16
¶ Go, and gather the elders of Israel
together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you,
and seen that which is done to you in Egypt: 17
And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto
the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites,
and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.
18 And they shall hearken to thy voice:
and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and
ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now
let us go, we beseech thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we
may sacrifice to the LORD our God. 19
And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a
mighty hand. 20 And I will stretch out
my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst
thereof: and after that he will let you go. 21
And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it
shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty: 22 But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour,
and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold,
and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and
ye shall spoil the Egyptians.
God gives Moses instructions. Imagine the
thoughts of the elders of Israel as this fugitive from Pharaoh’s court, wanted
for murder, having disappeared for years not only returns but announces that
Jehovah God, the God their fathers worshipped appeared to him and is intent
upon delivering them from the bondage of Egypt and returning them to Canaan. It
is a bountiful land and a land in which they will prosper. He and the elders
are to go to confront Pharaoh, the most powerful man in their world with the
power of life and death over them from whom there is no appeal, and demand that
the people of Israel be permitted to go three days journey into the wilderness
to engage in an act of worship to their God. God also tells him that Pharaoh
will not let them go until a magnificent display of power from God forces him
to do so. In fact, the Egyptians will be glad to get rid of them and will
bestow on them much wealth and personal property in the form of precious jewels
and valuable things.
You can imagine Moses’ consternation. You
want me to what?!?! Here is an encounter between a finite, frail human being
and the God of the universe. See things from each of their perspectives, not knowing
versus all-knowing. Moses, in a movie setting, might be looking around for a
rock to hide behind.
This brings up a valuable point. Notice
that God tells Moses to lie to the Pharaoh. Even though it is highly unlikely
that Pharaoh would release his slaves to wander into lands that are the
possession of city-states subordinate to him and dependent on his army for
protection, in the land of Canaan, the demand is only to let them go three days
journey into the wilderness to worship God. This clears up the age-old nonsense
question that philosophers and skeptics ask, “would a Christian hiding a Jew in
their house be committing a sin if he lied to the Nazis and said he was not
hiding a Jew?” When life is on the line and great injustice is being opposed
what do you think? Are you justified in self-righteous smugness at saying, “I
have not lied,” when you have allowed someone to suffer or die because of your
feigned Godliness? This is not situational ethics, but simple common-sense. A
lie told to save an innocent person’s life, to keep from crushing a person’s
sense of self-worth and value, or to generally prevent a greater evil from
taking place may be necessary at some point in your life.
As an example of hyperliteralism there are
many heartless Christians who will say that since God has ordained marriage and
proscribed divorce, except in very narrow circumstances but where the privilege
of remarriage is denied, would tell an abused woman who is beaten down and
whose life is in danger and even the lives of her children that she is sinning
if she divorces her abuser. This way of looking at God’s word is clearly not
the way God looks at it. Religion, like all systems of living and philosophies,
does attract people who are rigid in their thinking and liberal in their
self-righteousness. By focusing on such strict understanding of what God says
He wants they can then overlook greater sins in their own lives.
Matthew
23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have
omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Do what you know is right but as you form the way your convictions interact with your daily decisions keep in mind God's greater purpose.
But, back to the text, God knows what this
Pharaoh will do. In fact, He has prepared this Pharaoh for this purpose.
Exodus
9:16 And in very deed for this cause
have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be
declared throughout all the earth.
Paul refers to this in Romans but reveals
to us the power of the written word of God giving us more to think about regarding
the book we hold in our hands;
Romans
9:17 For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my
power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
But, God will set up a scene for the
display of His power and of His identity to the world of that time and for the
future.
Romans
15:4 For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort
of the scriptures might have hope.
In God’s ministry of reconciling man to
Himself He has prepared a time when He will reveal who He is through His power
over reality to the world at that time and to all of history.
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