Pharaoh's Treachery

Moses comes to Pharaoh with a simple demand: to let his people go so that they can worship and serve God (Exodus 8:1, 20, 29, 9:13, 10:3).  Over and over, Pharaoh becomes overwhelmed by plagues of escalating intensity, and then when he sees that there is relief, he changes his mind and refuses to allow the Hebrews to depart.  His hypocrisy and irrationalism, for he chooses his own whims over acting in accordance with the severity of the situation, interfere with the fulfillment of the simple command given by God and Moses.  At first, Pharaoh does not outwardly question whether it is all of the Israelites or only some of them that would venture out to worship God, but after the plagues of blood, frogs, and gnats, he says during the plague of flies that the people must not go very far to engage in their worship (8:28).  He eventually misrepresents the claims of Moses to his face and tells him that he has only been asking for the men to go when he has been stating that God wants the people to go out.

Pharaoh asks who would be going to worship God (10:8), and Moses answers that it would be the young and old, the sons and daughters, and even the animals of the Hebrews (10:9).  In other words, everyone would go out, not just the men, just the women, just the old, or just the young.  It is at this point that Pharaoh charges Moses with stirring up trouble or evil and then sends him and Aaron away (Exodus 10:10-11).  It takes the plagues of locusts and darkness (10:12-23) before Pharaoh relents and tells Moses that the women and children can go as well (10:24), only to again oppose Moses and God when Moses insists that the Hebrew animals leave as well so they can be used in sacrifices (10:25-29).  Obligations regarding the worship of God and the vast majority of Biblical ethics, issues like male circumcision and menstrual purification aside specifically since they have to do with literal anatomy/physiology, are the same for both genders, and neither is more or less aligned with God.  It is not that the Old Testament teaches such sexism and the New Testament corrects it, but that the former never teaches it and the latter repeatedly affirms the former (as with the likes of Matthew 5:17-19 and Hebrews 2:2).

Even aside from facts like the logical equivalence of the same act if done by a man or woman (what is good for one is good for the other and vice versa, with only anatomy-based obligations like circumcision differing), the lack of any comments in the Bible about the morality of an act that can be done by either gender (it never says anything like "It is a sin for a man to strike a woman, but not a woman to strike a man"), and the ramifications of Genesis 1:26-27, Mosaic Law repeatedly calls attention to how the same acts are sinful for women and men.  Deuteronomy 13:6-10 and 17:2-7 respectively address how a man or woman who worships other gods is to die, just as other offenses are sinful whether men or women are the perpetrators (Leviticus 20:27, Numbers 5:5-7, and so on) or the victims (Exodus 21:20-21, 26-32), though both of these passages in Deuteronomy eventually use male words like "him" after having clearly referenced both men and women distinctly.  Of course worshipping Yahweh is not something mandatory for only men or more suited to some mythical psychological component their gender (or vice versa), for gender is a purely physical thing!

Pharaoh's initial reluctance to let all of the Hebrews of both genders and every age go does not reflect Yahweh's nature.  Both genders bear God's image, as do the young and old alike (Genesis 1:26-27, 5:1-2), and it would by nature be sexist, and thus irrational on multiple levels, as well as directly disrespectful towards God to only let people worship him based on their genitalia (see also relevant verses like Deuteronomy 12:11-12, 17-18, 16:13-14, and 29:11-18).  The Pharaoh of Exodus, however, is fixated on maintaining as much of his power as he can amidst dire circumstances as Yahweh, with Moses acting as his spokesperson, brings about plague after plague.  He does not care about the necessary truths of reason, the nature of gender and moral obligation, and the superiority of Yahweh (until it benefits him to admit his vulnerability before God).  He hardens his own heart before God ever becomes involved in that process (Exodus 9:12) according to Exodus 8:15 and 32, as well as after God hardens his heart (compare 9:12 with 9:34-35); also, Exodus 7:14 says Pharaoh initially refuses to submit to God, and refusal logically necessitates that one could choose to do otherwise.

He clearly uses his gender-specific "allowance" of the proposed Hebrew worship as yet another excuse to not do as God wants.  He only brings it up after rejecting the command outright and then placing limitations on the distance that could be traversed.  This ruler goes from one manifestation of his arrogance and stupidity to another, as if that would change the obligation rooted in Yahweh's nature or change the instructions brought by Moses.  It never does.  While his sexism here is an expression of a much deeper, more pervasive error, one of core, egoistic irrationalism, it is indeed one of his faults, and a significant one at that.  Pharaoh's treachery is multifaceted despite the simplicity of it.  He merely wants to believe and do as he pleases when it is convenient for him rather than conform himself to reality.  Even once he gives in enough for the Israelites to actually leave (Exodus 12:31-33, 13:17), he relents and takes his army to reclaim them (14:5-9).  This part of the narrative does not end well for the Egyptian soldiers.  At last, the tyrant's back and forth with Yahweh's people, male and female, young and old, is finished.