Yes — the Bible records straw as a real material in ancient brick-making.
Exodus 5:7 records Pharaoh telling the taskmasters not to give the people straw for making bricks, and Exodus 5:12 shows them gathering stubble in its place. The passage treats straw as the normal material given to brick makers, while the same quota of bricks was still required. The surrounding teaching context also notes that this once-mocked detail was later confirmed by archaeological discoveries.
Exodus 5:7 — This verse directly records Pharaoh's command that straw no longer be given for brick-making.
Exodus 5:8 — It shows the same quota of bricks remained even after straw was withheld, proving straw was a normal part of the process.
Exodus 5:12 — It shows the Israelites gathering stubble instead of straw, confirming the straw-based brick-making process.
In Exodus 5, after Moses and Aaron ask Pharaoh to let Israel go into the wilderness to sacrifice, Pharaoh responds by commanding that straw no longer be provided for brick-making. He says the people must gather straw for themselves and still deliver the same number of bricks. The text records that the people were scattered throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. Pharaoh's order was not a description of a hypothetical or invented process; it was a burden laid on real workers who made bricks. The repeated references to straw, stubble, and the tale of bricks show that straw was a normal part of the brick-making material used in Egypt.
In the recorded lesson, Les opens at Exodus 5 after Moses and Aaron have confronted Pharaoh and demanded that Israel be allowed to leave for a three-day journey. The straw-for-bricks instruction belongs to this confrontation. Les also teaches that when the Old Testament is scoffed at, believers can wait for archaeology to speak, because evidence in line with Scripture will eventually be announced. He says, "Every time they scoff at the Old Testament record, all you have to do is just sit back and say, but this one is the true one. This is the Word of God, and God does not lie." According to the teaching context supplied with this question, Les applies this principle to the straw-for-bricks detail: critics — especially in the late 1800s — once mocked the idea, but later archaeological work in the Middle East found that ancient people did use straw in brick-making. For Les, this is one more example of Scripture being accurate even when the world doubts it.
After Moses and Aaron asked Pharaoh to let Israel go into the wilderness to sacrifice, Pharaoh refused. He accused the people of being idle, saying, "they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God" (Exodus 5:8). Rather than letting them go, he commanded that they be given no more straw and that they still deliver the same number of bricks. The record therefore shows that straw was not an optional or imagined detail; it was the material normally supplied to the brick makers.
Exodus 5:12 says the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. Their officers were pressured and beaten because the daily brick quota could not be filled (Exodus 5:13-14). The people then appealed to Pharaoh and finally turned on Moses and Aaron for making the situation worse.
Les says that when people scoff at the Old Testament record, the believer can wait for archaeology to speak. He recalls a prestigious archaeology magazine denying that a town in the Old Testament ever existed, and within a year the same magazine admitted the town was found "just according to the biblical record." His application is that Scripture is the true one; it is the Word of God, and God does not lie. The same principle applies to details like straw in Egyptian brick-making.
The detail matters because it is the kind of specific historical reference that skeptics can test. The Bible says straw was part of the brick-making material, and the teaching context notes that archaeological evidence later confirmed that ancient peoples did use straw in bricks. For Les, this is one more example of Scripture being accurate even when the world doubts it.
Exodus 5 Opening Context
Les opens at Exodus 5, where Moses and Aaron have confronted Pharaoh and demanded Israel be allowed to leave for a three-day journey, setting the context for the straw-for-bricks command.
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Archaeology Confirms the Biblical Record
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Exodus 5:7: Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves.
This is the direct command that straw was no longer to be given for brick-making.
Exodus 5:8: And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.
It shows the same quota remained while straw was withheld, proving straw was a normal part of the brick-making process.
Exodus 5:12: So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw.
It shows the Israelites gathering stubble, confirming straw was the material in use.
Exodus 5:18: Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.
Pharaoh repeats that no straw will be given and the tale of bricks must still be produced.
Yes. Exodus 5:7 records Pharaoh saying, "Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves." The verse treats straw as the normal material supplied for brick-making.
Pharaoh accused the people of being idle because they asked to go sacrifice to God. So he commanded that no straw be given while still requiring the same quota of bricks, making their slavery harder.
According to the teaching context, critics in the late 1800s ridiculed the idea, but archaeological work in the Middle East later found that ancient people did use straw in brick-making. Les applies the same principle to Scripture generally: archaeology may scoff at the biblical record at first, but evidence eventually confirms it.
It is found in Exodus 5:6-18, after Moses and Aaron first confront Pharaoh in the name of God.
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