Moses leaves Midian and heads to Egypt.  He meets up with Aaron and they together go to meet with Pharaoh.  I’m sure this was an interesting reunion. While I’m not sure that Pharaoh and Moses were best friends like in the movie Prince of Egypt, they certainly would have grown up in the palace together.  God wants Moses to perform signs and tell Pharaoh that his son is going to die.  Moses takes a gentler approach.  Let’s look at the account and Pharaoh’s response in Exodus 5.

Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’” 2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.” 3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.” 4 But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” 5 Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.” 6 That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: 7 “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. 8 But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”

Perhaps Pharaoh is angry at Moses.  Maybe Moses doesn’t deliver God’s message or show the signs yet because of his own feelings for Pharaoh.  We don’t really know.  The only thing we know is that Moses does not completely obey God and things get worse for the Israelites not better.  This becomes a pattern that lasts the rest of the OT for the people of Israel.  I think that often we do what Moses does here.  Even as Moses is obeying God he is doing it his way instead of God’s way.  God gave him clear instructions and Moses thinks that he has a better plan.  The truth is that the Bible tells us over and over again not to trust in our understanding but to do things God’s way.  He even promises to make our paths straight when we do.  Lot’s of pain and trouble can be saved if we simply follow God from the start.  I pray that we will be a people who look to follow God’s paths and not our own.

In His Grip,

Pastor Dave