Exodus 5:10-14: a reflection

When Moses first obeys God and asks Pharaoh to let the people go, the immediate result is not deliverance but harsher oppression: Pharaoh commands that the people make the same quota of bricks with no straw provided, and they are beaten when they cannot keep up. The taskmasters were urgent, the account says, saying, Fulfill your work quota daily, as when there was straw. The first result of Moses' obedience was that things got harder, not easier; the burden increased before it was lifted. This is a sobering reality: sometimes the first result of obeying God, of doing right, is that things become harder before they get better. Obedience to God sometimes makes things harder before they improve. The first result of doing right can be increased hardship. Doing right may bring more difficulty before deliverance comes. Things sometimes get harder before God's deliverance.

Notice that Moses' obedience did not immediately make things better; at first it made them worse. He obeyed God, went to Pharaoh, asked for the people's release; and the immediate result was that Pharaoh increased their burden, demanding the same output with less provision, so that the people were beaten and their suffering deepened. The deliverance would come, but not yet; first things got harder. This is worth understanding, for it happens in our own lives. Sometimes when we do the right thing, obey God, take the faithful step, the immediate result is not relief but increased difficulty; the situation gets harder before it gets better. This can tempt us to think we have done wrong, that obedience was a mistake; but the increased hardship is not always a sign that we erred. As with Moses, the harder time can come before the deliverance, part of the path toward it. We need not conclude, when doing right brings hardship, that we chose wrongly. Increased hardship after obedience is not always a sign of error. Doing right may make things harder before deliverance comes. Persevere in obedience even when it first makes things harder. The harder time can precede God's deliverance, not replace it.

That is worth taking to heart, for the first result of obeying God can be increased hardship, and we need not conclude from this that we chose wrongly. We can expect that doing right will make things better at once, and be shaken when instead it makes things harder, tempted to think obedience was a mistake; but when Moses first obeyed God and went to Pharaoh, the people's burden increased before it was lifted. Increased hardship after obedience is not always a sign of error. When doing right first brings hardship, do not conclude you chose wrongly; persevere, trusting that deliverance may lie beyond the harder time. Persevere in obedience even when doing right first makes things harder rather than easier, as when Moses first obeyed God and asked Pharaoh to let the people go, the immediate result was not deliverance but harsher oppression, the people required to make the same quota of bricks without straw and beaten when they could not; for sometimes the first result of obeying God, of doing the right and faithful thing, is that things get harder before they get better, the burden increasing before it is lifted, and this can tempt us to think we have done wrong and that obedience was a mistake, but increased hardship after obedience is not always a sign that we erred, since as with Moses the harder time can come before the deliverance and be part of the path toward it, so that we need not conclude, when doing right brings hardship, that we chose wrongly, but can persevere in obedience trusting that deliverance may lie beyond.