Exodus 5:1-23
1 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.
2 And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.
3 And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.
4 And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens.
5 And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens.
6 And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying,
7 Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves.
8 And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.
9 Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words.
10 And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw.
11 Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it: yet not ought of your work shall be diminished.
12 So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw.
13 And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.
14 And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and to day, as heretofore?
15 Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants?
16 There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, Make brick: and, behold, thy servants are beaten; but the fault is in thine own people.
17 But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the LORD.
18 Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.
19 And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was said, Ye shall not minish ought from your bricks of your daily task.
20 And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh:
21 And they said unto them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.
22 And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me?
23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.
THE FIRST APPEAL TO PHARAOH AND THE RESULTS
(vs.1-23)
Moses and Aaron then gain an audience with Pharaoh, and simply tell him the message that the Lord God of Israel has for him, "Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness." But Pharaoh's response was both contemptuous and defiant: "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." In spite of this decisive refusal, Moses and Aaron plead with Pharaoh, telling him that the God of the Hebrews had met with them, and it was He whom they represented in asking that Israel might go three days' journey into the desert, to sacrifice to Him. His Word was authoritative, and He could bring serious repercussions upon them if they did not go.
This only irritated Pharaoh, however, who told them they were hindering the Israelites from the work of slaving for Pharaoh, and told them to get back to their work. Not content with this, however, he commanded his servants to increase the labor put on the shoulders of the Israelites, requiring them to not only make brick, but to gather the straw to put into the bricks. They must not reduce the quota of bricks required, but gather the straw for them also (vs.8-11). There is a spiritual lesson here too. The world's building is like bricks of Nile mud with no straw, no cohesion. Now Israel is to be forced to supply the cohesion. What bondage it is to a child of God to have to labor for the unity of a world that rejects his Lord!
As well as this increasing their labor, it resulted in the Israelites being scattered throughout the land to find straw (v.12). This was a cunning way of destroying unity among Israelites and to keep them weak. The officers of the children of Israel appealed to Pharaoh because of the increased pressure on them making their work intolerable, and because they were beaten when they failed to produce as much as when they were given straw (vs.15-16). But Pharaoh was adamant, telling them they were idle and that for this reason they were talking about going to sacrifice to the Lord (v.17).
The wisdom of God was behind all this in a way that Israel was not prepared to understand. God would not deliver them until it came to a point that they felt the oppression so deeply as to cry out to God for deliverance, rather than to look at second causes. So it is for us today too. It is always man's way to look for someone to blame for the misery that his own sins have caused him. God has to therefore deepen such exercise in our hearts that we realize that it is only our pride that blames others for our sins, so that when deliverance comes, we are the more deeply thankful, and delivered from a state of complaining.
Feeling the situation to be intolerable, the officers of Israel were ready to blame Moses and Aaron for it as they came out from Pharaoh's presence, telling them it was they who made Israel abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh, simply because they had given the Word of God to Pharaoh. They said "the Lord look on you and judge" (v.21). Did they expect the Lord to pass judgment on Moses and Aaron because they had obeyed the Lord? But this is only one of the tribulations a servant of the Lord is often called upon to bear. Thus they are in the middle, having to suffer both from Pharaoh and from Israel. But by such afflictions the Lord sees fit to educate His own, to develop spiritual strength.
Moses therefore could appeal only to the Lord (v.22), but not as pleading for help, rather in complaining and questioning as to why the Lord had brought further trouble to Israel, and why He had sent Moses. Did he not remember that God had forewarned him of Pharaoh's refusal to listen, and that Israel's sorrows would be increased before their deliverance? But he complains that since he had spoken to Pharaoh, God had not delivered the people, but that Pharaoh had only harmed them. Thus, though God had sought faithfully to prepare Moses for what would happen, Moses has not been prepared. How like our own perplexity when hard things happen that God has before warned us of in His Word!