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.”
The rabbis have a tradition that Pharaoh looked around the room at his seventy counselors and asked each of them if they have ever heard of this God. Each one said no.
Captain James Cook, landed on what would be known as the Hawaiian islands. The native population considered him a god and worshipped him. Captain Cook not only didn’t discourage the worship but enjoyed it.
The time came for him to leave and, after the farewells, he set sail for home. Within an hour, a furious storm came up and he had to turn back to the island. When he arrived to take shelter, the people asked, “If you are a god, then why did you run from the storm?” Captain Cook couldn’t answer that question, so they killed him!
Also, think this through from Pharaoh’s point of view. So, you worship this God, Moses? Sounds like a pretty puny God? His people are my slaves so what does that teach us about who is the more powerful god around here?
God had already told Moses that Pharaoh wouldn’t let the people go unless he was compelled by a mighty hand. So this is going exactly how God said it would go.(Ex 3:19)
Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.” (Ex 5:3)
This time, they give him a little more detail. God has spoken to them. This literally reads, “The God of the Hebrews is on our side.” The journey will be a week, three days there, a day of sacrifice and worship, and three days back.
They needed that space because the animals that they would sacrifice were considered sacred to the Egyptians.
They then give Pharaoh the possible results of not letting the people go. God may decide to kill his entire labor force for their disobedience. Hey’s not to be trifled with.
But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.” (Ex 5:4-5)
Pharaoh wasn’t having any of this nonsense. He saw this in a purely economic way. Moses, Aaron, and the elders of Israel were standing in his palace instead of working.
He used to be annoyed that the Israelites kept multiplying. But now it has provided free slave labor for all his building projects.
And Moses and Aaron are messing with the bottom line. What do you want to do, cripple the Egyptian economy? Back to work!
Let’s stop here and dig deeper. Moses and Aaron gave Pharaoh a word directly from God and he rejected it outright. Why?
Moses tells us:
“The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” (Ex 4:21)
So did God harden Pharaoh’s heart or did Pharaoh harden his own heart?
The answer to that question is yes.
Pharaoh’s heart was already hard. Remember, the people considered him a god and he did as well. We will see, time and time again, God giving Pharaoh a chance to change his heart.
But Pharaoh resists. Then God merely allows his hardness to take its course, which leads to his defeat and death.
Pharaoh Retaliates Against the People
That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota.
The same day. This is about to go from bad to worse.
Pharaoh is going to retaliate against this bubbling rebellion. He thinks he is playing chess while Moses and Aaron are playing checkers. ?
The slave drivers and the overseers were summoned and given a direct order. No more straw. Let them find their own. But the quotas remain the same.
The overseers knew this would be trouble.
They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.” (Ex 5:6-9)
It’s obvious, at least to Pharaoh, that the people are lazy, idle, like George McFly, slackers. The cure? More work. Harder work. The Hebrew reads, “Make the work heavy.”
Why? So they won’t listen to lies, “False words.” God had spoken. And Pharaoh, echoing his father, the father of lies, “Did God really say that? Lies! All lies!”
The Israelite Supervisors React with Surprise
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 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.”
The bricks that Egyptian slaves made were bigger than today’s bricks and were made with clay and straw. Straw would help the brick to dry in the sun and make it strong.
Now, the people scattered in a panic to collect stubble, chaff from the fields. The problem with chaff is that it doesn’t have the same qualities as straw and would produce fragile bricks that would break easily.
But, the quota for bricks was not reduced. This was an impossible situation.
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?”
The Israelite overseers were much like the kapos in the German concentration camps, Israelites who had sold their souls for an extra piece of bread. But they were the ones now being punished for the people not making enough bricks.
In some Egyptian beatings, the man would lie down on his belly, with his legs in the air. Then his feet would be whipped until bloody, leaving them unable to walk for weeks.
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.” (Ex 5:10-16)
Now, you may say that Pharaoh wouldn’t give Israelite slaves an audience. But remember, he is trying to pit the Israelite people against Moses and Aaron.
They make their complaint, a loud appeal, and make the case that the Pharaoh is being unreasonable. And he is! But they don’t understand why the sudden change.
This has to be one of the saddest verses in the whole story of the Exodus!
