When last we left Moses he was asking questions and making
excuses. In the end, God convinced him
to confront Pharaoh and lead the people out of Egypt with the help of his brother,
Aaron. It’s interesting that after all
of Moses’ questions and objections, we don’t see any evidence of Aaron
resisting the Lord’s commands. He greets
Moses with a kiss and seems to have immediate buy in. (Ex 4:27-8) Perhaps Aaron
had a sense of Moses’ special calling from his birth and his miraculous
deliverance from his infant death sentence.
Aaron had also suffered under the Pharaoh’s oppression which would’ve
made him eager for God’s deliverance.
I’m likely being too harsh on Moses for his questioning. He may have been one who just needed to know
more of the why and how before he began the task.
The Israelites seem
encouraged by Moses’ return prior to him and Aaron confronting Pharaoh (Ex
4:30-31). In political talk we might say
Moses’ approval rating was very high, but as we see later, the exit polls after
the encounter with Pharaoh would tell another story.
Chapter 5 of Exodus begins with Moses and Aaron confronting
Pharaoh. The tone of the dialogue here
is worth noting. Moses and Aaron’s
initial statement is “The Lord says ‘Let My People Go!’” Pharaoh doesn’t receive this message
favorably. He questions why he should
follow the commands of a God he doesn’t know.
We must remember that the Egyptians looked upon the Pharaohs as living
Gods and worshipped them as such. It is
likely Pharaoh didn’t recognize Yahweh as a “god” amongst the many Egyptian
gods, so he didn’t even view Yahweh as an equal to himself. Moses likely would have known this. Perhaps in his younger days Moses was even
encouraged to worship Pharaoh growing up immersed in Egyptian culture. The tone of Moses and Aaron’s response shows
evidence of them being intimidated by Pharaoh.
Their first statement has a holy, from the Lord himself, tone, while
their response to Pharaoh’s rebuttal is more of a human pleading. “Please for our sakes believe that we have
spoken to Yahweh and let us go worship so he doesn’t plague us or kill us.” (Dave’s loosely paraphrased translation) It’s
as if Moses and Aaron feel they are standing between a rock and a hard place
and are afraid to get crushed by one or the other.
Their human pleading was no more effective than speaking the
message from the Lord as Pharaoh takes his anger out on the Israelites. In Pharaoh’s mind all this worship talk was
cause for the Israelites becoming lazy and idle. He increases their workload by making them
find their own straw for their bricks without lessening their quota. Straw was a key ingredient in their brick
making process. The Israelites would mix
the clay earth and water with the straw so the clay had something to stick to,
ancient rebar if you will. They would
use wooden box molds to form them and then they would dry them in the hot Egyptian
sun. Exodus 5:12 speaks of them
collecting “stubble” to use for straw.
When I hear the word stubble, I immediately think of the little pieces
of hair I rinse off my razor in the morning, but they were referring to the
“uncut stubble left on the root in the field” according to the Interpreters
Bible. This is what they made the
smaller pieces of straw out of. So not
only did the Israelites have to gather it, they also had to go through a
process of getting it to a point from being stubble to where it was in a usable
straw form. All of this and still they
were forced to make the same quota of bricks they were making before when the
straw was supplied.
When the foremen plea with Pharaoh, it becomes obvious that
the message Pharaoh received from Moses and Aaron is what had angered Pharaoh. Now the Israelite pendulum has swung back and
the people bring their complaints to Moses and Aaron. The reality of “Let my people go” is not
coming about as easy as they thought it would.
Let me point out that earlier in Exodus we are told Pharaoh heart was
hardened. God told Moses this would be
the case as he prepared him. (Exodus 4:21) Maxie Dunnam said “Each time a
person is confronted with an opportunity to respond to the truth of God,
refusal of that opportunity results in a hardening of the heart.” (Communicators Commentary on Exodus p.91 )Even
though the Bible tells us that God was the one who hardened Pharaoh’s heart, we
need to realize as Alexander McLaren said “God hardens no man’s heart who has
not first hardened it himself.” (Communicators Commentary on Exodus p. 81) A hardened heart is something we should be
aware of in our dealings with those who seem resistant to faith as well as
something we should be cautious of in our own lives. Stubbornness, arrogance, pride short
sightedness in one decision can bring about a series of more hard heartened
decisions if we are not careful.
In the midst of the cries of the Israelites we see Moses
turning to God in search of answers to hard questions. Moses cries out to God not understanding why God’s
people must endure this treatment. “Where’s
your promise of freedom, God? Where is
your mercy? Why did you bring me here if
you are going to allow the suffering to increase?” In this moment I believe God finally has
Moses in the spirit and attitude He wants him in. Moses is wrestling with the difficult task he
is facing and he has turned to God, the Father, seeking total reliance on
Him. God wants us in a place where we
realize our weakness and His greatness.
I can think of no greater example of this than parenting. After we make all our human efforts and
attempts at raising our kids correctly, teaching them right and wrong, at the
end of the day the greatest realization we can come to is simply saying to God,
“I need you to step in here ‘cause I can’t do this on my own.” This is why hard questions of suffering go
unanswered, why Jesus told stories and allowed us to ponder what they
mean. He wants us to come to Him, be in
relationship with Him, wrestle with Him and his word, but most of all to fall
to our knees and come to the realization “your way is better, God. I can’t do this without you.”
Notice how God responds to Moses. God simply reminds Moses of who He is and
what He will do for the Israelites. God
is saying “I have a bigger plan, trust it.”
Read Exodus 6:1-8 again. Think on
who God says He is and what He promised Moses and the Israelites. Then think on who you know Him to be and what
He has promised you. We must remember
God holds the bigger picture and we must trust Him for the rest.
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