Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land." But Moses said, "It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the LORD our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? We must go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God as he tells us." So Pharaoh said, "I will let you go to sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away. Plead for me." Then Moses said, "Behold, I am going out from you and I will plead with the LORD that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow. Only let not Pharaoh cheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD." So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD. And the LORD did as Moses asked, and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; not one remained. But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.
Exodus 8:25-32
We come in these verses to Pharaoh’s attempts to reach a compromise with Moses and with the Lord concerning the inexorable demand to let the people of Israel go. First of all, he suggests the possibility of their sacrificing 'in the land' (25), then, when this is rejected as unacceptable, in the wilderness but 'not ... very far away'. Compromise is dear to the heart of the natural man who is willing to bid for the best of both worlds, and we should see in these circumstances a parable of what we are sometimes tempted to do in our spiritual lives when the allurements of Egypt are in conflict with the pull of the divine will on our lives. Serving the Lord in true obedience is possible neither in Egypt nor just outside its borders; the break must be clean and irrevocable. Lot, we may remember, pitched his tent towards Sodom (Genesis 13:12) and ended up by sitting in the gate (19:1), having lost his testimony and all but losing his life in the judgment that came to that wicked place. Pharaoh’s refusal after all to allow Israel to go, when the plague had been stayed, is also parabolic in that it reminds us that compromise never fulfils what it offers to those who are foolish enough to entertain it. 'Deceitful dealings' (29) are never very far away when the spirit of compromise is in the air.
Before passing from this chapter we should note the tremendous implication in the twice-repeated statement (13, 31) that 'the Lord did according to the word of Moses'. Here is the fruit and reward of his costly obedience to the will of God. Obedience moves the hand that moves the world!