27 June 2026 — When Obedience Makes Things Worse
Notes
Transcript
Introduction with Illustration
Introduction with Illustration
In the winter darkness of occupied Denmark, a pastor named Kaj Munk stood in a pulpit when silence would have been safer. He was not merely a preacher; he was also one of Denmark’s best-known playwrights, and his words carried beyond the walls of his little parish church in Vedersø. When Nazi power tightened its grip on Denmark, Munk spoke against the cruelty, the lies, and the persecution of the Jews. Friends urged him to be careful, because everyone knew that the occupying powers were listening. But Munk believed that a preacher could not serve the God of truth by bowing before the throne of fear.
The cost did not come all at once, but it came. His writings were watched, his influence was resented, and his preaching became more dangerous with every passing month. On December 5, 1943, he preached in Copenhagen Cathedral after defying the pressure of the Nazi occupation, and within weeks the danger that had been gathering around him reached his door. On the night of January 4, 1944, the Gestapo came to his parsonage, took him from his family, and drove him away into the cold. The next morning, his body was found by the roadside near Silkeborg.
At first glance, that looks like obedience making everything worse. He spoke truth, and the darkness answered with violence. He refused to let Pharaoh define reality, and Pharaoh’s system struck back. But the story did not end in the roadside ditch, because Denmark heard the witness even more loudly after Munk’s death. Thousands came to honor him, his name became a symbol of moral courage, and the very power that tried to silence him only exposed its own cruelty before the nation.
Beloved, that is why Exodus 5:10–6:1 is one of the most honest passages in the Bible. It does not pretend that obedience always brings immediate relief. It does not tell us that if we follow God, the road will instantly become easy. Moses obeys God, Aaron obeys God, they speak the word of God to Pharaoh, and what happens? Pharaoh does not repent, Israel is not released, the burdens are not lifted, and in fact the suffering gets worse.
That is why this passage is so important. It teaches us what faith must do when obedience appears to backfire. At the end of Exodus 4, everything looked promising, because the elders believed, the people bowed their heads and worshiped, Moses had finally accepted God’s call, Aaron was standing with him, and the message had been received. But by the end of Exodus 5, the people are angry, the foremen are beaten, Pharaoh is unmoved, Moses is discouraged, and God’s promise seems farther away than before. This is not a small issue, because many people can believe when the signs are encouraging, but faith is tested when the bricks get heavier.
What happens when you pray, obey, speak the truth, take the right step, and then the situation deteriorates? What happens when the very thing you thought would lead to deliverance seems to increase the bondage? Exodus 5:10–6:1 brings us into that moment, and in the great controversy, this is one of Satan’s favorite strategies. If he cannot keep God from speaking, he tries to make obedience look foolish. If he cannot stop the promise, he tries to bury the promise under suffering.
But the LORD is not absent. He is silent for much of this passage, but He is not absent. He waits until Pharaoh has shown his cruelty, until Israel has felt its helplessness, until Moses has reached the end of himself. Then God speaks. “Now you shall see what I will do.”
Introduction
Introduction
Exodus 5:10–6:1 is one of the most honest passages in the Bible. It does not pretend that obedience always brings immediate relief. It does not tell us that if we follow God, the road will instantly become easy. Moses obeys God. Aaron obeys God. They speak the word of God to Pharaoh. They say, “Thus says the LORD.” And what happens? Pharaoh does not repent. Israel is not released. The burdens are not lifted. In fact, the suffering gets worse.
That is why this passage is so important. It teaches us what faith must do when obedience appears to backfire.
At the end of Exodus 4, everything looked promising. The elders believed. The people bowed their heads and worshiped. Moses had finally accepted God’s call. Aaron was standing with him. The message had been received. But by the end of Exodus 5, the people are angry, the foremen are beaten, Pharaoh is unmoved, Moses is discouraged, and God’s promise seems farther away than before.
This is not a small issue. Many people can believe when the signs are encouraging. Many can worship when the first report is good. But what happens when faithfulness makes life harder? What happens when you pray, obey, speak the truth, take the right step, and then the situation deteriorates? What happens when the very thing you thought would lead to deliverance seems to increase the bondage?
