Israelite Slaves Making Bricks Under Egyptian Overseersby CNSDA
5:11Exodus 5:11
Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it: yet not ought of your work shall be diminished.
The command to get straw wherever it could be found while letting none of the work be diminished was Pharaoh's answer when the Hebrew officers appealed the increased labor after Moses and Aaron had asked only for a three days' journey to hold a feast and sacrifice to God in the wilderness. Pharaoh claimed not to know God, called Israel idle, and ordered that no straw be given while the same daily tale of bricks must still be delivered. The same order is an unjust demand that withholds the means while keeping the quota unchanged.
Straw was mixed into sun-dried bricks to bind the earth, and the order forced the people to scatter throughout all Egypt to gather straw and stubble from the fields for themselves. Searching for stubble left them unable to perform their usual amount of labor or meet the quota. Egyptian taskmasters set over Hebrew officers beat the officers for the shortfall. When the officers appealed thinking the oppression came from the taskmasters, Pharaoh hardened his heart, mocked their complaints, repeated the demand with hatred, and sent them back to work with no reduction.
The harsher burden turned the officers and people against Moses and Aaron for making them abhorred in Pharaoh's sight and putting a sword in his hand to slay them, and it drove Moses to ask God why the people were evil entreated and not yet delivered. Deliverance would not come without a trial of faith and suffering, for Israel expected immediate release, had little faith, and was not yet prepared to patiently suffer and perseveringly endure affliction until God worked a glorious deliverance. The command illustrates the injustice of demanding work without providing what is needed to do it, a burden made harder by withholding necessary resources without reducing the demand and requiring labor to continue even when the means are withheld.
Sending missionaries to new fields without the facilities and means their work requires is like requiring bricks to be made without straw. Having much work to do with too little money is making bricks without straw. The same principle applies to God's work when people are expected to begin and expand it without adequate means. Shortsighted ambition expects work from people without providing the means or fair conditions to do it. Leaders who tell workers to go forward but provide them with no facilities or help leave them to make bricks without straw. The missionary work in Melbourne was burdened by a lack of resources caused by others' actions, being required to keep producing bricks while denied the straw needed to make them. Being made to carry on with demanding new missionary work despite being deprived of the means to do it when funds were withheld is the same burden.
The command to get straw wherever it could be found while letting none of the work be diminished was Pharaoh's answer when the Hebrew officers appealed the increased labor after Moses and Aaron had asked only for a three days' journey to hold a feast and sacrifice to God in the wilderness. Pharaoh claimed not to know God, called Israel idle, and ordered that no straw be given while the same daily tale of bricks must still be delivered. The same order is an unjust demand that withholds the means while keeping the quota unchanged.
Straw was mixed into sun-dried bricks to bind the earth, and the order forced the people to scatter throughout all Egypt to gather straw and stubble from the fields for themselves. Searching for stubble left them unable to perform their usual amount of labor or meet the quota. Egyptian taskmasters set over Hebrew officers beat the officers for the shortfall. When the officers appealed thinking the oppression came from the taskmasters, Pharaoh hardened his heart, mocked their complaints, repeated the demand with hatred, and sent them back to work with no reduction.
The harsher burden turned the officers and people against Moses and Aaron for making them abhorred in Pharaoh's sight and putting a sword in his hand to slay them, and it drove Moses to ask God why the people were evil entreated and not yet delivered. Deliverance would not come without a trial of faith and suffering, for Israel expected immediate release, had little faith, and was not yet prepared to patiently suffer and perseveringly endure affliction until God worked a glorious deliverance. The command illustrates the injustice of demanding work without providing what is needed to do it, a burden made harder by withholding necessary resources without reducing the demand and requiring labor to continue even when the means are withheld.
Sending missionaries to new fields without the facilities and means their work requires is like requiring bricks to be made without straw. Having much work to do with too little money is making bricks without straw. The same principle applies to God's work when people are expected to begin and expand it without adequate means. Shortsighted ambition expects work from people without providing the means or fair conditions to do it. Leaders who tell workers to go forward but provide them with no facilities or help leave them to make bricks without straw. The missionary work in Melbourne was burdened by a lack of resources caused by others' actions, being required to keep producing bricks while denied the straw needed to make them. Being made to carry on with demanding new missionary work despite being deprived of the means to do it when funds were withheld is the same burden.