Bird's-eye view
In this passage, we see the immediate and painful consequences of Moses and Aaron's first confrontation with Pharaoh. God's plan of deliverance has begun, but the firstfruits of it are not relief, but affliction. The situation goes from bad to worse, which is a frequent pattern in the ways of God. He often makes the wound deeper before He heals it, so that no one can mistake the healing for a natural recovery. The foremen of Israel, caught between the impossible demands of a tyrant and the seemingly failed promises of God's messengers, find themselves crushed. Their response is a textbook case of how affliction, when not met with robust faith, curdles into accusation. They appeal to Pharaoh's sense of justice, which is like appealing to a crocodile's sense of mercy. When that fails, they turn on Moses and Aaron, blaming the instruments of their deliverance for the intensification of their bondage. This is a critical moment, revealing the heart of the people God is redeeming. They are not yet a people of faith, but a people of sight, and what they see is bleak. Their complaint against Moses is ultimately a complaint against the God who sent him, a pattern of grumbling that will characterize their journey through the wilderness.
This section serves as a crucial test. For Pharaoh, it is a test of his heart, which he hardens. For the foremen, it is a test of their faith, which they fail. And for Moses, it is a test of his leadership, which is immediately challenged not by the enemy, but by his own brethren. The central lesson is that God's sovereign plan does not operate on a timetable of human comfort. He is orchestrating a grand cosmic drama of redemption, and the first act involves demonstrating the absolute futility of human strength and the utter depravity of human tyranny. The Israelites must learn that Pharaoh cannot save them, and more importantly, that they cannot save themselves. They must be brought to the end of their own resources before they can look to God alone.
Outline
- 1. The Squeeze of Tyranny (Ex 5:15-21)
- a. A Futile Appeal to a Tyrant's Justice (Ex 5:15-16)
- b. The Tyrant's Contemptuous Reply (Ex 5:17-18)
- c. The Foremen's Despair (Ex 5:19)
- d. An Accusation Against God's Messengers (Ex 5:20-21)
Context In Exodus
This passage follows directly on the heels of Moses and Aaron's initial demand to Pharaoh: "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go...’" (Ex. 5:1). Pharaoh's response was not only a defiant rejection of Yahweh's authority ("Who is Yahweh, that I should obey His voice?") but also a cruel escalation of Israel's bondage. He commanded that the Israelites be denied straw for their bricks but still be required to produce the same quota. This was a calculated move to crush their spirits and demonstrate his absolute power. The events of our text are the direct result of this policy. The Israelite foremen, who were appointed from among the Hebrews to oversee the work, are now feeling the full weight of Pharaoh's wrath. This episode is foundational for the rest of the Exodus narrative. It establishes the central conflict: the God of Israel versus the gods of Egypt, embodied in Pharaoh. It also introduces the recurring theme of Israel's grumbling and unbelief, which will be tested and disciplined repeatedly in the wilderness. The situation has to get this bad for God's subsequent deliverance to be seen as the miracle it truly is.
Key Issues
- The Nature of Tyranny
- God's Providence in Suffering
- The Sin of Grumbling and Complaining
- The Misdirection of Blame
- The Testing of Faith and Leadership
The First Taste of Deliverance
When God begins a work of deliverance, our expectation is often for immediate relief. We pray for the headache to go away, and we expect the aspirin to work in fifteen minutes. But God is not dispensing spiritual aspirin. He is performing radical surgery on a cosmic scale. The first result of Moses' obedience and his declaration of God's word to Pharaoh is not a ticker-tape parade, but beatings. The workload is not lightened; it is made impossible. This is a profound principle of God's ways with His people. He often makes things worse before He makes them better.
Why does He do this? He does it to expose the true nature of the bondage. He does it to strip away all false hope. The Israelites could not have any illusion that Pharaoh might have a change of heart, or that they could negotiate a better deal. They had to be shown that their enemy was implacable and their situation was humanly hopeless. Only when they are driven into that corner, with the sea before them and Pharaoh's army behind them, are they truly ready for a salvation that can only be attributed to God. This initial suffering is a severe mercy, a gift of desperation designed to clear the ground for true faith. The foremen here have not yet learned this lesson. They are operating according to the world's logic: if things get worse, your plan has failed. God's logic is different: when things get worse, His plan is right on schedule.
Verse by Verse Commentary
15 Then the foremen of the sons of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, “Why do you deal this way with your slaves?
The foremen, who were Hebrews tasked by the Egyptians with overseeing the labor, are in an impossible position. They are accountable to Pharaoh's taskmasters for the brick quota, and they are responsible for driving their own people to meet it. When the quota isn't met, they are the ones who are beaten. So they do what seems reasonable; they appeal to the man at the top. Their cry is a plea for justice. They are appealing to Pharaoh's reason, his sense of fairness. "Why are you doing this?" It is a logical question, but they are asking it of a man who is operating on the logic of raw, tyrannical power. Tyrants do not have a "why" that is accessible to reason and justice. Their "why" is "because I can." The foremen are trying to play by the rules of a civilized game, but Pharaoh is not playing a game at all. He is a living embodiment of the state as god, and his will is absolute.
