The Jewish people, having tasted nothing but bondage for four hundred years, soon realized their situation was worsening. Moses had fully anticipated the rejection he would receive. “I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go” (Ex. Pharaoh scoffed at Moses’ plea, but God’s leader was not disconcerted. Now they would have to provide their own straw to manufacture bricks, yet their quota was not to be diminished. In a rage, the king not only refused Moses’ request, but he intensified the workload of the Jews. Furious, Pharaoh declared: “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go” (Ex. Would it be “Yes!” or “No”? Moses did not have long to wait. “Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness,” Moses declared in Exodus 5:1.
Now, Moses and Aaron were ordered by the Lord to take the next step, that of confronting Pharaoh. Much time had been spent at Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. Half of those years Moses had lived in the Egyptian palace the other half in Midian, tending sheep. For eighty years God had prepared Moses to lead His people Israel.
