God's Plan vs. Ours
by Mary StephensMay 2016
In Exodus chapter 5 we read about Moses and Aaron going before Pharaoh for the first time to tell him that the Lord wanted His people to worship Him in the wilderness. Pharaoh, of course, didn't think much of this plan and as a result, he commanded the taskmasters to stop giving the Hebrews straw to make their bricks and to make them find their own while still delivering the same number of bricks per day. Well, this didn't work out well and the Hebrews suffered sorely for it. In fact, the officers of the children of Israel were beaten for not keeping up the production of bricks. But, when they went to see Pharaoh to ask why this injustice, he answered them very rudely -
Exodus 5:17-19 But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the LORD. Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks. And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was said, Ye shall not minish ought from your bricks of your daily task.
These officers of the children of Israel happened to meet Moses and Aaron as they were leaving their audience with Pharaoh and, in typical human form, they blamed them for causing them this trouble, despite the fact that they themselves had believed that Moses and Aaron were sent of God, as we read at the end of chapter 4. (People so often do blame the preacher or teacher when they follow God's command and things don't work out. Somehow it feels safer than blaming God.)
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