Mensa Otabil - Gather Everything
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Exodus 10, verses 25 and 26: But Moses said, «You shall also give us sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. Our livestock also shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take some of them to serve the Lord our God. And even we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.»
I like Moses; this guy is miles ahead of Pharaoh. Pharaoh thinks he’s smart, but Moses is a forward thinker. He’s a generational thinker; he’s a big thinker. He’s not narrow, he’s not self-seeking, and he’s not just looking for little drops here and there. He didn’t want to simply go out and worship God without any offering to the Lord, because the flocks were going to be used to sacrifice to the Lord. So Moses discerned that Pharaoh wants us to go to the wilderness to sacrifice, but he doesn’t want us to truly worship God with our hearts the way God demands. Everything is about worship and how it’s supposed to be conducted.
So, three things I want you to note regarding what Moses said. He says you have to release our offerings. You have to release our offerings; you have to release the animals we’re going to use to make the sacrifice because the Israelites were shepherds. They understood that if you appeared before God, you have to offer to Him the work of your hands. The work of their hands is the sheep; it’s not the towers they’ve built for Egypt — that’s for Egypt. But what they could own as theirs were the sheep, their flocks. They said if we go to see God, we must let Him know that we brought the work of our hands to worship Him. So that’s at the top of their minds; they’re thinking about the offering to give to the Lord in the land that God is giving to them.
Secondly, Moses said nothing will be left behind. He said not a hoof, which means not one little bit of any animal is going to be left here in Egypt, because the flocks represented their acquisitions. That’s what they’ve acquired; they came to Egypt 430 years earlier. They’ve worked and worked, their ancestors have worked for 430 years; they’ve built Egypt, they’ve built the economy, but the only thing they have is what they’ve acquired: their animals. They said, «Well, you’re not going to give us freedom and not allow us to control our wealth, our acquisitions. We need to control our acquisitions.» So if we’re going to have personal deliverance, we must also have the opportunity to control our wealth, to control our economy, to control what we’ve generated, to control the work of our hands. That’s what Moses is negotiating for. We don’t want any kind of freedom that holds us back economically; we want freedom that also frees us economically.
And the third thing Moses says is that even when we go to the wilderness, we don’t know what else God would ask of us. God may demand so much from us, so we need everything; we need everything at our disposal. So that when God says, «For you to worship Me, this is what I require,» we will have the opportunity to worship God fully and freely, without any hindrance. So, on one level, it’s about worship; on another level, it’s about economic independence. Moses is putting all of that worship and economic independence as one factor, the same factor that affects the liberation of an oppressed people. That’s what he demands from Pharaoh. There’s a lot to learn from this Moses, and a lot to learn for ourselves, for our nations, and for our families.
Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, I will not serve You empty-handed. I place the things You have given me on Your altar. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»