Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “Go, worship the Lord. Even your women and children may go with you; only leave your flocks and herds behind.”

25 But Moses said, “You must allow us to have sacrifices and burnt offerings to present to the Lord our God. 26 Our livestock too must go with us; not a hoof is to be left behind. We have to use some of them in worshiping the Lord our God, and until we get there we will not know what we are to use to worship the Lord.”

Three things:

  1. As we have seen before, let us beware of reducing God’s demands (diluting His Word), whether for ourselves or for others (24);
  2. The worship God requires of His people, has sacrifice at its heart. There is a “must” and a “have to” about it. These Old Testament sacrifices, as we know, were preparatory. They foreshadowed the ‘wondrous’ Cross where Jesus would offer Himself as the one final, perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. Today there are theological ‘Pharaoh’s’ at the bottom of the church’s garden, who would do away with any idea of a blood sacrifice. They see it as barbarous, and embarrassing. They believe it belongs to a more primitive era when people didn’t know any better. But in the Bible story, from Genesis to Revelation, the Cross stands tall: there is no other way to God other than through the poured out blood and broken body of Jesus;
  3. It is often the case that only when we “get there” do we see what the next step is (26). Only when we follow the light we have received will we have further light for the next move. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105ESV). David Pawson said this is a reference the the shepherd’s lantern, which only gave you enough light to see the next step. Then when you took it, you had light for the next one, and so on. At the moment, Jilly and I are listening to God’s Smuggler’, by Brother Andrew. What a great story it is!Just the other day I noted that a member of an intercessory group told Andrew he needed to learn to drive. ‘But’, Andrew objected, ‘I can’t drive.’ However, this praying man persisted in exhorting him to take lessons. He said, ‘It is often only after we have taken a step of obedience that we see why it was necessary.’ (Andrew was soon to be given a car for his missionary work in Eastern Europe!)

PRAYER: Help me Lord, to so walk with you that I hear your voice and obey your promptings