Chapter Five
Request Denied…You Must Need More Work
5:1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’ ”
Undoubtedly encouraged by their success with the elders, Moses and Aaron sought an audience with Pharaoh, where they boldly proclaimed the words given to them by God, "Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, ‘Release my people so that they may hold a festival for me in the desert.’ ” (LEB) This is the first appearance of the Hebrew word ‘yā·ḥōg’·gû’,[1] in the Bible; it is a verb that can be translated feast, keep, celebrate, festival, etc. However, it is most often used in conjunction with what will be later identified as the pilgrimage feasts (Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Weeks, and Feast of Booths).
This simple request essentially exposes the true nature of Pharaoh’s heart. Even though this is not what God ultimately desired for His people, with this simple request, He has Moses and Aaron begin what will become an ongoing dialog between them, something that would have minimal impact for Pharaoh and Egypt.
5:2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”
The Egyptians had a long list of deities in their varied and often changing religions and mythology. Some even conflicted with each other, as different regions and different time periods offered different gods and goddesses. Pharaoh and his court of the nation’s finest religious experts without a doubt knew most of those deities, but their only source is the world (as influenced by Satan), they did not know the real God; they did not know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; they did not know YHWH! In this verse we see how quickly Pharaoh dismisses the issue, like most dictators, he is only interested in personal gain and refuses to let Israel leave. In this first encounter Pharaoh doesn’t know YHWH (not surprising since Moses may have been the first to reveal the existence of the True God to the current dynasty of Pharaohs, “who did not know Joseph,” see Exodus 1:8), but this pharaoh will soon hear and learn all about Him in what might be described as ten graphic lessons; we know them as the Ten Plagues.
5:3 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, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”
Aaron and Moses try a different approach, since Pharaoh did not know God by His name, they try using His title, “The God of the Hebrews.” They may have hoped that Pharaoh, or at least one of his scribes, would remember their history regarding the dreams, famine, or perhaps, the story of Joseph.
Here they add that there would be consequences if they were not allowed to make their sacrifice. Many debate whether this concern of their potential judgment was sanctioned by God or added by Aaron and Moses to help convince Pharaoh (judgment of the Israelites could affect his production levels). This is the first occurrence of the Hebrew word ‘dě·ḇěr’,[2] translated here as ‘pestilence’, it can also be translated as ‘plague’, usually some form of a dreadful disease.
5:4 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.” 5 And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!”
Still not believing that YHWH exists, Pharaoh ignores Aaron and Moses and tells them that they are nothing but a distraction. At this point, most of the Israelites probably heard about what Moses and Aaron were trying to do, possibly creating anticipation and excitement that resulted in a production slow down. Pharaoh essentially tells them to go back to work.
5:6 The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, 7 “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves.
Pharaoh was a shrewd man who, through a lifetime of commanding slaves, understood how to manipulate the thinking of his work force. He immediately ordered that the Israelites will no longer be given straw to make their bricks, they will need to gather the straw for themselves, thus adding to their workload.
5:8 But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.”
As a result of Aaron’s and Moses’ request, Pharaoh requires the Israelites to obtain their own straw, but at the same time maintain the same quota as before. He surmises that they must not have enough work (“for they are idle.”) Pharaoh then makes it clear, the more they ask to be released to offer sacrifice to their God, the greater the work burden will be required, cleverly creating a significant rift between the working Israelites and Aaron and Moses. He further instructs his taskmasters and foremen to disregard anything the Israelites say about their need to leave, as they are nothing but, “lying words.”
5:10 So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw. 11 Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.’ ” 12 So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.
The Israelites hear about Pharaoh’s new edict and quickly scatter throughout the land in search of stubble. This task of course required a significant amount of time.
5:13 The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.” 14 And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?”
Seeing that the Israelites slowed down producing the bricks, now that they were taking the time to gather the straw, the taskmasters pressed them to speed up. Since they were not able to maintain their quota, the foremen of the people of Israel (Israelites that were selected to be overseers of the work), were beaten and asked why the slowdown in production.
5:15 Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this? 16 No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.” 17 But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’ 18 Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.”
Now after hearing they need to gather their own straw and maintain daily quota; the Israelite foremen seek an audience with Pharaoh. It is doubtful that these men were able to speak directly to Pharaoh (although he may have arranged it), regardless of how, they received the same response Pharaoh gave Aaron and Moses, that they must be idle, having time for leisure. He then skillfully connects the extra labor to the request to Aaron’s and Moses’ request for a leave of absence. Here he implies they are idle because why else would they ask for them to take the time to make a sacrifice to God? He then tells them to go back to work.
5:19 The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, “You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.” 20 They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; 21 and they said to them, “The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
Moses and Aaron were waiting for the foremen to return from speaking to Pharaoh. The foremen were angry over the added burden and knew they could not meet the daily quota. When they see Aaron and Moses, they immediately blame them for what they believe to be the end of their lives. In what might be described as a curse, they ask that God look on them and judge. Instead of seeing them as people chosen by God to liberate them from Egypt, they now view them as the instigators of their death. They say that they have made the people of Israel smell bad in the presence of Pharaoh and his servants. They hold them responsible for providing the mechanism that will ultimately kill each one of them.
5:22 Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”
Hearing how upside down everything went and how the Israelites were now blaming them for the added burden, Moses is confused. He may have been thinking, this certainly must not be what God intended! So, he turned to God and asks Him why this happened, then he asks why He sent him. Two questions, followed by a reminder that he was only doing what He asked him to do, but so far nothing has happened.
We know that God did warn Moses that Pharaoh would not listen. So why was Moses so discouraged? More than likely it was the combination of the peer pressure (being called a fraud in front of his fellow Israelites) and that the events were not proceeding as Moses thought they should.
Christians are equally guilty in trying to reason out how God should handle things and then when things don’t proceed as expected, they turn to God and ask why. There is no way we can relate to God; His ways are not our ways. Isaiah wrote, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9) In other words, we cannot use human wisdom or knowledge to understand God. Also, since infinite knowledge cannot fit into our brains, we need to accept the fact that we are not ‘wired’ to fully understand God, including what He is able to do or why He does what He does. Plus, just as Moses is learning, being in the service of God will often make us unpopular in the eyes of the world.
Considerations
The fibers in straw provided strength and prevented the brick from falling apart or cracking prematurely. We know today that the straw, besides adding strength from the fiber, it also aided in hardening the brick due to a reaction from the acid created during the process of the straw decomposing.
The ancient Egyptians reaped their corn close to the ear, and afterwards cut the straw close to the ground (ibid. p. 48) and laid it by. This was the straw that Pharaoh refused to give to the Israelites, who were therefore compelled to gather “stubble” (קַשׁ, kash) instead, a matter of considerable difficulty, seeing that the straw itself had been cut off near to the ground. The stubble (q. v.) frequently alluded to in the Scriptures may denote either the short standing straw mentioned above, which was commonly set on fire (hence the allusions in Isa. 5:24; Joel 2:5), or the small fragments that would be left behind after the reapings (hence the expression “as the kash before the wind” [Psa. 83:13; Isa. 41:2; Jer. 13:24])[3]
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[1] Strong’s Hebrew 2287.
[2] Strong’s Hebrew 1698.
[3] M’Clintock, J., & Strong, J. (1880). Straw. In Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (Vol. 9, p. 1060). New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers.