Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: April 8
Today is: Thursday, April 18th, 2024 (Show Today's Devotion)
Select a Day for a Devotion in the Month of April: (Show All Months)
Exodus 5
There were therefore no difficulties in the way of Moses but such as resulted from the nature of his mission; and he appeared under advantages which no other Israelite could claim. Nevertheless, the enterprise upon which he had entered must have seemed hopeless to him, had it not been for the strong assurances with which be had been favored. The reception which his application obtained at the Egyptian court, was calculated to discourage a less assured spirit. He preferred his request in this simple and mitigated form: “Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.” The king’s answer was short and terribly decisive: “Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go.” We are not to infer from this that Pharaoh was an atheist. That was not the religion of Egypt—which had gods all too many— but the king knew not the name of Jehovah as a god; and regarding him as the special and particular God of the Hebrews, he saw nothing in their condition to convince him that this God possessed such power as commanded his obedience. It therefore behoved the Lord, through the agency of his commissioned servant, to set forth his power in the eyes of the Egyptians, and convince them that the demand came from One whose high behests were not to be despised. Thus he might show them the vanity of the idols in which they trusted, and vindicate the honor of his own great name.
This is the argument of the great transactions which followed. It amounted to a contest for power between the idols of Egypt and the God of Israel. The result would show with whom the power and the glory lay; and the name of the Lord, which they knew not, and which they had despised, would be magnified in the sight of the Egyptians. The king did not deny the existence of Jehovah, or that he had authorized such a demand as Moses made in his name; but regarding him only as the national God of the Hebrews, he considered that Egypt had stronger gods of its own, who would not fail to protect him from whatever anger the God of the Israelites might evince at the neglect of a mandate so contrary to the interests of the nation which claimed their guardianship. We see much of this reasoning among idolaters in the sacred Scriptures—as in the case of the Philistines who supposed that their god Dagon had prevailed over Jehovah when the ark was taken—1Sa_4:8; 1Sa_5:2; and as in the case of the Assyrians, who fancied that they had been beaten because the God of Israel was a God of the hills, whereas theirs were gods of the valleys—1Ki_20:28. In both these cases, as in the present, the honor of Jehovah was engaged to protect his high name from such disparagement.
Now it appears that in all the long time Moses had been away, although individuals had been changed, the policy of the Egyptian court towards the Israelites had remained unaltered. They were kept under the same condition of oppression and degradation as at the birth of Moses. They indeed retained the occupation of the territories originally assigned them; and within that territory possessed the rights of private property in flocks and herds, and in the products of the ground, although, doubtless, all were subject to heavy taxations. The grievance was, that a large number were required to be constantly supplied to labor, for little more than their food, upon the public works—in the making of bricks, in the building of cities, and in the culture of the ground. They probably served a few months at a time in alternating gangs and the intensity of the oppression must have consisted in the excessive hardships to which the persons actually out on the service were exposed, the increased labor which is consequence devolved on those at home, from the high proportion of the hands required by the government, and from the liability of the whole to serve in their turn. They were drawn, probably something after the manner of the militia with us—all being liable, but such as could afford it procuring substitutes instead of serving in person. The number required in proportion to the population, was probably such, that all were required for actual service in due rotation, excepting those who were exempted by age or infirmity, such as even the Egyptians would exempt on account of their social standing in the offices they exercised, and such as had wealth enough to pay for exemption.
In the dispensations of the Lord’s providence, it often happens that the afflictions of his people become the most grievous when the day of their deliverance draws nigh, as the darkest hour is that which precedes the break of morning. So it was now. The king affected to regard this application as a mark of disaffection, created by too much leisure and too little work, and he directed new burdens to be laid upon them. The form in which the increased burden was imposed, is remarkable. Hitherto they had been supplied with the materials of their principal labor of brick-making—the clay and the straw; but it was now directed that the straw should be withheld, and yet that the exacted tale of bricks should be in no wise diminished. This was hard. It was impossible to make bricks without straw; and the time consumed in collecting it would not allow the tale of bricks to be provided within the time appointed. This difficulty increased; for in proportion as the straw they could provide was diminished, they had to go to greater distances to gather the stubble of the fields instead. This implies that they had used up the chopped straw which had been reserved as food for their cattle, and had now to gather, with much toil and loss of time, the stubble of the distant fields, which, although useless for any other purpose, might serve as straw in the making of bricks. The story of their wrongs was thus carried throughout the land; and there is reason to suppose, that the sympathies of the Egyptians as a body were engaged on their behalf, and that the proceedings of the government were not generally approved.
The result was, that the taskmasters who were responsible to the government for the production of the bricks, reprimanded, and even beat the Hebrew overseers, who were accountable to them. The beating is a striking incident, characteristic of the people; for one needs only to look into a book of Egyptian antiquities, to see how freely the stick was administered to people of all ages, and of either sex, among the Egyptians. In fact, from the evidence this people have themselves left to the world in their monuments, it would seem as if Egypt was, as much as China or Persia at the present day, ruled by the rod. The overseers were at length urged to carry their complaints to the king, supposing, perhaps, that this rigor had been imposed upon them by the taskmasters without his consent. But if this were their impression, they were soon undeceived. The stern answer was, “Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, let us go and do sacrifice to Jehovah. Go therefore now and work.”
Thus the intended deliverer of Israel was led to experience the lot which often befalls good men in the best of causes. Their interference only for the time aggravates the evil they hoped to remove; and they themselves become odious to the people whose hopes they had excited, and who ascribe the increase of their burdens to their blind and blundering zeal. So it was now. The people were indignant at the interposition which, however well intended, had produced such disastrous results; and hard as their condition had been before Moses came among them, they now looked back upon it with regret, as a state of comparative ease, and considered that, as they emphatically declared, the brothers had put a sword into the hand of the government to slay them. Moses himself was greatly distressed, and complained to the Lord, “Why is it that thou hast sent me?” The answer reassured him, “Now shalt thou see what I will do unto Pharaoh,” began the answer, and went on with promises of high deliverance and special favor. Moses went to make known this encouragement to the people; but, and the observation is impressingly suggestive, “they hearkened not unto Moses, for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage.”