Exodus 5

Exodus 5:1

IV. MOSES’ CONFRONTATIONS WITH PHARAOH (5:17:13) A. The First Confrontation (5:17:6)5:1 In Exo_3:18 God had told Moses to take the elders when he went before Pharaoh. In the meantime, the Lord had appointed Aaron as Moses’ spokesman (Exo_4:14-16). So Aaron went with Moses in place of the elders. The LORD’s message was unequivocal: “Let My people go.“5:2-14 When Moses and Aaron delivered their first ultimatum to Pharaoh, he accused them of distracting the people from their work. Also, he changed their work load by insisting that henceforth they would have to gather their own straw for making bricks, yet produce the same quota as before.

Pharaoh was making an impossible situation for the Jews, reminding one of the Nazi treatment of the Jews in the concentration camps. They had to go throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. The Hebrew text indicates the contempt with which these repressed people were treated. Cole points out that stubble is a poor substitute for straw since it is rough and uneven. 5:15-23 Until now the straw had been provided for the Israelites. It was used to reinforce the bricks, and to keep them from sticking to the forms in which they were made. When the Jewish foremen were beaten, they protested to Pharaoh but received no consideration. Then they blamed Moses and Aaron, and Moses in turn blamed the LORD. Opposition from within the ranks of God’s people is often harder to bear than persecution from without.