https://www.goodsalt.com/details/rhpas0959.html
Summary https://marksbiblejourney.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-book-of-exodus-chapter-1-israel.html
"Moses and Aaron confront Pharaoh, and they tell him what God told them to say, "Let my people (the Israelites) go..." Pharaoh's heart is hardened, and he does not let the Israelites go. Instead, Pharaoh imposes heavier work on the Israelites. He says the Israelites are slackers, and he does not let them leave to worship and sacrifice to their God in the wilderness. The Israelites now think and confront Moses saying, that he and God has caused trouble for the Israelite people. Moses returns to God at Mount Sinai, and he asks the Lord why He hasn't delivered the Israelites from bondage. God responds by saying that Pharaoh, "will let them go because of My strong hand; he will drive them out of the land because of My strong hand." God is referring to the ten plagues that will strike Egypt in the days to come."
"Moses and Aaron confront Pharaoh, and they tell him what God told them to say, "Let my people (the Israelites) go..." Pharaoh's heart is hardened, and he does not let the Israelites go. Instead, Pharaoh imposes heavier work on the Israelites. He says the Israelites are slackers, and he does not let them leave to worship and sacrifice to their God in the wilderness. The Israelites now think and confront Moses saying, that he and God has caused trouble for the Israelite people. Moses returns to God at Mount Sinai, and he asks the Lord why He hasn't delivered the Israelites from bondage. God responds by saying that Pharaoh, "will let them go because of My strong hand; he will drive them out of the land because of My strong hand." God is referring to the ten plagues that will strike Egypt in the days to come."
Some key verses from the Amplified Bible (AMP) version..
- The very same day Pharaoh gave orders to the [Egyptian] taskmasters in charge of the people and their [Hebrew] foremen, saying, “You will no longer give the people straw to make brick as before; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks which they were making before, you shall [still] require of them; you are not to reduce it in the least. For they are idle and lazy; that is why they cry, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ Let labor be heavier on the men, and let them work [hard] at it so that they will pay no attention to [their God’s] lying words.” v.6-9
- "Then they left Pharaoh’s presence, the foremen met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them. And the foremen said to them, “May the Lord look upon you and judge you, because you have made us odious (something hated) in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and you have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” v.20-21
- "Then Moses turned again to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have You brought harm and oppression to this people? Why did You ever send me? [I cannot understand Your purpose!] Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has harmed and oppressed this people, and You have done nothing at all to rescue Your people.” v.22-23
My personal observations and reflections...
- LET MY PEOPLE GO, SAYS THE GOD OF ISRAEL. After meeting with the Israelite elders, Moses and Aaron proceeded to Pharaoh to deliver God's message, ‘Let My people go, so that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ (v.1) But the Pharaoh outright rejected them, saying and questioning God's identity or authority, “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.” (v.2) Given the circumstances that Egypt worshiped a different God, and they feel higher in terms of disposition (and/or race) as compared to the Hebrews, I could understand the Pharaoh's answer or reasoning. It's expected that Pharaoh didn't know YHWH, Elohim, the God of Israel, and was not interested in Him, since he was king and ruler of the land of Egypt. Plus, God warned Moses that Pharaoh's heart will be hard or hardened.
"a. Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh: This confrontation took tremendous courage, and Moses and Aaron should be commended for their obedience to God in doing it.
i. Pharaoh was nothing like a public servant; the entire public lived to serve the Pharaoh. His power and authority were supreme and there was no constitution or law or legislature higher or even remotely equal to him.
ii. The Pharaohs were said to be the children of the sun; they were friends to the greatest gods of Egypt and sat with them in their own temples to receive worship alongside them.
iii. An inscription by a Pharaoh on an ancient Egyptian temple gives the idea: “I am that which was, and is, and shall be, and no man has lifted my veil.” (Meyer) The Pharaoh was more than a man; he considered himself a god, and the Egyptians agreed.
iv. Having grown up in the royal courts of Egypt, Moses knew this well; but he also knew that Pharaoh was just a man. With the authority of the living God, Moses confronted Pharaoh.
