In Hebrews 11:23, Paul tells us that by faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, not fearing the commandment of Pharaoh. However, notice the reason Paul offers for Moses’ parents’ faith: “they saw he was a proper child.” How is this faith? What, exactly does it mean? Other translations say he was: handsome, beautiful, goodly, well formed, urban etc. but none of these translations seem to offer an understandable reason for the faith of Moses’ parents. It seems clear that, whatever they saw in Moses, it was a sign from God that he would be their deliverer. The Greek word in question is asteios (G791) and is used only twice in the New Covenant Scriptures, and both instances refer to Moses (Acts 7:20; Hebrews 11:23). Yet, neither of these two occurrences help us understand how Moses’ appearance was a sign from God.
The same word is used three times in the Septuagint. It is used of Moses in Exodus 2:2; of Baalim in Numbers 22:32 and finally of the king of Moab in Judges 3:17. The reference to Moses offers no additional information, but the Angel of the Lord tells Balaam that his way wasn’t fair (G791) before God. The Hebrew portrays the king of Moab as a very fat (H1277) man, but the Septuagint translates the word to fair (G791), to which the translators add the word “weight” to agree with the Hebrew translation, but that’s not a good enough reason for such an insertion. If we follow how the Angel of the Lord used the word, it was something in Balaam’s manner or deeds that wasn’t fair (G791) before God. Read this way, it was the manner or habit of the king, not his weight, that was fair (G790) in Judges 3:17. Balaam’s manner wasn’t fair according to God, but the King of Moab’s manner was probably fair according to the manner of kings. Thus, something in Moses’ mode of expression as a babe revealed his godly fairness (G791) to his parents. Whatever that might have been, it wasn’t something normally expected of a babe. Therefore, it was understood as a sign from the Lord, and it was this sign that enabled Moses’ parents to place their faith in what the Lord intended to do (cp. Luke 1:13, 36; 2:12). In other words, they knew it meant Moses was the Lord’s intended savior of Israel.
Moses’ parents acted in faith. That is, they recognized the Lord’s mark or sign, as understood in the babe’s manner, and they trusted that the Lord would bless their efforts to save the boy, even in the face of standing against, arguably, the most powerful man in the ancient world at that time. In other words, Moses’ parents didn’t simply believe that **someday** the Lord would save them. Rather, they believed, because of the sign they saw in Moses, the Lord would use him to deliver his people from their oppressor and perform his will to give Israel the things he promised their fathers.
This reminder by Paul to his Jewish readers of the first century AD was a very powerful message. It speaks to Jesus’ own manner, his fairness (G791) before God, and how he represented God’s love for the Jewish people, healing them, teaching them, protecting them, and finally dying on a cross to save them from their sins. The question put forth, therefore, is what will you do with Jesus’ fairness (G791)? He was undeniably sent by God, because who but God could do the things Jesus had done? Moses’ parents refused to give up their savior to the will of the king. Would the believing Jews of Paul’s day give up their Savior to the will of the Jewish authorities who persecuted them in an effort to do just that?
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