Exodus 5:10–6:1 brings us into that moment. And in the great controversy, this is one of Satan’s favorite strategies. If he cannot keep God from speaking, he tries to make obedience look foolish. If he cannot stop the promise, he tries to bury the promise under suffering. If he cannot defeat God, he tries to divide God’s people from God’s messenger, and then make the messenger question God.
But the LORD is not absent. He is silent for much of this passage, but He is not absent. He waits until Pharaoh has shown his cruelty, until Israel has felt its helplessness, until Moses has reached the end of himself. Then God speaks.
“Now you shall see what I will do.”
I. Pharaoh’s Word Goes Down the Chain
I. Pharaoh’s Word Goes Down the Chain
The first thing we notice is that Pharaoh’s word does not stay in the palace. It travels. It moves down the chain of command until the pain reaches the backs of the slaves.
So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw. Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.’ ”
Hear the blasphemous echo? Moses and Aaron had stood before Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the LORD.” Now Pharaoh answers with his own counterfeit gospel: “Thus says Pharaoh.” This is not merely an administrative order. It is a rival word. It is Pharaoh putting his decree against God’s decree, his authority against God’s authority, his kingdom against God’s kingdom. God says, “Let my people go.” Pharaoh says, “Go get your own straw.” God’s word comes down to liberate. Pharaoh’s word goes down the chain to crush.
That is how coercive power works. It does not usually appear first with a whip. It appears as a policy, an order (executive order), a quota, a memo from above. But by the time it reaches the bottom, it has become suffering. Pharaoh does not need to strike every Israelite himself. He has taskmasters. He has foremen. He has a system. And the system is designed to make disobedience to God look practical and obedience to God look dangerous.
Then verse 12 says,
So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.
Before, the straw had been supplied. Now the people must scatter. Straw was needed to bind the bricks together, but now they are not even gathering proper straw. They are gathering stubble, the leftover pieces, the rough remains. Beloved, this is cruelty with calculation. Pharaoh removes the resources but keeps the requirement. He takes away what they need, then blames them when they cannot produce.
And that is still one of the enemy’s strategies. He burdens the soul, drains the strength, scatters the mind, then whispers, “See, you cannot serve God. See, the promise has failed. See, worship only makes life worse.” In the great controversy, Satan’s work is not only to cause pain, but to interpret pain against God. He wants suffering to become an argument against the Word of the LORD. Evil is framed within a cosmic conflict over God’s character. The enemy cannot defeat God by power, so he slanders God’s goodness. Pharaoh is doing the same thing on earth. He is trying to make Israel believe that the word of God has brought them misery.
Verse 13 continues,
The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.”
The word is relentless: “Complete your work.” Every day the same demand. Every day the same quota. Every day the same pressure. There is no room for weakness, no Sabbath rest, no mercy, no worship. Pharaoh’s kingdom runs on production without compassion. It knows how to count bricks, but it does not know how to count tears.
But the God of Israel had already said something Pharaoh refused to hear. Exodus 3:7 says,
… “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry…
Pharaoh sees labor units. God sees His people. Pharaoh hears excuses. God hears cries. Pharaoh counts bricks. God counts every tear.
Then the suffering reaches the foremen. Verse 14 says,
And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?”
Now the chain of command becomes a chain of pain. The Egyptian taskmasters beat the Israelite foremen, and the foremen stand between Pharaoh’s impossible demand and the people’s impossible condition. They are responsible for what they cannot control. They are punished for failure Pharaoh created. This is oppression in its mature form: it creates impossibility, then calls impossibility disobedience.
And here we must not miss the spiritual lesson. Sin is always a harsh taskmaster. Jesus said,
… everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
Sin promises freedom, but it gives quotas. Sin promises pleasure, but it gives bondage. Sin promises control, but it puts a whip in someone else’s hand.
