Recently, I have been spending time reading and praying through Hebrews chapter 11, often called the “Hall of Faith.”
As I have read again about these men and women who trusted God, I have been reminded that faith did not necessarily lead them down an easier road. In fact, many times their obedience led them down a harder one.
One passage about Moses especially stood out to me:
“Because he preferred to endure the hardship of the people of God rather than to enjoy the passing pleasure of sin. He considered the reproach of the Christ [that is, the rebuke he would suffer for his faithful obedience to God] to be greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt; for he looked ahead to the reward [promised by God].” (Hebrews 11:25–26, AMP)
LOOK THROUGH IT
There are three phrases in these verses that really stand out to me.
- Moses “preferred to endure.”
- He understood there would be rebuke and suffering because of his faithful obedience to God.
- And yet, “he looked ahead to the reward.”
We often think of obedience to God as something that should lead to an immediate good result. If I obey God, make the right decision, take the right path, and do what He asks, then surely things should get better. Doors should open. Problems should disappear. Life should become easier.
But that is not always how obedience works.
Sometimes obedience actually makes life harder before it leads us to where God wants us to be.
Moses had a choice. He could remain comfortable in Egypt with its privilege, treasures, and pleasures, or he could identify himself with the people of God and accept the hardship that came with it.
What strikes me is that Scripture says he “preferred to endure.”
Moses wasn’t simply enduring something he couldn’t escape. He made a choice. He chose obedience knowing there would be a cost.
Why?
Because Moses wasn’t only looking at what obedience would cost him.
He was looking through it.
“He looked ahead to the reward.”
Faith has the ability to look through present difficulty and see something on the other side that makes obedience worth the cost.
Sometimes the path of obedience to what God has promised leads directly through hardship. And when it does, we can be tempted to find another way – a way that hurts less, costs less, or makes life easier right now.
That is where compromise becomes so dangerous.
Compromise looks at the present and asks, “How can I avoid the cost?”
Faith looks ahead and asks, “Where will obedience take me?”
Compromise may make the present easier, but it can make the end much harder.
Obedience may make the present harder, but it keeps us walking toward what God has for us.
There will be times when faithfully obeying God costs us something. We may be misunderstood. We may experience rejection. We may lose opportunities. We may walk through seasons when doing the right thing seems to produce all the wrong results.
When that happens, don’t judge your obedience only by what you are experiencing right now.
Don’t just look at it – look through it.
Look through the disappointment.
Look through the rejection.
Look through the hardship.
Look through the temporary cost of obedience and remember where obedience is taking you.
Moses saw beyond Egypt. Beyond the hardship. Beyond the reproach.
He looked ahead to the reward.
Sometimes the road of obedience is not the easiest road.
But when God is the One leading us down that road, we can trust where it leads.
(Written by Doug Linser July 2026)
