Question:
Exodus 10:29 states that Moses told Pharaoh, “Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more.” However, Exodus 12:31 mentions that Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron during the night, and they went to him. Does this not present an apparent contradiction?
Answer:
Moses was stating that he would not call upon Pharaoh or seek an audience with him again. Time and again, Moses had approached Pharaoh to ask him to let God’s people go, but Pharaoh had dismissed him abruptly and told him not to return. In saying that he would not seek Pharaoh’s face again, Moses was expressing his decision as God’s servant; he was not making a prophecy about the future. While there was a possibility that he might have been mistaken, he was clear in his own intention: he would not seek Pharaoh again.
When Moses did see the king again, it was because Pharaoh had specifically summoned him; it was the king who sought Moses, not the other way around. Thus, when Moses declared, “I will see thy face again no more,” he indicated that God’s work regarding Pharaoh in those respects was over.
