Exodus 5: 15-23: “Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants? 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. But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the LORD. Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks. 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. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh: 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. 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? 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.”
Even though the Lord was working to save Israel from slavery in Egypt, they were more interested in looking at their immediate situation. There is an old saying that it is always darkest before the dawn and this was the case here as well. Pharaoh didn’t want to lose his slaves so he made them work harder so that they would not have enough time to think about anything other than working for him and give up all their ideas of going away to offer sacrifices to their God when he believed that he was a god and they should be worshipping him. The Israelis had already been told that the Lord would set them free but they were only thinking in the short term rather than trusting the Lord for their long term security. Moses was so upset that he even complained to the Lord as well telling the Lord that He had done nothing to deliver them from slavery after all the promises. It is much easier to look at our present situation and lose focus on the big picture if we don’t keep our focus on the Lord Jesus Christ (compare Is 26: 3, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” and Heb 12: 2, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”)
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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