Overcoming oppression and cruelty, ending war and slavery nothing less will establish the credibility of God. Neither spirituality nor teaching about transcendence will have lasting validity as long as human misery remains rampant. This wedding of history and faith is articulated by Pharaoh and God alike. When Pharaoh tightens the vise by cutting off the supply of straw to the slaves while demanding they meet their full production quota of bricks, Moses and the Hebrews are crushed. Modern Bible critics argue that this verse reveals a tradition that YHWH was not the God of the patriarchs, but one who emerged in a later era.
Traditional commentaries provide a theologically deeper approach.
As long as the patriarchs remained landless outsiders, as long as the Israelites remained slaves, they did not really know God as God. In the presence of war and degradation, talk of God is only talk. True, the hungry and exploited call out to God. But in their suffering they experience God, not as Loving Presence, but as a straw to be grasped at. To spread the knowledge of God, one must be a liberator, a caretaker and protector of orphans, widows and strangers.