seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Exodus 5:1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”
2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”
3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”
4 But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” 5 Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”
6 That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: 7 “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. 8 But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”
10 Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw. 11 Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’” 12 So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. 13 The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.” 14 And Pharaoh’s slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, demanding, “Why haven’t you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?”
15 Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why have you treated your servants this way? 16 Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”
17 Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18 Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”
19 The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.” 20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 and they said, “May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
Here's the link to the commentary.
The officers of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh: In their trouble, the children of Israel did not turn to God; they did not turn to Moses. Instead, they looked to Pharaoh for help. They felt that their previous bondage was better than their current increased misery.
You can please some of the people some of the time, and all of the people some of the time.... but you can't please all the people all the time. Pharaoh thought he was god. The men who served Pharaoh thought he was god. They would have put sugar in their bleach for him... that's how sure they were that Pharaoh was god. They would have slaved away their whole life, sacrificing their souls for him. They were used to the idea that Pharaoh was god and they were just minions, put there to please Pharaoh.
If Pharaoh had allowed the Israelites to leave, even for three days, the production of bricks for building would have been seriously delayed. Pharaoh knew he would have a lapse in the supply chain and that would be unacceptable. So, he decided to turn the Israelites against Moses and his mouthpiece, Aaron. He damaged the supply chain on the Israeli side of the production side of things. By holding up the supply of straw, while requiring the same production, the Israelites were required to work harder. He knew they would argue. He knew they would vote to save the original plan rather than follow Moses. After all, it got much worse when Moses put his big nose into things.
I guess the Israelites didn't know the power of the Union. They didn't just vote to walk off the job. They voted to keep on working and blame Moses and Aaron [not Pharaoh] for the straw supply chain debacle.
God knew Pharaoh would not let them go. That's why God started out with Moses asking for a long weekend rather than a complete shutdown of operations.
I bet Pharaoh chuckled when the people started arguing with Moses and his mouthpiece, Aaron.
I bet Pharaoh thought the problem was solved.
Problem Solved! Yeah right!
