God sent Aaron to meet Moses in the wilderness as promised. Moses told him everything that had transpired at the burning bush. Aaron related everything to the elders of Israel, including all God said and the signs given. The elders believed God remembered them and sent Moses as a deliverer (Exodus 4:27-31).
Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, telling him God said, “Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.” The request was reasonable. “Every nation presented sacrifices to its deities, and celebrated festivals in their honour, and that they had all their own modes of worship, which were supposed to be appointed by the gods themselves, so that a god could not be worshipped acceptably in every place” (Keil and Delitzsch).
Pharaoh showed total lack of respect for God by saying he did not know Him. Moses and Aaron said the God of the Hebrews met with them and told them to sacrifice to Him in the wilderness. Sacrificing in the wilderness was necessary since they would be sacrificing some of the very animals the Egyptians worshiped. They desired to follow God’s instructions lest they be struck with a terrible disease or a war, either of which would have posed a threat to the Egyptians. Pharaoh accused Moses and Aaron of being troublemakers, trying to lighten the workload of the Israelites.
Pharaoh responded by requiring the Israelites to get their own straw for the bricks while producing the same number as before. The taskmasters hurried the Hebrews and beat their officers, who, in turn, went crying to Pharaoh to ask why they were being treated in such a manner. He said they were idle, pointing to their request to go sacrifice as proof. The officers of the Israelites told Moses and Aaron that they were responsible for making them be a stench in the nostrils of Pharaoh and his men, even putting the sword in their hands to kill all the people (Exodus 5:1-21).
Do we ever resist Pharaoh? Are our hearts hardened so that we will not heed God’s message? Pharaoh paid a high price for having it his way.
Works Cited
Keil, C.F. and F. Delitzsch. “Exodus 5:1-2.” Commentary on the Old Testament, 10 Volumes. New Updated Edition. Translated by James Martin. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996.
[Editor’s Note: The children of God throughout the biblical record and through the present often experience the challenge of making the choice to heed God’s directives while facing the ire of people among whom we live and the rulers, too (John 15:19; 1 John 3:13). Often, though, Christians today don’t seem to face much of a challenge the more they conform to the world around them (Romans 12:1-2; 1 John 2:15-17). Contrariwise, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12 NKJV). ~ Louis Rushmore, Editor]