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.
