At the beginning of Exodus 4, Moses finally meets Pharaoh face-to-face and delivers God’s message. It’s simple: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness’.”
And in one of the least surprising responses in the entire Bible, Pharaoh responds with outright contempt: “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.”
And at this point, the great showdown of Exodus has begun.
Pharaoh’s statement is as disingenuous as it disrespectful. The history of Jehovah with the Egyptians dates back 400 years to the time of Joseph, so Pharaoh’s statement that he doesn’t know God makes him either a liar or a moron. Pharaoh is neither though, so there’s something else afoot.
Digging a little deeper, we find that this statement has absolutely nothing to do with recognition. None. Instead, it has everything to do with authority. In Pharaoh’s mind, he is the supreme ruler of this land. Any “God” that dares challenge him on this point will be met with a full, statewide refusal. It borders on treason to suggest another God can tell Pharaoh what to do.
But this question is one we all ask at the beginning of our life with God, isn’t it? We look at Scripture and we say “Who is God?” We read about Him through the pages of the Bible-just like we do through this devotional-and we uncover who He is and what He tells us to do.
When we ask this question later in our walk however, it’s usually done so with scorn. We meet a temptation that we don’t want to resist and we ask “Who is God…that I should listen to Him?” In doing so, we make the same mistake that Pharaoh made: We’re challenging God’s authority in our life.
In this way, the conflict between Pharaoh and God hits home for all of us. Objectively, we can all see the error in Pharaoh’s ways. But can we see it in our own lives? Are we able to discern in our own staunch refusal of God that we are acting like Pharaoh?
I’m not implying that God will send plagues to us like He did with Pharaoh, but the end result can still be the same. Just as Pharaoh was washed away in the sea, so a life built in opposition to God results in catastrophe, spiritually speaking.
If we resist as he did, we’re no better than Pharaoh.