i. Pharaoh was nothing like a public servant; the entire public lived to serve the Pharaoh. His power and authority were supreme and there was no constitution or law or legislature higher or even remotely equal to him.
ii. The Pharaohs were said to be the children of the sun; they were friends to the greatest gods of Egypt and sat with them in their own temples to receive worship alongside them.
iii. An inscription by a Pharaoh on an ancient Egyptian temple gives the idea: “I am that which was, and is, and shall be, and no man has lifted my veil.” (Meyer) The Pharaoh was more than a man; he considered himself a god, and the Egyptians agreed.
iv. Having grown up in the royal courts of Egypt, Moses knew this well; but he also knew that Pharaoh was just a man. With the authority of the living God, Moses confronted Pharaoh.
b. Let My people go: The fundamental demand of God to Pharaoh (through His messengers Moses and Aaron) was freedom for His people. God asserted that Israel belonged to Him, not Pharaoh; and therefore, that they should be free. Those who belong to God should be free, not bound.
d. Please, let us go three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God: Moses relayed the demand God first gave him back at Exodus 3:18. God presented the smaller request to Pharaoh first so that the request would be as appealing and as easy to accept as possible. He did this so Pharaoh would have no excuse at all for refusing God and hardening his heart."
- DOUBLE THE BURDEN. It seems, the Pharaoh did not want to listen anymore to Moses and Aaron, and all of a sudden he said “Why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens!” (v.4) Not only that, he thought of 'punishing' and making the labor harder by not providing the straw in making bricks. Instead, the Israelites were to find and gather their own straws, but they were still required to finish their quota. It was a sad, and hard situation. Unfair, as well. The Israelites with the help of the Hebrew foremen failed to meet the required quota for many days and they were beaten by the Egyptians.
*Bible Footnotes: Exodus 5:7 "Straw served as a binding agent with the mud, nearly tripling the strength of the brick."
Straw and clay http://mtseymourunited.com/whos-telling-our-story/
* "Pharaoh tells the Israelites that they are lazy. We know they aren’t –
they want to be free; a reasonable request, but Pharaoh isn’t
interested in a fair evaluation in the situation; Pharaoh is interested
in keeping the status quo, because Pharaoh is scared. The Israelites
outnumber Egyptians in the land, but the economy depends on their unpaid
labour, so Pharaoh can’t let them go, but now they’re dangerous,
because they’re starting to get uppity and ask for freedom." http://mtseymourunited.com/whos-telling-our-story/
* Study Guide Commentary from David Guzik:
"c. For they are idle; therefore they cry out: To punish Israel for the request and to give them more work (“You seem to have enough time to make these crazy requests – then you must have enough time to work more!”), Pharaoh commanded that the Israelites must gather their own materials (specifically, straw) for making bricks.
i. Straw has an acidic content that makes the bricks stronger. The use of straw in making bricks in Egypt during this period is confirmed by archaeology. “Bricks of all sorts have been found in Egypt, some with regularly chopped straw, some with rough roots and oddments, some without straw at all.” (Cole)
ii. “Chopped straw was mixed in with the clay to make the bricks more pliable and stronger by first binding the clay together and then by decaying and releasing a humic acid.” (Kaiser)
iii. “The eastern bricks are often made of clay and straw kneaded together, and then not burned, but thoroughly dried in the sun. This is expressly mentioned by Philo…’because straw is the bond by which the brick is held together.'” (Clarke)
* Study Guide Commentary from David Guzik:
"c. For they are idle; therefore they cry out: To punish Israel for the request and to give them more work (“You seem to have enough time to make these crazy requests – then you must have enough time to work more!”), Pharaoh commanded that the Israelites must gather their own materials (specifically, straw) for making bricks.
