Exodus 5:2, commentary and pictures

Pharaoh's question was a defiant refusal to recognize God's authority and obey His command to release Israel from bondage after a modest request to go worship Him in the wilderness. His claim not to know the Lord was not lack of opportunity, but pretended ignorance expressing hatred, unbelief and open rebellion against the living God. God purposed to compel that proud ruler to know that His voice must be obeyed and that He is above all gods, preserving Pharaoh's life so his stubbornness would multiply evidences of divine power and magnify His name before Egypt and the nations. Through judgments timed beforehand that nature obeyed, Pharaoh was humbled again and again to confess and beg for intercession, and after the slaying of the firstborn his pride broke and he bowed and entreated Israel to go serve their God. Those who now resist the light given them and question why they should obey follow that same path of hardening until unable to discern right from wrong, and will likewise answer to God in judgment.

Words and Historical Setting

The demand answered here was modest, only that Israel be allowed to travel three days into the wilderness to sacrifice and worship God. It came as Moses and Aaron brought God's message to Pharaoh, at the same time Israel believed God had visited them and bowed in worship.

Pharaoh's question claimed not to know the Lord and defiantly refused to recognize His authority and obey His command to release Israel from bondage. His words were proud and open denial of the living God, rejecting the Lord's right to command and refusing to let Israel go.

He despised Israel because of their lowly condition as slaves, yet God had already called oppressed Israel His son and firstborn. The setting was Israel's cruel bondage in Egypt, where efforts to observe the Sabbath and seek deliverance brought harsher labor demands. Pharaoh treated their worship as idleness and a threat to his rule, while God was calling Israel out so they could keep His Sabbath.

Pharaoh's boast that Israel's God could not deliver them echoed Egyptian scorn that pointed to Israel as mere slaves and to Egypt's food, raiment, riches and prosperity as proof their gods had prospered them. It crushed the hope of many Israelites, who contrasted their burdened slave lives and hunted and slain male children with the wealth of worshipers of wood and stone images and of sun, moon and stars. They questioned why a just and merciful God above all gods did not free them and exalt them, and deliverance seemed impossible under a tyrannical king confident in his own power and in Egypt's gods to keep them enslaved, oppress them, and destroy their lives.

Defiance Rather Than Ignorance

Pharaoh's question who the Lord is was not ignorance of the true God or lack of opportunity to know Him, for he knew of God but only pretended not to know Jehovah. His claim expressed indifference to the evidence of God's power, hatred, and defiance of that power and refusal of His command. God had sent him warning and mercy, and Moses and Aaron told him Jehovah would convince him that He is more powerful than all gods. His answer was therefore open denial of the living God and defiance of divine authority, an example of atheism and a spirit of unbelief and rebellion.

The Lord whom he refused to acknowledge is the I AM, Jesus Christ, who was present in the pillar of cloud. The power displayed through signs and miracles showed the Lord ruled above the gods of the nations, wise men, and magicians. Evidence of His power was likewise given to idolatrous nations so they could know the true and living God, but they rejected that light and turned to idols. God would yet do greater wonders that would leave Pharaoh without excuse and stand as lasting memorials of His care and power for Israel.

Each refusal to receive the light deepened his stubbornness, and rejecting heaven's light hardened his heart and made him less able to recognize right and wrong. His refusal persisted despite witnessing God's power in the miracles and judgments, and his determined pride and rejection brought further judgments. God did not force him to resist.

God's Purpose to Be Known

Pharaoh's defiant question followed a very modest request, that Israel be allowed to go only three days' journey into the wilderness to sacrifice and worship God, which he haughtily refused while professing to be entirely ignorant of Israel's God and denying any duty to obey His voice to let Israel go. The answer to that refusal was God's fixed purpose to let Pharaoh learn that His voice is to be obeyed, that He is above all, and that He will compel even proud rulers to bow to His authority. Moses and Aaron told him that Jehovah would convince him that He is more powerful than all gods, and after Pharaoh required brick without straw Moses declared that God would compel him to yield to His claims and acknowledge His authority as supreme ruler.

Pharaoh despised Israel because of their lowly condition as slaves, yet God had already called oppressed Israel His son and firstborn, and His scornful refusal did not prevent God from taking up their cause, for His message would accomplish its purpose in their deliverance. God would yet do greater wonders that would leave Pharaoh without excuse and stand as lasting memorials of His care and power for Israel. God's providence overruled events to place such a rebellious tyrant on the throne at the time of deliverance, preserving his life though by his crimes he had justly forfeited mercy, so that his stubbornness would multiply evidences of divine power for the good of His people and magnify His name before the Egyptians and those afterward living on earth. A more merciful king yielding sooner would not have exposed what this course exposed, that God hates idolatry and will punish cruelty and oppression.

The time had come for God to answer the prayers of His oppressed people and bring them from Egypt with such mighty displays of power that the Egyptians would be compelled to acknowledge that the God of the Hebrews whom they despised is above all gods. That display would punish their idolatry and proud boasting in mercies supposedly received from senseless gods, and would glorify His own name so that other nations would hear of His power and tremble. His people, by witnessing His miraculous works, would fully turn from idolatry to pure worship.

God allowed events to unfold so that Pharaoh's tyrannical spirit and tyranny would become clear and be exposed more fully, even as his boast that Israel's God could not deliver them discouraged many Israelites amid bondage and weakened faith. This exposure gave Israel a clearer view of God's justice, power, and love and a fuller view of God Himself, so they would have reason to leave Egypt and choose to serve Him. Pharaoh's stubborn resistance insulted God and brought Egypt under judgment in which nature cooperated with God and the land was laid desolate. Displays of God's power are meant to make those who defy God tremble before Him and silence their proud challenge to His authority.

