# Exodus Chapter 5
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## Summarrium
Moses and Aaron travel to meet with Pharaoh and Moses does relay the message required to Pharaoh. His response is decisive; he does not knowthe Lord and he will not let Israel go. Moses and Aaron then ask for three days to take the people into the wilderness to sacrifice to God. Pharaoh responds by claiming the Israelites have too much time on their hands and Moses seeks to give them rest from their burdens.

Pharaoh then proceeds to demand the same number of bricks produced by the Israelites as they have so far been producing but they will need to find their own straw. Israel fail to meet their quotas and the foremen are beaten and the Egyptians indicate this is because the people are idle and that this is the real motivation for sacrificing to God. The foremen raise a complaint to Moses and Aaron and Moses complains to the Lord pointing out how only evil has befallen the people of Israel since Moses did what he commanded.

## Meditatio
Another entirely relatable passage. It is not an uncommon experience to feel God prompting us to act or to say something, only to find we make the situation much worse than it originally was. Indeed prevailing wisdom indicates we should not 'poke a sleeping dragon', 'wake a sleeping lion', 'tempt fate' or even 'ask a question we are not prepared to deal with the answer'.

It would be tempting to view the situation, as Moses appears to, as a failure. We set out with a particular task and were unsuccessful so now it's all over and it would have just been better if we never said anything. Nothing has changed right?...right?

No indeed much has changed. Moses and Aaron have found the means to secure an audience with Pharaoh. They have demonstrated obedience to the task set before them and given Pharaoh an opportunity to respond. This is all that was required of them. They have forgotten that the Lord pointed out his intend to harden Pharaohs heart. Indeed they were not responsible at all for Pharaohs response; only their obedience.

Pharaohs response is clearly punitive and harsh. It seeks to increase the pressures on the Israelites rather than securing their freedom. It seeks to undermine Moses and Aaron's position by  causing the people to question if they have truly come from God to make things better. Their response begins with 'the Lord look on you and judge...' because they cannot.

Moses speaks frankly with the Lord. "*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.*". Here Moses points out the unintelligibility of the situation. If you want your people delivered why are you making things worse for them? Indeed all we've done so far is make things worse.

A psychologist once told me sometimes things have got to get worse before they get better. This is the unpleasant reality of genuine resolution. Much of my work these days is dealing with challenging inter-personal issues. Two people that have an issue with each other and need to talk it through yet fail to do so or speak to almost everyone else in the world aside from each other. For healing to come to a wound sometimes you have to remove a foreign body and this can be pretty damn painful.

Exodus 5 is a painful reminder that it sometimes it has to get worse first before it gets better.