i. Straw has an acidic content that makes the bricks stronger. The use of straw in making bricks in Egypt during this period is confirmed by archaeology. “Bricks of all sorts have been found in Egypt, some with regularly chopped straw, some with rough roots and oddments, some without straw at all.” (Cole)
ii. “Chopped straw was mixed in with the clay to make the bricks more pliable and stronger by first binding the clay together and then by decaying and releasing a humic acid.” (Kaiser)
iii. “The eastern bricks are often made of clay and straw kneaded together, and then not burned, but thoroughly dried in the sun. This is expressly mentioned by Philo…’because straw is the bond by which the brick is held together.'” (Clarke)
- HEBREW FOREMEN CRIED TO PHARAOH. The Hebrew foremen came to Pharaoh and they appealed of their current situation, but the Pharaoh just repeated what he said to Moses and Aaron, “You are lazy, very lazy and idle! That is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ (v.17) Was it because of pride, hardening of heart, that's why Pharaoh said that again? Or that was his way of belittling them since they were just 'slaves'. Being a slave means you are owned, you have no (or less) rights. At this point, all the Israelites, including Moses and Aaron were helpless. But we know that God was in control, and He is more mighty and powerful. The Hebrew foremen expressed their anger and disappointment to Moses and Aaron, saying “May the Lord look upon you and judge you, because you have made us odious (something hated) in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and you have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” (v.21)
"a. The officers of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh: In their trouble, the children of Israel did not turn to God; they did not turn to Moses. Instead, they looked to Pharaoh for help. They felt that their previous bondage was better than their current increased misery.
i. It is wrong to simply say that Israel loved their slavery. Exodus 2:23 says, the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and the cried out; and their cry came up to God because of their bondage. Yet what God allows and even performs in the work of bringing freedom made it feel worse, at least for a time.
c. You have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh: They believed this was the wrong Moses did. When Israel was an obedient slave to Pharaoh, they thought he was their friend. Now that the idea of freedom had entered, Pharaoh showed how he felt about them all along.
i. Satan sometimes seems friendly to us when we accept his lordship; but when we start to be free in Jesus, he often will try to make life difficult for us.
ii. Exodus 4:31 said So the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped. After the counter-attack of Pharaoh, the faith, excitement, and worship of Exodus 4:31 was gone pretty quickly.
iii. God allowed all this; in fact you could say that He designed it. In theory, God could have freed Israel from Egypt without a struggle on their part. Yet He knew that was not good or best for them; that for them to make the transition from slaves to free people of the promised land, that some testing and stretching was absolutely necessary. "
i. Satan sometimes seems friendly to us when we accept his lordship; but when we start to be free in Jesus, he often will try to make life difficult for us.
ii. Exodus 4:31 said So the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped. After the counter-attack of Pharaoh, the faith, excitement, and worship of Exodus 4:31 was gone pretty quickly.
iii. God allowed all this; in fact you could say that He designed it. In theory, God could have freed Israel from Egypt without a struggle on their part. Yet He knew that was not good or best for them; that for them to make the transition from slaves to free people of the promised land, that some testing and stretching was absolutely necessary. "
- MOSES TURNED TO GOD. And that was the best thing to do, to look to God, and to lay all our burdens to Him. With all the miracles and promises that God showed Moses, I wonder if what he expressed to God was a 'lack of faith'. It was obvious that Moses was a 'work in progress' here, eversince God called him through the burning bush at Mt. Sinai. It might seem that God was doing nothing, but in the spiritual realm God was very present and He knows exactly what was happening. He was just beginning.
Moses beseeches the Lord (Exodus 5:22, 23)
* Study Guide Commentary from David Guzik:
"a. Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? It was a good question, and Moses did well to so boldly speak his heart to God. Yet Moses had already forgotten what God told him at the burning bush, that Pharaoh would not easily let go of Israel.
