We're going to be looking at
four compromises that Pharaoh offered unto Moses and the Israelites
Rather than go out forever to the land of Canaan and in Exodus
chapter 8 25 and following and Pharaoh called for Moses and
for Aaron and said unto them Go ye sacrifice to your God but
notice in the land. Moses said, It is not meet so
to do, for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians
to the Lord our God. Lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination
of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone
us? We will go three days' journey
into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he hath
commanded us. And Pharaoh said, I will let
you go that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness,
only ye shall not go very far in treat for me. Now we have two of them there,
but let's work our way under the subject of the evening. There
are two ways that Satan has working his mischief in the life of the
children of God. One of them is directly working
upon our heart in a satanic fashion. And the other is by the use of
human instrument, friends, associates, colleagues, or whatever they
might be, whether it be a false minister, a deceiver, in order
that they might hinder and lead us astray and resist our efforts
toward doing good. Now Paul warned and Peter warned
against the wiles and the devices of the devil. We must ever be
on our guard. Now with that let me say that
we have four examples of this in Pharaoh's dealing with Moses
and with the Jew concerning the exodus out of Egypt. There are
four compromises proposed by Pharaoh, all of them falling
short of what God had commanded them to do, what he had promised
to do for them. And not only that, But all four
of these are not just applicable to the Jew in that time, but
they have some significant application under the Christian life. Because
each one of these compromises is seen in the life of the children
of God who are attempting to follow the Lord and live unto
him. Everyone that would take up his
cross and become a disciple of the Lord may find these propositions
cast before their feet as they go in the way. So, to work our
way to it, let's do a little background study for the text. It was announced between the
intention, it was the announced intention of God that he might
deliver them completely out of the land of Egypt and out of
the hand of Pharaoh. Here is God's promise and intention. They were to leave Egypt, leave
it, leave it completely. They were to go three days into
the wilderness, Exodus 3 and verse 18. They were to sacrifice
to their God, same verse, Exodus 3 and verse 18. They were to
serve God, chapter 4 and verse 23. They were to hold a feast
unto the Lord, chapter 5 and verse 1. And finally, they were
to be led and to arrive in the land of Canaan. Now to that,
add the fact that these things are strongly typical They are
representative of how spiritual matters may play out in our life. So Paul said, these things are
types, they're shadows, they're pictures, and such like. We have
that in 1 Corinthians 10 and 6, 1 Corinthians 10 and 11. All these things happen under
them for example. Now, let's turn back the history,
if we can, and go down into the land of Egypt. Moses is sent
from God, and he appears before Pharaoh with an ultimatum for
the king of Egypt. Chapter 5, verse 1. Thus saith
the Lord God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold
a feast unto me in the wilderness. Chapter 5, verse 3. The God of
the Hebrew hath met with us, and the word is, let us go three
days' journey in the desert and sacrifice, and that unto the
Lord our God. Now, Pharaoh refuses the command,
as we noticed this morning, in chapter 5 and verse 2. And then before our next text,
there came four plagues upon the land. Bloody water, frogs,
lice, and flies. That is, before this text here
that we read from in chapter 8. Then let's look at that text
now and we have here our first compromise look at it again verse
25 Pharaoh after the plague had been ended and called off he
called for Moses and Aaron and Said to them as well as to the
people go Sacrifice to the Lord your God in the land now we wonder
if Has this evil despot at last come to his senses and is willing
to submit under the command of God? Have the plagues ridded
him of his obstinacy and caused him to realize that he's fighting
a losing battle? Well, we see that he makes two
concessions here, and we will look at them. Number one, he
says that they might sacrifice. He said, go ahead, sacrifice. That would be an act of worship. He gives them permission, knowing
their custom, kill the beast, shed the blood, and that speaks
of propitiation. to the spiritual children of
God. This was the chief ingredient