16 There is no straw given to your slaves, yet they keep saying to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your slaves are being beaten; but it is the sin of your own people.”
Here they lay out their case. It is a formal complaint, a legal argument. The charge is simple: the system is unjust. We are commanded to produce a product, but we are denied the necessary materials. When we inevitably fail, we are punished. They conclude by placing the blame squarely where it belongs: "it is the sin of your own people." The fault lies with the Egyptian taskmasters and the system they are enforcing. In a just court, this would be an open-and-shut case. But they are not in a just court. They are in the throne room of a man who has set himself against Yahweh. Their argument is perfectly rational and entirely futile. They are trying to reason with a worldview that sees them not as subjects to be governed, but as resources to be exploited. The injustice is not a flaw in the system; it is the point of the system.
17-18 But he said, “You are lazy, lazy! Therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to Yahweh.’ So now, go and labor; but straw will not be given to you, yet you must deliver the quota of bricks.”
Pharaoh's response is pure, unadulterated tyranny. He does not engage with their argument at all. He attacks their character. "You are lazy, lazy!" This is the classic tactic of the oppressor. When confronted with the injustice of your system, blame the victim. He contemptuously dismisses their desire to worship God as a mere pretext, a lazy excuse to get out of work. He correctly links their complaint to the message of Moses and Aaron, but he interprets it through his own godless framework. For him, worship is a waste of good labor time. He then reiterates the impossible command. There is no negotiation, no compromise. His will is absolute. Go back to work. No straw. Same quota. The door is slammed in their faces. This is what raw, pagan power looks like. It is irrational, brutal, and deaf to appeals for justice.
19 Then the foremen of the sons of Israel saw that they were in trouble because they were told, “You must not reduce your daily amount of bricks.”
The reality of their situation now lands with crushing weight. The Hebrew phrase is literally that they saw themselves "in evil." Their appeal has failed spectacularly. Not only is there no relief, but the cruel edict has been personally confirmed by Pharaoh himself. There is no higher court of appeal. They are trapped. This is the moment of despair. They had hoped for reason, for a small measure of mercy, and they received nothing but contempt and a reiteration of the impossible. Their world has just shrunk to the size of a brick mold with no straw. This is the "slough of despond" that often comes after the first steps of obedience toward deliverance.
20-21 When they left Pharaoh’s presence, they confronted Moses and Aaron, standing there to meet them. And they said to them, “May Yahweh look upon you and judge, for you have made us a foul smell in Pharaoh’s sight and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
Crushed by Pharaoh, the foremen now turn their bitterness on Moses and Aaron. Notice the dynamic. They cannot lash out at the tyrant, for he has the power to kill them. So they lash out at God's representatives. This is a classic case of misplaced blame. Moses and Aaron are waiting for them, likely to hear the outcome and offer encouragement. Instead, they are met with a formal curse. "May Yahweh look upon you and judge." They are calling down a covenant lawsuit on the very men God sent to save them. Their accusation is sharp: you have made us stink in Pharaoh's nostrils. You have made our situation worse. You have not provided a path to freedom, but have "put a sword in their hand to kill us." From a purely human perspective, their complaint is understandable. Their lives just got significantly harder because of what Moses did. But from a theological perspective, their complaint is a disaster. It is the first eruption of that grumbling, faithless spirit that will plague Israel for the next forty years. They are judging God's plan based on the first five minutes of hardship. They see the sword in Pharaoh's hand, but they are blind to the rod in God's hand.
Application
This passage is a hard but necessary medicine for the church. We live in an age that prizes comfort and expects immediate results. When we follow God and things get difficult, our first impulse is often the same as the foremen's: something has gone wrong. We are tempted to blame our leaders, to question God's plan, and to grumble about our circumstances. This text reminds us that affliction is often the first sign that God is truly at work. Deliverance from a world system that is in rebellion against God is not a gentle process. It is warfare, and there will be casualties and hardships. Pharaoh's response is a picture of how the world system, in any era, reacts when its authority is challenged by the Word of God. It does not reason; it attacks. It does not debate; it doubles down on its tyranny.
The central application for us is to learn the difference between a complaint and a lament. The foremen here offer a complaint. They stand in judgment over God's servants and, by extension, God's plan. They accuse. A lament, on the other hand, takes the pain and confusion and brings it honestly before God, without accusation, but with trust. Think of the Psalms. The difference is the posture of the heart. The foremen's hearts were full of fear and unbelief, which led to accusation. A heart of faith, when crushed, cries out "How long, O Lord?" but it does so while still clinging to the character of God. We must learn to endure the initial worsening of things, trusting that God is a master strategist. He is allowing the enemy to overplay his hand. He is setting the stage for a deliverance so spectacular that only He can get the credit. When we find ourselves between the tyrant's decree and the Red Sea, we must resist the urge to turn on Moses and instead learn to stand still and see the salvation of Yahweh.