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. 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.
Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh's palace as God's representatives and ambassadors of the King of kings, speaking with divine authority in the name of the great I AM and delivering God's command to release Israel as His people to hold a feast to Him and worship Him in the wilderness. The request itself was modest, asking only for a three days' journey into the desert to sacrifice to the Lord. It carried the warning lest He fall upon them with pestilence or with the sword.
Their divine commission included going before the profligate king in person and in the name of the great I AM rebuking his cruelty and oppression, unlike Paul when confined to his own dwelling, who had no such command to go before the king. Pharaoh haughtily refused to obey, asking who the Lord was that he should obey His voice and professing not to know the God of Israel. That question did not come from genuine ignorance of the true God but from hatred and defiance of God's power.
By this demand God purposed to let Pharaoh know that His voice must be obeyed, that He is above all, and that He will compel proud rulers to bow to His authority. The power with Moses was not human influence or power over minds but the power of God, shown in signs and wonders to convince Pharaoh that the great I AM had sent him. Israel was not yet ready for deliverance after four hundred years in Egypt and slavery, having lost the knowledge of God, largely forgotten His law and neglected the Sabbath. Many lacked faith, feared the hardships of leaving for a strange land, let their habits become like the Egyptians, preferred Egypt, and expected to be freed from bondage without any particular trial of faith or suffering on their part.
God therefore used the first demand and Pharaoh's response to expose the king's tyranny and to reveal His own justice, power, and love, so that the people would choose to leave Egypt and serve Him. The demand called them from bondage to worship and obedience, reflecting the principle that obedience to God comes before deliverance. The purpose of the release was that they might obey God's laws and keep the Sabbath instituted in Eden, which they had neglected and which efforts to restore brought to the notice of their Egyptian oppressors. God later spoke the Ten Commandments to them at Sinai so they would recognize the law's sacred, enduring authority and teach its binding claims to their children.
Moses' work of breaking the yoke of bondage that Israel might serve God prefigured Christ's first advent to break Satan's power over the human family and deliver those made captives by him. Satan opposed the mission because he was unwilling for Israel to be released to serve God, working to harden Pharaoh against God's manifestations, to stagger the faith of Moses and Aaron in the divine origin of their mission, and to destroy the influence of God's work by counterfeiting it through his agents the magicians. That counterfeit work would reach down through all ages to destroy faith in the miracles of Christ. God's call of Israel out of Egypt to worship Him and keep His Sabbath parallels His call for His people to come out of Babylon, refuse worship of the beast and its image, and reject the false Sabbath that has replaced God's memorial.