Judgments That Humbled Pharaoh

Each plague was announced beforehand with its time stated, so its coming could not be dismissed as chance, and by this forewarning it was shown that the whole earth stands under the command of the God of the Hebrews and that thunder, hail and storm obey His voice. This was seen in the murrain that struck dead the cattle of the Egyptians while the cattle of the Hebrews were preserved alive, and in the boils that broke out on man and beast from which even the magicians could not shield themselves. When the frogs came the magicians by their enchantments could bring frogs up but could not stay the plague or take them away, and Pharaoh, who had professed to be wholly ignorant of God and had gloried haughtily over Moses and Aaron because his magicians could make the same things appear, was somewhat humbled and began to know something about that God. He then asked Moses and Aaron to entreat the Lord to remove the frogs, and Moses answered his former boasting by asking him where his glorying over God's servants now was and where was the power of his magicians to remove the plague, so that he might know there is none like the Lord God. During the plague of hail mingled with fire, with lightnings and thunder, that same defiant king was humbled to confess his own sin and to declare the Lord righteous and himself and his people wicked, and to beg Moses to intercede with God that the thunder and lightning might cease.

Yet his yielding lasted only while he suffered, for he persisted in refusal despite witnessing God's power in miracles and judgments, and after each plague passed he grew stubborn and rebelled again. By experience he learned that the Lord has power to create or to destroy, since evidence of that power was set before idolatrous nations so they might know the true and living God, though they turned from that light to idols. In rejecting heaven's light his heart was hardened until he became less able to recognize right and wrong, as happens to those who set their own ideas above God's plainly stated will.

The plagues came closer and more severe until the most dreadful plague of all, while the Egyptians ridiculed the blood on Israelite doorposts during preparation for that dreadful night. Then the firstborn were slain from the king upon his throne down to the lowliest servant, and wailing filled all Egypt. Pharaoh remembered his boast that he did not know the Lord and would not let Israel go, and his pride and anger were humbled. He went in haste with his counselors and rulers to Goshen and bowed before Moses and Aaron and commanded them to go and serve their God with flocks and herds as they had requested, and implored them to leave for fear all Egypt would be as dead men, thus showing by sending Israel away that God's judgments had overturned his defiance. He also entreated Moses to bless him, thinking that a blessing from God's servant would protect him from the further effects of the plague.

Prophetic Pattern of Defiance

Pharaoh's refusal to obey was open denial of the living God and defiance of divine authority. That defiance supplies the pattern for the atheism and unbelief of the nation represented by Egypt in prophecy, which would likewise deny God's existence and reject His claims. His words echo the blasphemous defiance of those who deny God and reject His law.

The priest's challenge to God during the French Revolution echoes Pharaoh's words, expressing the same bold denial and rejection of God. Pharaoh claimed not to know Jehovah and rejected His authority in refusing to obey. His refusal to obey the Lord's word and release Israel is compared with the king of Persia's refusal to obey God's word, as evil influence opposed God's purpose.

Warning for Readers Today

Asking who the Lord is does not excuse disobedience, for those who receive God's word and privileges but refuse to obey it will likewise answer to God and will be judged. Those who resist the light God has given and will not humble their hearts follow Pharaoh's same path, questioning the Lord's authority and refusing obedience. When God's warning calls for obedience and separation from the world, people may reject its force and inwardly ask, like Pharaoh, why they should obey the Lord, while conscience recognizes the truth and the heart remains attached to worldly interests.

The same proud refusal is seen in those whose desire for money leads them to disregard the fear of God and betray others. It is seen also in those who reject His instruction and act as though they do not recognize His authority or owe Him service. It is seen further in those who claim their powers as their own and pretend to be free and independent while refusing to obey Him, which places them on Satan's side and rejects the ransom God provided, since the claim to autonomy is an illusion because sinful people become Satan's slaves.

Defiant refusal to know the Lord or obey His voice is repeated by unconverted relatives and friends who are bound to Satan and will not be converted to Jesus. It means cherishing pride, envy, and hatred, and misjudging and persecuting family members who serve Jesus while longing for their conversion is breaking their hearts. It means continually creating contention because some love Jesus and they do not, and being amazed and exasperated by the happiness of those who accepted Jesus until wanting to destroy them like Cain. It means padlocking the door of the heart against Jesus who in grace and truth again and again knocks seeking admission. The same defiance was repeated by the Jewish leaders who could not distinguish the voice of the true Shepherd from the voice of a stranger and who rejected the word of God for tradition, strengthening one another in resistance to His cautions and reproofs. The same voice is speaking to men and women today, and God warns against falling into that same error of stubborn resistance to truth, for those who refuse to bow will not stand amid the perils of the last days.

The question Who is the Lord, as refusal to recognize or serve God, applies to people who lack faith in God, who must instead be converted and serve Him faithfully. Pharaoh's refusal is an example of the terrible mistake of expecting salvation to be carried out without interested effort. His words describe those who reject a call to obey God when the Sabbath is presented, and such refusal does not remove the duty to proclaim God's commandments: the message must be given plainly, while each person remains free to choose. Those who place their own ideas above God's plainly stated will follow Pharaoh's same course of rejecting heaven's light until hardened and less able to recognize right and wrong. His question and refusal expressed defiance, not lack of evidence, for God had sent him warning and mercy and then displayed His power through signs and miracles showing the Lord ruled above the gods of the nations, wise men, and magicians, yet determined pride and rejection deepened stubbornness and brought further judgments, illustrating how resisting and rejecting light leads to greater darkness.