ROUGHLY EDITED COPY CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY EDUCATION NETWORK EXODUS DR. DAVID ADAMS #38 Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. 10 E. 22nd Street Suite 304 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *** >> What did Pharaoh mean when he tells Moses to "Bless me also" in Verse 32? >> Commentary writers probably have a tendency to treat this issue as if it were a little more mysterious of a matter than it probably really is. They speculate about the nature of the blessing that Pharaoh is seeking and often spill a fair amount of ink in that speculation. The point it seems to me is really a fairly straightforward one. In asking to be blessed by Yahweh, Pharaoh is recognizing at last, even if only temporarily, the superiority of Yahweh over the gods of Egypt. By seeking a blessing from Yahweh, Pharaoh is, in fact, saying, "I realize that Yahweh is the God, the only God who can actually bless" and that the gods of Egypt are not capable of delivering a blessing that he has sought. So Pharaoh's little request here in Verse 32 of Chapter 12 when he is dismissing Moses and then as Moses goes out the door kind of says, "Also seek a blessing for me," I think here Pharaoh is fulfilling God's intention as we saw described back in Chapter 7 in Verse 5 where we read "The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them." You know, if we look throughout the book of Exodus and answer the question "How is this fulfilled that the Egyptians will know who Yahweh is?" I think we see here in Chapter 12 Verse 32 Pharaoh's request that Moses seek a blessing from Yahweh or Pharaoh -- that the reason that Yahweh hardened Pharaoh's heart to bring him to the point where he would let the Hebrews go and recognize who Yahweh truly is, the one true God, in this text finally Pharaoh does both of those things. He not only lets Israel go here at the end of Chapter 12, but he also acknowledges Yahweh as the true and ultimately only source of blessing. *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***