They realize they are in trouble and who do they run to? To the Lord? Nope. To Pharaoh, the one that has enslaved them.
We do that, don’t we? We know we need help, but prayer becomes a last resort instead of our first and only option.
Many of us have had the experience of watching someone who is enslaved to something, drugs, alcohol, pornography, work, and, instead of crying out to God for deliverance, they go to the very thing that enslaves them to seek relief.
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.”
Can you imagine them listening to this rant and saying, “Wait, first we aren’t lazy. Second, we didn’t say we wanted to go and sacrifice to the Lord. Where did you get that idea?”
With a wicked smile, Pharaoh says, “Oh, my bad, I thought Moses and Arron spoke for all of you.”
I’ll let Chuck Swindoll fill in the details:
“Moses and Aaron sat outside the palace gates, waiting for the Hebrew elders. The sweltering sun bleached every sandstone surface, and the two men shaded their eyes. They squatted on the side of the road trying to pass the time, Aaron fingering a pebble in the dirt, Moses jabbing pockmarks in the road with his staff.
“They looked pretty beat up,” Aaron said, referring to the elders’ appearance when they entered the palace. The Egyptians overseers had whipped them for missing their quota of bricks.
Yes,” Moses, said, “Did you get a close look at Jethriel’s eye?” He thrust the end of his staff into a hole, then twisted the rod so that the loosened dirt squirted out the sides. “I can’t imagine a weapon that would make that kind of welt.”
“I don’t know either, but they must have hit him pretty hard to make the white of his eye turn red like that.”
Moses nodded in agreement. He stopped jabbing the dirt, lost in his thoughts. This was the time that the Lord had appointed; he was sure of it. He had expected Pharaoh to reject his request - God had foretold that much. But would Pharaoh take the offensive and brutalize the Hebrews because of him? Surely not! God would have prepared him if that were part of the plan.
“You don’t think, “Aaron asked, “the beatings had anything to do with us, do you?”
Moses paused, “I think they did.”
Just then, the palace gates opened and the Hebrew overseers came out. Moses and Aaron stood up and stepped into the road to meet them. They looked angry.”
This day was about to go from bad to worse.
Artimus Pyle, drummer for the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, survived the October, 1977 plane crash that killed the lead singer, the lead guitarist, a back up singer, and the two pilots.
After realizing he was alive but badly injured, he crawled over a mile to a farmhouse for help. The farmer came out, mistook him for an escaped convict, and shot him in the arm.
Moses and Arron lose all Credibility with the People
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.” (Ex 5:19-21)
When they meet Moses and Aaron, they are furious at them for making things worse than they were before!
They actually call God to action to judge them, probably meaning they wanted them dead.
“Made us obnoxious,” in the Hebrew actually means to “emit a foul odor.” You have made us a stench in the nostrils of Pharaoh and now they are going to kill us all.
Moses’s message, his signs and wonders, they were forgotten as the day went from bad to worse.
How did our hero react? Well, actually not very well.
The Despair of Moses
Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.” (Ex 5:22-23)
About the only thing we can say positively about his reaction is that he did pray. But in his prayer, his questions are really accusations.
Why, Lord why have you brought trouble on your people?
In other words, You are responsible for this catastrophe! You may not have said it out loud, but have you ever thought, “Why is God doing this to me?” Or “Why me, Lord? Or Why do bad things happen, Lord?” Or “Why do bad things happen to good people, Lord?”
First let’s quickly look at the last question.
Dr. R.C. Sproul was asked that question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” His response, “I don’t know. I’ve never met a good person.” Then he smiled and said, “Well, there was One who was good and very bad things happened to him but He volunteered!”
I learned a long time ago that God is God and I am not and it is senseless to accuse God or to try and defend Him. But it is NOT sinful to ask the question “why?”
In Numbers, Moses has had enough and goes on an epic rant towards God:
“Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors?” (Numbers 11:11-12)
David asks why again and again in the Psalms.
David asks in Psalm 10:1: "Oh Lord, why do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?"
Habakkuk asks why and other hard questions in his little book we studied last year.
"Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?” (Had 1:3)
Don’t we ask the same thing? God what are you doing? Terrorism, mass murder, human trafficking, pornography, political upheaval, abortion on demand, sexual abuse by priests and pastors and the list could go on and on. What in the world is God doing? Why isn’t He stopping this madness? Why does He seem to be silent and sit idly by while the bad guys keep winning?
