And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!”
Moses and Aaron have just asked Pharaoh to let a whole nation go and worship, and he answers in the only currency he knows: work lost. He sees a huge workforce and two men making it idle — so why did God's first move to free His people make life harder?
A Mind That Can Only Count Bricks
Pharaoh's objection is not about God. It is about output. Time off to worship counted with him as nothing but lost work.
C. H. MackintoshWhat a display of the secret springs of the human heart we have here! What complete inability to enter into the things of God! ... He could understand carrying loads and making bricks. In his judgement these things had an air of reality about them. But anything of God, His service, or His worship, he could only see as an idle fantasy — invented by people who just wanted an excuse to escape the hard realities of actual life.
The same commentator traces that inability to its root:
C. H. MackintoshHis condition was one of ignorance and consequent disobedience. Both go together. If God is not known, He cannot be obeyed; for obedience is always founded on knowledge.
The Rest Pharaoh Will Not Allow
Pharaoh's charge is that Moses and Aaron are giving the people rest. One writer sees the same pattern whenever someone today turns to God:
W. T. P. WolstonJust as Pharaoh said he did not know the Lord and would not let Israel go, so Satan will hinder the young convert from making a clean break with the world if he can. The first thing you find out is that you are a sinner, and the next is that you are to be a worshipper. You can never worship in the world... But Pharaoh will not have this. He at once increases their burdens and their work. It is very instructive. As long as we went along easily doing the devil's work he left us alone. But the moment we felt the chains, oh, how he put the pressure on!
Labour Tied to This World
Pharaoh's answer is more work, not less. One writer explains what the brick-making pictures, and warns that zeal for God can be spent in the same brickyard:
An Outline of Sound WordsSatan's aim is to tie the service of God's people to this world. That way he keeps them from their true and proper service to God, which belongs to an entirely different order of things... How many of God's people toil under the deceiving power of the enemy, with a zeal that is "not according to knowledge"! They labour to improve the world, to reform man, to lift up the masses. But the more earnest people are on this line, the more heartbreaking is the fruitless toil.
Why the Grip Tightened
Pharaoh sees a people grown "many," and the thought of losing them makes him hold on harder. One writer reads that fiercer grip as a sign the end is near:
C. H. MackintoshThe thought of losing Israel made him grip them more eagerly and watch them more closely. Whenever Satan's power is narrowed to a point, his rage increases... Redeeming love is about to put the furnace out; but first it blazes hotter and fiercer than ever.
Another writer names God's purpose in letting the pressure build:
Edward DennettHe had taught both Moses and the people the character of their oppressor, and the nature of their yoke. He seemed to shut them up in Pharaoh's hand, and so convinced them that their case was hopeless. This is always His method. He never presents Himself as a Saviour until men know that they are guilty and undone.
The Brick-Kiln Experience
The chapter ends with beatings and no rescue. One writer applies this to people who long for God but have not yet found deliverance:
C StanleyThey desire deliverance. They desire to worship. But their burdens become heavier... It is hard work often for the awakened soul passing through this experience. He would make bricks, but he has no straw; he would do good, but evil is present. He longs to worship; he tries hard to keep the demands of the law; he gets only beatings, and no deliverance.
Summary
- Rest refused. Pharaoh's whole complaint is that Moses gives the people rest. He can price bricks; worship means nothing to him.
- Rest resisted. The devil leaves people alone until they feel their chains. Opposition rises when a soul turns toward worship, not before.
- Rest counterfeited. The enemy ties the service of God's people to this world, so even earnest zeal ends in fruitless toil.
- Rest delayed. The grip grows fiercest just before it breaks. God uses the harder yoke to show people who their oppressor is, and that they cannot free themselves.
- Rest given. The chapter ends in beatings and no deliverance. God shows Himself as Saviour once people know they are guilty and undone.