I love Moses and Pharaoh was a socialist.

Read Exodus 5. This is where Moses starts to get in Pharaoh's face. I think Pharaoh was a whiny little wimp. Here walk Moses and Aaron, two Hebrew slaves, into the king's presence and demand that their entire people be set free to go three day's journey to practice their religion.

Should a strong totalitarian dictator have them slain for this? I mean, the Kims in North Korea would. Castro would. Chavez would. Hitler DID. Herod DID. Pharaoh's initial mistake was in letting them have an inch. Instead of having them executed publicly right then, he just told them "I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go" and "Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens. And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens" and then tells the taskmasters to not let them have straw for the bricks. They made bricks for Pharaoh, not for themselves. All their work went into keeping the government alive and running. And then, as penalty for wanting to practice their religion, they had their taxes raised. They could no longer operate as a religious 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (they wanted a "for-prophet" one, get it?) . Instead, they had the audacity to request the same rights as the progressives, er, I mean, liberals, er sorry, socialists in power.

It got so hard making their government required allotment of daily bricks without straw, which they now had to take on second jobs to go and find first, that they started complaining to their officers who then caught Moses and Aaron coming from Pharaoh, and accused them.

Revelation 12:10 says: "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night."

This is evil speaking of the Lord's anointed. Never, never do this. Find a way to support them. Pray with all your energy that you can get a testimony of what they say, and what they ask you to do. It might be a calling, a call to repentance, some sacrifice they ask you to make, or a doctrinal point you don't agree with. I testify that if we follow the living prophet, not blindly, but with a determination to understand what we are doing, we will be safe and will eventually understand why we do.

The Lord does not want blind obedience. He never has. He wants us to boldly go to him and request answers and offer our services and then go and do his work.

In the last two verses of Exodus 5, we see Moses getting a bit whiny, again. We have to understand that he was given this tough thing to do: walk into Pharaoh's oval office, er, sorry again, board room and ask to be allowed to live their religion. Just a three day feast really. But Pharaoh would not mix church and state. Only the state is allowed to practice freely.

Sound familiar?

Moses sounds pretty bold saying to the Lord, in verses 22-23, "And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all."

This sounds pretty whiny, too. And it may have been. But they had been through a lot now and Moses was probably confused as to why he had kept the commandment and magnified his calling and things got even worse, not better, for Israel.

When I read this I thought of Nephi in 1 Nephi 3:7. I'll let you look it up, if you don't already have it memorized.

Also, I thought of Nephi in 2 Nephi 5:24 and of the Lord's words to Joseph Smith in Doctrine and Covenants 121:45.

Wax bold in prayer. Speak your mind. Don't whine and snivel and beat around the bush. He will still sometimes make you wait. But make your case to him, offer more obedience in return, and mean it. It's not deal making. It's covenant making.