Like curious four year olds, the disciples peppered Jesus with why questions all three years of their training.
Mary and Martha both asked why when Jesus showed up four days after their brother died. They both accuse Jesus:
“If you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” (John 11:21, 32)
In the ultimate example of a day going from bad to worse, Job loses all his wealth, his livestock, and all ten of his children…on the same day!
Job asks:
“Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more.” (Job 7:20-21)
Even Jesus, feeling the first separation from the Father ever, cried out,
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
In Mississippi, I attended a banquet where the speaker was a local pastor and his wife. They were a beautiful family with a tragic past. Several years before, on a normal trip to Walmart, their van had been hit by a speeding drunk driver. His two youngest daughters were killed in the accident.
He said, “At first, I just said why me again and again.” But God spoke to him and said, “Why not, you?” He was startled by this message. And then it hit him. We live in a sinful, broken, world where terrible things happen everyday to normal people just like him. He thought he was special because he was a pastor. That he should have gotten a free pass from the scars that we all have.
He said, “That day, I changed my “why me?” To “What can I learn from this? How can I channel my pain to help others grieving traumatic losses?” He still didn’t get the answer to why that happened and never why this side of glory. But what he did get was a more real relationship with the Sovereign God of the universe and he found purpose in his pain.
Maxine has taught me, and many others, to look for the silver linings in every situation.
I was frustrated that I fell down the icy steps a few weeks ago and broke my rib. But then I found out a friend’s father had to have brain surgery because he fell down the stairs and hit his head and had a brain bleed.
I was thankful that it was just a rib that will heal on its own in six weeks.
Can I encourage you to change your “why me?” To “What can I learn from this so that I will love you more?”
Charles Spurgeon once put it this way:
“God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.”
Is this why You sent me?
I told You I was the wrong person for this mission but You wouldn’t listen to me!
Many of us have felt this. Something goes wrong and we blame ourselves. We aren’t the right person. We don’t have the right gifts. We don’t have the right name or social standing. We just aren’t enough.
Cheryl Stevens felt this way when she stepped out in faith, in spite of her fear, to lead our Grief Share ministry. We’ve done two cycles now and she has done a great job leading, even though she still questions if she is the right person for this mission. She is but what she needs most is help. She needs a team to help her with our third cycle starting in the fall. Could it be that this is your burning bush and your compassion and care for hurting people is what is in your hand? If so, talk to Cheryl or me after the service.
“…and You have not rescued Your people at all.”
You have failed. You have kept Your promise. You have made things a thousand times worse!
God had made it clear that Pharaoh wasn’t going to let the people go until he had a showdown with Yahweh.
Moses, as he has done in the past, is getting ahead of God’s timing and plan. He will rescue the people, in His way, in his time, for their good and His glory.
Moses is on dangerous ground here. He’s questioning God’s good, grace, and faithfulness. He is accusing Him of being a promise breaker.
God has something to say back to Moses’s accusations. But we will have to wait three weeks to see if God finally sends a lightning bolt and deals with Moses’s whining once and for all.
Let me remind you this morning, God is at work all the time, especially in the hard times.
For 430 years, God was quiet but that doesn’t mean He wasn’t at work in the world. God is always at work.
As John Piper has said for years,
“God is always doing 10,000 things in your life and at any given time you may be aware of three of them.”
God hears our cries. He knows our hearts.
If you are wondering if God has abandoned you, or if He’s not interested in what’s going on in your life, let me assure you that He is working out everything for His glory and our eternal good. He is good and can be trusted.
A.W. Pink wrote a generation ago,
“While it looks like things are out of control, behind the scenes there is a God that has not surrendered His authority.”
God is up to something.
Circumstances that turn against us force our dependence on God.
Circumstances that force dependence on God teach us patience.
Circumstances that teach us patience make us wise.
Paul said it this way to the Christian in Rome:
“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Rom 5:3-5)
Will you trust Him, even when things seem to go from bad to worse?
Haley Van Lith, Texas Christian’s University star basketball player, took the podium after her team lost in the Elite Eight last week to Texas. Listen to what she says about the hard times. Wise beyond her years.
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