Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Exodus 3:16-22
Moses Is Therefore To Go To The Elders of Israel And Promise A Glorious Deliverance (Exodus 3:16).
a Moses is to gather the elders and explain that Yahweh the God of their fathers has visited them and has seen what is done to them in Egypt (Exodus 3:16).
b He will deliver them and bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:17).
c They must approach Pharaoh and request that they might go into the wilderness to serve their God (Exodus 3:18).
c But Yahweh knows that Pharaoh will not allow them to go into the wilderness to serve Him (Exodus 3:19).
b Yahweh will then reveal His wonders and smite Egypt and deliver His people so that they will let them go (Exodus 3:20).
a The children of Israel will then be favoured by the Egyptians and will despoil them (because of what had been done to them in Egypt (Exodus 3:21).
Note the parallels. In ‘a' Yahweh has visited His oppressed people, in the parallel they will despoil their oppressors. In ‘b' He will deliver them and bring them into a fruitful land, in the parallel He will reveal His wonders in Egypt and cause them to be let go. In ‘c' the request for permission to go into the wilderness is paralleled by the fact that Yahweh knows that Pharaoh will not let them go.
‘Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, “Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob has appeared to me saying, ‘I have surely visited you and that which is done to you in Egypt. And I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” '
So Moses must approach ‘the elders of Israel' with a message from Yahweh, and bring them together to hear it. ‘Of Israel' probably refers to the fact that they acted in the place of Jacob, but it is leading up to the eventual solidifying of ‘Israel' as the name of the future nation. And he must tell them what he had heard.
“The elders of Israel.” The children of Israel were now run by ‘elders'. This was a general term for the lay leaders of a town or city or encampment or other grouping based on the fact that they were usually the older and wiser heads of the group. But not always necessarily so. A prominent or capable younger man could also qualify as ‘an elder'. Among the children of Israel these would be the heads of the different branches of the family, the lay aristocracy, although at this stage they probably acted as priests as well, leading the worship of the people, just as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had done. Indeed the elders would continue to be a power even when there was a king with his ministers and priests.
But note that the phrase ‘the children of--' has been dropped here. There is the beginning of a general movement towards calling them Israel, partly caused here by the genitival use. (But Pharaoh will also call them ‘Israel').
“I have surely visited you and what is done to you.” Yahweh, the one to Whom they had cried as their God, now informs them that He has not in fact forgotten them. Indeed He wants them to know that He has already visited them and entered into the experience of what had been done to them. And during that visitation He has declared to Himself that He will bring them out from their affliction to a land flowing with milk and honey, the land of their forefathers, just as He long ago promised to their forefathers. For the time has now come for the fulfilling of those promises. The verb ‘visit' as used here means more than just paying a visit, it signifies a visit which means He is there with a view to action (as we might speak of ‘a visitation from God'). His visit will ensure their deliverance. Their God will come truly revealing Himself as Yahweh.
For the land flowing with milk and honey compare Exodus 3:8.
‘And they will listen to your voice, and you will come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you will say to him, “Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us, and now let us go, we pray you, three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to Yahweh our God.”
Moses was assured that the elders would listen to him. They were then to go together to Pharaoh with a request. The first request was to be a reasonable one. That because of a theophany from their God Yahweh they be allowed to make a short journey to the place where He had appeared (the wilderness, not necessarily the exact site) in order to offer sacrifices to Him.
“Yahweh the God of the Hebrews.” Pharaoh would take this to mean the Habiru god, a strange, wild God of no fixed abode apart from the desert. To Pharaoh the children of Israel were Habiru, a former stateless and landless people. Thus he would see their God in the same way. But to Moses and the elders ‘Hebrews' was possibly more specific, it probably signified in their minds the God of those who claimed descent from Eber. (See the article, " "). The God Who was the God of their history.
“Has met with us.” They were to acknowledge the revelation to Moses as being a revelation to His people. They were to declare that He had met with their representative Moses, this Midianite stranger from God who was related to them, calling them to meet with Him in His mountain.
“Three days journey.” A standard phrase signifying a relatively short journey of a few days, well within range of Egypt and in land under Egypt's ‘protection'.
“The wilderness.” As the God of a stateless and landless people this would be seen by the Egyptians as a suitable venue for such worship, a venue off the soil of Egypt where, in the view of the Egyptians, the gods of Egypt held sway. And there they could offer sacrifices without offending the Egyptians. Furthermore it was where the theophany with Moses had taken place and therefore a suitable place for response in worship. As their God was clearly a God of the wilderness, and had appeared there, that was clearly where He should be worshipped. (This is again looking from Pharaoh's point of view)
This was not an unreasonable request. Religion was recognised to be central to the lives of all people. Even slaves were thus seen as entitled to worship their gods in accordance with that god's requirements, and would expect to be given time off for the purpose. It was recognised that their gods had to be respected. Who knew otherwise what might happen? In view of the outstanding nature of the theophany many a king would happily have agreed to this request. But the people were many and this Pharaoh felt superior to their God, and he did not want to lose them. The request, while therefore not totally unreasonable, was yet unlikely to be agreed to.
