Exodus Chapter 5 Verses 20-23

:20 “And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh: 21 And they said unto them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us. 22 And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.”

“And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh: 21 And they said unto them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.”  It is evident that the officers of the people did not expect to suffer for the cause of God.  Yet, we today need to expect to suffer affliction for the cause of Christ.  The afflictions strengthen us and lead to the exercise of our faith.  Typically when someone goes through affliction they want to play the blame game.  The officers of the people placed the blame upon the messengers of God, Moses and Aaron.  After all if they had not come and encouraged them that they were soon to see deliverance from their bondage, they would not have suffered affliction.  They believed that Moses and Aaron’s going to Pharaoh to seek permission to go into the wilderness to sacrifice and serve God was the reason Pharaoh had assigned them an impossible task that led to their being beaten.  This is true that is the reason Pharaoh assigned them the impossible task and caused them to be beaten.  They forgot about the promise of deliverance and they did not trust their God to fulfill his promise.   

“And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.”  Like Moses, most of us are prone to shy away from conflict.  The officers rebuking Moses and Aaron was a conflict they had not expected and furthermore were not prepared for.  Thus, Moses also had not expected to meet with opposition from Pharaoh and for Pharaoh’s reaction to their words they spoke from God.  Moses, like the officers, played the blame game with God. He accused God of not keeping his promises, which of course, was not true.  If Moses had paid attention to what God told him he would have known that Pharaoh was not willingly going to let the people go.  Moses even questioned why the LORD had sent him.  He blamed the LORD for the evil treatment of the people, which was inflicted by orders from Pharaoh.  Moses had a lot of spiritual growth and growth in faith to do in the near future.  This is so typical of each of us as we began our walk of faith.  We often do not listen to what God has told us and furthermore, we often do not trust that God will keep his promises, and we have unreal expectations of what will take place when we follow the LORD.  We all need to grow throughout our lifetime in our faith and trust in the LORD.  We also need to realize that God works in his own timetable and not on ours.  We should not have unreal expectations.  Additionally we need to realize that at times we will suffer afflictions for the cause of Christ.