Exodus 05: Worse Before It Gets Better

The first “Let my people go” doesn’t open prison doors, it tightens the chains. Exodus 5 starts with courage and ends with exhaustion: Moses and Aaron speak to Pharaoh, Pharaoh scoffs at Yahweh, and the backlash hits the workers immediately. Straw is taken away, brick quotas stay the same, and the pressure turns Israel’s frustration toward the very leaders trying to help. 

We slow down and read the story like real life, because it often feels the same. Sometimes you obey God and the problem doesn’t shrink, it grows. Sometimes you step out in faith and the resistance gets louder. Moses even prays the thought many of us are afraid to say: “Why did you send me?” and “You have done nothing to rescue them.” That raw moment opens a bigger conversation about suffering, spiritual opposition, and what it means to trust God when the timeline makes no sense. 

Along the way, we talk about endurance, integrity, and why God may be doing far more than we can see in the moment. We also point forward to God’s promise of rescue and freedom, the heartbeat of the Exodus story and a source of daily hope for anyone walking through waiting, grief, illness, or burnout. If you’ve been asking, “God, where are you?” you’re not alone, and you’re not forgotten. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs strength today, and leave a review with the line that hit you hardest.

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Welcome And Daily Bible Format

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Exodus chapter five. And today's title is Worse Before It Gets Better. Worse Before It Gets Better. We left Moses yesterday. It was exciting. He had performed the signs in front of the elders of Israel. God has sent me to set you free. Let's go, team. They're excited. And then they have to go see Pharaoh. And um shockingly, shockingly, Pharaoh is not overly excited to realize he's going to lose his entire labor force. But don't really matter. We'll get into all that in just a moment. Get your coffee, get your Bibles, Exodus chapter five.

Quick Recap Of Moses’ Call

SPEAKER_01 1:03

While you're doing that, make sure that you take a moment, like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help. And make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. There's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job. And we can get all of that to you by going to the website at the Biblebreakdown.com. Well, if you've been with us over the past few days, we are telling the story of the book of Exodus. How it begins with God seeing his people in the nation uh in the nation of Egypt, and they are oppressed over 400, 430 years, and it is time for their deliverance. So he raises up Moses and he ends up on the backside of them of Mount Sinai for 40 years. And then God shows himself to Moses and he says, I am calling you to be my spokesman to set the nation of Israel free. And Moses says, No, thank you. And they go through an argument, and we finished that argument yesterday until finally he decides to go back to the land of Egypt. And when he gets there, God gives them these couple of different uh signs to prove God had spoken to him, you know, the supernatural. He says, and I love that yesterday when it ended, when it said that God told them, when they had heard that God had seen them, that they bowed low and they worshiped. It comforted them to realize that God had never forgotten them. That's the great moment. That's where we wish that we could just sell off into the sunset and everything is done. But you don't just get to leave because you want to, right? You got to go talk to Pharaoh. And so in this chapter, they go talk to Pharaoh, and I don't want to spoil it for you, other than to say remember that there are plagues coming. So let's see how it goes when

Moses Meets Pharaoh’s Defiance

SPEAKER_01 2:42

they meet with Pharaoh. So here we go, chapter five, verse one, which pause by the way. I know that if you ever saw the animated thing, uh Prince of Egypt, it acts as though that this Pharaoh is possibly a guy named Ramses. We're not entirely sure if it was Ramses or not, because just uh the way some of the different dating and stuff works. We're not entirely sure, but it could have been. But no matter who it was, because of the time frame, it is entirely possible that this pharaoh did know, at least of Moses. I mean, it would have been very uncommon for a Hebrew, a slave, to be raised in the courts of Pharaoh. So it is very possible that they knew one another. It's just now it's been 40 years, and so it's it's likely they may or may not remember everything about each other, but it's interesting to add that dynamic to this conversation. So here we go. Possibly Ramses and Moses in chapter five of Exodus. Here we go, verse one. After this presentation to the Israel's elders or leaders, Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh. They told him, This is what the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, Let my people go, so they may hold a festival in my honor in the wilderness. Is that so? retorted Pharaoh. And who is this Lord? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don't know the Lord. I will not let Israel go. But Moses and Aaron persisted. The God of the Hebrews has met with us. They declared, So let us take a three day journey into the wilderness so that we can offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, and if we don't, he will kill us with a plague or with a sword. Pharaoh replied, Moses and Aaron, why are you distracting the people from their tasks?

