Exodus 10:24-29: in context

As the plagues wear on Pharaoh, he begins to offer compromises. Earlier he said the people could go but only the men; now he says they may all go, but must leave their flocks and herds behind. It is a partial concession, letting them go while keeping something back. But Moses refuses to accept the partial surrender. Our livestock must go with us, he says; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the LORD our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the LORD until we come there. He will not compromise; the whole must go.

Moses' refusal is instructive: not a hoof shall be left behind. Pharaoh's compromise was subtle, letting Israel go while keeping something back, a partial obedience that would have left a foothold, a claim, something withheld from full devotion to God. And Moses would not accept it. God had called them out fully, to serve him with all they had, and Moses insisted that nothing be left behind, that the whole go, that they hold nothing back from God's service. He refused the partial surrender that Pharaoh offered. This exposes a temptation we face in our own devotion to God: the pull toward partial surrender, giving God most while holding something back. Like Pharaoh's compromise, the temptation is subtle. We may be willing to give God a great deal, to obey him in most things, to devote much of ourselves to him, while quietly keeping something back, some area not surrendered, some part withheld from his service, a hoof left behind. And this partial surrender can feel like enough; we have given so much. But God calls for all, and the thing withheld is a foothold, a claim, an area not truly given to him. Whoever does not renounce all that he has, Jesus says, cannot be my disciple. The call is to hold nothing back. This searches whether our surrender to God is whole or partial. Is there some area we keep back, some part withheld, some hoof left behind, while we give God the rest? Moses refused Pharaoh's partial concession, insisting the whole go; and we are called to a like refusal of partial surrender, giving God not most but all, holding nothing back from his service. This is not a burden but the only whole-hearted way to belong to God. They gave themselves first to the Lord, Paul says of the Macedonians; the giving of ourselves is the whole, not a part. This calls us to refuse the partial surrender and give God the whole. Like Moses insisting not a hoof be left behind, we are called to hold nothing back from God, to surrender not most but all, refusing the subtle compromise that would give him much while keeping something back. Whatever we are tempted to withhold, some area, some part, some hoof left behind, is exactly what God calls us to bring; and the call is to a whole surrender, holding nothing back from the God who gave himself wholly for us.

Is my surrender to God whole or partial, and is there some area I keep back, some part withheld from his service, some hoof left behind while I give him the rest, and can Moses, who refused Pharaoh's partial concession and insisted that not a hoof be left behind because they must serve the LORD with all, move me to refuse the subtle compromise of partial surrender and give God the whole, holding nothing back from the God who gave himself wholly for me?