Moses Meets the Pharaoh

Today I read Exodus 5 where Moses and Aaron meet with the Pharaoh for the first time. I have often pondered on the story of the 10 plagues of Egypt and just what type of man the Pharaoh had to be to let his people suffer like he did. After today's reading where when Moses and Aaron asked the Pharaoh to let them go into the wilderness to perform sacrifice and he increased their work load, I've decided he is a bully.

I will never understand the mentality of the bully. From what I have been taught and observed, a bully is unhappy with himself/herself and so he/she picks on those that they view as less than themselves in an effort to make themselves feel better. I guess because I have always had the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life I just don't understand that kind of mentality. I have always known my worth in the sight of God.

But the Pharaoh is a big bully. He had no reason to increase the workload of the Israelites but he did it anyway. He was being mean for the sake of being mean. It's not like Moses and Aaron were bluffing and he was calling them on their bluff, no, he was just being cruel because he wanted to be. Because they were slaves, less than people to him. You can find the same types of behaviors among the history books of slave owners here in America before the slaves were freed. Such behavior and thought process is disgusting. It is amazing to me that a people who thought there were so enlightened could be so barbaric.

Poor Moses must have felt just awful. The scriptures say that he went and talked to the Lord to ask Him why He had allowed this to happen and why He sent Moses here because it had only caused the Israelites more pain and suffering. I can just picture a frustrated, upset Moses pleading with the Lord for understanding. It is hard sometimes to follow the will of the Lord, especially when we don't understand it. But Moses must have received the strength from the Lord that he sought because he stuck with it and eventually achieved his goal and was able to free the Israelites. He trusted in the Lord. Until tomorrow.