Exodus day 10
Transcript
00:00Pharaoh's Negotiating Positions
00:04This passage details the fourth, fifth, and sixth plagues.
00:09Our focus today, though, is Pharaoh.
00:11He still has enough liberty of movement left to try negotiating a compromise with Moses.
00:17Without any help from me, you will recognize how up-to-date his compromise suggestions
00:22and their temptations are.
00:24He proposes in turn, why not make your Yahweh one of the gods of Egypt?
00:29In other words, Pharaoh is saying, there's no need to be so standoffish.
00:34Settle down and join in.
00:36We prefer our Ayn Num, you prefer Yahweh.
00:40Let's learn from each other and be good neighbors.
00:43No says Moses in effect, your religion cannot accommodate ours.
00:47Our God has his unique requirements.
00:50We are bound by what he chooses to tell us.
00:53Ours is a revealed religion.
00:55If you must be different, try not to be as different as all that.
01:00Stay close, that is, stay in the world even if you're not of it.
01:04Yet this is not God's way he sets his people apart.
01:08He makes a total separation.
01:11That is non-negotiable.
01:12Likewise, we don't seek to be different, we just are.
01:17From Moses' reply we can infer a suggestion that perhaps children remain in Egypt and
01:21only adults go.
01:23If we thus understand the emphasis in his words, then Pharaoh is suggesting that it
01:27would be a good thing to keep a foot in both camps.
01:30Why force your convictions on your children?
01:34Let them grow up and make up their own minds.
01:37To this Moses replies with a stark refusal.
01:40But behind it lies God's insistence that our children are within his covenant.
01:44The gathered people has an essential family component.
01:48Alter the nature of your Israelite religion.
01:52Pharaoh yields regarding allowing women and children to go, but tries to impose an embargo
01:56on flocks and herds.
01:59Moses is inflexible in facing and outfacing Pharaoh, yet he is not unyielding.
02:05When Pharaoh asks for respite, Moses very likely realizes it is insincere.
02:10But he meets Pharaoh's request.
02:12This too is a lesson to learn.
02:16Remember these four points on which compromise is forbidden.
02:19The basis of religion is in revelation.
02:21We are a distinctive people.
02:23We must educate and include our children in our devotions.
02:28And sacrifice is at the heart of worship.