Context No. 3327 of 4322 · Exodus

Exodus 5:10-14: in context

10The taskmasters of the people went out with their officers, and they spoke to the people, saying, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you straw. 11Go yourselves, get straw where you can find it, for nothing of your work shall be diminished.’” 12So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13The taskmasters were urgent saying, “Fulfill your work quota daily, as when there was straw!” 14The officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and were asked, “Why haven’t you fulfilled your quota both yesterday and today, in making brick as before?”

Pharaoh's response to Moses' request is to make the burden crueler: gather your own straw, but produce the same number of bricks. The people scatter across Egypt scrounging stubble, and their own foremen are beaten when the impossible quota falls short. Why have you not finished your task, as before?

This is oppression's logic: increase the demand, remove the means, and punish the failure. It is a bleak moment, and it comes right after Moses first spoke God's word of deliverance, things got harder, not easier. Sometimes the first result of moving toward freedom is a fiercer resistance and a heavier load. But this deepening of the misery is not the end of the story; it is the darkness just before God acts. The very cruelty of Pharaoh, piling burden on burden, sets the stage for the deliverance God is about to work. The worst moment came immediately before the rescue.

When taking a step toward what God wants seems only to increase my burden, can I trust that a heavier struggle may be the darkness just before God acts?

Sources

Exodus 5:11: "Go yourselves, get straw where you can find it, for nothing of your work shall be diminished."
Exodus 5:13: "The taskmasters were urgent saying, Fulfill your work quota daily, as when there was straw!"
Exodus 5:14: "The officers of the children of Israel... were beaten, and were asked, Why haven't you fulfilled your quota?"