The Suffering of Slaves
Thursday March 3, 2022
Created by Wesley Hammond
Exodus 5:10–23 (NIV)
10 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. 11 Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’” 12 So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. 13 The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.” 14 And Pharaoh’s slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, demanding, “Why haven’t you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?”
15 Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why have you treated your servants this way? 16 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.”
17 Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are — lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18 Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”
19 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.” 20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 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.”
Devotion
Many people know Exodus as the book of the Bible that details the story of the Jewish people in Egypt, their flight out of tyranny and to the promised land, but the truth goes even deeper than this basic, surface level fact. Exodus is, like any other book of the Bible, a lesson in the fundamental truths of the good and bad things that exist in this world.
In Exodus 5, the Hebrew slaves cry out to Pharaoh and his underlings at the unfair treatment that is being imposed upon them. The Egyptians were demanding large quantities of bricks for their vast temples and tombs, yet they were refusing to give the slaves the straw necessary to make these bricks. Straw was mixed with mud to form these bricks so if they didn’t have the straw they couldn’t make the bricks. The Egyptians were continuing to order the slaves to go out and collect their own straw for none would be given to them and the orders for bricks that were being demanded were still going to fulfilled whether they liked it or not. Moses goes to speak to God and he tells God that He has not delivered these people from suffering; rather, He has seemingly kept them under this yoke of slavery and oppression.
Does this not sound like things that are happening within our own society in the modern day? To this day there are people in America and throughout the world that suffer the grievous and humiliating physical, mental, spiritual, and social wounds of racial injustice, religious oppression, and LGBTQ intolerance. Modern people are just as much slaves to injustice and oppression as the ancient Hebrews. There are people in high places that look down upon those less fortunate than themselves and tell them that the evils they experience every day is normal and to be expected, as if to say: “Keep working to fulfill your quotas to society even if you do not have the means to do so. Continue to work three part-time jobs as a single parent to provide for your children. I’m not going to provide the means for you, go do it yourself. This is your burden to bear.” We see people around us suffering from these issues and it becomes easy to try and blame God for our situation because after all, if God only wants the best for us, then why would He put all of these hardships on us?
When you read deeper into Biblical scripture, however, you begin to realize that these hardships and evils we face are not unexpected because God intentionally gives us His toughest battles. Each and every hardship we face builds character, courage and strength. Out of the yoke of American slavery rose some of the most famous black men and women in not just American history but in world history. Leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks and Fredrick Douglas. These individuals saw the evils and injustices around them and they let them mold them as people not in hatred but in love. You have the potential to be as great if not greater than even these individuals and it starts with one step. Let God give you his toughest battles and let these hardships mold you into a person of God’s love and respect and you will conquer all evil no matter how horrific and oppressive for there is no weapon that can kill God’s love and no hand can snatch you from God’s grasp. The Hebrews suffered from slavery for many years before Moses was eventually molded into the person God needed him to be to lead his people to the hope and promise of a better life. We are all slaves to the evils of this world but through God, in time, we are all set free.
Prayer
God of freedom, liberate us from the injustices of this world and empower us to be liberating agents of your love to the very ends of the earth. Amen.
