Moses Delivers His First Message to Pharaoh, "Let My People Go"

Continuing a chronological Bible study:

(Exodus 5:1) And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’”

After being called by God from the burning bush, and after his many objections, Moses, with Aaron as his spokesman, approached Pharaoh for the first time and asked that he allow the Israelite people to go to the wilderness to hold a feast for Jehovah God.  They began with "Thus says the Lord (Jehovah)", as they were instructed.  They were Jehovah God's people, and therefore should be free from any bondage by Pharaoh, and He wanted them to be able to freely exercise service and sacrifice to Him away from the Egyptians.

(2) And Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.”

The name Jehovah seemed to mean nothing to Pharaoh; either he had not heard or known of the name, or else he did not recognize Him as Lord God.  Either way, he answered rather defiantly that he, king of all Egypt, did not have to obey the God of Israel, the God of a poor enslaved people within what he considered his jurisdiction, and he flatly refused to let them go.

(3) And they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice to the LORD our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”

Moses and Aaron asked again, this time making a modest request that seemed quite reasonable.  Seeing that Pharaoh had no respect for Jehovah God, they explained He was their God, and they requested that they be allowed to take just a few days to go to the desert to sacrifice to their Lord.  They appeared to seek a little compassion from Pharaoh by telling him they might suffer pestilence or death if they refused to sacrifice to their Lord, although it may have been more of a subtle suggestion to Pharaoh that he might lose his slaves if they were killed.

(4) And the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor.” (5) And Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land now are many, and you make them rest from their burdens.”

Pharaoh had no regard for their God and no sympathy for the Israelite people.  As a matter of fact, he blamed Moses and Aaron for taking the people away from their work.  Perhaps he knew that they had gathered all the people together to show their signs of God, or perhaps he referred to the elders who accompanied Moses and Aaron.  Either way, he now commanded the people to go back to work.  Pharaoh acknowledged the people were many.  I'm not sure if he meant because they were so many that their not working would create all the more injury to him, or if because they were so many, he feared giving them too much time on their own might give them occasion to rebel and leave, which is what he had feared from the beginning.

(6) And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, (7) “You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before; let them go and gather straw for themselves. (8) And the tally of bricks which they made before, you shall lay on them; you shall not diminish it; for they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ (9) Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard vain words.”

Not only did Pharaoh have no regard or compassion for the people or their God, but he decided to make more work for them.  He told the Egyptian taskmasters to no longer give the people straw to make the bricks they used in their labor.  I have read that the bricks were made of clay and straw kneaded together and dried thoroughly in the sun, so a great deal of straw must have been needed.  The Hebrew people were now to gather their own straw, but they still were expected to produce the same number of bricks that they did before when the straw was provided for them.  Pharaoh decided the people had too much time on their hands and that is why they thought they should be allowed to go and sacrifice to their Lord.  He felt they needed more work so that they wouldn't have time to pay any attention to the vain words, or lies, as the original word actually denoted, of Moses and Aaron.

(10) And the taskmasters of the people and their officers went out and spoke to the people, saying, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw. (11) Go, get yourselves straw where you can find it; yet none of your work shall be diminished.’”

The Egyptian taskmasters relayed Pharaoh's command to the people that they must gather their own straw wherever they could get it, and that they must produce the same number of bricks they did before.  Not only was the straw previously brought to them, but in having it provided to them, I am sure the people did not have to pay for it.  Now that they had to get it for themselves wherever they could find it, it is possible they might have to pay for it, which would have created even greater hardship.

(12) So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. (13) And the taskmasters hurried them, saying, “Fulfill your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.”

The people had to search throughout the land of Egypt to find straw, so that certainly took much time away from their task of making bricks.  It appears they had to resort to stubble left in the fields which was surely smaller and therefore it took more to accomplish their work.  All the while their taskmasters were hurrying and hounding them to get as much work done as when they had their straw provided for them.

(14) And the officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today, as before?”

Apparently the taskmasters and the officers mentioned in verse 10 are two entirely different groups of people.  The taskmasters were Egyptians appointed by Pharaoh, but the officers appear to be Israelites appointed by the taskmasters who were given the jobs of managing groups of their own people for the tasks at hand.  These officers of the Israelite people were beaten because the Israelites were not fulfilling their tasks of making bricks at the same rate as they had done before.

(15) Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, saying, “Why are you dealing thus with your servants? (16) There is no straw given to your servants, and they say to us, ‘Make brick!’ And behold, your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your own people.”

The Israelite officers who had been beaten by the Egyptian taskmasters then went to Pharaoh hoping to have their grievances redressed by him.  They called themselves servants of Pharaoh, and explained that they were given no straw and yet were expected to make bricks as before.  They were being beaten because they could not keep up with the impossible demands of Pharaoh's own taskmasters who would not give them what they needed to do the work.  They told Pharaoh that the inability to keep up the quota of bricks was the fault of his Egyptian taskmasters. 

(17) But he said, “You are idle, idle! Therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’ (18) Therefore go now and work; for no straw shall be given you, yet you shall deliver the tally of bricks.”

The Israelite officers quickly found out that Pharaoh had no sympathy at all for their situation, and in fact, insulted them, calling them idle, and insinuating that the only reason they wanted to sacrifice to their Lord was to have leisure time away from their work.  He commanded that they get back to work with no straw given to them, and deliver the usual number of bricks.

(19) And the officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in evil condition after it was said, “You shall not reduce any bricks from 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 to them, “Let the LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.”

When the officers of the people realized what a bad state they were in, seeing that Pharaoh was not going to relent from this impossible command, they unjustly blamed Moses and Aaron.  They were a bit too quick and presumptuous to assume that God would judge Moses and Aaron as guilty, when they were only carrying out God's instructions, something the people had shortly before believed and something for which they had been thankful to God, after seeing the signs and miracles by Moses.  How quickly the people turned on Moses and Aaron when things did not immediately turn out as they thought they should!  It may be the reason the officers marched right up to Pharaoh was that they were expecting things to immediately turn around for them because God had come to deliver them from Egypt.  Since it didn't happen immediately and now things were worse than they had been before Moses and Aaron talked to Pharaoh, they blamed them.  Isn't that the way we are sometimes?  We think we have faith, but then we think things ought to turn out a certain way, and then when they don't, we lose faith, or blame someone else for messing up, as if our God will only act on our behalf if we all do everything exactly right!  When you think about it, that's a bit egotistical on our part; we think we have the power to make or break a situation.  Our God is big enough to work through our messes and still work all things together for good, and when we are weak, He is strong.

(22) And Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me? (23) For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.”

When Moses "returned to the Lord", it may not be that he physically returned to a place, but that he went to the Lord in prayer; we aren't really told exactly.  Had God not told Moses that Pharaoh would refuse and not let the people go at first?  Had he forgotten that when he asked why the Lord had sent him and why the Lord had allowed such evil to the people, and when he declared the Lord had not delivered His people at all?  I think the next chapter will prove that God didn't show any great displeasure at these questions and comments, so I believe Moses was just bringing it all to the Lord.  After all, the people were indeed blaming him, so it must have seemed like he wasn't doing what he should be doing and that is what now made things worse.  I believe he was just relaying to God what had happened and was asking for His guidance.