Saturday, October 07, 2006

Exodus 5

First Encounter with Pharaoh



1 After this presentation to Israel's leaders, Moses and Aaron* went to see Pharaoh. They told him, "This is what the LORD**, the God of Israel, says: `Let my people go, for they must go out into the wilderness to hold a religious festival in my honor.' "



*Moses and Aaron: Remember what God said in Exodus 3:18 - The leaders (elders) of the people of Israel will accept your message. Then all of you must go straight to the king of Egypt - Did the elders chicken out? Jewish tradition is that Moses did take them with him, but one by one, they lost their nerve and dropped out. What lesson can we draw from this for ourselves?



**LORD: Yahweh (YHWH) (Jehovah)



2 "Is that so?" retorted Pharaoh. "And who is the LORD* that I should listen to him and let Israel go? I don't know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go**."



*who is the LORD?: A common question to day - people refuse to listen to what God has to say and say He doesn't exist, even though the evidence of Him is everywhere (Romans 1:20). Pharaoh did not know Yahweh and wasn't about to hear about this strange wilderness Hebrew god whom he considered powerless before the son of Ra. After all, the Hebrew god must be pretty weak to allow his followers to be slaves instead of rulers. This shows that this is not a battle between Moses and Pharaoh, but a battle between Pharaoh who considered himself to be a god and the Hebrew god Yahweh. We'll learn later that it is even deeper than that - it is a battle between Yahweh and the gods of Egypt (who actually stand in for Satan). Soon enough, Pharaoh will learn who is the LORD (Yahweh). One of God's goals is that Pharaoh will KNOW Him - 7:17, 8:10, 8:22, 8:14, 9:29, 10:2, 11:7, 14:4, 14:18. Bear in mind also that Egypt is always a "type" of the world. Pharaoh will come to know this Yahweh, but not in any pleasant way. To demonstrate the supremacy of the true God over all the gods of Egypt, was the design of the plagues.



   Each Pharaoh was said to be the child of the sun; he was a friend to the greatest gods of Egypt and sat with them in their own temples to receive worship alongside them. Pharaoh was nothing like a public servant; the entire public lived to serve the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh was more than a man; he considered himself a god, and the Egyptians agreed.



   Remember back in Joseph's time, 430 years before this, when there was 7 years of famine in Egypt? Joseph took not only the money of the people, their property and their cattle, but he even made them slaves of Pharaoh in exchange for grain. Only the priests were exempt. So he's god in Egypt. He owns the people that are free, and he certainly owns the people that are slaves. In Pharaoh's eyes, "I am a bigger god than Yahweh," and he knows what Moses wants. Three days is a rather indefinite expression. It probably means unlimited. It is like the Hebrew expression for "previously." Yesterday and then to the third day back is how they express it in Hebrew. He knows what Moses wants. He wants the people out of Egypt. "No way is he going to get that. No two-bit god is going to tell me what to do." And that is the way he looks upon Yahweh right now, as a two-bit god. So he tells Moses, "Get back to your labors. You're not going to take the people out of here." They were the greatest energy source in all Egypt at the time. It would be like this country giving away oil. Source: www.pbc.org/library/files/html/14743_moses06.html



**I will not let Israel go: Exodus 4:21 - Then the LORD reminded him, "When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will make him stubborn so he will not let the people go. According to 1 Samuel 6:6, God didn't harden the Pharaoh's heart; the Pharaoh did it himself - Don't be stubborn and rebellious as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were. They wouldn't let Israel go until God had ravaged them with dreadful plagues.
















































Name Meaning Scripture
Yahweh Jireh The Lord our Provider Genesis 22:14
Yahweh Rapha The Lord our Healer Exodus 15:26
Yahweh Nissi The Lord our Banner Exodus 17:15
Yahweh Maccaddeshcem The Lord our Sanctifier Exodus 31:13
Yahweh Shalom The Lord our Peace Judges 6:24
Yahweh Ro’i The Lord our Shepard Psalm 23:1
Yahweh Tsidkenu The Lord our Righteousness Jeremiah 23:6
Yahweh Shammah The Lord is There! Ezekiel 48:35


3 But Aaron and Moses persisted. "The God of the Hebrews has met with us*," they declared. "Let us take a three-day** trip into the wilderness so we can offer sacrifices to the LORD our God. If we don't, we will surely die by disease or the sword."



*The God of the Hebrews has met with us: Could be translated "God is on our side"! God here is "Elohim". They've abandoned the use of His name, Yahweh (YHWH), and now use a term that Pharaoh would more easily understand. Obviously, also, Moses and Aaron are speaking in Egyptian, not Hebrew. Pharaoh not only would not speak or understand Hebrew, he'd refuse to use a slave's language. The implication here, that Pharaoh can't miss, is that they obey their god Yahweh, not the god Pharaoh - a clear act of defiance!



**three-day: Jesus was raised on the 3rd day. We're to worship on resurrection ground. Later it would also be pointed out that it was necessary to go out of sight of their Egyptian neighbors because they would be offended at the sacrifices offered by the Israelites at such a great feast (8.26). For some of the animals slaughtered were seen as sacred by many Egyptians, and to see them killed would be to rouse them to extreme violence. It is not saying that they will be gone three days, but that they will go a distance that will take three days to cover. They would go to the desert because there was no homeland yet. Moses later spoke of the journey as necessary to avoid offending Egyptian sensibilities (8:25-26).



4 "Who do you think you are," Pharaoh shouted, "distracting the people from their tasks? Get back to work!



