24-27). Isn’t that a different view? “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam 16:7). Notice the seven key verbs that made all the difference in Moses’ life: Refusing, choosing, esteeming, looking, forsaking, enduring, seeing. First, he refused to be linked with the world’s most powerful family, choosing “affliction with the people of God,” rather than grasping after the world’s fleeting pleasures. Then he placed on one side of the scales of his life “the treasures of Egypt.” My wife and I hurried through the Egyptian Museum in Cairo for several hours and only saw a small part of the treasures of one obscure young pharaoh. It was breathtaking! But on the other side of the scale, far outweighing all that? “The reproach of Christ” which he considered “greater riches.” What was his secret? “He endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” With the eyes of faith, he looked beyond the obvious and superficial to see the eternal. Good choice, Moses!