seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Exodus 10:7 Pharaoh’s officials said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the Lord their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?”
8 Then Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. “Go, worship the Lord your God,” he said. “But tell me who will be going.”
9 Moses answered, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and with our flocks and herds, because we are to celebrate a festival to the Lord.”
10 Pharaoh said, “The Lord be with you—if I let you go, along with your women and children! Clearly you are bent on evil.[a] 11 No! Have only the men go and worship the Lord, since that’s what you have been asking for.” Then Moses and Aaron were driven out of Pharaoh’s presence.
8 Then Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. “Go, worship the Lord your God,” he said. “But tell me who will be going.”
9 Moses answered, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and with our flocks and herds, because we are to celebrate a festival to the Lord.”
10 Pharaoh said, “The Lord be with you—if I let you go, along with your women and children! Clearly you are bent on evil.[a] 11 No! Have only the men go and worship the Lord, since that’s what you have been asking for.” Then Moses and Aaron were driven out of Pharaoh’s presence.
a. Exodus 10:10 Or Be careful, trouble is in store for you!
According to the blueletterbible.com commentary, Pharaoh wants to bargain.
Pharaoh offered a compromise in Exodus 8:25-26, suggesting that they could have a day to sacrifice to the LORD while still in Egypt. Moses rejected that compromise, and will reject this one also. God won't strike this bargain, because He doesn't need to - God holds all the negotiating leverage.
What Pharaoh wanted is what many of us want in the flesh - a way to "give in" to God, without fully submitting to Him. Sometimes we look for a way to sort of bargain with God as an equal, instead of submitting to Him as Creator and LORD.
When Moses first came to Pharaoh, Pharaoh said: Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? (Exodus 5:2). The fact that Pharaoh still will not submit to the LORD shows that he doesn't know who the LORD is yet. This is despite the fact that the LORD God has made it clear that He is:
- Greater than the god Khnum (the guardian of the Nile)
- Greater than the god Hapi (the spirit of the Nile)
- Greater than the god Osiris (who had the Nile as his bloodstream)
- Greater than the goddess Heqt (the frog-goddess of fertility)
- Greater than the goddess Hathor (a cow-like mother goddess)
- Greater than the god Imhotep (the god of medicine)
- Greater than Nut (the sky goddess)
- Able to stop the whole worship of the Egyptian gods with loathsome lice and swarms of insects
Despite all this, Pharaoh shows he still does not know the LORD God. Very well, God will show him more!
What Pharaoh wanted is what many of us want in the flesh - a way to "give in" to God, without fully submitting to Him. Sometimes we look for a way to sort of bargain with God as an equal, instead of submitting to Him as Creator and LORD.
When Moses first came to Pharaoh, Pharaoh said: Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? (Exodus 5:2). The fact that Pharaoh still will not submit to the LORD shows that he doesn't know who the LORD is yet. This is despite the fact that the LORD God has made it clear that He is:
- Greater than the god Khnum (the guardian of the Nile)
- Greater than the god Hapi (the spirit of the Nile)
- Greater than the god Osiris (who had the Nile as his bloodstream)
- Greater than the goddess Heqt (the frog-goddess of fertility)
- Greater than the goddess Hathor (a cow-like mother goddess)
- Greater than the god Imhotep (the god of medicine)
- Greater than Nut (the sky goddess)
- Able to stop the whole worship of the Egyptian gods with loathsome lice and swarms of insects
Despite all this, Pharaoh shows he still does not know the LORD God. Very well, God will show him more!
The easy English commentary adds this.
‘The Lord will certainly be with you’. But Pharaoh was not blessing them. He meant that in a negative way. He did not really want the Lord to be with them. If he let the families go, he would be doing a good thing to the Israelites. But Pharaoh did not want to do a good thing for the Israelites. It was usual for the men to kill the animals and to give them to God. But Pharaoh wanted to keep the women and the children and the animals in Egypt. He wanted to be sure that the Israelite men would return to their families and their animals.
He only wanted to appease his officials. Remember, it was a famine that brought the Israelites to Goshen in the first place. Half the crops were already gone. If the locusts ate the rest of the crops, there would be another famine and this one would come without time to store the grain in the warehouses as Joseph had done for the last famine. That would leave Egypt at the mercy of all those nations around it. That would be bad for Pharaoh.
