Now imagine how they must have felt when Moses appears to tell them that their time of deliverance had come. He tells them that God has remembered them, that He has seen their misery and heard their cries. He tells them all that the Great “I AM” said at the burning bush and he performs for them the miraculous signs that God had given him to show Pharaoh. He tells them about how God promised to rescue them from Pharaoh’s hand, and make the Egyptians favorably disposed towards them. He tells them they are going to be set free! Imagine the anticipation and the thrill of hope they must have felt to receive such wonderful news. The Scripture says that when they heard that the Lord was concerned about their suffering, they bowed down in worship. (Exodus 4:31) They were full of joy and gratitude.
When Jacob took all his children and grandchildren and moved to Egypt at the ripe old age of 130, he went to be happily reunited with his long-lost favorite son. He went as the honored guest of Pharaoh and of his son Joseph who was second in command over all the land. He went to find refuge from the drought and famine that had ravaged the entire country. He went because the Lord’s providential hand of salvation led him there. But one generation later, after Joseph and his brothers had died, the place that had been Israel’s salvation became the place of Israel’s captivity. A new Pharaoh came to power who knew and cared nothing about Joseph. All he knew was that the Israelites were multiplying rapidly and they posed
They had to stop and praise Yahweh for His goodness.
a threat to his empire. So he oppressed them with forced labor and worked them ruthlessly. He made them do harsh work out in the fields, and making brick and mortar. And so the Israelites became bitterly enslaved by the Egyptians. But now, after four hundred years, God has called Moses to lead them out of captivity. Let’s reflect for a minute on the fact that the people of
“Why have you brought this trouble on your people? Is this what your great plan was? All Pharaoh has done is make trouble for us. You haven’t rescued them at at all!”
But then we get to Exodus 5. Moses and Aaron muster up their courage and go before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. And based on everything God had said and done so far, both they and the Israelites were fully anticipating that God would stretch out His mighty hand, and Pharaoh would release them to go. They were expecting deliverance. After all, that’s what they had just been promised. But that’s not at all what happens.
Israel had been slaves in Egypt for four hundred years. That means every living Israelite had been born into slavery and spent their whole lives serving the tyrannical Pharaoh. They had spent their whole lives under the heavy burden of harsh manual labor. They didn’t know what freedom felt like. They had never experienced independence or the patriotism of belonging to their own nation. And although they had heard of the promises God had given to their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I am sure they often wondered whether they would ever really make it back to Canaan and see the Promised Land with their own eyes. After an entire lifetime of nothing but misery and desperation, they probably felt like things would never get any better. They probably felt like God had forgotten them.
Instead, the Pharaoh is completely outraged. He’s not about to let the people leave their labor, and demands them to get back to work. And what’s worse is that he orders the slave drivers to no longer supply them with straw for making bricks. They have to go and gather their own straw, but they’re still required to make the same number of bricks as they did before. The people scatter to collect the straw needed, and the slave drivers harass them about not making enough bricks and beat them for not filling their quota. When the Israelite overseers appeal to Pharaoh about such unreasonable demands, he calls them lazy and lets them know that this is the way things are going to be from now on. As you would expect, they are incredibly disheartened. After receiving the first little glimmer of hope they’ve ever had, it
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HOPE is Now
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