A Prince/Princess or a Pauper?
Introduction. “The prince and the pauper” is an old story about two young boys who look identical. One is the son of the king, the other of a drunkard and thief. After a chance meeting, they exchange clothes and are forced to live the life of the other. The book reveals that self-image had a large role in how they responded to adversity and responsibility. The pauper, forced to act as a king’s son, and treated as a prince, never stopped feeling like a pauper. The prince living the life of a pauper, treated as a pauper and seen as a pauper refused to be and feel anything but a prince.
As we shall see, similar attitudes can be seen in the Bible as well as among those who profess to be Christians today.
Israel: An Egyptian Slave Or A Servant Of God? There is a powerful scriptural lesson here. Though enslaved in Egypt, the promises to Abraham should have insulated the nation of Israel from ever feeling like slaves. Though treated as slaves and seen as slaves, their faith should have protected them from truly becoming a slave. Yet when God sent Moses to free them from bondage, they never had the faith or courage to see themselves as free. Like the pauper above, no matter how they were treated by God and how victorious they were over Egypt, they continued to see themselves as slaves. With this low self-image they were unable to feel liberated by God’s power or to feel powerful with God leading.
God saw this in the very beginning and was patient and merciful to them. “God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt” (Ex 13:17). They were not yet prepared to be servants of the mighty God destined for greatness. The faith they needed to become victorious servants of God did not yet exist.
At the Red Sea as they saw the Egyptians, they completely lost sight of God. In their minds they were only Egypt’s slaves about to be punished for leaving. That God would protect them by his power never entered their mind. “Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness” (Ex 14:12). In their hearts they believed slavery was a better position than their present circumstances. Freed by God and destined for greatness they still saw slavery as preferable. So when hungry “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full” (Ex 16:3)! When thirsty, "Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst” (17:3)? Soon after leaving Sinai, the problem returned: “for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt” (Num 11:18).
The breaking point came when the spies returned. Two were true servants of God. God had told them they were his, treated them like they were his and promised they always would be his, so that’s how they saw themselves. They had left Egypt behind and by faith saw God leading them and nothing impossible! Caleb said “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it” (Num 13:30). Joshua said, “If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us” (14:8). They had become like the prince above. No matter what the obstacle, their standing with God would make them well able to overcome it. But the ten saw only failure and weakness. Like the pauper, the change in circumstances did not change their self-image. God was still not in their hearts. “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we” and “we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” “So all the children of Israel” and “the whole congregation” still saw themselves as slaves from Egypt: “’If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! … would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?’ So they said to one another, Let us select a leader and return to Egypt” (14:2-4). They felt safer going back to Egyptian slavery than to move forward as servants of God.
Though God’s mighty nation, their lack of faith in God, left them timid and afraid. Without faith, even witnessing all God’s powerful acts gave them no strength to obey: “because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.” (Num 14:22-24). Note that last sentence, “My servant Caleb had a different spirit in him.” By faith, Caleb was no longer a slave of Egypt, but a true and confident servant of God. Ready to obey whatever God asked, trusting God to supplement any weakness. This is exactly what God encouraged Joshua to do and he did it (Josh 1:1-9)!
Slaves of Sin or Slaves of Righteousness? Before we judge them too harshly, we need to look at ourselves for our positions are nearly identical. Israel left Egypt and we left the world. They were slaves of Egypt and became slaves of God. We were “slaves of sin” and “became slaves of righteousness” (Rom 6:17-18). Have we done any better than they at replacing the weaknesses we learned as slaves of sin with the “power of God unto salvation” (Rom 1:16)? God’s promises of redemption, propitiation, forgiveness and grace have led us from a far worse bondage than Egypt. God even used the Red Sea as a type for baptism. “All our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Cor 10:1-2). What they did at the Red Sea we did when we were baptized. As Abraham’s seed, they held a special relationship to God. We too became Abraham’s seed when baptized (Gal 3:27-29), and we have God’s solemn oath that he will bless us as he did Abraham. “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast (Heb 6:13-20).
So, before we judge them, let us judge ourselves. What about our own faith in the power of God? As we compare our faith in God’s power to lead us to heaven with their faith in God’s power to lead them to the Promised Land, are we stronger than they? Do we have the “different spirit” of Caleb who felt “well able to overcome” or the spirit of the ten spies who felt “like grasshoppers in our own sight?” Israel in the wilderness never saw themselves as strengthened by God’s power. Do we? How much confidence do we have in statements like “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things” (Rom 8:31-32)?
After baptism, we must make the same decisions they had to make. “For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they” They were told that God loved them and would destroy any power that could keep them from victory, but it “did not profit them, because it was not united by faith” (Heb 4:2). He has done the same for us.
So who do we resemble? Caleb knew they were well able to overcome. The rest felt like grasshoppers. It is the grasshoppers among us who fail to see the power of God in all our efforts and thus feel weak seeking for strength in themselves. When God told Israel to take the Promised Land, he did not ask them to devise the weapons. When God told us to go into all the world to preach, he does not need human institutions, only his power. He knew church autonomy would make us feel weak and planned to supplement it with our trust in his power. Why else would Jesus say “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20)? Only those who feel like “grasshoppers” will violate church autonomy and substitute human wisdom for God’s power. Those who feel “we are well able to overcome” feel no need to offer incentives to entice people to obey the gospel. The gospel alone is the power of God to salvation. Only grasshoppers need the social gospel or entertainment to feel strong.
