John Calvin Commentary Exodus 3:18

"And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, hath met with us: and now let us go, we pray thee, three days` journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to Jehovah our God." — Exodus 3:18 (ASV)

And they shall hearken to thy voice.⁴⁴ The literal translation is, “They shall hearken to thy voice,” which many take to be a promise from God that they would be obedient; however, the sense given in the Latin, “after they shall have heard thy voice,” seems more consistent: that first He should command them by the mouth of Moses, and then they should accompany him in bearing the message to Pharaoh. For, before so difficult an undertaking was assigned to them, it was desirable that God’s authority should be presented to them, so that they might go about it with unwavering hearts.

The sum of the message is that they should seek permission from Pharaoh to go and sacrifice. However, so that they might not be thought to do so from mere unfounded impulse, they are instructed to state beforehand that God had met with them and had given them the command. For the word which expresses His meeting with them means that He presented Himself voluntarily. They had indeed cried out before and often appealed to the faithfulness and mercy of God. Yet this was still a voluntary meeting with them when, contrary to the hope of them all, He declared that He would be their deliverer. For, as we have already said, they cried out more from the urgency of their affliction than from confidence in prayer.

A pretext is suggested to them by which suspicion and anger might be turned away from themselves, for a free permission to depart altogether—which would have caused grievous loss to the tyrant—never would have been granted. Besides, by refusing so just a demand, he stripped himself of his royal right and power, since he thus withheld the honor due to Him from the King of kings. For although the Israelites were under his dominion, his rule did not extend so far as to defraud God of His rightful worship.

It was advisable, too, that the people should depart without the king’s permission only for very good reasons, lest in the future a license for rebellion should be given to other subjects. Pharaoh indeed suspected otherwise—that the sacrifice was a mere false pretext. But since this mistrust stemmed from his tyranny, his ingratitude was sufficiently proclaimed by it, because through his own evil conscience he forbade God to be served.

Whatever his feelings might have been, the miracles that accompanied the command surely must have taught him that their mission proceeded from God. If the Israelites had merely spoken, and no confirmation of their words had been given, he might perhaps have naturally guarded himself against deception. But when God openly showed that He was the originator of this departure and that He commanded the sacrifice beyond the borders of Egypt, all grounds for excuse are taken away. Thus, the departure of the people is placed beyond the reach of slander.

If anyone objects that it is foreign to the nature of God to condone any craft or pretense, the reply is easy: He was bound by no necessity to lay open His whole counsel to the tyrant. Those who suppose that there is a kind of falsehood implied in these words are mistaken. For God had no desire that His people should use any deceit; He only concealed from the tyrant (as He had a perfect right to do) what He was ultimately going to accomplish. In this way, He detected and brought to light his obstinacy.

In short, God championed the cause of the Israelites, not in an earthly controversy, but for religion, to which all the rights of kings must yield. But Jehovah calls Himself the God of the Hebrews, so that Pharaoh may know Him to be the special God of that nation, and that their form of worship was different from the customs of Egypt—and, in fact, that He is the only true God, and all others are fictitious.

⁴⁴ Lat., “Et postquam audierint vocem;” after they ., “Et postquam audierint vocem;” after they shall have hearkened to thy voice.hearkened to thy voice.