Exodus 5:1 - Meaning and Application

Moses and Aaron had already delivered their message to the elders of Israel, and the people had received it well. Now they must face Pharaoh, and that was dangerous. Moses in particular may have been in danger because he had killed the Egyptian forty years earlier, and some of the old court officials may still have remembered it. Their message was unwelcome, and it struck Pharaoh in two sensitive places, his pride and his profit. Even so, these faithful messengers boldly delivered God’s word, whether he listened or refused.

Their request was holy boldness: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go’” (Exodus 5:1). When Moses spoke to the elders of Israel, he was told to call God the God of their fathers. But when he spoke to Pharaoh, they called him the God of Israel, and this is the first time Scripture uses that title in this way. God was just beginning to form them into a nation, yet he was already claiming them as his people. Moses likely received this title from God’s own direction, or at least he could have inferred it from “Israel is my son” (Exodus 4:22).

In this great name, they gave their message: “Let my people go.” They were God’s people, so Pharaoh had no right to keep them in slavery. God always owns his own people, even when they are poor and looked down on, and he will at the right time defend them. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt, but God still said, “They are my people,” and he would not let them be crushed forever. See also (Isaiah 52:4-5).

God also expected service and sacrifice from them, so they needed to go where they could worship freely, without giving offense to the Egyptians or receiving offense from them. God rescues his people from their enemies so they can serve him gladly. He wants them to hold a feast for him, and they can do that even in a wilderness, because his favor and presence make the place fit for worship.

Pharaoh’s answer was also boldly sinful: “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?” (Exodus 5:2). When told to let Israel go, he raised a flag of defiance. He mocked Moses and the God who sent him, and he flatly refused to release Israel. He would not even discuss it. Notice how he spoke of the God of Israel with contempt. “Who is the Lord?” means, “I do not know him, I do not care for him, and I do not fear him.” The name may have sounded strange to him, but he decided it would not alarm him.

Israel was then a despised and oppressed people, treated like the tail end of the nation. Pharaoh judged their God by their low condition and assumed that their God was no greater than they were. Hardened persecutors often show more anger toward God himself than toward his people. See (Isaiah 37:23). In truth, ignorance of God and contempt for him lie behind much of the world’s evil. People do not know the Lord, or they think very little of him, and so they refuse to obey his voice.

Pharaoh also spoke proudly about himself: “That I should obey his voice.” It was beneath him, he thought, to listen to the God of Israel, especially when that God was speaking for a poor enslaved people. He treated obedience as something too small for a king of Egypt. Pride always leads to disobedience. Proud people think they are too important to bow even before God himself, and they refuse to live under his rule. See (Job 41:34) and (Ephesians 5:6). This is the heart of the whole conflict, God must rule, but man will not be ruled. God says, “I will have my will done,” and the sinner says, “I will do my own will.”

Finally, Pharaoh plainly denied the demand: “Neither will I let Israel go.” Of all sinners, persecutors are often the most stubborn and the hardest to persuade to give up their sin.