Moses and Aaron went and told Pharaoh that the Lord God of Israel said, “Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.” Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.” Pharaoh is being mighty cocky! Do you know anyone that brazen when it comes to their attitude about God? When Pharaoh said, “I do not know the Lord….” he was 100 percent correct! They told Pharaoh that the God of the Hebrews met with them. They asked for him to let them go three days’ journey in the desert so they could sacrifice to the Lord or He might cause pestilence or the sword to come upon them. This seems to be a hint of things to come. Pharaoh didn’t consider that if God would cause pestilence or the sword to be upon His people, that he (Pharaoh) too, could be punished for not letting them go. The king of Egypt accused Moses and Aaron of taking the people away from their labor and told them to get back to work. Pharaoh saw that there were a lot of people and they were being idle. He told the taskmasters and their officers not to give the people straw to make brick, but to make them get the straw for themselves. They were to still meet their same daily quotas. The taskmasters were not to reduce the quotas at all. Pharaoh seems to be mocking the people by saying they are idle in crying out to go sacrifice to God. Pharaoh said to put more work on the men and make them labor in it. He also said in so many words that Moses and Aaron were lying. So the taskmasters and their officers did what Pharaoh said and told the people that they were not going to give them straw. They were to get the straw wherever they could find it and the workload would not be reduced. The people scattered throughout Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. The taskmasters told them to hurry and meet their daily quota as when there was straw. The taskmasters would beat the officers of the children of Israel asking them “Why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today, as before?” One Google source explained that the taskmasters were Egyptians appointed by Pharaoh and the officers were Israelites chosen to be over their own people. The officers of the children of Israel went to Pharaoh and cried out asking, “Why are you dealing thus with your servants?” They explained that no straw is given to them, yet the taskmasters say, “Make brick! They said that they are beaten, but the fault lies with Pharaoh’s people. Pharaoh’s response was that they were extremely idle and that’s why they wanted to go and sacrifice to the Lord. Pharaoh told them to get back to work and no straw would be given to them, yet they still were expected to make the brick quota. The officers realized that they were in trouble when they were told that they couldn’t reduce any bricks from their daily quota. Have you ever been on a job that really kept you busy within itself and then you were given a special project to complete by a certain deadline while still doing your regular tasks and meeting those deadlines? I guess this where we get the saying of being worked like a Hebrew slave. How about, having a problem that you’ve prayed about and when God stepped in, the situation got a lot worse before it got better? How did you feel about that? Did you continue to trust God?

The officers of the children of Israel left Pharaoh and met with Moses and Aaron who were waiting for them. They said to Moses and Aaron, “Let the Lord look on you and judge…” They said that they were now detestable in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, so much so that they put a sword in his hand to kill them. Basically, they were saying that the Egyptians would oppress them even more now, possibly to the point of death.

Moses went back to the Lord and asked Him why did He bring this trouble on the people. He asked God, “Why is it You have sent me?” Moses told God that since he went to Pharaoh in His name, he has done evil to the people. He told God that He has not delivered His people at all. How quickly Moses forgot! God already told him that Pharaoh was not going to let them go initially.

We’re off to Exodus 6 next week.

To God Be The Glory!

Scriptures for March 5th

Genesis 3:5 – For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (NKJV)