So when obedience makes things worse, do not assume God has failed. Sometimes the worsening is the exposure. Pharaoh’s word must show what it is. Egypt must be revealed for what it is. The cruelty hidden in the system must come into the light. Pharaoh’s word has gone down the chain, and soon the cry will go back up.
II. The Cry Goes to the Wrong Throne
II. The Cry Goes to the Wrong Throne
The chain of pain has reached the foremen, and now the foremen do what wounded people often do: they look for relief from the very power that is crushing them.
Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this? No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.”
Notice the word: they “cried.” Earlier, Israel cried because of their slavery, and Exodus 2:23 says,
… Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.
But here the cry goes to Pharaoh. Their pain is real. Their complaint is reasonable. They have been given no straw, commanded to make bricks, and beaten for a failure Pharaoh himself created. But their cry goes to the wrong throne.
And listen to how they identify themselves: “your servants.” Not once, but again and again. “Your servants are given no straw.” “Your servants are beaten.” They are Israelites, covenant people, children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God has already called them “my people.” But bondage has trained them to speak as if Pharaoh owns them. Oppression does not only bruise the back. It can shape the imagination. It can make a child of God think like a slave of Egypt.
Beloved, this is why deliverance is not only getting Pharaoh off your neck; it is getting Pharaoh out of your mind. God must not only bring Israel out of Egypt. He must teach Israel that they belong to Him.
But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’
Pharaoh does not answer their argument. He attacks their worship. He says, “You are idle.” In other words, “Your desire to worship God is the problem.” Do you see the cruelty? Pharaoh creates the crisis, then blames the victims. He removes the straw, demands the quota, beats the foremen, and when they cry out, he says, “Lazy.”
This is more than bad leadership. This is spiritual warfare. Pharaoh interprets devotion as laziness, worship as rebellion, and the Word of God as a threat to productivity. And in the great controversy, that is still one of the enemy’s lies. Satan wants God’s people to believe that worship is impractical, that obedience is irresponsible, that time with God is wasted time. But Jesus says,
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness…
Pharaoh says, “Seek first the quota.”
Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.”
There it is again: “Go.” Moses said, “Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.” Pharaoh says, “Go now and work.” God calls His people to worship. Pharaoh drives them back to labor. God says,
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Pharaoh says, “Go now and work.”
And this is the tragedy of crying to the wrong throne: Pharaoh cannot give what only God can give. Pharaoh can adjust a workload, but he cannot redeem a soul. Pharaoh can reduce a quota if it serves him, but he cannot break the chains. So the foremen leave with no mercy, no justice, no rest.
Yet even here God is working. Pharaoh’s throne is being exposed. Egypt’s promises are being unmasked. The people must learn what we also must learn: do not take your deepest cries to the one who enslaves you. Take them to the LORD, for
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
III. When God’s People Blame God’s Messenger
III. When God’s People Blame God’s Messenger
The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, “You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.” They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh;
The foremen now understand what Pharaoh has done. Their appeal has failed. The quota remains. The beatings will continue. And when they come out from Pharaoh, they find Moses and Aaron waiting for them.
This is painful. Moses and Aaron had obeyed God. They had spoken God’s word. They had not invented this mission. Moses had resisted the call, and God had sent him anyway. But now, in the eyes of the foremen, Moses and Aaron are the reason everything is worse.
Exodus 5:21
and they said to them, “The Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
Beloved, pain often looks for the nearest target. They cannot move Pharaoh. They cannot change the system. They cannot stop the taskmasters. So they turn on Moses and Aaron. Pharaoh’s strategy is working. He has increased the pressure until the people of God begin blaming the messenger of God.
And notice the terrible irony. They invoke the name of the LORD, but they use His name against the very men the LORD has sent. “The LORD look on you and judge.” They are not asking God to deliver them. They are asking God to condemn Moses and Aaron. The cry that should have gone upward in faith now comes sideways in accusation.
This is how the enemy loves to work in the great controversy. He slanders God’s character, then uses suffering to turn God’s people against one another. Remember that the cosmic conflict is not settled by raw power, because the issue is God’s character and government. Satan cannot overthrow God, so he tries to fracture trust: trust in God, trust in God’s Word, and trust among God’s people.
