From Bad To Worse Series

The Story of Moses: From Bad to Worse

Exodus 5-6 (Part 1)

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

04-06-2025

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Have you ever had a bad day? Probably not as bad as Alexander!

In the course of one day, he wakes up with gum in his hair, his brothers find prizes in their cereal box but he finds nothing, doesn’t get a seat by the window during carpool, doesn't get dessert in his lunch, is rebuffed by his friends on the playground, has to get a cavity fixed at the dentist, has to eat lima beans for dinner, sees kissing on tv (yuck), and has to wear pjs that he doesn’t like to bed.

He longs to move to Australia but his mother reminds him that, even in Australia people can, and do, have bad days.

Of course, I’m talking about the book, “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,” written by Judith Viorst in 1972.

Why is this book still so popular? Because we all have had very, very bad days.

As we study Exodus 5-6, we will see that Moses has a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day that goes from bad to worse quickly.

Review

After listening to Moses give one lame excuse after another, God finally makes a concession and gives Moses a ministry partner, his brother Aaron, a well educated, well spoken Levite that would be Moses’s spokesperson.

Sounds like a good plan, right? Well, Aaron would be more trouble than help, actually leading the people into dancing and worshiping a golden calf.

He didn’t have to go find his brother. God led Aaron right to the mountain of God.

The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform. (Ex 4:27-29)

Moses asked permission from his father-in-law to leave and loaded his wife and children on donkeys to head back to Egypt.

Remember, it’s been forty years since he tried to show the Israelites that he was their deliverer and that attempt had failed miserably. Now, he returns with a staff in his hand and the promise of God’s presence and power to help him.

Just as God promised, the leaders of Israel responded positively to his message:

Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped. (Ex 4:29-31)

Can you imagine their faces when Moses threw the staff down and it became a coiled-up black Adder? Or their shock, when he reached out and grabbed it by the tail and it turned back into a staff?

Or how they jumped ten feet backwards when he pulled out his hand stricken with leprosy?

Or the tears in their eyes when they hear that after 430 years God had spoken again and was concerned about them and was aware of their misery?

The only proper response was to bow down and have a worship service right there. And that’s what they did, with great reverence and joy.

Aslan was on the move and they would be rescued from their bondage. But the day was going to get worse before it got better.

Please turn with me to Exodus 5.

Prayer.

Pharaoh Rejects The Message

Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’” (Ex 5:1)

After the worship service ends, Moses and Aaron make their way to Pharaoh’s palace.

Notice that it is not Moses saying “let my people go,” but God, Yahweh Himself, commanding Pharaoh to release His people from their bondage.

This was a declaration of war, an opening salvo in the showdown between Pharaoh and God.

In Egypt, it wasn’t uncommon for slaves to take days off to worship their God. Moses and Aaron make a small request to test Pharaoh’s heart. The request was simply to allow the Israelites to go to the wilderness and worship God.

Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.” (Ex 5:2)

In Egypt, the Pharaoh was considered a god. In fact, he was known as the “neter nefer,” the perfect god. So Pharaoh hears this request for what it was - a challenge to his authority.

An inscription found regarding the Pharaohs read, “I am that which was, and is, and shall be, and no man has lifted my veil.”