Moses and Aaron don’t waste any time getting after it. They head on in to see Pharaoh and deliver the message God gave them to carry – “free my people”. Don’t forget that just a bit earlier Moses was arguing with God about having to take this leadership role – he didn’t want to do it. But he has moved on and is now there demanding freedom. The response is not exactly what he might have hoped for: “who is God that I should listen” was what Pharaoh says. That sort of derails the entire discussion doesn’t it? Pharaoh has no intention of letting anyone go free. He in fact, decides to turn up the heat on the slaves and make their task of making bricks even more difficult. They had been provided straw to use in the process, but he turns that off and has his managers tell the people they now have to find their own straw plus meet quota. That is not going the right way here at all for Moses.
So the people are less than enamored with Moses leadership skills. Their life has just become much more difficult because this guy and his brother show up and try to tell Pharaoh what to do. The Israelite forman were waiting for Moses when he came out of the meeting with Pharaoh and they let him know they are not happy with his plan. Moses is beside himself and pleas to God. “Things have only gotten worse for this people” he tells God. The plan doesn’t seem to be working. But how often that is the case for us when we are following God’s direction. We don’t get immediate activity that aligns with our expectation and we are then doubting whether we should be following God’s direction or not. Moses couldn’t see the big picture here. He only saw that the immediate response was not what he desired. He did do the right then in approaching God with his concerns. Too often we just bail and move on to our own plan. But we have to get past the short sightedness we often live by. God’s picture is a whole lot bigger than we will ever see. We need to trust and obey!
Posted by asorensen 
