#38.# Here we note the collision between God's plan and that of the king. God's plan is, Let my people go. Pharaoh's plan is, they shall stay right here. So the battle was joined. Note that Pharaoh, as a result of the consecutive plagues, relents and tries compromises. For these read carefully the story of the plagues, noting especially these passages: Exodus 8:8, 15, 25, 32; Exodus 9:28, 35; Exodus 10:11, 20, 24, 28. And at last, when his pride is utterly broken, comes Exodus 12:31.
#39.# Then came that night, much to be observed, on which Israel marched out in triumph, while Egypt mourned, and Pharaoh repented ever resisting the divine command. To this day all Jews observe that great night, called the night of the Passover.
#40.# Under the crags of Mount Sinai, Moses spent one year with his people. That was a most significant year, as there he received the ten commandments, and the instructions as to the building of the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant. There, too, he received directions as to the sacrifices that were to be typical of that great sacrifice on Mount Calvary, hundreds of years later. There, too, he had his bitter experience with his people in the matter of the worship of the golden calf; a presage of much that was to follow in the history of that wonderful but stiffnecked people as they continued their journeys through the wilderness.
#41.# Mark in the life of this wonderful man the incredible contrast between his highest and his lowest moods. In his agony over the idolatry of his people while he was on the Mount receiving the ten commandments, Moses pleads with God for them, and even goes so far as to beg that, if need be, his own name might be blotted out of God's book. If he or the people must perish, let it be he, and not the people. This is most noble, and reminds one of what Paul later on said, in the same strain (Rom. 9:1-3). Yet later on Moses yields to incomprehensible murmuring, when the people have again transgressed. "Moses was displeased. And Moses said unto Jehovah--Have I conceived all this people?... that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom?... I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand" (Num. 11:10-15). Is this the same man who speaks in the matter of the golden calf, as we saw above? And in this extraordinary fall we learn a lesson of humility and self-distrust. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."