God's work is not always done easily, simply, or quickly. If the world had remained the Kingdom as it was created, everything would have been simpler: God's will would then have been the only will determining the course of all events. But in the fallen world things are not like that...
God's work is not always done easily, simply, or quickly. If the world had remained the Kingdom as it was created, everything would have been simpler: God's will would then have been the only will determining the course of all events. But in the fallen world things are not like that; here, besides God's will, many other wills are also at work. In itself this would not have been a problem: God did want other beings, created by Him, to act in the world He had made, besides Himself.
The problem is that these beings often oppose God. This does not always and not necessarily happen from evil intent; simply, every separation from God, every desire to create for oneself a special little world, separate from the great world of God, objectively leads its inhabitants to set their will against God's will.
To be sure, such a little world is small only in comparison with God's world, with the universe He created; from the inside it can seem very large indeed. In such a world separated from God, much can happen that does not fit into God's plan. So it was in Egypt, where Moses returned in order to lead his people out. The Egyptian authorities had no burning desire to listen to a prophet of some unknown God, appearing from no one knew where, of whom they had no idea. Who, after all, is this Yahweh, that anyone should listen to Him? And why should anyone let anyone go into the wilderness at His demand? From the Egyptians' point of view, the question was entirely natural.
Just as natural was the authorities' reaction: if these barbarians had suddenly remembered some gods of theirs, then they had a great deal of free time, even too much. Therefore they had to be loaded with work so heavily that they would forget all about gods and festivals. And why, indeed, would the Egyptians need Semites celebrating their festivals on Egyptian territory?
In those days Palestine belonged to Egypt, and the last thing the Egyptians needed was for some tribal self-awareness to awaken among the Semitic tribes of the delta. Yet this would inevitably have happened sooner or later if they had remembered their gods and begun celebrating festivals dedicated to them. Meanwhile, the authorities' refusal and the increased workload plunged the people into despondency. They had hoped that this wonderworker who had come from far away would make their life easier, but for the moment it was only getting worse. Such a beginning required God's intervention; otherwise the whole project would have ended before it had even begun.
5 Moses and Aaron here deal with Pharaoh to get leave of him to go to worship in the wilderness.
- They demand leave in the name of God, Исх 5:1.
- They beg leave in the name of Israel, Исх 5:3.
These cruel orders were,and he answers their demand with a defiance of God, Исх 5:2.
and he answers their request with further orders to oppress Israel, Исх 5:4-9.
5:1 Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go - Moses, in treating with the elders of Israel, is directed to call God the God of their fathers; but, in treating with Pharaoh, they call him the God of Israel, and it is the first time we find him called so in scripture. He is called the God of Israel, the person, Быт 33:20, but here it is Israel the people. They are just beginning to be formed into a people when God is called their God. Let my people go - They were God's people, and therefore Pharaoh ought not to detain them in bondage. And he expected services and sacrifices from them, and therefore they must have leave to go where they could freely exercise their religion, without giving offence to, or receiving offence from, the Egyptians.
5:2 Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? - Being summoned to surrender, he thus hangs out the flag of defiance. Who is Jehovah?I neither know him nor care for him; neither value nor fear him. It is a hard name that he never heard of before, but he resolves it shall be no bugbear to him. Israel was now a despised, oppressed people, and by the character they bore he makes his estimate of their God, and concludes that he made no better figure among the gods, than his people did among the nations.
5:3 We pray thee, let us go three days journey into the desert - And that on a good errand, and unexceptionable: we will sacrifice to the Lord our God - As other people do to theirs; lest if we quite cast off his worship, he fall upon us - With one judgment or other, and then Pharaoh will lose his vassals.
5:5 The people are many - Therefore your injury to me is the greater, in attempting to make them rest from their labours.
5:6 The task - masters, were Egyptians, the officers were Israelites employed under them.
5:7 Straw - To mix with the clay, or to burn the brick with.
5:8 They are idle - The cities they built for Pharaoh, were witnesses for them that they were not idle; yet he thus basely misrepresents them, that he might have a pretence to increase their burdens.
5:9 Vain words - Those of Moses and Aaron.
5:14 In thy own people - For if they had given us straw, we should have fulfilled our task.
5:21 The Lord look upon you, and judge - They should have humbled themselves before God, but instead of that they fly in the face of their best friends. Those that are called to public service for God and their generation, must expect to be tried not only by the threats of proud enemies, but by the unjust and unkind censures of unthinking friends.To put a sword in their hand to slay us - To give them the occasion they have long sought for.