They say, “You have made us stink.” Their reputation before Pharaoh is ruined. And then they say, “you have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” But Pharaoh’s sword was already against them. Pharaoh was already enslaving them. Pharaoh had already commanded Hebrew babies to be thrown into the Nile. Fear has made them forget who the real enemy is.
We must learn this lesson, church. When obedience brings pressure, do not turn on the people God has placed with you. Ephesians 6:12 says,
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood…
The enemy wants the suffering church to become the suspicious church. But God calls us to become the praying church, the patient church, the faithful church.
IV. Moses Takes His Complaint to the Right Place
IV. Moses Takes His Complaint to the Right Place
Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me?
Now Moses does what the foremen did not do. The foremen went to Pharaoh. Moses goes to the LORD. His words are not polished. They are almost shocking. “Why have you done evil to this people?” Moses is not bringing a theory. He is bringing the burden before God.
Beloved, this is not unbelief. This is wounded faith turning in the right direction. Unbelief walks away from God. Faith, even when confused, turns to God and says, “Lord, I do not understand.” Job did that. David did that. Jesus Himself cried,
… “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
God is not afraid of honest lament.
In the great controversy, this matters. Satan wants pain to drive us away from God. But prayer takes the pain the enemy would use to separate us from God and brings it into God’s presence. Lament is faith refusing to let go.
For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”
Moses tells the truth as far as he can see it. “Since I came… he has done evil.” Pharaoh has increased the suffering. But then Moses says, “you have not delivered your people at all.” That is what he feels, but it is not the whole story. God has not failed. God has begun.
Church, sometimes obedience puts us in the painful space between promise and fulfillment. We have faith to go, but not sight to understand. So take the complaint to God. Philippians 4:6 says,
… in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Moses takes his complaint to the right place, and soon God will answer.
V. God Answers with Promise, Not Explanation
V. God Answers with Promise, Not Explanation
But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”
Notice what God does not give Moses. He does not give him a full explanation. He does not answer every “why.” He gives him a promise: “Now you shall see.”
Moses has seen Pharaoh’s cruelty. The foremen have seen trouble. The people have seen their hope collapse. But now God says, “You shall see what I will do.” Beloved, faith is not built on what Pharaoh is doing, but on what God has promised to do.
And God says Pharaoh will not merely let them go; he will drive them out. The same hand that oppressed Israel will become the unwilling instrument of God’s deliverance. In the great controversy, God does not answer accusation by coercion, but by revealing His faithfulness in history.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Exodus 5:10–6:1 is for everyone who has ever obeyed God and then wondered why things got harder.
It is for the believer who prayed, but the situation worsened.
It is for the parent who tried to lead the family toward God, but conflict increased.
It is for the pastor, elder, teacher, or leader who spoke the truth and then was blamed for the pain.
It is for the person who stepped out in faith and then felt like Moses: “Lord, why did You ever send me?”
This passage tells us the truth: Pharaoh does not release slaves without resistance. The enemy does not surrender territory without a fight. Deliverance can begin before relief is visible.
But it also tells us something more important: God is not defeated by Pharaoh’s cruelty. God is not confused by Moses’ questions. God is not absent in Israel’s suffering. God is preparing to act.
“Now you shall see what I will do.”
Beloved, the God of Exodus is the God of the cross. He does not ask you to pretend suffering does not hurt. He does not rebuke every honest question. He invites you to turn to Him. He invites you to trust Him when you cannot trace Him. He invites you to believe that His promise is stronger than Pharaoh’s decree.
Pharaoh may say, “No straw.” Pharaoh may say, “Same quota.” Pharaoh may say, “You are lazy.” Pharaoh may say, “Go now and work.” But Pharaoh does not get the last word.
The LORD gets the last word.
And His word is this: “Now you shall see what I will do.”
Amen.
