Lord of the Flies Exodus 8:20–32

Lowering his rifle, the hunter replied, “I want a fur coat.” “Good,” the bear said. “That’s a negotiable question. I only want a full stomach. Let’s negotiate a compromise.”

They sat down to negotiate, and after a time the bear walked away – alone. The negotiations had been “successful” – the bear had a full stomach and the hunter had a fur coat.

Compromises don’t always satisfy both sides and compromise with Satan is never good.

We are studying the Ten Plagues God brought against Egypt and we are studying Plague #4 today. In this plague, Pharaoh makes his first effort at compromise with God’s servant.

Shoo, Fly, Shoo! – 8:20-21:

Notice the expression “My people” (ver. 20). It is used 20 times in Exodus. Israel was not Pharaohs’ people. Israel was not Pharaoh’s people to serve him as slaves. They were God’s people. God required Pharaoh to let them go, unconditionally. Israel needed to worship God. That is the highest purpose for which man was created: to worship God.

My People, Your People – 8:22-23:

Sometimes while you are driving down the road, you can see where the rain stops at a certain point. Almost as if there is an invisible barrier there. I wonder if that was what it was like in the land of Goshen, where the nation of Israel lived: 8:22-23.

God made the distinction between Israel and Egypt, not because Israel was holy and righteous and good. But because God made a promise to Abraham, to bring the Savior into the world through his family (Gen. 12:1-3).

Without Compromise – 8:25-27:

Notice the deceptive nuance of the compromise: “sacrifice within the land.” Pharaoh did not want them to leave, but they could sacrifice in Egypt. Well, what did God want? Didn’t He really just want the worship? So, stay here and worship. But that’s not what God said!

Compromise is the name of the game in modern society and in modern religious circles. Satan knows that if he can get God’s people to weaken on one point, it will start a domino effect and one’s spiritual “house of cards” will come crashing down.

Moses reminded himself of what God had actually said. God has said: “Let My people go so they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness” (5:1). Moses, therefore, refused to compromise even on one point because it fell short of full and complete obedience to Jehovah God. You and I need to understand that partial obedience does not cut it with God. Here’s the thing… If God tells us to do 5 things – let’s just imagine – but we really don’t want to do 2 of those. We just do three things. Then ultimately we have not honored Jehovah God because the only reason why we did the three things we did was because we agreed with them! So who were we honoring when we did those three things? We were honoring only ourselves! Obedience to the gospel of Christ is full obedience or it is not obedience at all.

Say a Little Prayer for Me – 8:28-32:

Moses, being the faithful servant of God that he was, decided to pray for the pagan unbeliever: 8:29-31. Four times Pharaoh asks for prayers and four times Moses prays to God on behalf of Pharaoh and God responds.

We criticize Pharaoh for having a hard heart, but aren’t we sometimes guilty of the same thing? Don’t we negotiate with God sometimes? “God, if you’ll do this for me, I’ll do that for you.” More prayers are offered to God when someone needs help than probably any other time in one’s life. But like Pharaoh, as soon as God responds to our prayers, we forget all that we promised God.

Many times we try to offer God some kind of compromise. We make God offers; we try to manipulate God through ultimatums. The dividing line between the saved and the lost is Jesus Christ and our faithful obedience to His every word.

Paul Holland