Exodus 10:7-11: a reflection

7Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD, their God. Don’t you yet know that Egypt is destroyed?” 8Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go, serve the LORD your God; but who are those who will go?” 9Moses said, “We will go with our young and with our old. We will go with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds; for we must hold a feast to the LORD.” 10He said to them, “The LORD be with you if I let you go with your little ones! See, evil is clearly before your faces. 11Not so! Go now you who are men, and serve the LORD; for that is what you desire!” Then they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.

As the plagues mount, Pharaoh begins to bargain. He will let the Israelites go to worship God, he says, but only the men; leave the children and the flocks behind. It is a shrewd offer, a partial concession that would keep the people bound to Egypt through their children and possessions, a leash held even as they seemed to go free. But Moses will not accept it: We will go, he says, with our young and our old, our sons and daughters, our flocks and herds. All of us, or nothing. And Pharaoh drives them out in anger.

Notice Pharaoh's tactic: not outright refusal, but partial surrender. If he cannot keep them entirely, he will try to keep part, to hold something back, to let them serve God with a portion of themselves while the rest stays in Egypt. And Moses recognizes it for the trap it is. God's claim is on all of them, young and old, sons and daughters, everything; a partial exodus is no exodus at all. Moses will not leave a hostage in Egypt.

That is a picture of a real spiritual danger. When we cannot be kept from God entirely, the temptation is a partial surrender: to give God part of ourselves, our Sunday, our respectable side, a portion of our lives, while holding something back, keeping some corner in Egypt. But God's claim is on all of us, not a portion. Do not settle for a partial surrender that leaves part of you still in bondage. Like Moses, insist on going with everything, young and old, every part of your life given to God. He wants all of you, not a piece.

Lord, Pharaoh offered a partial surrender, go, but leave the children behind, and Moses refused, insisting on going with everything. Show me where I am tempted to give you only part of myself, my respectable side, a portion of my life, while holding some corner back in Egypt. You claim all of me, not a piece. Help me not to settle for a partial surrender, but to give you everything, every part of my life. I want to follow you with all that I am.