Exodus 5 - 7

The Children of Israel

Exodus 5 - 7

Moses and Aaron Speak to Pharaoh

After speaking to Israel’s leaders, Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh. They told him, “This is what the LORD God of Israel, says: Let my people go so they may hold a feast in my honor in the wilderness.”

Pharaoh retorted. “And who is the LORD? Why should I obey his words and let Israel go? I don’t know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.”

But Moses and Aaron persisted. “The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they declared. “So let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness so we can offer sacrifices to the LORD our God; least he kills us with a plague or with the sword.”

Pharaoh replied, “Moses and Aaron, why are you disturbing the people from their work? Get back to work! Look, there are many of your people in the land, and you are stopping them from their work.”

That same day Pharaoh sent an order to the Egyptian slave drivers, and their officers saying, “Do not supply any more straw for making bricks. Make the people get it themselves! But still require them to make the same number of bricks as before. They are lazy! That is the reason they are asking to go and offer sacrifices to their God. Load them down with more work. Make them sweat! That will teach them to listen to lies!

So the slave drivers and their officers went out and told the people what Pharaoh said, and the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt in search of stubble to use as straw.

The Egyptian slave drivers were ruthless, they demanded for the people to meet the same quota as when they provided straw. They whipped the officers of the children of Israel they had put in charge and demanded, “Why have you not met your quotas either yesterday or today?”

Then the officers of the children of Israel went to Pharaoh and pleaded with him. “Please don’t treat your servants like this,” they begged. “We are given no straw, but the slave drivers still demand us to make the same amount of bricks.” We are being beaten, but it isn’t our fault! Your own people are to blame.”

But Pharaoh shouted, “You are lazy! Just lazy! That’s the reason you are asking to go and offer sacrifices to the LORD. Now get back to work! No straw will be given to you, but you must still produce the same amount of bricks.”

The officers of the children of Israel could see that they were in serious trouble when they were told they would have to produce the same amount of bricks. As they left Pharaoh’s court, they confronted Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, “May the LORD judge and punish you for making us look bad before Pharaoh and his servants. You have put a sword into their hands to kill us!”

Then Moses went to the LORD and protested, “Why have you brought all this trouble on your own people, Lord? Why did you send me? Since I have come to Pharaoh as your spokesman, he has been even more brutal to your people. And you have done nothing at all to deliver them.”

Promises of Deliverance

Then the LORD told Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. When he feels the force of my strong hand, he will let the people go. In fact, he will force them to leave this land!”

And God said to Moses, “I am the LORD. And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of the Almighty, but my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.”

“I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land to which they journeyed and were strangers.”

“I also have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians have put in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant.”

“Therefore say to the children of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will bring you out of bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgment.”’

“You will be my people and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the LORD your God, which will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”

“And I will bring you to a land, that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as an inheritance. I am the LORD.”

So Moses told the children of Israel what the LORD had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutal slavery they were under.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go back to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and tell him to let the children of Israel leave his land.”

“But Lord!” Moses objected. “Behold, the children of Israel won’t listen to me anymore. How can I expect Pharaoh to listen? I am such a clumsy speaker!”

But the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them orders for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The LORD commanded Moses and Aaron to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Aaron’s Staff Becomes a Serpent

And the LORD said to Moses, “Look, I will make you seem like a god to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. Tell Aaron everything I command you, and Aaron must command Pharaoh to let the children of Israel leave his land.”

“But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart so I can multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. Even then Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you. So I will bring down my fist on Egypt. Then I will bring my armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment.”

“Then the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt, and bring the children of Israel out from among them.”

So Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded them. Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three when they made their demands to Pharaoh.

Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Pharaoh will demand to be shown a miracle. When he does this, say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh, and it will become a serpent.”’

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did what the LORD had commanded them. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent!

Then Pharaoh called in his wise men and sorcerers, and they did the same thing with their magic (These same men are mentioned also in 2 Timothy 3:1-9). They threw down their staffs, which also became serpents! But then Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.

2 Timothy 3:1-9, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. ² For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, ³ Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, ⁴ Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; ⁵ Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. ⁶ For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ⁷ Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁸ Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. ⁹ But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their's also was.”

Pharaoh’s heart however remained hard. He refused to listen to them, just as the LORD had said.