“And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?”
But Moses said: that would not be right. The sacrifices we offer the Lord our God would be detestable to the Egyptians. And if we offer sacrifices that are detestable in their eyes, will they not stone us? Moses declines the compromise with practical reasoning: the kinds of sacrifices God requires of Israel involve animals the Egyptians consider sacred — cattle, sheep, oxen. To slaughter them in Egypt would provoke violence. The practical argument is sound but the theological argument beneath it is stronger: this is not merely about avoiding Egyptian offense; it is about the nature of worship itself. Worship of the living God cannot be accommodated to the systems and sensibilities of those who reject Him. 2 Corinthians 6:14–16 asks: what fellowship can light have with darkness? Moses is not being inflexible — he is recognizing that some concessions would make the act of worship into something it is not.
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