Moshe Rabbeinu is approached by Hashem for the first time by the Burning Bush on Har Sinai, which was the place that Hashem would give the Torah in the future to the Jewish People. Hashem asks Moshe to lead the Jewish People out of Egypt in this week’s Torah portion of Shemos.
The Pirkei DiRebbe Eliezer (perek 40) relates part of the conversation Hashem had with Moshe: “Hashem said to him, ‘Go and I will send you to Pharaoh.’ He responded before Him, ‘Master Of The Universe, didn’t I tell You that I don’t have the power, for I have a blemished tongue,’ as it says ‘And Moshe said to Hashem, I am not a man of words’ (Shemos 4:10). ‘Not only this but You are also sending me into the hands of my enemies, who want to do bad to me, didn’t I run away from them?’ As it says, ‘And Moshe ran away from before Pharaoh’ (Shemos 2:15). Hashem said back to Moshe, ‘You should not be afraid from them for all those who have requested to take away your life have already died.’ Did they really die? Weren’t they still alive? Rather they lost all their money. From here you learn that whoever loses all their money is as if they are dead. That is why the pasuk says ‘For all the people who seek your life have died’ (Shemos 4:19).”
The Bayis Hagadol, (or Be’ur Maspik) says these people who wished Moshe dead were Dasan and Aviram. However, it’s obviously impossible to confirm their deaths in Egypt, since the Torah says they died as part of the argument between Korach and Moshe Rabbeinu in the desert after The Exodus. (Click here for Hebrew text.)
The Rada”l, Rav Dovid Luria, says that the medrish is making an inference from the fact that Hashem said that ‘all who were out to kill you have died,’ must mean that Moshe had claimed to Hashem that ‘you are sending me into the hands of my enemy.’ Moshe told Hashem that ‘I don’t want to put myself in danger,’ even if Hashem had commanded him to, for there is a concept in gemara Pesachim 8b that in cases where there is a “clear and present danger” one shouldn’t rely solely on bitachon [trust] in Hashem. Even though this itself is a big chiddush [leap] and a shmuz [lesson] in and of itself, yet Hashem’s response is what I want to focus on. Hashem said to Moshe that there was nothing to worry about because your enemies are dead, even though they weren’t really dead but were halachically considered dead because they had lost all their money. (Click here and here and here for Hebrew text.)
Moshe bought into this, seemingly assuming they were really dead, to the extent that the Rada”l adds in that it’s possible Yisro gave permission to Moshe to return to Egypt with his wife and children and was not concerned about their danger. This was even though he knew Pharaoh had thrown Moshe in jail before he escaped, since he was part of Pharaoh advisors at the time. He had forced Moshe to promise not to go back to Egypt because of the people who wanted him dead. Therefore, it must be that Moshe informed Yisro that Hashem told him they had died, and that only then did Yisro send him to Egypt in peace.
It would seem from this medrish, especially based on the way the Rada”l explains it, that Moshe didn’t really know, probably until he got back to Egypt, that Dasan and Aviram were still alive, but simply penniless. That was how he was able to convince his father-in-law Yisro that it was safe to go back to Egypt, after he had promised him that he would not go back if it would put him and his family in danger. And this must be why he himself felt comfortable going, because if he had known they were still alive but impoverished why would that help? Couldn’t they still kill him even if they were poor? Granted we don’t have to say that Hashem was lying to Moshe, because one who lost all their money is halachically considered dead and Jewish Law is in fact reality; but isn’t it still misleading? How can Hashem who is All Just, All Truthful, and All Trustworthy have said such a thing?
It must be that it’s not considered misleading if you say something which you know without a doubt will not have any possibility of harming someone, And of course, Hashem, All Knowing, knows was not even a possibility of danger for Moshe Rabbeinu.
Hashem knew that Moshe would not go down to Egypt if there was an immediate threat to his life so Hashem had to say something to assure him there wasn’t a clear and present danger. Therefore He had to say they were dead, which was not a lie since they lost all their money and were halachically dead. But it was also not misleading since Hashem knew that there really wasn’t any danger to worry about.