Exodus 5:5-8 (ESV Strong's)
And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!” The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’
Subject: Bad Leadership
Pharaoh's original objection to Moses request to go and worship God was a labor shut down and productivity issue. He didn't want his building project to be put on hold for someone to worship their God. In today's economy there is a similar pattern. We have work product that can't shut down long enough to worship God. We can't take a day off to have a true time to worship. If we did, productivity would cease and our buildings and machines would set idle. Man's work is in direct conflict with God's work. God wants us to worship and praise Him. To do this you have to stop your own work. Now, in this story the theme is much bigger than a simple work stoppage. As the story unfolds the point will be less about work and more about Pharaoh seeing God and knowing God. Yet, his original issue was not about knowing God, or honoring God. His first thought is that the building project would run late and he simply didn't want them to slow production in order to worship God. We have the same issues today. We have business owners and shop keepers who simply don't want to lose the revenue and therefore keep the work going, preventing people to worship. We have many modern-day Pharaohs today.
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