Mensa Otabil - End of Negotiation (10/10/2025)
Exodus chapter 10, verses 28 and 29. Then Pharaoh said to him, «Get away from me! Take heed to yourself and see my face no more; for in the day you see my face, you shall die.» So Moses said, «You have spoken well; I will never see your face again.» Pharaoh abruptly ended the negotiation with Moses. By this time, he had tried every trick he knew, and Moses had resisted them all. He thought Moses would take all the offers; Moses didn’t take them and signaled that nothing had changed from his initial position. His initial position is, «I’m not going to let the people go; my economy depends on them.» So he stood where he has stood from day one, and Moses stood where he had stood from day one. After nine plagues, no movement has been made; everybody is standing where they were standing from day one. He’s not going to let the people go.
I want you to note the words that Pharaoh used. First, he said to Moses, «Get away from me!» You can almost feel the intensity; probably, he screamed it. He was so frustrated and angry that these people would dare to resist him and his offer. So he said, «Get away from me!» And then he says, «I don’t want you to see my face again, and I don’t want to see you again.» In other words, diplomatic relationships are cut; «You don’t have access to my palace. I will not be nice to you when you see me; I will not be kind to you; I will not extend any courtesies to you.» Thirdly, he says, «The day you see me, you shall surely die.» Now this is very dire. Pharaoh has changed from the nice king trying to persuade Moses and the Hebrews to stay, to one who is angry and ready to destroy Moses. So the negotiation comes to an end.
Now it is important to note that God did not stop the negotiation; Pharaoh stopped it. So any consequences from then on are from Pharaoh. He said, «I’m not going to go any further; I don’t want to talk to you; I don’t want to listen to God; that’s the end.» So whatever happens is on Pharaoh’s head, and whatever will happen subsequently will be because he stopped seeking to negotiate with God’s people. I like Moses’s response to Pharaoh; he said, «You’ve said the very thing. I will not keep seeing your face,» because probably he’s also saying in his head, «This has been a waste of time and effort; I don’t want to see you again.» And you have said it. Moses is saying to Pharaoh, «You’ve prophesied how this thing is going to end. You’ve stated it with your mouth that the next time I see you, I’m dead. But it’s going to be the other way around; it’s you who is going, not me.»
So Moses fully understood that there was no other way but to trust God to complete the process He had started. You know, sometimes, unfortunately, when we make an effort to make something work, it gets to a point where there’s no movement and it doesn’t work. That’s what happened. Egypt is about to have disaster hit them, and it’s going to hit them because they have a leader who is not ready to make the right compromises. And it’s going to hit them severely, including the leader himself. May the Lord keep us from stubbornly pushing ourselves to self-destruction. Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, deliver me from self-destruction as a result of my self-will and stubbornness. In Jesus' name, amen.»