Closing Story Before Appeal
Closing Story Before Appeal
In 1944, Budapest was a city trembling under terror. Nazi Germany had occupied Hungary, and the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz had begun with horrifying speed. In the middle of that darkness stood a Swiss diplomat named Carl Lutz, the vice-consul in Budapest. He did not command an army, and he did not have the power to overthrow the regime. What he had was a diplomatic office, official paper, a stamp, and a conviction that human life was not disposable.
Lutz negotiated permission to issue protective letters for Jews who were supposed to emigrate to Palestine. The number he was authorized to help was limited, but Lutz found a way to stretch mercy as far as possible. He treated the number not merely as individuals but as family units, and protective papers began to multiply. He also helped establish safe houses under Swiss protection, including the famous Glass House on Vadász Street. Families who had been hunted, marked, and terrified found temporary shelter under the protection of words printed on paper and backed by the courage of a man willing to risk his career.
But his obedience did not make his life easier. Lutz was not celebrated immediately when the war ended. In fact, Swiss authorities later criticized him for exceeding his authority, and for years his rescue work did not receive the honor it deserved. To the eyes of bureaucracy, he had gone too far. To the eyes of heaven, he had stood between Pharaoh’s machinery and human life. He had acted when evil was organized, official, and efficient.
Only later did the world begin to see the weight of what had been done. Yad Vashem recognized Carl Lutz as Righteous Among the Nations, and he is now remembered as one of the great rescuers of the Holocaust. Tens of thousands of Jews were helped through his protective letters and safe houses. What looked at first like dangerous disobedience to human authority became, in the light of history, an act of mercy that preserved life. Pharaoh’s system had its decrees, but those decrees did not get the final word.
Beloved, that helps us understand Exodus 6:1. Moses could see the heavier bricks, the angry foremen, the unmoved Pharaoh, and the suffering people. What he could not yet see was that God had already begun to expose Egypt, prepare deliverance, and move history toward the Red Sea. Moses wanted an explanation for why obedience had made things worse. God answered him with a promise: “Now you shall see what I will do.”
Appeal Section
Appeal Section
So today, the appeal is simple, but it reaches deep into real life. Do not judge God’s faithfulness by the weight of today’s bricks. Do not measure the truth of God’s promise by Pharaoh’s latest decree. Do not assume that because the pressure increased, God has stepped away. Sometimes the worsening is not the failure of God’s word; sometimes the worsening is the exposure of Pharaoh’s kingdom.
Some of you have obeyed God, and it got harder. You tried to lead your family toward Christ, and the conflict increased. You tried to speak truth in love, and someone misunderstood you. You prayed for deliverance, and the burden did not lift right away. You took a step of faith, and now you are standing with Moses, saying, “Lord, why did You ever send me?”
But the God of Exodus is the God of the cross. At Calvary, it looked as if obedience had made everything worse. Jesus obeyed perfectly, loved perfectly, surrendered perfectly, and the result seemed to be rejection, nails, darkness, and a tomb. But resurrection tells us that God can be doing His deepest work when we can see the least. Pharaoh does not get the last word, Rome does not get the last word, Satan does not get the last word, and your suffering does not get the last word.
So bring your complaint to the right throne. Do not let Pharaoh teach you how to interpret your pain. Do not let the enemy use suffering to turn you against God’s character, God’s Word, or God’s people. If you are confused, pray confused. If you are hurting, pray hurting. If all you can say is, “Lord, I do not understand,” then say it to Him, because wounded faith is still faith when it turns toward God.
Today, God is calling someone to trust Him between promise and fulfillment. He is calling someone to keep obeying when the bricks get heavier. He is calling someone to believe that costly faithfulness is not wasted, even when it is not immediately honored or understood. He is calling someone to stand with the LORD when Pharaoh’s system pushes back, and to believe that one day God will make clear what He was doing all along.
I want to pray for you. If any of you want to say with me… “Lord, even when obedience makes life harder, I will bring my complaint to You, trust Your promise, and wait to see what You will do.”
END
May the Lord, the everlasting God, be your strength. May He lift you up on wings like eagles, so that you run and do not grow weary, walk and do not faint. Amen. (Isaiah 40:31)
