COMPROMISE NO. 2. THREE DAY GAP PRINCIPLE
Pharaoh seeks to tempt Moses to compromise the second time, but Moses stands firm and maintains the “three day gap” of separation. Exodus 8:28 says, “Moses said, We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he shall command us. And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away.”
The slave master, Pharaoh did not want the children of Israel, who were his slaves, to go too far away from Egypt. They were too valuable to him for they were building his treasure cities (Exodus 1:11). The idea of going a three day’s journey into the wilderness outside of Egypt’s borders was to Pharaoh’s mind far too far from the cities they were building (Pithom and Rameses).
It would have been at least 200 miles from these cities in the land of Goshen in Egypt to the Gulf of Aqaba, plus crossing the sea at the border and then a three day journey to Mt. Sinai in Arabia (the land of Midian) which is the true Sinai (Galatians 4:25).
Men, the prince of this world does not want us to go too far away from His influence. He wants us to build up his treasure cities on earth. Instead, we are to build up treasures in a city where the streets are paved with gold.
If we, and our Christian youth, talk like Egyptians, look like Egyptians and think like Egyptians, perhaps we really are Egyptians!
Lot lived too close to the border of Sodom and Gomorrah and even got sucked into its very gates (Genesis 13:12 and 19:1). He fell to the enemy’s compromise and lost everything!
We must still keep the “three day gap” principle today. We must not live around the border.
Be encouraged. Colin