seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Exodus 3:16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
18 “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”
18 “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”
The commentaries have a tiny problem with verse 18. One says that it's true and another says it isn't. God inspired the Bible so it's God's word and God never lies so once again one of the commentaries is not correct.
Here's the easyenglish.info statement.
Verse 18 ‘Three days’ was not a long time. But Moses did not intend that the Israelites would return. Probably he was testing Pharaoh’s attitude by means of that request. And probably Pharaoh recognised that the polite words were a demand for freedom.
But studylight.org discusses it differently.
God presented the smaller request to Pharaoh first so that the request would be as appealing and as easy to accept as possible. He did this so Pharaoh would have no excuse at all for refusing God and hardening his heart.
Little children who hear this story for the first time hear the word "elders" and think of their grandparents, great grandparents, and other "old" people. In fact, elders is a term for the head of each family. Back when the Israelites first went to Egypt, the elders would have been Jacob [Israel] and his sons. These are the men that God told Moses to talk to. These are the representatives of the Israelites. Moses was the representative of God.
I can just see Moses lifting his finger as if to interject, and God being God knows what Moses is about to say, so God answers the question without Moses asking it. Verse 18 "The elders of Israel will listen to you". So even though Moses should not be alive at all.... and Moses was never enslaved.... and Moses was raised in a palace like a prince.... and Moses was wanted for murder..... God told Moses the elders would listen to him. Well that settles that right?
Then God warns Moses that Pharaoh will turn them down. I wonder if Moses will tell the Elders that part. After all it's part of the plan because once Pharaoh turns God's request down, that opens the door for God to deal with Pharaoh. The end game [for Pharaoh] is that God will make Pharaoh do what God wants him to do and the Israelites will plunder Egypt.
It is, after all, God's Plan.
