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00:00Why don't you do what you're told?
00:04I think we would have to say that initial success goes to Moses' head.
00:09He had had a sharp experience, in chapter 2 12, 22, that the wrath of man does not produce
00:15the righteousness of God, but obviously the lesson has not quite gone home.
00:21He certainly acts as if he thinks he is on a roll, bouncing into Pharaoh's presence with
00:25strident demands.
00:28This is not what he was told to do.
00:31If we compare chapter 3 12 with chapter 5 colon 1, 2 we see it is all a multiple error,
00:37the wrong delegation, the wrong approach, the wrong terminology, the wrong request,
00:43and a non-negotiable demand, rather than a negotiating position.
00:48And all this is stated in the name of the Lord Yahweh, a God Pharaoh had never heard
00:53of.
00:54Once more, of course, we are not told what would have happened, we only know that, by
00:59disobeying, Moses brings his people into unwanted suffering, and his mission into disrepute.
01:06Even the ground Moses had initially gained when the Israelites put their trust in him
01:10is lost.
01:12But even when Moses tries to revise his approach, he complicates the issue with his own addition,
01:17a threat of the sword is not mentioned in chapter 3, 18 and there is still the inclusion
01:22of the name the Lord.
01:25Probably Pharaoh's question, who is the Lord, was a genuine request for information, not
01:30an arrogant repudiation.
01:32Now we need to notice that nothing Moses said to Pharaoh was untrue, but in the strictest
01:37sense, first, the word of God was set aside, and secondly, an addition from human logic
01:44and wisdom was given.
01:47Stewards are required to be faithful, not inventive, ambassadors are required to speak
01:51as if their overlord was himself speaking, not to add their own spin.
01:57Prophets throughout the Old Testament characteristically say, thus says the Lord, meaning this is what
02:02the Lord has said.
02:04How crucially important then, for us, is scriptural exactitude.
02:09Reflection
02:10Disobedience to God's word all started in Eden.
02:14When Adam and Eve added to what God had said about safeguarding the tree, they opened a
02:18door for Satan.