You might suppose that if God has set you to a task, God will smooth the way so that the task will go well. This turns out not to be the case. Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness’” (Exodus 5:1). But Pharaoh scoffed at this. “Who is the Lord,” Pharaoh said, “that I should listen to him and let Israel go?” (5:2).

Rather than setting them free, Pharaoh responded with more cruelty, demanding that the people of Israel gather their own straw for brickmaking, while continuing to produce the same quota of bricks each day (5:6-18). The Israelite foremen complained bitterly to Moses and Aaron: “The Lord look upon you and judge! You have brought us into bad odor with Pharaoh” (5:21).

So Moses asked the Lord, “O Lord, why have you mistreated this people? Why did you ever send me? Since I first came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has mistreated this people, and you have done nothing at all to deliver your people” (5:23).

There will be more to the story; deliverance will indeed take place. But it had not taken place quickly, and things got worse before they got better. Pharaoh became more cruel. The Israelite leaders became more bitter. And Moses himself became more perplexed at God’s slowness to act.

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You have a purpose, O Lord, and we trust that you will accomplish it. We wish to do our best to fulfill our part in your plan. But it is often hard to persevere, when things seem only to get worse despite our efforts. O God, help us, strengthen us, encourage us, we pray.

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