GATHERING STRAW

“’You are no longer to provide straw for the bricks the people are making, as you did before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. But you will require them to produce the same quality of bricks as before, don’t reduce it, because they’re lazing around. This is why they’re crying, “Let us go and sacrifice to our God.”’”
Exodus 5:7-8

When Moshe and Aharon went before Pharaoh, they spoke the words told to them by Adonai. “Adonai says, ‘Let my people go.’” Pharaoh, however, was not so quick to obey. In fact, not knowing who Adonai was he questioned why he should even listen to Him. Then, when asked by Moshe and Aharon to let the people go, he responded with additional labor. When once straw was being given to the people, now the Hebrews were being told to gather their own straw. The other piece to all this additional labor was that the amount of bricks was not to cease. The quota still had to be met. As the people returned home a few days later, after being told they were lazy by the Pharaoh, they saw Moshe and Aharon and spoke harshly to them, almost cursing them by saying, “May Adonai look at you and judge accordingly.” With this, Moshe went back to Adonai and questioned Him.
I have heard in the past that when we question Adonai, we should always question inquisitively as opposed to in anger. It is easy for our emotions to creep in and begin to judge the one we are questioning. But in the few times I have done that, Adonai has always seemed to answer me the same way He did Job. In reading Moshe’s conversation with Adonai, though, I see a little bit of me now. There are times when He tells me to do something, and in my obedience to Him I find pain. It is normally in those times that I wonder if I heard right, or performed right, or if I was just meant to be target for someone else. I have worked to do better at believing that when I step out as Moshe did, it isn’t for any reason than for my faith to grow. Moshe may not have been the most loved at that moment, but Moshe’s faith was about to grow. After all the questions, and all the waving of his arms in frustration, Moshe heard these words. “Now you will see what I am going to do to Pharaoh.”

Exodus 5:1 – 6:1