“Into the Wilderness”
A Sermon Series in the Book of Exodus
“Consequences of Doing the Right Thing”
Exodus 5-6
Introduction
“In CIA jargon, “blowback” describes the unintended, undesirable consequences of covert operations, such as the funding of the Afghan Mujahideen and the destabilization of Afghanistan contributing to the rise of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.[54][55][56]
The introduction of exotic animals and plants for food, for decorative purposes, or to control unwanted species often leads to more harm than good done by the introduced species.
- The introduction of rabbits in Australia and New Zealand for food was followed by an explosive growth in the rabbit population; rabbits have become a major feral pest in these countries.[57][58]
- Cane toads, introduced into Australia to control canefield pests, were unsuccessful and have become a major pest in their own right.
- Kudzu, introduced to the US as an ornamental plant in 1876[59] and later used to prevent erosion in earthworks, has become a major problem in the Southeastern United States. Kudzu has displaced native plants and has effectively taken over significant portions of land.[60][61]
- The protection of the steel industry in the United States reduced production of steel in the United States, increased costs to users, and increased unemployment in associated industries.”[1]
In church life, there will be a time when you feel called by God to do something, lead an effort, make a change, but things don’t go as you had anticipated and the road is not smooth – you may even cry out to God, “I thought this was what you wanted me to do, why is it so difficult? That’s what we will look at today.
Prayer
Consequences of God’s Word (vv. 1-14)
Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” 2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” 3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” 4 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.” 5 And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!” 6 The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, 7 “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves.[2] 8 But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words. 10 So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw. 11 Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.’” 12 So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13 The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.” 14 And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?”
Consequence #1 – Things may get worse before they get better.
So there you are a slave, living a miserable life. But its’ what you know, and your father was a slave, and his before him. You have a routine, and you are doing the best you can do under horrible circumstances. Then your horrible life becomes impossible. Until recently your work day started at the crack of dawn, now you are getting up in the middle of the night going further and further around where you live scrounging for straw. So are all the thousands of other people living around you.
We see Unintended Consequences (right now) for God’s people, and we see Promised Consequences (sometime in the future) for those who are not God’s people, (v. 3) “lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword”
Consequence #2 – Those that are supposed to be standing beside you may not show up.
The consequence of Moses and Aaron – They already didn’t want to go, but they go to the elders of Israel and show the miraculous (staff to snake, leprous hand restored, and water to blood). Exodus 3:18 “And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him,” God’s plan was for Moses, Aaron, and the elders of Israel were to go to pharaoh.
“Exodus 4:29 “Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. 30 Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.”
But when it comes time to appear before the pharaoh in chapter 5 it says, “Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh,.” There is no mention of the elders. What happened to them? Where are they when it’s time to do what they all agreed was God’s plan for them to do? God knew what the plan was, and when things went sideways (as they always do) there would be a united front in the people’s leadership. But one critical piece of that leadership structure was missing – they didn’t show up when it was time to go to work.
15 Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this? 16 No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.” 17 But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’ 18 Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.” 19 The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, “You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.” 20 They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; 21 and they said to them, “The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
Consequence #3 – The people will blame you for their worsening condition.
The foremen met Moses and Aaron as they were leaving from talking with the pharaoh and are angry that their lives are harder now than they were before. Their life was horrible before, but now their lives are impossible. The people blame Moses and Aaron, “you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh.” You have made pharaoh hate us and now he wants to kills us. Moses and Aaron were trying to lessen their labor, to alleviate their brutal condition, but the unintended circumstance was more labor, not less.
There is one word in church life that church people do not like. No matter how things might be, no matter how many bricks they are making, whenever a leader says the word change – chaos will ensue. The leader has no way of knowing what will happen when the change takes place, but you can count on unintended outcomes and you will bear the blame for something you felt called by God to do.
Later when the people are at the Red Sea and the Egyptian war machine is raging toward them, they say, Exodus 14:11-13 “They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” It is easier to be a slave (to trust in what you know) than to face the unknown and trust God who promises to give you freedom.
