Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 10-12.

Before the Plague of Locusts, Pharaoh’s officials told him to let the Israelites go.  So, Pharaoh tried a compromise, he would let the men go to sacrifice to God, but demanded that the women and children stay.  He claimed that Moses had been asking for just that.  Then after the Plague of Darkness, Pharaoh offered to let all of the people go, but demanded that they leave their flocks behind.  When Moses had first appeared before Pharaoh he had asked Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to take a three day journey to worship the Lord.  Each time Moses appeared before Pharaoh after that he did not repeat the part about the three day journey.  He merely spoke God’s word to let His people go so that they could worship Him.  Finally, after the death of the first-born of all Egypt, Pharaoh not just let them go to worship, but ordered the Israelites to leave en-masse.  This was not “take a three day journey into the wilderness, worship the Lord, and return.”  This was “get our of here and never come back!”  Moses had asked for the Israelites to be able to take a three day journey into the wilderness to worship the Lord, but Pharaoh was unwilling to allow that.  Moses did not bargain with Pharaoh, and we should not bargain with the powers of this world.  Nor should we be like Pharaoh and attempt to bargain with God.  We should do what God demands of us.  Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if Pharaoh had agreed to let the Israelites take a short trip in order to worship God from the beginning.  It did not happen because that was not God’s plan.  The Israelites faced further hardship due to Pharaoh’s refusal to listen to God, but by facing that hardship they received a lesson in God’s power.  Pharaoh was the most powerful man on earth at the time and he was forced to bow down and do as God commanded.  If we do as God wills, it will go well for us.  If we resist God’s will, it will go badly for us, and God’s will will nevertheless come to pass.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.