Pharaoh Raises The Brick Burden

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Get back to work. Look, there are many of your people in the land, and you are stopping them from their work. That same day Pharaoh sent this order to the Egyptian slave drivers and the Israelite foremen, do not supply any more straw for making bricks. Make the people get it themselves, but still require them to make the same number of bricks as before. Don't reduce the quota. They are lazy. That's why they are crying out, let us go and offer sacrifices to God. Load them down with more work, make them sweat. That'll teach them to listen to lies. So the slave drivers and the foreman went out and told the people, This is what Pharaoh says, I will not provide any more straw for you. Go and get it yourselves. Find it wherever you can, but you must produce just as many bricks as before. So the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt in search of stubble to use as straw. Meanwhile, the Egyptian slave drivers continued to push hard. Meet your daily quota of bricks just as you did when we provided you with straw, they demanded. Then they whipped the Israelite foreman they had put in charge of the work crews. Why haven't you met your quotas either, either yesterday or today? They demanded. So the Israelite foreman went to Pharaoh and pleaded with him, please, don't treat your servants like this, they begged. We are given no straw, but to slave drivers still demand, make bricks. We are being beaten, but it isn't our fault. Your people are to blame. But Phara Pharaoh shouted, You are just lazy. Lazy. That's why you're saying let us go and offer sacrifices to the Lord. Now get back to work. No straw will be given to you, but you must produce the same full quota of bricks. The Israelite foremen could see that they were in serious trouble when they were told, You must not reduce the number

Israel Turns On Moses And Aaron

SPEAKER_01 6:25

of bricks you make each day. So they left Pharaoh's court and they confronted Moses and Aaron, who were waiting outside for them. The foreman said to them, May the Lord judge and punish you for making us stink before Pharaoh and his officials. You have put a sword in their hands to execute an excuse to kill us. Then Moses went back to the Lord and protested, Why have you brought all this trouble on your people, Lord? Why did you send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh as your spokesman, he has been even more brutal to your people, and you have done

Moses Questions God’s Plan

SPEAKER_01 7:00

nothing to rescue them. Wow. That's pretty bold, Moses. When you realize that the the God who made the heavens and the earth, that with one one statement, let there be light, that all of a sudden time and space spun into action, and we are still living off of the echo of that phrase, let there be light. When that T, we're still living on that. That's the God that He said, You have done nothing to rescue them. Whoa. But we get it. He's not He's not literally saying, God, you ain't doing nothing up there. He's not saying that. He's saying, Where are you? You told me to come and do this. You told me it was time for them to be free. And ever since I have obeyed you, you've made it harder for me and for everybody else. Where are you, God? It seems as though you were doing nothing to rescue them. Now you and I know, if you've ever read this story, that couldn't be further from the truth. First of all, the very fact they're even breathing. Remember we talked about this a couple of days ago? Breathing in and

When Life Gets Worse First

SPEAKER_01 8:12

out every time you're saying the name of God? The very fact they're breathing means God's doing something. The very fact that they're able to even go and talk to Pharaoh at all means God's doing something. And we know that God is orchestrating this whole thing, it just seems like in the moment, things are getting worse instead of better. It seems like in the moment, can I tell you? Many times in our lives, it will seem like in the moment, things are getting worse instead of better. But I want to tell you that that's not true. It's not true at all. As a matter of fact, many, many times God is doing more than we realize. So here's my question for you. Would you be honest and say maybe just to yourself, just admit that maybe there's been time just a time recently when you have said, God, where are you? God, why are you not moving in this situation or that situation? It might not be that serious of a situation. It might just be something simple, but you're just tired. Just tired of waiting on that thing or whatever. Or it might be life or death. God, where are you? Why is this cancer not gone away? Why is my child my child not getting better? Why have I not heard from them? Why am I so alone? Why does it seem as though you are doing nothing? Now, when we think about it in the context of the greatness of God, it seems kind of silly. And here's the thing I love about God He knows us. He knows what we He knows what we're trying to say. We're just trying to say, God has hurts. God, I had an expectation of you. And right now it's shaken. Here's the thing God does not meet our expectations. He exceeds our expectations. But he will always do it his way. And so just like Moses and Aaron, spoiler alert, they don't go home, they persist to say, I don't know. I don't know why that didn't work. I don't know why Pharaoh didn't drop to his knees and say, Oh hell, King Jesus, you know, all hell Yahweh, you know. I I don't know. All I know is God told me to do this. And until he tells me differently, I will continue to do this. I know it's making it harder on people around me. I know it's not easy, but I trust that God knows what he's doing. That if I will have integrity, if I will honor the Lord, if I will give as he has called me to give, if I will serve the way he's called me to serve, if I will say no to temptations of the flesh and yes to the power of God, if I will do that, I trust that even if it gets worse before it gets better, it will get better because God didn't bring me this far just to bring me this far. But he's still moving and he's still acting, he's still doing more than I realize. Is that possible? God's doing that for you too. Let's

Prayer And Hope From Exodus 6:6

SPEAKER_01 10:53

pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, God, that you are always doing more than we can ask, think, or imagine. You're always moving. And I just pray today you'll open our eyes to see more clearly how you are moving in all of us. Thank you for today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Anyway, what God's Word says in Exodus 6, verse 6, God's saying, I will free you from your oppression and I will rescue you from slavery. I pray that God sets you free more and more every day. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Exodus chapter six.