In the British Museum there is an Egyptian record which shows the entries of an overseer of the labourers and he lists the number of absent workmen. Reasons are given for absence such as illness, or the illness of a man's wife or one of his children, and there are various explanations given. Others were that some workmen were idle, or that they were pious and remained away from work because they wanted to sacrifice to their gods. The latter would not be frowned on as long as it was not overdone. A man's gods were seen as very important to his wellbeing and would contribute to the wellbeing of the land.
“And I know that the king of Egypt will not give you leave to go, no, not by a mighty hand.”
But Yahweh was aware that Pharaoh would refuse. He knew Pharaoh's heart only too well. Pharaoh would thus himself be made to recognise that he was setting himself up against Yahweh, but would foolishly feel that he could do so with impunity. If the consequences were detrimental therefore he would have only himself to blame.
“No, not by a mighty hand.” Even though the One Who seeks their worship is strong and mighty it would make no difference. Pharaoh will see himself as mightier. He will consider that his hand is mightier than the hand of Yahweh. LXX translates ‘even though compelled by a mighty hand' (see Exodus 6:1; Exodus 13:3; Exodus 13:9; Exodus 13:14; Exodus 13:16).
“And I will put forth my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst of it, and after that he will let you go.”
But though Pharaoh may have begun the battle it will be Yahweh Who will be victorious and finish it. It will be a matter of the god Pharaoh, and all the gods of Egypt, against Yahweh but He will totally defeat them by His wonders (Exodus 12:12). And defeated and humbled, Pharaoh, representative of all those gods, will therefore eventually submit and let them go. At this stage Moses could not even begin to conceive of those wonders, nor of how long it would be before Pharaoh was persuaded. But he had to accept by faith that God would do as He had said, and persevere. We should note, however, in saying this that the gods of Egypt are rarely mentioned in the narrative and are kept continually in the background. God will not give them recognition even for a moment, until His final judgment (Exodus 12:12) when their total inability to prevent Yahweh's activity will be revealed in the smiting of all the firstborn in Egypt, including the firstborn in the house of Pharaoh, with his false claim to godhood.
But in saying this let not Moses think that His people will leave Egypt as an impoverished rabble. Rather they will leave with pride and loaded with spoils.
“And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. And it will thus happen that when you go, you will not go empty. But every woman shall ask of her neighbour, and of her who lodges in her house, jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and on your daughters, and you will spoil the Egyptians.”
For their Egyptian neighbours will be so pleased and relieved to see them go to worship their God that they will give them anything that they ask for. They will pile jewels and clothing on them so as to satisfy their God. And thus will His people receive the spoils of what will be Yahweh's great victory. It is after all the victor who receives the spoils. Note that they were to ‘ask', possibly as a contribution to the worship of Yahweh. They had no power to demand. It would be up to the Egyptians what they gave. But the situation will be such that they will give gladly and bountifully. So will God be honoured in the eyes of the Egyptians.
It should be noted that the parallel verse in the analysis explains that this is in return for how they have been treated in Egypt.
There is no thought here that the Egyptians would receive their goods back. They would be fully aware that was given to a deity remained with that deity in His treasure house or equivalent (fitting in with whatever the customs of these Israelites might be). The description goes beyond just vessels used for worship.
So Yahweh depicted the forthcoming battle in terms of the coming day when they would finally receive permission to go and worship. For a while Pharaoh would challenge and insult Yahweh by refusing to let His people worship Him, but finally Yahweh will bring about their release by His power. And no one in that day will be able to dispute that this was reasonable, for Yahweh had a right to the worship of His people, and it was that that had quite wrongly been refused to them.
It should be noted that the request to worship is not to be seen as a subterfuge to enable their escape. It is a genuine request so as to put Pharaoh in the wrong. They were simply to ask to fulfil the demands of their God, and that was to be their intent. Then they must trust Him as to what would happen next. And in the end, although they did not know it or know how it would be, it would be Pharaoh's belligerence that would finally justify their permanent flight. Once he had set out to attack them with his army and had failed he had himself guaranteed their non-return. The whole position was known to God from beginning to end.
Note how freely the Israelites were mingled among the Egyptians. The Egyptians lived next door to them, and they even lodged in their houses. Their slavery was not such that they did not have a certain amount of limited freedom. It was just that each day they were dragged off to hard labour for which they received little in return, so that they could not see to their flocks and herds, such as they were.
Note to Christians.
There is a sense in which Moses is a type of Jesus. As God met Moses at the burning bush, so does God meet with us through the One Whose face is like the sun shining in its strength (Revelation 1:16 compare Matthew 17:2). John could say, ‘we beheld His glory' (John 1:14) and we by faith may be aware of that glory as He speaks to us through His word as the Light of the world (John 8:12) and calls us first to follow Him, and then to walk in the way that He shows us. Through Moses came God's revelation of Himself to His people through His name, but even greater is the revelation that has come to us in Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4). Thus we are without excuse if we fail to follow Him fully.
And just as the elders and the people believed when Moses and Aaron came to them, so do we easily believe when times are good. But let the testing times come, an how is it with us then? For Israel would be greatly tested before they were finally delivered.
End of note.