156
From Eternity Past
informed of what was reported among their bondmen, derided their
expectations and scornfully denied the power of their God. They
tauntingly said, “If your God is just and merciful and possesses power
above that of the Egyptian gods, why does He not make you a free
people?” They worshiped deities termed by the Israelites false gods,
yet they were a rich and powerful nation. Their gods had blessed them
with prosperity and had given them the Israelites as servants. Pharaoh
himself boasted that the God of the Hebrews could not deliver them
from his hand.
Words like these destroyed the hopes of many of the Israelites.
True, they were slaves. Their children had been slain, and their own
lives were a burden. Yet they were worshiping the God of heaven.
Surely He would not thus leave them in bondage to idolaters. But
those who were true to God understood that it was because of Israel’s
departure from Him, because of their disposition to marry with heathen
nations, thus being led into idolatry, that the Lord had permitted them
to become bondmen. They confidently assured their brethren that He
would soon break the yoke of the oppressor.
[179]
But the Hebrews were not yet prepared for deliverance. They had
little faith in God. Many were content to remain in bondage rather than
meet the difficulties attending removal to a strange land; and the habits
of some had become so much like those of the Egyptians that they
preferred to dwell in Egypt. Therefore the Lord overruled events more
fully to develop the tyrannical spirit of the Egyptian king and also to
reveal Himself to His people. The task of Moses would have been
much less difficult had not many of the Israelites become so corrupted
that they were unwilling to leave Egypt. Says the Scripture, “They
hearkened not ... for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.”
Again the divine message came to Moses, “Go in, speak unto
Pharaoh king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his
land.” In discouragement he replied, “Behold, the children of Israel
have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me?” He
was told to take Aaron with him, and go before Pharaoh, and again
demand “that he send the children of Israel out of his land.”