Exodus 5  Moses approached Pharaoh, and was surprised at the outcome.  He not only refused to allow the people to be released to go worship their God, they were burdened with extra requirements which dictated impossible terms on them for performing their tasks.  The beatings increased and the demands increased, yet the raw materials diminished.  It reminds me of a joke that we speak of at work, "the beatings will continue until the morale has improved!"  Moses was blamed for being the bearer of bad tidings, he was blamed directly for causing the extra work to be piled on them.  What do we learn from this?  It is really quite simple, Moses was focused on the actual circumstances, the Jewish people were focused on the circumstances, they were not ready to focus on the God that they claimed to be ready to worship.  When God directs us to do something, we can't focus on the circumstances, we must focus on His promise.

Joe Turner
*****
Exodus 5:

When things don’t turn out the way you planned, how do you handle the disappointment? Do you count it all joy, or do you let the frustration get the best of you? It is said that obstacles can be simply stepping stones to higher heights, but it all depends on your perspective. Despite the fact that God told Moses that Pharaoh would resist Moses and not let the Children of Israel go (4:21), Moses allowed Pharaoh’s mockery (v. 17) coupled with the Children of Israel’s lashing out at Moses for their not being provided straw for bricks (v. 21), caused Moses to harshly question God’s call (v. 22) and God’s ability to deliver Israel (v. 23). While anger and frustration are natural emotions in difficult situations, the key to victory in difficult circumstances is not allowing anger to control us, or allowing frustration to cloud our judgment ("Be ye angry, and sin not:" [Eph. 4:26]). If we are to walk in victory over life challenges, we have to truly believe that God is Omnipotent: "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?" (Jer 32:27) and not allow the present circumstances, however grim they may be to weaken our faith. At these times, when things seem at their worst, and we feel faith under attack, this is when we cry out to the Lord for his help: "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." (Mk 9:24).

Reggie
*******
On Exodus 5
        In verse 1, Moses and Aaron put forth "Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness."  I wondered at why it wasn't just "so that can return home";  why "a feast"?  Did I miss something here?  In verse 2 , Pharoah responds Who is the LORD, (using Jehovah) that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, ....
        In verse 3 - no, I'm not going to go verse by verse :-) - Schofield reflects on the three days mentioned: 
three days Cf. Matthew 12:38-40. By death and resurrection will God have his people separated from Egypt -- the world. ; Romans 6:1-11; Galatians 6:14-15; Hebrews 13:12,13.

In verse 21, the have the nerve to say "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."   Have ever said similar such words to someone and was equally wrong? Oh my!  Sometimes church leadership is treated such - with the program one minute and if things don't go as supposed, then such words or thoughts or reactions.  Sometimes causing as in verse 22 a questioning of that which the Lord has spoken.

Joe mentions that Moses took his eyes off of God and focused them intently upon the circumstances - this reminded me of (guess who) Peter walking on the water in Matthew 14:
28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. 29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind boisterous,  he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

Shelley
Exodus 5

November 13, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Ezra 1-5

Weekly Memory Verse: Galatians 2:20

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Exodus 5 (NASB95)
1 And afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ ” 2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.” 3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, otherwise He will fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” 4 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you draw the people away from their work? Get back to your labors!” 5 Again Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now many, and you would have them cease from their labors!” 6 So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters over the people and their foremen, saying, 7 “You are no longer to give the people straw to make brick as previously; let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 “But the quota of bricks which they were making previously, you shall impose on them; you are not to reduce any of it. Because they are lazy, therefore they cry out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 “Let the labor be heavier on the men, and let them work at it so that they will pay no attention to false words.” 10 So the taskmasters of the people and their foremen went out and spoke to the people, saying, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I am not going to give you any straw. 11 ‘You go and get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it, but none of your labor will be reduced.’ ” 12 So the people scattered through all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13 The taskmasters pressed them, saying, “Complete your work quota, your daily amount, just as when you had straw.” 14 Moreover, the foremen of the sons of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not completed your required amount either yesterday or today in making brick as previously?” 15 Then the foremen of the sons of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, “Why do you deal this way with your servants? 16 “There is no straw given to your servants, yet they keep saying to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are being beaten; but it is the fault of your own people.” 17 But he said, “You are lazy, very lazy; therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18 “So go now and work; for you will be given no straw, yet you must deliver the quota of bricks.” 19 The foremen of the sons of Israel saw that they were in trouble because they were told, “You must not reduce your daily amount of bricks.” 20 When they left Pharaoh’s presence, they met Moses and Aaron as they were waiting for them. 21 They said to them, “May the Lord look upon you and judge you, for you have made us odious in Pharaoh’s sight and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.” 22 Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have You brought harm to this people? Why did You ever send me? 23 “Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all.”[1]

One of the biggest obstacles we face in life is our perception of things.  Moses came to Pharaoh with the message from the Lord, "Thus says the Lord".  Pharaoh did not react as Moses expected him to act.  Can you imagine the faith it took in God to walk up and to speak the words of God to Pharaoh?  Consider also the faith that the people had in God that the time had finally come for release.  Or was their faith in Moses? 