Most important of all is our self-image. As a prince/princess (actually kings and priests per Rev 1:6), the power of God and the power of the blood make us invincible for “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I Jn 1:9)? So “sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Rom 6:14). Just as Israel could “go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven” (Deut 9:1), so we can “be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might” (Eph 6:10) and be “more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom 8:37)! How do we see ourselves? Slaves of sin or servants of righteousness? A prince/princess or a pauper?
As we shall see, similar attitudes can be seen in the Bible as well as among those who profess to be Christians today.
Israel: An Egyptian Slave Or A Servant Of God? There is a powerful scriptural lesson here. Though enslaved in Egypt, the promises to Abraham should have insulated the nation of Israel from ever feeling like slaves. Though treated as slaves and seen as slaves, their faith should have protected them from truly becoming a slave. Yet when God sent Moses to free them from bondage, they never had the faith or courage to see themselves as free. Like the pauper above, no matter how they were treated by God and how victorious they were over Egypt, they continued to see themselves as slaves. With this low self-image they were unable to feel liberated by God’s power or to feel powerful with God leading.
God saw this in the very beginning and was patient and merciful to them. “God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt” (Ex 13:17). They were not yet prepared to be servants of the mighty God destined for greatness. The faith they needed to become victorious servants of God did not yet exist.
At the Red Sea as they saw the Egyptians, they completely lost sight of God. In their minds they were only Egypt’s slaves about to be punished for leaving. That God would protect them by his power never entered their mind. “Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness” (Ex 14:12). In their hearts they believed slavery was a better position than their present circumstances. Freed by God and destined for greatness they still saw slavery as preferable. So when hungry “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full” (Ex 16:3)! When thirsty, "Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst” (17:3)? Soon after leaving Sinai, the problem returned: “for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt” (Num 11:18).
The breaking point came when the spies returned. Two were true servants of God. God had told them they were his, treated them like they were his and promised they always would be his, so that’s how they saw themselves. They had left Egypt behind and by faith saw God leading them and nothing impossible! Caleb said “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it” (Num 13:30). Joshua said, “If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us” (14:8). They had become like the prince above. No matter what the obstacle, their standing with God would make them well able to overcome it. But the ten saw only failure and weakness. Like the pauper, the change in circumstances did not change their self-image. God was still not in their hearts. “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we” and “we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” “So all the children of Israel” and “the whole congregation” still saw themselves as slaves from Egypt: “’If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! … would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?’ So they said to one another, Let us select a leader and return to Egypt” (14:2-4). They felt safer going back to Egyptian slavery than to move forward as servants of God.
Though God’s mighty nation, their lack of faith in God, left them timid and afraid. Without faith, even witnessing all God’s powerful acts gave them no strength to obey: “because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.” (Num 14:22-24). Note that last sentence, “My servant Caleb had a different spirit in him.” By faith, Caleb was no longer a slave of Egypt, but a true and confident servant of God. Ready to obey whatever God asked, trusting God to supplement any weakness. This is exactly what God encouraged Joshua to do and he did it (Josh 1:1-9)!
Slaves of Sin or Slaves of Righteousness? Before we judge them too harshly, we need to look at ourselves for our positions are nearly identical. Israel left Egypt and we left the world. They were slaves of Egypt and became slaves of God. We were “slaves of sin” and “became slaves of righteousness” (Rom 6:17-18). Have we done any better than they at replacing the weaknesses we learned as slaves of sin with the “power of God unto salvation” (Rom 1:16)? God’s promises of redemption, propitiation, forgiveness and grace have led us from a far worse bondage than Egypt. God even used the Red Sea as a type for baptism. “All our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Cor 10:1-2). What they did at the Red Sea we did when we were baptized. As Abraham’s seed, they held a special relationship to God. We too became Abraham’s seed when baptized (Gal 3:27-29), and we have God’s solemn oath that he will bless us as he did Abraham. “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast (Heb 6:13-20).
So, before we judge them, let us judge ourselves. What about our own faith in the power of God? As we compare our faith in God’s power to lead us to heaven with their faith in God’s power to lead them to the Promised Land, are we stronger than they? Do we have the “different spirit” of Caleb who felt “well able to overcome” or the spirit of the ten spies who felt “like grasshoppers in our own sight?” Israel in the wilderness never saw themselves as strengthened by God’s power. Do we? How much confidence do we have in statements like “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things” (Rom 8:31-32)?
After baptism, we must make the same decisions they had to make. “For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they” They were told that God loved them and would destroy any power that could keep them from victory, but it “did not profit them, because it was not united by faith” (Heb 4:2). He has done the same for us.
So who do we resemble? Caleb knew they were well able to overcome. The rest felt like grasshoppers. It is the grasshoppers among us who fail to see the power of God in all our efforts and thus feel weak seeking for strength in themselves. When God told Israel to take the Promised Land, he did not ask them to devise the weapons. When God told us to go into all the world to preach, he does not need human institutions, only his power. He knew church autonomy would make us feel weak and planned to supplement it with our trust in his power. Why else would Jesus say “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20)? Only those who feel like “grasshoppers” will violate church autonomy and substitute human wisdom for God’s power. Those who feel “we are well able to overcome” feel no need to offer incentives to entice people to obey the gospel. The gospel alone is the power of God to salvation. Only grasshoppers need the social gospel or entertainment to feel strong.
Most important of all is our self-image. As a prince/princess (actually kings and priests per Rev 1:6), the power of God and the power of the blood make us invincible for “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I Jn 1:9)? So “sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Rom 6:14). Just as Israel could “go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven” (Deut 9:1), so we can “be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might” (Eph 6:10) and be “more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom 8:37)! How do we see ourselves? Slaves of sin or servants of righteousness? A prince/princess or a pauper?