of the Old Testament worship, to offer sacrifices, the shedding
of blood, and such like. This was part of the original
demand in chapter 5 and verse 3, and sacrifice. Verse 1, hold
a feast. Now Pharaoh is agreeable to that. Go and sacrifice. But then the second thing that
we noted, he agrees that they acknowledge their God, not the
Egyptian God. They're not bound to honor them
or to sacrifice to the God of the Egyptian, but he said, sacrifice
unto your God. if that's in chapter 8 and verse
25, does not insist upon them offering sacrifices and worshiping
the pagan gods of the Egyptian. He gives them leave to go, to
go and worship, to go and worship their God. Now shall they therefore
be on their way? Shall they gather up their belonging,
their family, their herd, their possession, all that they can
carry and set out and be gone out of the land of Egypt. Well,
the answer is not own your life. Let's read it again. And Pharaoh
called for Moses and Aaron and said, Go ye sacrifice to your
God, then these three words, in the land. Go sacrifice to
the Lord in the land. He will grant them leave for
their worship, free them from their labor for time to go, have
their feast, and to make their sacrifices. But he would not
allow them to go out of the land of Egypt, and that was the will,
the purpose, and the command of God. Three days' journey out
into the wilderness. It is as if Pharaoh said to them,
surely you can carry on your religion as well here in the
land as you can in the desert or in Canaan in another place. There's room for all. As if to
say to them, why this demand for separation? Why be such a
separatist and want to leave completely out of the land? Don't be so narrow. Don't be
so dogmatic about your way of worship and your religion. So Pharaoh proposed unto them
a compromise which gained popularity. as time goes by in Christianity. And that is to make Christianity
to be compatible with a society and the time and the place in
which we live. To make religion compatible with
almost any kind of lifestyle that one might fall into. There are those who say Christianity
does not require a complete and absolute new adjustment to former
ways of life. Stay where you are. Continue
worshiping God and stay exactly as you are. I think that Pharaoh's
compromise amounts to this. it would cause them to be still
in their bondage. And if the church practices it,
it would cause the church to mix itself up with the world
and the practice and the culture of the society in which it is
operating. I think, I told you Red A.W.
Pink, I think that he was not wrong in stating the fact that
professing Christians have for the most part so assimilated
their worship into worldly patterns that instead of being hated by
the world, they have taught the men of the world to love them
and to join in with them." Unquote. Words of A.W. Pink. You see how
many things today in the world are brought right into the church
and therefore are practiced. So Pharaoh said to them, listen,
go, go serve your God, but do it in the land. Don't go off.
Don't go off on a tangent. Don't leave. And then secondly,
we have the second one in the 28th verse when he said unto
them, okay, go in the wilderness, but watch this. Go not very far
away. Go ahead and go, leave the land,
go out into the wilderness, but don't go very far away. When Moses refused the first
one as incompatible with the command of God, then Pharaoh
compromised a second time Two concessions are repeated. Number
one, you may sacrifice. Two, you may do it under the
Lord your God. And now a third concession is
made. You may do it in the wilderness
as opposed to, verse 25, in the land. Now, will Moses accept
this? Has he not been commanded by
God, bring them out? I'll take them into a land of
promise. But again, there is a fine point
at the bottom still. There is a hitch in the matter
as this compromise is proposed. For Pharaoh says not only you
shall not go very far away, for he did not want them out of his
clutches. He did not want to lose his slave
labor. for they were the slaves of Pharaoh,
and he used them in a gruesome, gruesome way. And Pharaoh knew
that if they got out of his reach, they would be gone. But if they
stayed close, there was a chance that he might draw them back
even again. So the second compromise is don't
go very far away. Pharaoh's suggestion again was
a complete opposite of the command of God who said go three days
journey out into the wilderness. Pharaoh's compromise is therefore
an evil suggestion in their ear and in their hearing. But this
is repeated a thousand fold among professors. For there is a favorite
advice of Satan's ambassadors in the world. And it goes something
like this. Don't take your religion too
seriously. Don't get too involved in it.
