Exodus 10:26b …we know not with what we must serve the LORD, until we come thither.
Sometimes we are worried about God’s will because we feel like it is too vague. Other times we are worried about God’s will because we know exactly what it is, and we don’t want to do it. Sometimes that contrast can be problematic to us.
When you come to Exodus 10:26, Moses is standing before Pharaoh and he is communicating God’s command to let God’s people go. Here you find Pharaoh’s equivocating, his lack of commitment. He says, “You cannot go. You cannot leave Egypt.” Then he says, “Well, you can go, but don’t take everyone.” Then he says, “You can go, but don’t take your cattle.”
Moses responds in Exodus 10:26 by saying, “We know not with what we must serve the LORD, until we come thither.” In other words, he was saying, “We just have to obey God. We don’t know what we are going to need in order to do that.” Now, we tend to think, “God, show me exactly what You want me to do and I’ll assess whether I can or not. Then I will decide.” God says, “No, just obey the next step and I will give you more light to do what you must do.”
How did Pharaoh respond? He was equivocating. He was not committed. What about Moses? Well, God’s command to Moses was specific, painfully so, as to Moses’ immediate responsibility. Way back in Exodus 3 God had said, “Go stand before Pharaoh, and tell him to let my people go.” Moses came up with all kinds of excuses why he could not do that. It wasn’t that God’s command was vague. It was that it was too specific and too scary.
On the other hand, God was broad as to what He would do. When it comes to the sacrifice that Moses spoke of, they had to take all of the cattle because they didn’t know what they would need to serve the Lord, and there was no precedent for Moses. The law had not yet been given. In fact, in Exodus 3 when God sent Moses to Pharaoh, He said, “I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.” He didn’t say where they would be going, what they would be doing, or exactly how long they would be gone. God was specific as to Moses’ responsibilities. God was broadest about exactly what He would do, and Pharaoh was equivocating in his response.
Today, you probably know exactly what you need to know to do exactly what you should do today. You probably don’t know what tomorrow holds. But, the way to get more light about tomorrow is to respond today. Sometimes we are scared of tomorrow because it is vague. Sometimes we are scared about today because it is so specific, but we don’t know what we will need in order to serve God until we obey.