Israelite Slaves Making Bricks Under Egyptian Overseersby CNSDA
5:6Exodus 5:6
And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying,
On the same day Moses and Aaron asked for Israel's release to worship God, Pharaoh answered with a command for harsher labor. The command was directed to the Egyptian taskmasters of the people and to the Hebrew officers set over them. He ordered that straw no longer be supplied while the same quota of bricks was still required, so the people had to gather straw for themselves and still produce as much as before.
Pharaoh justified the order by claiming the people were idle. He also acted from suspicion that the people were plotting revolt, using heavier demands to leave them no time for scheming and to crush their independence. The command displays hardened resistance to divine authority by intensifying oppression instead of yielding. The order made the work crueler and impossible to complete, and the Hebrew officers were beaten when the people failed to meet the quota.
The command increased the weekly workload again and again with the purpose of forcing Israel to labor on the Sabbath while still in bondage in Egypt. This conflict brought the Sabbath institution prominently before God's people, and their deliverance from bondage brought them to a place where they could observe unmolested all His precepts, including His appointed rest day.
On the same day Moses and Aaron asked for Israel's release to worship God, Pharaoh answered with a command for harsher labor. The command was directed to the Egyptian taskmasters of the people and to the Hebrew officers set over them. He ordered that straw no longer be supplied while the same quota of bricks was still required, so the people had to gather straw for themselves and still produce as much as before.
Pharaoh justified the order by claiming the people were idle. He also acted from suspicion that the people were plotting revolt, using heavier demands to leave them no time for scheming and to crush their independence. The command displays hardened resistance to divine authority by intensifying oppression instead of yielding. The order made the work crueler and impossible to complete, and the Hebrew officers were beaten when the people failed to meet the quota.
The command increased the weekly workload again and again with the purpose of forcing Israel to labor on the Sabbath while still in bondage in Egypt. This conflict brought the Sabbath institution prominently before God's people, and their deliverance from bondage brought them to a place where they could observe unmolested all His precepts, including His appointed rest day.