"And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord?"--_Exodus 5:2._
MOSES and his brother Aaron went and told Pharaoh God's message, that
the people of Israel were to go away and worship Him. But Pharaoh said,
"Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know
not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." And he was more cruel to
the children of Israel; he made them work harder and harder, and had
them beaten if they did not do all the work that was set them.
They had to make bricks of clay mixed with straw; and, to punish them,
Pharaoh said that they should have no straw given to them for their
work, but that they must find it for themselves; and yet he required
of them just as many bricks as they had had to make before. Then they
cried out and were angry, and fancied Moses had brought all this
trouble on them, by asking for them to go. They were very miserable,
and said they wished they had never listened to Moses, for he had only
made them worse off instead of better.
Aaron was a better speaker than Moses, and God had said he should help
him, and that, when God told Moses anything, Aaron should speak it to
the people. So the two brothers stood telling the Israelites to bear it
a little longer, and then it would be all well and over, and they would
get away from making the bricks in Egypt to the beautiful country.
They could not remember it themselves, but some of their fathers'
grandfathers had been little boys when they came, and could tell them
that it was a country not all flat, with only one river in it, like
Egypt, but full of steep hills and green valleys, with bright streams
running along in them, and thick woods on some of the slopes, and
others laid out in gardens and vineyards. There were so many cows in
the pastures, and in the wild rocks and hollow trees so many bees'
nests, that it was called a land flowing with milk and honey.
[Illustration: THE ISRAELITES MADE TO WORK HARD IN EGYPT.--Ex. 1:13,
14.]
Should not the Israelites have liked to hear of such a place as this?
But no, they were too dull to care. They thought more of whether
they should get a leek or a melon to eat at supper, than of all the
lovely land far away. Do you know, people are very like that when they
care for _now_ more than _by-and-by_. If we want just what pleases
us to-day, instead of caring for what will be good for us as we grow
older, we are just like the Israelites, who would not attend to Moses
or to God.