Exodus 5:1-6:30

Daily Reading for Monday, Week 6

Exodus 5

Making Bricks Without Straw

¹Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.'" ²But Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go." ³Then they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword." ⁴But the king of Egypt said to them, "Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens." ⁵And Pharaoh said, "Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!" ⁶The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, ⁷"You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. ⁸But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, 'Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.' ⁹Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words."

¹⁰So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, "Thus says Pharaoh, 'I will not give you straw. ¹¹Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.'" ¹²So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.¹³The taskmasters were urgent, saying, "Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw." ¹⁴And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, "Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?"

¹⁵Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, "Why do you treat your servants like this? ¹⁶No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, 'Make bricks!' And behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people." ¹⁷But he said, "You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, 'Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.' ¹⁸Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks." ¹⁹The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, "You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day." ²⁰They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; ²¹and they said to them, "The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us."

²²Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, "O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? ²³For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all."

Exodus 6

God Promises Deliverance

¹But the LORD said to Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land."

²God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the LORD.³I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. ⁴ I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. ⁵Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. ⁶Say therefore to the people of Israel, 'I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. ⁷Iwill take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. ⁸I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.'" ⁹Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

¹⁰So the LORD said to Moses, ¹¹"Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land." ¹²But Moses said to the LORD, "Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?" ¹³But the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron

¹⁴These are the heads of their fathers’ houses: the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; these are the clans of Reuben.¹⁵The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the clans of Simeon. ¹⁶These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, the years of the life of Levi being 137 years. ¹⁷The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, by their clans. ¹⁸The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, the years of the life of Kohath being 133 years. ¹⁹The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites according to their generations. ²⁰ Amram took as his wife Jochebed his father’s sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses, the years of the life of Amram being 137 years. ²¹ The sons of Izhar: Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri.²²The sons of Uzziel: Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri.²³Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. ²⁴The sons of Korah: Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph; these are the clans of the Korahites. ²⁵Eleazar, Aaron’s son, took as his wife one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites by their clans.

²⁶These are the Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said: "Bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts." ²⁷It was they who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing out the people of Israel from Egypt, this Moses and this Aaron.

²⁸On the day when the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, ²⁹the LORD said to Moses, "I am the LORD; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you."³⁰But Moses said to the LORD, "Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?"

Pastor’s commentary:

Often the workings of God appear very strange at the beginning. Think about it this way. The children of Israel did not think that Moses was doing the right thing. They doubted whether or not God was really going to lead them up out of Egypt. This was because the Egyptians had made their work even more severe. Pharaoh made them make bricks without giving them the straw to use in making them. The people therefore asked God to judge Moses for bringing such hardship upon them, but Moses was only doing what God had commanded! You can understand a bit of frustration in Moses’ words, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

Perhaps you can sympathize with Moses. You know that God has called you to be a mother, a father, a worker, and a Christian. But it seems that only hardship results from that call. Maybe you even doubt God’s good purposes in your life because of all the hardship that comes upon His servants.

But even so, God is merciful and gracious. He will save the people in spite of the fact they would not listen to His word. God will get judgment against Pharaoh and Egypt’s gods and goddesses. Pharaoh foolishly says, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” But by the end of Exodus 15, Pharaoh knows that the LORD is God, and that there is no other.

Therefore, take courage from the LORD. Even in the middle of the uncertainties of this life, be certain of God’s love for you in Jesus Christ your Savior. He has delivered you from the Pharaoh of Satan and the slavery of your sin. He has brought you up out of death with an outstretched arm and a mighty hand. That deliverance sure looked strange when it was worked out. It was Jesus’ death on the cross that bought our forgiveness and life. But three days later the deliverance was as clear as Easter Sunday morning sun, and as sure as Jesus’ resurrected body.