Pharaoh is enraged that Moses and Aaron asked him to allow the Israelites to go into the wilderness for three days to worship the Lord. In yesterday's passage the king decided the people needed more work to do so they wouldn't have time to complain, so he ordered them to gather their own straw for the mud bricks they were making. Previously this straw was supplied to them.
"Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, 'This is what Pharaoh says: 'I will not give you any more straw. Go out and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.' So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, 'Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.' And Pharaoh's slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, saying, 'Why haven't you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?'" (Exodus 5:10-14) As we said yesterday, right now the people are worse off than they were before Moses and Aaron ever spoke to Pharaoh on their behalf. That's the king's intention. He's afraid Moses and Aaron are here to stir up a revolution and he hopes to turn the people against these two brothers. Plus he hopes to weary the Israelites enough to break their spirits and put all thoughts of leaving Egypt out of their minds.
The Israelite overseers are granted an audience with the king. Likely they are periodically called before him to give an account of the work, so I don't think it's unusual that they are allowed to stand in his court. During this visit they plead with him to lighten the cruel new workload. "Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh: 'Why have you treated your servants this way? Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, 'Make bricks!' Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.'" (Exodus 5:15-16) They say, "We're working our fingers to the bone! It was hard enough to complete the daily quotas even when you were supplying the straw. Now we're expected to gather the straw ourselves and still meet the quotas. It's not possible! There aren't enough hours in the day! Yet we are being beaten for our inability to complete the work."
The king feels no pity. Instead he lashes out angrily. "Pharaoh said, 'Lazy, that's what you are---lazy! That is why you keep saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.' Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.'" (Exodus 5:17-18) He accuses them, "If you didn't have extra time on your hands to just sit around being idle, it would never have entered your minds to ask for three days off to worship whatever little deity it is you want to honor. It's funny how you had time to complain and feel discontented and yet you don't have time to gather straw!"
Though Pharaoh's religion involves many gods, he himself is worshiped as a god by his people, much in the same way the Roman emperors would later require their subjects to declare, "Caesar is Lord!" One of the primary ways the pharaohs maintained control over the Egyptians was by controlling the religious system and by insisting they were the incarnation of the god Horus in the flesh. This meant the kings presented themselves to their people as the mediator between the people and their pantheon of gods. The people were told that if they didn't please Pharaoh they weren't pleasing the gods. Since the kings of Egypt didn't recognize the God of the Israelites, they certainly didn't want the Israelites to conduct the rituals of their religion publicly. To Pharaoh this business of going off into the desert to make sacrifices to the God of Abraham is nothing but foolishness. He doesn't believe this God exists and sees no point in giving in to what he considers a whim of his slaves. He doesn't see any way he can personally benefit from granting their request. Instead he imagines himself losing control over his slaves, and he imagines his slaves losing respect for him, if he is agreeable to what they ask.
"The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told, 'You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.' When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, and they said, 'May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.'" (Exodus 5:19-21) I picture Moses and Aaron pacing the floor somewhere as they wait for these men to return. When the men do return, they point their fingers bitterly in Moses' and Aaron's faces, saying, "You are to blame for our predicament! Things were bad enough before you came along, but you've made our circumstances ten times worse. Shame on you! May the Lord judge you for meddling with us and causing the king's wrath to fall upon us. Moses, how dare you come here promising us freedom with your wild story about God appearing to you in the desert and appointing you as our deliverer! You two are nothing but a couple of frauds and we wish we'd never laid eyes on either one of you."
The Lord warned Moses that Pharaoh wouldn't agree to let the people go, but Moses never imagined the king would retaliate by making the Israelites' lives far worse than they ever were before. What's happened in our passage today brings him to a very low point spiritually and brings him to his knees before the Lord in tomorrow's passage. He's discouraged and broken. He's doubting whether he heard the Lord correctly. He wanted to help his people but instead he's brought extra harm upon them. But as the saying goes, it's always darkest before the dawn. The Lord will meet with Moses while he labors in prayer and will repeat all His promises to rescue the children of Israel. The Lord intends to display His awesome power in the midst of one of the spiritually darkest nations that has ever existed. His light will soon break forth and He will set His people free.
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