Don't get too wrapped up in it. In other words, don't go off
the deep end with concern unto your religion. Don't go too far. Don't become a fanatic. Don't become one of those old
Bible-waving, Bible-thumping Christians. Don't go to extremes. Don't be so narrow-minded about
the things of the world. Don't live at church. Don't read
the Bible all the time. It'll get you all mixed up and
you can't understand it. The world's philosophy is seen,
I believe, in this compromise. If you really must be a Christian,
don't let it spoil your life here." Unquote. A.W. Pink, page 72. Now God forbid
that such rebels as Pharaoh should set the standards of worship
for the children of God. God forbid. that the unregenerate
worldings of our day should advise God's people and be unto them
as a moderator and say, do this in moderation. Don't let Aunt
Suki and don't let Aunt so-and-so take you away and get you off
too serious about this so that it ruins your way of life. Everybody admires a little tad
of religion, don't they? Everybody thinks it's good to
have a little religion on the side, but most resent a full
and complete commitment to God and to Christ. And the advice,
therefore, of so many today is still, don't go too far. Though we do sometimes need to
bridle our fanatic fanaticism. At other times we have to use
the whip because we are slothful in our duty and service unto
God. What advice the world would give?
Again, it would be that of Pharaoh. Don't go very far. Don't go off
the deep end. Don't go out there and just separate
yourself. Be totally devoted unto your
religion and unto your God and nothing else. Don't go to far
about it. Now the third one, we will move
along a little further. The third device is found over
in chapter 10, and that would be verse 8 through 11. In verse
8, Pharaoh calls Moses before him again to say, go. But he asked this time, who's
going? Go ahead and go, but who is it
that will go? The margin said, who and who
will go? He soon withdrew half of the
concession. Look at verse 9. Moses replied,
our young, our old, our daughters, our flocks, our herd, the whole
nation, everything that we own and everything that we possess.
will be going with us. Even though his nation lies in
shambles, the land is in ruin, yet Pharaoh hardens his heart
again at hearing Moses say that they would vacate the land in
absolute totality and take every possession with him. So he balked
at letting them leave together and all at once. He allows in
verse 11, that the children must stay behind. Who is it that will
go? Everything, everyone. Pharaoh
says, oh no, let the children stay behind while the men, the
heroes, go and finish this religious business that you so insistent
upon. Now, Pharaoh is mistaken to think
Number one, that only a part will go, and number two, that
they will return, for that was in the back of his mind. For
God said, let my people go, chapter 5, verse 1, all of them, the
whole nation. And Pharaoh says in verse 11,
not so. Go now, ye men, and serve the
Lord. He proposes to hold the young
ones as hostages while they go and worship the Lord, using them
as leverage, no doubt, against their parents and grandparents,
their children in Egypt. and them in the wilderness. What
a terrible anomaly, irregularity. What a wicked device is this,
to hold the children back while the fathers and the mothers go.
As if to say, don't make the children part of this religion. They can't participate in it,
can't understand it and such like. To tempt them to sacrifice
their children and he hold them for a new generation of slavery,
put them under pagan philosophy, pass their children over to Satan,
and leave them there in the land of Egypt, to leave them behind
as they exit out of the land. For if they leave the children
behind, Pharaoh has two hopes in his mind. Number one, they
will not go through with it and will return. They will come to
see the welfare of their children. And number two, Pharaoh could
train them to suit himself, make them the same condition as their
parent. Is this not, therefore, one of
the devices of Satan in our day? We see it. To go after the young. Where do the humanists and the
communists and the liberals are content to forget and to forego
the older folks who are set in their ways and determined about
their religion and instill their damnable lies in the younger
generation. That's one of the tricks of Satan. Where do they sow their foul
seed? Where do they introduce their
awful philosophy and doctrine? Where do they mingle? What audience
do they aim for? The cults and the dope addicts
and the free love hippies and liberalism. Where do they flourish? They flourish in the younger.
Every one of these evil is designed for acceptance unto the young. They're content to raise. a generation
that is willingly disposed against God till at last a new generation
arose in Egypt that knew not Joseph. And that had consequences,
Exodus 1 and verse 8. What is the modern attitude of
many with regard to the indoctrination of children into religion and
into the things of God? Well, the answer you often hear
is this. Don't force religion upon them. Leave them alone.
