OT: The Book of Exodus, Chapter 5

Exodus 5:1-23

5:1 Moses and Aaron have just finished telling the elders of the children of Israel (as well as the children of Israel) of God's plan for them. God instructed Moses to also make the same presentation to Pharaoh and in this fifth chapter, Moses and Aaron do so.

They tell Pharaoh: "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.'" They already know that Pharaoh will reject their request. 

5:2 Pharaoh is a pretentious king. He doubts that there is any entity more powerful than him. It is easy for him to disregard the word of God because he does not believe in God. Even if he did believe in God, his evil nature would proudly oppose God. He tells Moses and Aaron no.

5:3 Pharaoh is about to witness and experience the truth of God's existence and the adversity evil acts incurs. Moses and Aaron explain that God has met with them and has instructed them to caution Egypt: pestilence will infiltrate Egypt if Pharaoh disobeys. 

5:4-5 This Pharaoh is cruel and abrupt in his conversation with Moses and Aaron. He makes it clear to them that not only are they wasting his time, they are preventing the slaves from doing their duties.

5:6-7 Pharaohs response is to turn more brutal than ever in dealing with the slaves. Instead of providing them the materials to do the work, Pharaoh tells their masters to force them to gather it on their own. He demands that their workload not be reduced regardless of the extra effort now required.

5:8-9 All of this is an attempt to prevent the children of Israel from having time to worship and communicate with God. On the men, Pharaoh requires an additional workload to distract them from Moses and Aaron's words. Pharaoh tries to force the ancestors of Jacob to shoo Moses and Aaron away. He hopes that it will appear to them as though entertaining Moses and Aaron causes them more grief and distress than they lived through before (and it will begin to).

5:10-11 The masters of the slaves followed Pharaoh's word and the children of Jacob were not required to exert more and more effort. These people undoubtedly experience testing of faith: Pharaoh is persistent but they have to remember, believe and trust that there God was more so.

5:12-14 The slaves are scattered throughout Egypt now to gather straw, the material needed for their next task. As they worked harder, their masters ruled harsher, demanded production without any empathy at all.

5:15-16 The elders/officers of the children of Israel confront Pharaoh on his unjust and illogical treatment of them. This is a beautiful characteristic of children of God: we are bold and logical. We do not fear earthly kings because we know that our God is King.

5:17 Instead of listening to them, Pharaoh rapidly reprimands the elders for being idle when they should be working. Notice the response of the elders, though: instead of becoming enveloped in discouragement, fear or weakness they bring their issue to God. Do we have the same trusted relationship with God? Do we recognize that He is never our enemy, never absent from us or from the task of exerting His will on our lives? We must develop our faith because their constant and unwavering trust in Him is leading directly to their rescue, their freedom.

The elders' instinct is to bring their trouble to God but their faith is not perfect as we will see.

5:18-19 The elders return to their tasks after being told that they are still required the same daily quota even though they used much of their time to converse with Pharaoh.

5:20-21 The elders come out from Pharaoh's place and meet Moses and Aaron. They trust God... but they do not yet trust that Moses and Aaron were truly sent by Him. Their conditions are worsening despite Moses and Aaron's promise of redemption. The elders ask God to observe Moses and Aaron and judge their actions because the elders are beginning to feel as though Moses and Aaron did not mean what they said.

5:22 Moses himself is concerned. Moses always had a difficult time watching people suffer and now it appeared to him as if he, himself, was the reason they were suffering. God outlined the entire plan for Moses but as humans we are flawed: we doubt and we forget. Yet part of Moses' concern is the precise reason why God chose Moses: his compassionate heart. It's destroying his spirit to watch these innocent people suffer.

5:23 We learn and hear and think about prophets and often we think of them as being perfect. Perfect, strong, bold, courageous. And they are... but they are also all of the others things we are sometimes: scared, self-conscious, doubtful, accusatory, un-trusting. Moses confronts God because he does not have the patience or the perspective of God. God has made a promise and will fulfill it.

1 Peter 5:10

"And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you."

God knows how to restore us, confirm us, strengthen and establish us. He knows that it takes time and discipline. We must learn persistence and patience and courage and endurance. Moreover, the people around us have lessons to learn as well. We do not know the full plan and purpose of God in this situation but we do know that he always has one... and it is always good. We do know that if he had snapped his fingers and zoomed these people out of slavery their understanding of the blessing would be short-lived. They would not value their freedom because they never developed and strengthened their character. As all things are while we are on earth, especially: it is a journey. God is ready and willing and prepared to carry them (us) through it but we need the spiritual acuity to crawl up into His arms.