Study Desk

After that, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Let My people go, so that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.'"

"The God of the Hebrews has met with us," they answered. "Please let us go on a three-day journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the LORD our God, or He may strike us with plagues or with the sword."

But require of them the same quota of bricks as before; do not reduce it. For they are lazy; that is why they are crying out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.'

God also told Moses, "I am the LORD.

I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but I did not reveal Myself to them by My name, 'the LORD.'

I will take you as My own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

The LORD answered Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

Then say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to tell you: Let My people go, so that they may worship Me in the wilderness. But you have not listened until now.

"Tomorrow," Pharaoh answered. "It will be as you say," Moses replied, "so that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God.

"This is the finger of God," the magicians said to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God within this land."

But Moses replied, "It would not be right to do that, because the sacrifices we offer to the LORD our God would be detestable to the Egyptians. If we offer sacrifices that are detestable before the Egyptians, will they not stone us?

We must make a three-day journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God as He commands us."

Pharaoh answered, "I will let you go and sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness, but you must not go very far. Now pray for me."

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and tell him that this is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning, stand before Pharaoh, and tell him that this is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

But as for you and your officials, I know that you still do not fear the LORD our God."

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, "This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

Pharaoh's officials asked him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the LORD their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is in ruins?"

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. "Go, worship the LORD your God," he said. "But who exactly will be going?"