Don't force them. Let them decide for themselves. Let them, when they've grown
and able, decide for themselves. Don't burden them with religion.
Plenty of time for that later. Let them make their own choice.
They can't understand these things that you're teaching them at
the church, so therefore, they're too young for it. Let them live.
Let them enjoy their youth, let them sow their oats, let them
have their fun, and later they can choose whatever religion
is pleasing unto them. We have a generation of young
folks up to college in our country right now who have never in their
life been in church, never heard the gospel, never been around
it. For 20 years I've watched this
as so many have left their children behind. Until we've raised little
children, little small children that actually hate the church
and hate religion and hate preaching. And I've seen their glares for
a long, long time. However, let's look at the fourth
compromise of Pharaoh. It's in chapter 10 and verse
24. Pharaoh called unto Moses. He
said unto him, Go, ye serve the Lord. that your flocks and herds
be stayed, that your little ones also go with you." Now, this
is the fourth while of him. He first sought to convince them
not to leave the land, then to stay close by the place of their
bonded, and then to leave their most prized possession behind,
that is their sons and their daughter. Now he would put up
final cheat upon those people that we're leaving out. They
may leave, they may go far, even take their young, but he tempts
them to go empty-handed, without flocks, without herd, without
animals, and without earthly possession. Chapter 10, verse
24. He concedes one thing to withhold
another. Take your children. but leave
your flocks and your herds." He would trade children for cattle
in his scheme at this time. Now, it might appear that Moses
ought to give the concession, for after all, there were wives
and children. They were going first. But how
shall they sacrifice to the Lord their God without their animals,
their cattle, their beasts, and their flocks? Pharaoh's herds
and flocks are destroyed, remember, by the plagues of God. Israel's
is not. So he says, leave your flocks,
take everything else. He would send them out, really,
with no way to obey the Lord their God. Sacrifice to me in
the wilderness. If he could not tempt them to
sacrifice in the land, then he would tempt them to go out without
a sacrifice to offer unto their God. But in that chapter, verse
26, Moses stands firm. Our cattle also shall go with
us. There shall not an hoof be left
behind, for therefore must we take to serve the Lord our God. And we know not with what we
must serve the Lord until we come that is, in the wilderness. This is based upon verse 25.
Thou must give us sacrifice and burnt offering that we may sacrifice
Unto the Lord our God our sheep our ram our goats and such like
now the Egyptians urged upon them Gifts here take this and
go chapter 12 and verse 36 so that they spoiled The Egyptians
when they left they had all they had need of they went out with
a high hand out of the land of Egypt well prepared for the journey
into the wilderness. They were urged by Pharaoh, take
your leave, go. You remember one time they urged
Paul, get out of jail, please, please, please leave jail. Well,
here in chapter 12 and verse 32, Pharaoh bid them take their
leave and go out of the land. Now, for these, what can these
incidents say unto us in our life today? Does Satan still
tempt us? in any like manner of any of
these temptations that we see, or they are not those today who
claim that to be saved Yet they need not change all. There need
not be any great changes in their life. They might stay in the
land. That is, answer, they might stay
in the world. Go ahead and be saved. Become
a Christian, but stay in the world. Others profess, but don't
take it very seriously. Others say to us, you've gone
too far. You've taken this too far. You've gone too serious
about this matter of Christianity. Others, however, would leave
their goods in the world, present world. And if you would follow
Christ, you must put behind you the world, the old way of life. You must meet Christ without
the gates and serve him and sojourn in a strange land as pilgrims
and strangers in this world and in this land. You must not bargain
with God or with Satan to live the Christian life. You must
give Christ your full heart and your full obedience. Yield not
to the wiles and the deceits of the devil, for they shall
be many. Now, are we guilty in one or
the other of these areas that have been mentioned? then will
we not see it, repent of it, and put it away? Have we gone
far enough in our journey? Have we neglected the religious
upbringing of our children? Have we made a god of our possession
and of the material things that we have been pleased to have
in this world? These temptations are real and
they work yet today typical of those brought by Pharaoh. So may God use these practical
things this evening that we might think on it and apply them to
our heart and to our way.