No matter how hard your life may be, that is your world – it’s all you have ever known. It is hard for us to comprehend that life can be different than we have experienced our whole lives. The abused wife would rather staff with the abusive husband because she feels like she can control her life, “If I just keep the house clean, or cook his food right, then he won’t hit me.” She would rather stay than to consider a world, a life of love and compassion, and safety where husbands do not hurt their wives but protect them and respect them. Abuse is all she has ever known, a non-abusive marriage is beyond what she allows her mind to consider.
You have to make a decision; trust in a God who promises a life you have never known,
He promises freedom from sin, or stay in a life that where you are a slave to sin;
Known Slavery or Promised Freedom
22 Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”
Then Moses turns to God and asks, “Why?” Moses knows why God sent him. God had told him in great detail how this was all going to go – but God didn’t mention the straw and bricks – so now Moses collapses.
When we seek to follow God’s plan, we don’t have all the details, people will not show up to stand beside you, it will more than likely get worse before it gets better, and God is not obligated to give us all the details. Moses is saying, God you didn’t tell me about the straw and brinks thing.” Why are you doing this? Are we promised that life will always go well with us?
Consequence #4; You Will Not Know Everything.
In response to Moses’ complaint that “you didn’t tell me about the detail of the straw and bricks.” God told him several times that he would harden pharaoh’s heart, but this was not what Moses had in mind.
But the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.” 2 God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’” 9 Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.
In response to Moses’ objection – “you didn’t tell me all the details,” God responds back in these few verses, “I am the LORD,” multiple times, the text is heavy with this proclamation. What is this God like? The God who appears to multiple generations and remains the same. The God who has promised to lead them to a promised land. A God who hears the cry of His people. But at the end of the day God is God and Moses is Moses. God does not have to tell Moses all the details, why? Because Moses is not “The Lord God Almighty.
But God also reminds Moses of the promises that He has made not only to him, but to the previous patriarchs. God made seven promises in these verses, “I will bring you out, I will free you, I will redeem you, I will take you as my people, I will be your God, I will bring you to the land, and I will give it to you.”
God makes promises and He expects us to believe in the midst of difficulty.
Consequence #5 People’s Lives May Keep Them From Listening
We are talking about the consequences you will encounter as you try to do what God has told you do. The next consequence is when dealing with people – many times they have a broken spirit and their slavery to their sin is treating them harshly – so it is hard for them to hear.
The people would not listen “for shortness of breath,” “It was the inward pressure caused by deep anguish that prevented proper breathing – like children sobbing and gasping for their breath.”[3]
So you are saying, Consequence #1 – Things may get worse before they get better. Consequence #2 – Those that are supposed to be standing beside you may not show up. Consequence #3 – The people will blame you for their worsening condition. Consequence #4; You Will Not Know Everything. Consequence #5 People’s Lives May Keep Them From Listening
Why even bother in the first place – the final destination for God’s people is freedom. For the lost world around us, it means they may come to salvation. God has called us to be apart of His mission, to share the gospel to the nations, and to the neighbor across the street. In that struggle all those things may be true.
But there is joy in the work of the Lord. There will be consequences but there will be blessings. There will be people who will not listen, and there will be people who will. God has promised eternal life for those that place their faith in Jesus Christ, and He has sent us all on mission to tell them.
So how do you remain safe and be a faithful Christian? You could say, “If I don’t know what the final result will be, then I will not make the first move – I can avoid unintended consequences by not doing anything.” You can’t be faithful and safe. We are never promised safety only God’s presence with us along the journey. True hope is found in the recognition of and surrender in love to the one who is in control. Is He present in your life today?
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[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unintended_consequences#:~:text=Kudzu%2C%20introduced%20to%20the%20US,over%20significant%20portions%20of%20land.
[2] The straw made the bricks stronger “by first binding the clay together and then by decaying and releasing a humic acid similar to glutamic or gallotanic acid.” Walter C. Keiser, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Volume 2 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan Publishing, 1990) 337.
[3] Kaiser, 344.
