Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.’“ But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should heed him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.” Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has revealed himself to us; let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord our God, or he will fall upon us with pestilence or sword.” But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their work? Get to your labors!” Pharaoh continued, “Now they are more numerous than the people of the land and yet you want them to stop working!” That same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people, as well as their supervisors, “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as before; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But you shall require of them the same quantity of bricks as they have made previously; do not diminish it, for they are lazy; that is why they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ Let heavier work be laid on them; then they will labor at it and pay no attention to deceptive words.” (Exodus 5:1-9, NRSV)
It seems like God’s plan didn’t work so well. Moses and Aaron went to Pharoh and told him that God said, “Let my people go.” And Pharoh said no and take away their straw. Make them get their own straw now for the bricks they make and oh yea the brick quota does not decrease.
So now they Israelites are worked harder, not able to worship God.
Have you ever been in a situation like this where you thought that things were going to turn around and they got worse?
I wonder if Moses and Aaron really thought that Pharoh was going to let the Israelites go.
Do you wonder about how things are going to work? And does that actually help the situation?
aSacredRebel 