LESSON 25 - GOD’S REQUIREMENT FOR ISRAEL.

June 23, 1888.

  1. WHO met Moses as he was on his way to Egypt? Ex. 4:27.
  2. What did Moses tell Aaron? Verse 28.
  3. When they reached Egypt, what did they do? Verses 29, 30.
  4. How did the people receive the message, and what did they do? Verse 31.
  5. With what words did Moses and Aaron greet Pharaoh? Ex. 5:1.
  6. What reply did Pharaoh make? Verse 2.
  7. What further statement did Moses and Aaron make, showing the urgency of the case? Verse 3.
  8. Had God told Moses to make this request? Ex. 3:18.
  9. Do you think that Moses expected Pharaoh to grant this request? Verse 19.
  10. Then why was he directed to make it, and why did he ask that the people might be allowed to go and sacrifice, when they wanted complete deliverance? See note.
  11. What did Pharaoh charge Moses and Aaron with doing? Ex. 5:4, 5.
  12. What did he say was the reason that the people wanted to go and sacrifice? Verses 8, 17.
  13. How were their burdens increased in consequence? Verses 6, 7, 17-19.
  14. After the Israelites had been delivered, what exhortation was given to them, based on their hard usage in Egypt? Deut. 5:14, 15.
  15. What were they told to remember, in order that they might not be led to require their servants to work on the Sabbath? Verse 15.
  16. For what purpose did God deliver them from bondage? Ex. 4:23; Ps. 105:43-45.
  17. What does this indicate? Ans. — That they could not properly serve him in Egypt.
  18. What may we conclude from this fact, and Pharaoh’s statement to Moses and Aaron that they made the people “rest from their burdens,” and the exhortation in Deut. 5: 14,15?

NOTES.

It is not in accordance with God’s plan to punish any man, no matter how wicked he may be, without warning him, and giving him a chance to repent. Therefore, although he knew that Pharaoh was so churlish and stubborn that he would not listen to reason, he did not begin to send judgments upon him, at first, to force him to let Israel go, but sent a simple request, instead. Thus his justice was manifested. In the demand, “Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness,” an opportunity was offered to Pharaoh to recognize the God of Israel as the true God. It was, in fact, Pharaoh’s chance for repentance. If Pharaoh had granted the simple request which Moses brought to him from the Lord, it would have indicated that he recognized the authority of God; and in that case he would have been willing to grant whatever else the Lord might demand.

FROM Ex. 4:23 and Ps. 105:43-45 we learn that the children of Israel could not serve the Lord in Egypt. In Deut. 5:14, 15 we find special emphasis given to that portion of the fourth commandment requiring the man-servant and the maid-servant to rest, and the Israelite was told to remember that he had been a servant in the land of Egypt; also in Ex. 5:5 we learn that Moses and Aaron made the people “rest from their burdens.” From these facts we may conclude that the Sabbath was one of the things in which they could not serve the Lord in Egypt; and when Moses and Aaron came with the message of God (Ex. 4:29-31), they attempted a reform, which only increased their oppression. The Israelites were delivered, that they might observe the statutes of the Lord, including the Sabbath, and this placed upon them an additional obligation to keep the Sabbath strictly, as well as to keep all the commandments. Compare Deut. 24:17,18.

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