Moses goes back to Egypt with his brother Aaron. He asks Pharaoh to let the people go so that they may go and worship God by holding a festival for Him in the desert. At this point in the story of God's people, there have been no commandments for celebrating any of the Feast or Festival Days. Because there weren't any yet. Moses is only asking for a three day journey (70 miles or so), he isn't asking Pharaoh that he free the Hebrew slaves for good.  Pharaoh perceives that he will lose his slave laborers if they make this three day journey. He punishes the people by ordering them to make bricks without providing straw for them. The people are told that they must gather their own straw.  Straw mixes with mud to make the brick stronger and to hold it together while it dries.

Once this decree is issued, that they must make brick without straw or gather their own stray, the Hebrews are not very happy with Moses.  They did not want to listen to Moses "because of their discouragement and cruel bondage".  Yet this (discouragement and cruel bondage) is just what God was offering them deliverance from.

A little jewel of a question is hidden away in today's reading.
Exodus 6:2-3
And God spoke to Moses, and said to him, I am Jehovah. And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty. But I was not known to them by the name Jehovah. 
Here is the question.  Is this evidence that God appeared to Moses in the form of the pre-incarnate Son of God and identified Himself as such?

“I will redeem you with an outstretched arm….”Moses delivered this amazing prophetic statement to the Hebrew slaves. God was telling them that He would redeem them from the yoke of slavery. He is telling us that He will redeem us with outstretched arms on the cross of Calvary.

Look at what God promises the Israelites:
1. I will free you from slavery. (Jesus frees us from being slaves to sin.)
2. I will redeem you. (Jesus redeems us.)
3. I will take you as my own. (Jesus brings us into His family.)
4. I will be your God. (Jesus is Lord of our lives.)
5. You will know that I am your God. (Jesus reveals Himself to us continuously.)
6. I will bring you into the land and give it to you as your possession. (Jesus brings us into the Kingdom of Heaven and makes a special place just for us.)

The people did not listen then. Do the people listen now?

When Pharaoh's magicians duplicate some of the signs that Moses performed, we can see this as evidence of Satan's counterfeit signs and wonders.  However, the magicians could not duplicate certain things.  Satan cannot counterfeit everything.

At the end of some of the plagues, Pharaoh asks that Moses pray for him.  Sometimes he promises that he will honor Moses' request but with compromises.  Sometimes, Pharaoh hardens his heart and sometimes it is God who hardens Pharaoh's heart.  In the plagues, notice how often the land of Goshen (where the Hebrews - the Israelites live) is spared.

Moses mentions to Pharaoh that the sacrifices they are to offer would be detestable to the Egyptians.  Of course it would be detestable to them.  The animals that the Hebrews used for sacrifices were the gods of the Egyptians.   The plagues that God sent on Egypt showed His power over all the Egyptian gods.  They were publicly defeated and humiliated one at a time.

Again, the all important staff is used. Keep paying attention to the staff!

Interesting comment in the commentary on page 103. "Pharaoh avoids God through procrastination, compromise, and insincere repentance". Sounds like us today, doesn't it? And to add insult to injury…with each attempt at resisting God, Pharaoh’s (our) heart gets harder until we are so unaffected by God’s influence in our lives that nothing could get our attention, not even with the death of God’s only Son.

Even though our hearts may become hardened, we as Believers have circumcision of the heart.

Romans 2:29
No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.

Philippians 3:3
For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh--

Colossians 2:11
In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ,

Circumcision of the flesh was a sign of the covenant between God and man.  Circumcision of the heart comes only through Jesus, a sign of the covenant between Jesus and His people.