A Bird’s Eye View of the Passover, Part 6

No Straw for Bricks So a Staff Becomes a Snake

“This new guy rolled into town the other day,” Hannah the sparrow chatted to her friend Leah the sparrow. “His name is Moses. Did you see him?”

“I did see him!” Leah sang loudly. Sparrows know that people don’t understand them, so they talk about whatever they want as loudly as they want. “He marched right up to Pharaoh’s palace and told him to let God’s people, the Israelites, go to the desert and worship the Lord.”

Another sparrow named Ruth flew up and picked up a breadcrumb that Hannah was about to get. But that’s the way sparrows are. “I heard what Pharaoh said after that. Did you hear what Pharaoh said?”

“What did he say?” Hannah asked.

Ruth told the story to Leah and Hannah in her chattery and sparrow-like way, but this is what happened:

“Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”

Then Moses and Aaron said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”

But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”

That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”

Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw. Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’” So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.” And Pharaoh’s slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, demanding, “Why haven’t you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?”

Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why have you treated your servants this way? Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”

Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”

The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.”  When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, and they said, “May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

“The Israelites were so mad about that,” Ruth said.

“But guess what I just saw!” Hannah said. “You won’t believe it! You won’t believe it! God told Moses and Aaron to do something, and they did it!”

“So, did you see what made everyone at the palace scream a little while ago?” Ruth asked.

“Yes! I did!” Hannah said.

“What did God ask them do? What did you see?” Leah asked.

This is what Hannah saw:

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and… Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.