i. Moses did right in speaking his heart to God. “Happy is the man who when he cannot understand the divine movement and, indeed, doubts it has yet faith enough in God Himself to tell Him all his doubt. Those who face men, having the right to say to them, ‘Thus saith Jehovah’ have also the right to return to Jehovah and state the difficulties, and expose openly their own doubts and fears.” (Morgan)
ii. Moses did wrong in forgetting what God had said. The Lord told him, I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go. (Exodus 3:19-20)
iii. If God were to give Moses and extended explanation to answer the question, it might go like this: “Moses, I brought trouble because I am interested in more than simply freeing Israel from slavery; I want to transform them from a slave people into a people fit for My promised land. This doesn’t happen quickly or easily, and it involved countless expressions of both trust and surrender. Trust Me in this trouble, and I will use it for Israel’s good and My glory.”
b. Why is it You have sent me? In this season of testing, the same old fears came crashing in on Moses: “I’m not the man God should send.” “God won’t come through.” “Pharaoh and the Egyptians are too strong.” There was still unbelief and lack of focus on God that had to be worked out of Moses.
i. “The agony of soul through which Moses passed must have been as death to him. He died to his self-esteem, to his castle-building, to pride in his miracles, to the enthusiasm of his people, to everything that a popular leader loves. As he lay there on the ground alone before God, wishing himself back in Midian, and thinking himself hardly used, he was falling as a grain of wheat into the ground to die, no longer to abide alone, but to bear much fruit.” (Meyer)
ii. Moses probably thought that the dying to himself was finished after 40 years of tending sheep in Midian, but it wasn’t. It never is. God still will use adversity to train us to trust in Him until the day we go to be with Him in heaven.
c. Neither have You delivered Your people at all: It seems that despite God’s previous warning, something in Moses hoped that it would all come rather easy. Yet God’s deliverance was real, and would soon be seen for Israel. Israel felt that it was sometimes difficult to be in God’s will; but they would see how much worse it was to be against God’s will."
"a. Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? It was a good question, and Moses did well to so boldly speak his heart to God. Yet Moses had already forgotten what God told him at the burning bush, that Pharaoh would not easily let go of Israel.
i. Moses did right in speaking his heart to God. “Happy is the man who when he cannot understand the divine movement and, indeed, doubts it has yet faith enough in God Himself to tell Him all his doubt. Those who face men, having the right to say to them, ‘Thus saith Jehovah’ have also the right to return to Jehovah and state the difficulties, and expose openly their own doubts and fears.” (Morgan)
ii. Moses did wrong in forgetting what God had said. The Lord told him, I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go. (Exodus 3:19-20)
iii. If God were to give Moses and extended explanation to answer the question, it might go like this: “Moses, I brought trouble because I am interested in more than simply freeing Israel from slavery; I want to transform them from a slave people into a people fit for My promised land. This doesn’t happen quickly or easily, and it involved countless expressions of both trust and surrender. Trust Me in this trouble, and I will use it for Israel’s good and My glory.”
b. Why is it You have sent me? In this season of testing, the same old fears came crashing in on Moses: “I’m not the man God should send.” “God won’t come through.” “Pharaoh and the Egyptians are too strong.” There was still unbelief and lack of focus on God that had to be worked out of Moses.
i. “The agony of soul through which Moses passed must have been as death to him. He died to his self-esteem, to his castle-building, to pride in his miracles, to the enthusiasm of his people, to everything that a popular leader loves. As he lay there on the ground alone before God, wishing himself back in Midian, and thinking himself hardly used, he was falling as a grain of wheat into the ground to die, no longer to abide alone, but to bear much fruit.” (Meyer)
ii. Moses probably thought that the dying to himself was finished after 40 years of tending sheep in Midian, but it wasn’t. It never is. God still will use adversity to train us to trust in Him until the day we go to be with Him in heaven.
c. Neither have You delivered Your people at all: It seems that despite God’s previous warning, something in Moses hoped that it would all come rather easy. Yet God’s deliverance was real, and would soon be seen for Israel. Israel felt that it was sometimes difficult to be in God’s will; but they would see how much worse it was to be against God’s will."
Read the Bible here:
Reference and credits to https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/guzik_david/StudyGuide2017-Exd/Exd-5.cfm ©2013 David Guzik
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