I would guess that their faith was in Moses since he was the one who came with signs and wonders from God.  How often is it that we will place our faith in the fallible leaders that we have rather than focusing upon God?  Our leaders are only human, they can't do anything outside of God making it happen through them.  If we are following the man, then perhaps we are not following God.

Another thought along this same line of thinking.  Moses reluctantly left his land, and traveled across the desert to return to a land he had long forgotten.  He did not want to come, but rather was coerced into coming by the leading of God and the will of others.  I think at this time that Moses was a reluctant leader, feeling that he really had no choice, after all, he did not win any of the arguments with God to that point in time.  He believed in God, but his faith was based upon a strange occurrence of fire in a bush that would not burn.  Up to this point we don't have any indication that Moses had ever considered God in his life.  He didn't even see the Hebrew tradition to have enough credibility to have circumcised his children. 

God promised to deliver the people, but just like Pharaoh, the people were not ready to be delivered.  They had not reached a point where they believed in God enough to have faith in Him.  Moses did not believe in God enough to where he had unwavering faith in God either. 

Acts 1:3 (NASB95)
3 To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. [2]

At times when God leads us to do something, it is often accompanied with a death of the vision.  On the website, Shelley Norman indicated that Peter took his eyes off of Jesus when he was walking on water and started to sink.  Consider the Apostles, Jesus promised to raise from the dead, and He did, then he taught them for a period of 40 days before ascending into heaven.  The Apostles went into hiding for several days before the Holy Spirit came upon them and gave them the boldness to preach.  When their leader, Jesus died, they went into hiding, He rose from the dead, they came out of hiding, Jesus went to heaven, back into hiding.  Consider Paul, God called him to preach and he was hit at every turn with disappointment and prison.  John was also beaten down and rejected by the authorities.  We could go through a lot of the people in the Bible and discover how that they had moved out for God only to be hit in the face with a defeat so overwhelming that it looked like the end of the line.  Consider Job, Jonah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and David for starters.  Some of them were walking with God, some weren't, but in all these cases, trouble haunted their lives when they followed the will of God.

1 John 4:1-6 (NASB95)
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.[3]

The death of a vision is normal in God's scheme of things, and for some reason it always catches us by surprise.  The thing that you have to remember on this is that we live in a world that is involved in spiritual warfare.  All around us, every single day there are spiritual battles taking place.  When the devil observes our following the leading of God, he is going to work doubly hard to make sure we don't succeed. 

Considering all of this, Pharaoh increased the labor of the Hebrews by removing the resources that they had available for brick making.  He increased the trouble in their lives in order to punish them for wanting to worship their God.  You can be sure that Pharaoh and the Egyptians did not understand why the Jews needed their own God when Egypt was full of gods.  Although this came from Pharaoh's heart, it was probably intended by him to be a learning experience for the Jews.  He wasn't aware of how much of a learning experience it would prove to be. 

The initial reaction of the people was to blame Moses and Aaron, but this had the desired effect.  Moses turned to the Lord, and caused him to pray in faith to the Lord.  We can all learn from Moses' simple prayer in verses 22-23, he simply stated the facts.  Moses did not go off into a long explanation of what, when, why, or that he thought God should do.  He simply focused upon the circumstances at hand and stated the facts.  God loves honest prayers.  He doesn't want us to baffle Him with details, only to hear the facts and to hear us pleading our case before Him.  God will answer prayer, no doubt about it, simply state the facts and believe that God will answer.  Remember, God already knows all the details, He wants to see a submissive and willing heart.

I went longer than I expected today, I hope that this study blessed you as much as it did me.  If you have any comments that you would like to add, be sure to write in.

I am still doing the hotel thing, hanging out at the hospital to support my wife.  She is doing better, healing quickly, thank you all for your prayers.  The hospital is a place of spiritual reflection for many people, when faced with life and death, people start thinking about eternity.  Too bad it takes a tradgedy to turn our heads. 

Father, as we consider the life of Moses, build honesty in our prayers and place a burden on our hearts to stay in prayer.

In Him,

Joe Turner.

[1] [2] [3] New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
 
 
 
 
Last changed: 09/17/08