Bricks Without Straw

 

The first mention of straw in the Bible has it connected with provender (Genesis 24:25,32). According to Dictionary.com, provender is either dry food, such as oats, or food provisions. 

 

In ancient times, the Pharaoh stopped providing straw, even though it was required for what he demanded the people work to produce. The people scattered all over the nation, looking for substitutes for what they had lost (Exodus 5:7-12). 

 

In modern America, we have a lot of government programs doling out food and provisions to assist people with low incomes. If those programs were cut by someone who claimed they were just being lazy, how many of them would be forced to wander around, looking for substitutes? 

 

The timing of this must be addressed as well. A careful read of the passages of Scripture indicate that the plagues took 2-3 years to play out. The taking away of the straw occured before that, but after a change in leadership. 

 

If this nation is, indeed, paralleling the 400 year prophecy given to Abram, then an Exodus will occur in the spring of 2020. This will not be the end of the nation as Egypt obviously outlived the exodus of the Israelites. It will just be a large group of people leaving to worship God the way He wants, and they take all the nation's wealth with them. 

 

So speculating, 2-3 years prior to 2020 would probably put us somewhere in 2017. In 2016 we will choose a new leader to sit in the Presidential Seat. He will be sworn into office in January of 2017. This fits the criteria. Whether or not this will be the man who takes away provender, calling the people needing it lazy? Only time will tell. For now, all we can do is study, pray, and speculate on prophecies and historical patterns.