5 Look, there are many people here in Egypt, and you are stopping them from doing their work."



6 That same day Pharaoh sent this order to the slave drivers and foremen he had set over the people of Israel:


   The slave drivers (taskmasters) were Egyptians. It is the word for a boss of a labor gang. Then the labor gang had a Jewish foreman. They were the ones the slave drivers were beating. They couldn't beat all the Israelites out there, so they would beat their substitute, the foremen. How do you get Jews to work? Put other Jews over them and then beat the other Jew.



7 "Do not supply the people with any more straw* for making bricks. Let them get it themselves!



*straw: Mixing straw with mud made bricks stronger and more durable. Straw was required to make the bricks, probably to act as a binding agent. This has been confirmed by the examination of Egyptian brickwork. The bricks were made of Nile mud mixed with the straw and were made in frames or moulds and then left to dry in the sun. But the people were now to be required to gather the straw themselves and yet maintain the level of production. An interesting supporting comment is found in an Egyptian papyrus in which a man, who had to supervise or construct a building, said, "I am not provided with anything. There are no men for making bricks, and there is no straw in the district." The use of straw in making bricks in Egypt during this period is confirmed by archaeology.



   The ancient bricks are nearly all stamped with the name of a king, and they were formed of clay mixed with chopped straw and dried or hardened in the sun.





   Although the ancient Egyptians are best known for their stone monuments, they also used mud bricks extensively for building. The brick above, which bears the cartouche of Ramses II, was found within the walls of his great mortuary temple along with many reused bricks stamped with the names of his predecessors. The bricks were made from river mud and straw, shaped in wooden molds and left to dry in the sun; the cartouche or other inscription was stamped on the brick while it was still damp and soft. The ancient Egyptian word for brick was "debet," a word that has come into our modern vocabulary through the Spanish as "adobe," meaning sun-dried brick.



8 But don't reduce their production quotas by a single brick. They obviously don't have enough to do. If they did, they wouldn't be talking about going into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to their God.



9 Load them down with more work. Make them sweat! That will teach them to listen to these liars!"



   Pharaoh is saying that Moses and Aaron are liars and simply dreamed up this idea to let the people either get time off or even to flee. He intends to drive a wedge between them and the people of Israel so that the Hebrews won't pay any further attention to Moses and Aaron. To Pharaoh, these people are his property and they are being lazy and he intends to teach them a lesson. The words of Moses are here called “lying words”. Here is the main reason, then, for Pharaoh’s new policy. He wanted to discredit Moses. So the words that Moses spoke, Pharaoh calls false and lying words. Soon, God would reveal that they were true words. Pharaoh was less interested in the productivity that he could get out of the people, than he was with demonstrating to the people that he was god over them.



10 So the slave drivers and foremen informed the people: "Pharaoh has ordered us not to provide straw for you.



11 Go and get it yourselves. Find it wherever you can. But you must produce just as many bricks as before!"



12 So the people scattered throughout the land in search of straw.



13 The slave drivers were brutal. "Meet your daily quota of bricks, just as you did before!" they demanded.



14 Then they whipped the Israelite foremen in charge of the work crews. "Why haven't you met your quotas either yesterday or today?" they demanded.



15 So the Israelite foremen went to Pharaoh and pleaded with him. "Please don't treat us like this," they begged.



   What's going on now? Note the personal pronouns used here. What has happened to the belief of the Children of Israel? Whose servants are they? They just got through worshipping Yahweh. They just got through seeing the signs of Yahweh, and whom are they worshipping now? First time the pressure is on, "your servants, your servants, your servants." They are back bowing down to Pharaoh.



16 "We are given no straw, but we are still told to make as many bricks as before. We are beaten for something that isn't our fault! It is the fault of your slave drivers for making such unreasonable demands."



17 But Pharaoh replied, "You're just lazy! You obviously don't have enough to do. If you did, you wouldn't be saying, `Let us go, so we can offer sacrifices to the LORD.'



18 Now, get back to work! No straw will be given to you, but you must still deliver the regular quota of bricks."



19 Since Pharaoh would not let up on his demands, the Israelite foremen could see that they were in serious trouble.



20 As they left Pharaoh's court, they met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting outside for them.



21 The foremen* said to them, "May the LORD judge you for getting us into this terrible situation with Pharaoh** and his officials. You have given them an excuse to kill us!"



*foremen: obviously Hebrews since the refer to the LORD.



**Hebrew: for making us a stench in the nostrils of Pharaoh.



22 So Moses went back to the LORD and protested, "Why have you mistreated your own people like this, Lord*? Why did you send me?



*Lord: Adonai



   Moses was expecting immediate results and fewer problems. But, God had told Moses that Pharaoh would resist. Moses' impatience later costs him the privilege to enter the promised land with his people. Exodus 3:19-20: "But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go except under heavy pressure. So I will reach out and strike at the heart of Egypt with all kinds of miracles. Then at last he will let you go. As far as God is concerned, everything is moving according to plan.



23 Since I gave Pharaoh your message, he has been even more brutal to your people. You have not even begun to rescue them!"





On-Line Sources:



Off-Line Sources:



  • "Cruden's Complete Concordance" - Zondervan Publishing House

  • "Breath of the Holies: Secrets of Moses' Tabernacle" - DVD by Perry Stone

  • "In Search of the Mountain of God" by Robert Cornuke and David Halbrook - Broadman & Holman Publishers

  • "Symbols of Judaism" by Marc-Alai Ouaknin - Barnes & Noble Books, publisher

  • "The Exodus Revealed: Searching for the Red Sea Crossing" - (2001), DVD, Studio: Questar, ASIN: B00005AUE2, available from Amazon.com

  • "The Defender's Study Bible" -World Bible Publishers

  • "The Miracle of Passover" - DVD by Zola Levitt

  • "The NIV Application Commentary - Exodus" – Peter Enns – Zondervan™

  • "The Ten Commandments" (1956 film) from Paramount Pictures, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Charlton Heston as Moses

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