The Oppression of the People (Exodus 5:1-6:1)

I’m sure you’re familiar with the expression, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Recently, I was visiting somebody in the hospital and feeling pretty good about myself, doing one of those pastorly things that I don’t always carve out time for. Those great feelings had long since faded by the time I received a letter in the mail several weeks later informing me that my license plate had been photographed as I went between 15-20 miles over the speed limit and that I needed to pay $100 for my traffic violation. Now that’s maybe not a great parallel, since I did, in fact, break the law. But Moses must have felt something like that in the aftermath of his stepping up in obedience in taking the first steps of freeing the Israelites from their slavery. This Sunday’s passage recounts the first request that Moses and Aaron bring to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh’s immediate denial of the request. And more than denying the request, he makes life miserable for the Hebrew slaves, who in turn find Moses and make sure they know how displeased they are with him. Nobody ever said that following God would be easy and would be a constant stream of blessings. Well, actually, people do say stuff like that all the time. But the Bible never teaches that. We’re going to find out a lot about discouragement in this passage; it may make us think through the times when we feel like we’re making “bricks without straw” in our own lives. See you Sunday! -Dave