Exodus 5

Bible Gateway link Chapter 5

The Israelites were upset because Moses had made their lives more difficult. Moses showed up, made the Pharaoh angry, and as a result Pharaoh took it out on the servants.

What a triangle we have here!

First we have Moses; he is standing before Pharaoh because the Lord has told him to, Moses sees the pain inflicted upon his people, and feels terrible, he asks the Lord why have you done this, why did you send me?

Then we have the Israelites; this fellow Moses comes into their life, he is going to free them, get them out of their chains, but their lives are made more difficult. Now they could not care less what Moses wants to do, they just want their straw brought to them, they want life back to "normal".

Lastly we have the Pharaoh; Moses shows up, asks to let the Israelites go out and worship, and the Pharaoh jumps to the conclusion that the slaves must be complaining, so he thinks making them work harder will take their minds off of their God.......

Have you heard the saying you cannot see the forest for the trees? Shortsightedness takes it's toll on all of us. God has a plan, and it works in many people's lives at the same time. As a result, life gets harder before it gets easier (the Israelites) Causes us to wonder what we are doing, and why (Moses) and makes us try to force things to happen because we will not slow down long enough to look for God's plan. (Pharaoh).

Pharaoh reminds me of the guy that kicks his cat. If you do not know the story here it is briefly. A guy goes to work, spills coffee on himself in the car, get to work, and gets yelled at by the boss all day. Gets home, and has an argument with his wife. As he is walking into the kitchen the cat is walking by......so he kicks the cat! I often wonder why Pharaoh did not just get rid of Moses, and Aaron (God has a great way of blinding people to the obvious sometimes). They were the catalyst, not the Israelites. Life was good for the Pharaoh before Moses showed up. Yet the Pharaoh is going to kick the cat. That is the easy thing to do. If you think about it, they are all taking the easy road, it is always easier to blame others, question God, or just kick the cat. Times like these are when we need our faith the most. God did not promise an easy life, he promised to sustain us. We have to have faith in his plan, even when we do not understand it. God is at work in so many peoples life at the same time, why would we think for one second that our lives will be a bed of roses? His own son suffered to carry out God's plan! I take that as a pretty good indication that our lives will have to get a little complicated, and a little painful from time to time for God's plan to be carried out. That is life. As I like to say, nothing ever came from a life that was an easy one!

Peace,
Brian