Exodus 5:1 “And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.”

Exodus 5:2 “And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.”

Early in the book of Exodus, the nation of Israel have been slaves for hundreds of years in the land of Egypt.

They’re under the power, authority and control of “Pharaoh”, king of Egypt, who’s using them for free labour to build the country and particularly himself treasure cities.

But a long time promise that God made to the first Hebrew “Abraham” is about to be fulfilled, when God sends a guy called “Moses” back to Egypt to tell Pharaoh that God has said to “let my people go”.

And this is actually quite a scene if you think about it, because Moses hasn’t gone in to see Pharaoh with a name or army backing him… he’s only got what the Bible says.

And Moses doesn’t ask or negotiate with Pharaoh… Moses tells Pharaoh what the Bible says with authority.

Imagine you’re Pharaoh (the king… remember!), how would you respond to that? And would you really let your labour force go based on some guy telling you what the Bible says?

The Bible records how Pharaoh responded to Moses in verse 2 quoted above, where he basically replies with “who is God that I should do as he says?”

In our culture, one of the most scornful and belittling ways to brush someone aside as worthless is to say “who are you?” … and Pharaoh does it to God.

But Pharaoh is not alone, because Pharaoh’s response could well be the most common response to God’s word that there still is today.

Most people live with this attitude to God’s word! Eg. Who is God to tell me how to live my life? Who is God to tell me I need to be saved?

If this is us, we need to pay attention! Because reading on, we find that God does show who he is, and in fact that Pharaoh only had his position because God had raised him to it for the purpose of showing who is God!

As plague after plague is unleashed upon Egypt, Pharaoh chooses stubborn pigheaded resistance to God’s word… but by the end he can’t get the Hebrews out of Egypt quickly enough! God’s word wins the day.

God can tell us what to do because he is God, we may not live like it, but what he said will be what goes, and the only reason it is not sooner is because God is not willing that any should perish (as Pharaoh did) but that all should come to repentance (as Pharaoh could have).

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