Epiosde 2456 - Lesson 3 - Monday - July 14 - A Rough Start

A Rough StartThough Moses must have known, even from the beginning, that what the Lord had tasked him with was not going to be easy (hence his attempts to get out of it), he probably had no idea of what was coming.Read Exodus 5:3-23. What were the immediate results of Moses and Aaron’s first recorded encounter with Pharaoh?Even before going to Pharaoh, Moses and Aaron gathered the elders and people of Israel, told them God’s words, and showed them God’s signs, which resulted in Israel’s believing that the Lord would deliver them from their slavery. Thus, they worshiped the Lord (Exod. 4:29-31). Expectations surely were high: the Lord was going to deliver the Hebrew people from their bondage—finally!Moses then went to the king of Egypt with God’s demands, and things became even worse for the Israelites. Their suffering increased, and their daily labor became more burdensome and demanding. They were accused of being lazy; they were treated more harshly; and their service became more difficult than it had already been.Their leaders were not happy, and the confrontation between them and Moses and Aaron was ugly, and (as we will later see) it simply portended the kind of conflicts Moses would have with his own people for years to come.Read Exodus 5:21, and then put yourself in the place of these men as they confronted Moses and Aaron. Why would they say what they did?It’s not that hard to see why they would have been upset with Moses ("Let the LORD look on you and judge, they said"). They thought Moses was coming to free them from the Egyptians, not to make their lives under the Egyptians even harder.Thus, besides dealing with the Egyptians, Moses and Aaron had to deal with their own people, as well.What are some better ways you and others might be able to deal with local church leaders when disagreements arise, as they inevitably do?