WEEKEND Edition 2/3 October 2021 “Backfire” Exodus 5

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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends, welcome to the weekend!!

I wonder if you’ve had the experience of what I call the great ‘backfire’? You went out of your way to try and help someone and it ‘backfired’! Your attempt to help them actually hurt them, it made their life more complicated, and that put a real strain on your relationship with them. In fact perhaps they’ve actually pulled away from you, wounded by your ‘backfired’ attempt to help them!

That’s exactly what happened to Moses in his first attempt to help the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. Yesterday we left Moses and Aaron after they were essentially thrown out of Pharaoh’s presence and rebuked for meddling in Egypt’s internal affairs. The Pharaoh wanted Moses and Aaron to clearly understand that the 1 million or so Hebrews who had been living in Egypt for a long time and in recent decades had been brutalizer in slavery, were no business of Moses and Aaron! But the Pharaoh didn’t stop there. Exodus 5:6 tells us: “That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: ‘You are no longer to supply the slaves with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; do not reduce their quota. They are lazy, that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God’. Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.” (Ex. 5:6-9) Now that is what I would call a major “Backfire”! But my friends, a ‘backfire’ is even worse when a person thinks they are obeying God when they try to help someone and it backfires on them, right? Moses and Aaron had followed exactly the instructions God had given Moses in their burning bush encounter! So can anyone explain WHY obedience to God would end up in ‘backfire’?

So the Exodus record tells us the slave drivers and work foremen spread the word among the Hebrew workers. Now let’s remember, the workers out in the mud pits making bricks had no idea Moses had returned from exile, and along with Aaron he had met first with the Hebrew elders and then secondly had gone to Pharaoh to appeal for their release. These hard working slaves only knew one thing… every day was drudgery, hour after hour in the mud pits stomping straw into the mud, then scooping up the mud with their hands and putting it into brick forms and setting the bricks out in the hot Egyptian sun to bake. Every mud pit had a daily quota of bricks because there was a constant caravan of other slaves with carts coming to collect those sun baked mud bricks and taking them to the massive construction projects, some of which are still standing in Egypt today, nearly 4000 years later!!

Egypt had perfected the logistics of construction! Dirt, water, mud, straw, carts and thousands… hundreds of thousands of slaves, keeping the massive Egyptian construction system working very well. But suddenly one major aspect of the logistical system was disrupted. The announcement was clear… no longer would straw be supplied to the mud pits. Now the slaves would need to go find their own straw for the mud pits, but their brick quota was not diminished!

Chaos erupted! The harsh work days suddenly became much longer. Wives and children were now recruited into the process of finding straw for their men in the mud pits, which meant they had little time to prepare meals and wash clothes for their men. It was impossible, but slaves have no options. The record says: “The slave drivers kept pressing the slaves saying, ‘Complete the work quota required of you for each day, just as you did when you had straw.’ The Israelite foreman appointed by the slave drivers were beaten and asked, ‘Why didn’t you meet your quota of bricks yesterday or today? Oh my friends, it’s not difficult for us to put ourselves into the slave villages is it? The Hebrew slaves are exhausted. No matter how early they rise, no matter how hard they work, the quota of daily bricks is unachievable, and they have no options. Anger is seething in the mud pits. Blood from beaten backs is flowing into the mud pits. Could slavery possibly get any more unbearable?

The record tells us some of the Israelite slave foremen went to Pharaoh, seeking some answers and help. “Why have you treated your servants this way? We are given no straw yet we are told ‘make bricks’ as many as before! We are being beaten but the fault is not ours. We cannot make bricks without straw!”

The Pharaoh was heartless, merciless. He said to the foremen: “Lazy, that’s what you are, lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD. Now get to work. You will not be given the straw you need, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.” (Ex. 5:10-18) Now imagine if you were one of those Hebrew slave foremen? What would you have thought? What would you have done? It was unreasonable, unrealistic, impossible, and Pharaoh was unbending. He was irrational. People were going to die, either by working themselves to death or by beatings from the slave masters.

Some of these Hebrew slave foremen must have heard of what Moses and Aaron had done, for the record tells us: “When the foremen left the Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron and they said, ‘May the LORD look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials have put a sword in their hand to kill us!” (Ex. 5:19-21) Oh my, can you imagine how Moses and Aaron felt? They had been obedient to God. They had tried to help the slaves in their misery, but things had gotten much worse for the slaves.

Now their slave anger will be turned toward Moses and Aaron rather than the slave masters and Pharaoh! There was nothing Moses and Aaron could say. No assurances that things would get any better. No answers for the fair and painful questions of the Hebrew slave foremen. This was disaster! I’m sure Moses felt it would have been far better for everyone if he had simply stayed out there in the desert with his sheep. No one cares about a talking, burning bush. In fact right now no one believes God hears their cries, or sees their misery and cares about them. No… nothing make sense right now! Can you see the angry looks… ‘Go away Moses, we were far better off before you came here. We don’t need your help. You’ve only made life much worse for us… go away, Moses.”

The Exodus record says: “Moses returned to the LORD and said, ‘O LORD, why have You brought trouble upon this people? Is this why You sent me here? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has brought trouble upon this people and You have NOT rescued your people at all.” (Ex. 5:22,23) I can’t tell you WHERE Moses was having this conversation with God, but I suppose it was a private place, perhaps he had gone back out into the desert several miles, to find some alone time with God. Moses was not welcome anywhere among the Hebrew slaves! What Moses said was fair and true, wasn’t it? He had done everything God had told him to do, and it had all ‘backfired’ badly. The situation for all these slaves was now much worse than before Moses had come. Moses was confused, and I’m sure he wanted to resign, to get out of this role of representing God to the Pharaoh and the people. May I ask, have you ever been in that place friends, where everything you did to try and help backfired?

Let me leave you this weekend pondering what has happened here. But first it’s important you hear God’s response to Moses: “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of My mighty hand, he will let them go; because of My mighty hand, he will drive them out of his country.” (Ex. 6:1) I’m sure Moses remembered God had said Pharaoh would resist and God would harden Pharaoh’s heart so he would NOT initially allow the people to leave. But it’s one thing hearing such news and it’s another thing living in the ‘backfire’ of it all, isn’t it? As you look around our world and your country, are you seeing government attitudes changing toward God and people who believe in Him and want to honor Him with their lives?

So this weekend, let’s ponder this… have you and God talked about this very much lately? Just like for those Hebrew slaves, life is getting very, very difficult in many parts of the world for anyone who wants to honor God with their life… what words of encouragement do you have for them? Like happened for the Hebrew slaves, life may get much more difficult, more painful before it gets better… are we prepared to handle that? Can we trust God through these tough times?

Here’s a song to help you consider such difficult times my friends, and I urge you to spend some time this weekend worshiping and praying, asking God to help you understand how to walk faithfully through these difficult times. And I’ll see you again on Monday…

Today’s Scripture is Exodus 5.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

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