10:7-11 The officials, with no royal prestige on the line, were willing to learn the lessons of God’s sovereignty and let the men go. Pharaoh again resisted, in an effort to save face somehow. He would let them go only if they left their families behind and were thus bound to return, but Moses had never said they would return. While the purpose for going into the wilderness was to worship God, it was unthinkable that oppressed slaves would willingly return to their oppressors once they were free, and Pharaoh knew it.