Pharaoh's orders are here put in execution; straw is denied, and yet
the work not diminished. 1. The Egyptian task-masters were very severe.
Pharaoh having decreed unrighteous decrees, the task-masters were ready
to write the grievousness that he had prescribed, Isa. x. 1. Cruel
princes will never want cruel instruments to be employed under them,
who will justify them in that which is most unreasonable. These
task-masters insisted upon the daily tasks, as when there was straw, v.
13. See what need we have to pray that we may be delivered from
unreasonable and wicked men, 2 Thess. iii. 2. The enmity of the
serpent's seed against the seed of the woman is such as breaks through
all the laws of reason, honour, humanity, and common justice. 2. The
people hereby were dispersed throughout all the land of Egypt, to
gather stubble, v. 12. By this means Pharaoh's unjust and barbarous
usage of them came to be known to all the kingdom, and perhaps caused
them to be pitied by their neighbours, and made Pharaoh's government
less acceptable even to his own subjects: good-will is never got by
persecution. 3. The Israelite-officers were used with particular
harshness, v. 14. Those that were the fathers of the houses of Israel
paid dearly for their honour; for from them immediately the service was
exacted, and they were beaten when it was not performed. See here, (1.)
What a miserable thing slavery is, and what reason we have to be
thankful to God that we are a free people, and not oppressed. Liberty
and property are valuable jewels in the eyes of those whose services
and possessions lie at the mercy of an arbitrary power. (2.) What
disappointments we often meet with after the raising of our
expectations. The Israelites were now lately encouraged to hope for
enlargement, but behold greater distresses. This teaches us always to
rejoice with trembling. (3.) What strange steps God sometimes takes in
delivering his people; he often brings them to the utmost straits when
he is just ready to appear for them. The lowest ebbs go before the
highest tides; and very cloudy mornings commonly introduce the fairest
days, Deut. xxxii. 36. God's time to help is when things are at the
worst; and Providence verifies the paradox, The worse the better.