Moses was to tell the children of Israel that God would bring them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and would bring them to the land of Canaan and give it to them for a heritage, Exodus 6:6-8. Satan must have heard these and the other promises God made to His people for, through Pharaoh, he tried to get Moses and Aaron to agree to compromises that would have kept the Israelites in Egypt and in bondage. In other words, Satan knew what the commands and promises of God were. His tactic was to try to get them to split the difference between what God desired and what Pharaoh wanted. Since Satan's devices along with human nature are still the same today it is profitable to examine the ways Pharaoh, as Satan's instrument, attempted to persuade God's people to compromise with him. Keep in your mind, as you think about this, that, so far as God's people are concerned, any compromise such as this is a movement toward weakness and hell and never toward strength and heaven.

God's message to Pharaoh was, "Let my people go, that they may serve me," Exodus 8:1. At first the king refused to even consider this demand but after the fourth plague he offered the first compromise in this study, "Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land," 8:25. This offer had a number of implications in it. The main one was it offered them an opportunity to perform some religious services for their God, but only if they remained in Egypt and kept their servitude. There would be no deliverance from Egypt with its bondage. That offer must have had tremendous appeal to the mass of people because Satan continues to make the same offer today and the majority of people have accepted this compromise. Pharaoh, Egypt, and its bondage are analogous to Satan, his kingdom, and sin's bondage: The separation from these things did not occur until the Israelites "all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea," 1 Corinthians 10:1-2. If they had accepted Pharaoh's offer it would have been a worship of a compromised and unseparated people offering unto God sacrifices while still in bondage in a polluted land. Today this would be equivalent to a sinner offering worship to God while remaining in the kingdom of Satan and in sin's bondage. Satan has duped many into believing if they will have "faith only" they have accepted Jesus and God will accept them along with their worship. The problem with this is, while faith is an important step in God's leading us out of sin's bondage, it is only one of the steps and it does not deliver us across the Red Sea into freedom. It leaves a person in bondage to sin. Paul taught the Romans, "But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness," Romans 6:17-18. The form of doctrine they had obeyed was baptism, Romans 6:3-5, and this baptism is equal to their being led through the Red Sea, 1 Corinthians 10:1-2. So, even if the worship of "faith only" people were scriptural it would not be acceptable to God because they have accepted Satan's compromise and have remained in the land." See John 9:31.

Moreover, if Moses and Aaron had accepted this compromise the Egyptians would have killed the Israelites for offering that kind of worship in their land. Moses told Pharaoh, "It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he shall command us," Exodus 8:26-27. What the true God required of the Israelites in their worship was an abomination to the Egyptians. This is generally true today. For example, water immersion for the remission of sins, Acts 2:38 is repugnant to many today. Sprinkling is substituted for immersion, or worse, it is charged that baptism is a work of man and one cannot be saved by works. This ignores the fact that baptism is a work commanded by God after which He saves people who obey it, Mark 16:16 and 1 Peter 3:21. Moses said, we will "sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he shall command us." So will the true follower today.

Not only is immersion for the remission of sins repugnant to many today, the use of one cup in the observance of the Lord's Supper is also. I suppose that if anything in our worship is an abomination to unregenerate people that time consuming, germ laden, and crowd limiting (all of these to them) single cup is. One lady told me that if the Lord came and sat down beside her and told her to drink out of one cup with the others in communion she could not do it. I have seen visitors come in to the worship services and really seem to be worshiping God until the Lord's supper is observed. They would tolerate the one loaf, but when the one cup is blessed and the communion of the blood of Christ, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, begins they would stand up and walk out of the assembly manifesting a spirit of staying "in the land," becoming like the Egyptians themselves, and proving that what the Lord requires is an abomination to them. A regenerated people will not compromise but will "sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he shall command us."

Moses told Pharaoh, "We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the Lord," Exodus 10:9. Pharaoh's compromise offer was, "Go now ye that are men," v.11. In other words the men could go but they would have to leave their women, children, flocks and herds behind in Egypt. Satan still offers that compromising situation today and it has been accepted by not a few and still others are willing to make plans for it to be a part of their future. Pharaoh knew that if these remained behind the men would return to Egypt and their bondage. In the Lord's church there are those who have entered voluntarily into marriage relationships that guarantee a part of their family will remain in Egypt with its bondage while the other part serves the Lord. This is an example of compromise toward weakness. Sometimes this works out and the disobedient spouse comes out of sin's bondage, but most of the time the status quo continues and the child of God has to make so many compromises over the years that they begin to weaken and finally return to sin's bondage. God's plan was that entire families leave Egypt together and enter into the land of Canaan together. Cornelius was able to serve God with all his house, Acts 10:1-3. Lydia was able to become an obedient one with all her house, Acts 16:15. Even the heathen jailer was able to obey with "all his," Acts 16:33-34. Dear child of God, if you are in this situation you must exercise extreme caution. Young men and women, refrain from entering into such alliances. Satan will tempt you to enter into a relationship where he says you can serve God but the husband or wife does not have to.

Pharaoh has now given in a little but he still wanted God's people to split the difference with him, Exodus 10:24. He knew that if he could get the Israelites to leave their material possessions in Egypt they would return even if it meant bondage again for them. Our older preachers would tell the story of a man that was going to be baptized. Someone noticed he still had his billfold in his pocket and offered to hold it for him while he was being immersed. His reply was, "No, I want my pocket book baptized also." This illustrates the point that if we are on our pilgrimage with the Lord, traveling toward heaven, all we have belongs to the Lord. We cannot leave our job in Egypt. We work as if it is for the Lord, Ephesians 6:5-7. Our material possessions cannot be left back there in Egypt. They must come with us in the Lord, 1 Timothy 6:16-19 and Luke 16:1-12 where, in the latter scripture, the servant of God is instructed to use money or material possessions in such way to make friends with those who could receive them into the everlasting habitations, which, of course, only God and Jesus Christ could do. So, what we have, materially speaking, must be used to make friends with these divine beings so they will receive us into their eternal home. If your job belongs to the Lord you will have no trouble with letting it interfere with your service to God. If you have left your job in Egypt you will find yourself compromising in different ways like working on Sundays instead of worshiping God, Hebrews 10:25. Lot's wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt, Genesis 19:26. It has been suggested that she looked back because of the material things and loved ones she had left behind in Sodom. Satan had used this device to get her to disobey God. He was familiar with its use and attempted to use the same trick on Moses, Aaron, and the people of God. In fact, Satan, over the centuries, has fine tuned all these tactics in getting God's people to compromise. Remember, when you compromise God's plans and desires for you, you always move away from God and closer to Satan and hell.~1124 Sheffield Ct., Stockton, CA 95210.