I. A Bold Approach (1)

Exodus 5:1 “Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’ ””

-Ill: There is a boldness that comes from assurance, that sometimes gets us a bit ahead of ourselves

-Moses here jumps right to the end with the word of the Lord to him in Exodus 4:22–23 “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’ ””

Ignoring the original commands from Exodus 3:18 “And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’”

A few things missing and off:

-The Elders do not appear to Join Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh (Lot’s of speculation)

-They begin with the Role prophetic command (Let my People go/release in Hebrew)

-There is no designated time her the Hebrew is a command of permanent release (They are released from Pharaohs hand to the Lord’s)

There is plenty of Debate as to whether or not Moses was in the Wrong here at the beginning but not following God’s original command or if he simply to his wires crossed with the different phases of God’s plan. but what we do see ultimately is the His encounter with the Lord combined with the worship of God’s people have embolden these two men to stand before the most powerful man in the known word and speak the words of God.

So while I would fall in to the camp of seeing Moses being Moses and getting to far a head of himself the reason he does it is quiet remarkable. He Believes God will do what God said he would do

-We are reminded of the disciples boldness to go and proclaim the gospel

-Have you ever had that kind of faith to boldly proclaim the gospel without fear but with assurance that God’s word doesn’t return void

- Moses is living life high on the mountain top of God and just went for it, laying all the cards out on the table right from the start.

-Of course we have seen his excitement he has left many questions unanswered of which Pharaoh will quickly point out:

II. A Prideful Rejection (2)

Exodus 5:2 “But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.””

-Pharaoh is not impressed by Moses presentation and command

-Pharaoh is quick to point out and question who is this “Lord”

-Israel up to this point doesn’t us the name Yahweh so even here it could come across as some new foreign deity

-Pharaoh is a “god” unto his own mind and has no room to take any commands from a would be usurper to his own authority (Letting them go would look poorly on him)

-This Lord is of no match for his own power in his own mind (Since Israel has been enslaved for generations where has this Lord been)

-The Bold words of Moses and Arron fall on deaf ears

-Ill: Now it is quick to Look at Pharaoh and call him a fool,  I want to linger on a quick application point before we move to the Purposeful response of Moses to Pharaohs words:

1. Pharaohs reaction should reminds us of the depths of the blindness that exist for those who do no know the Lord.

-Yes Pharaoh is a prideful king, but even we apart from Christ were just as self centered and prideful

-Our world today has created an individualized culture were each person is their own “god” with their own value systems (that should not be challenged) and their own set of ethics, which usually entails they are never wrong, never in the wrong, and are never to be questioned about the possibility of being wrong. And if you are amenning that statement about others be reminded you are apart of the same world.

-So Apart from the move of God no man willingly sees their need of a savior and no man hears the call of the Lord with humility and a brokenness, they must meet God and know God to be changed by God.

-And there are only 2 end results of knowing God being changed by him in repentance or broken by him in the   rebellion. (Pharaoh will as we see experience the later)

-The call for Christians here is to not forget you once were a pharaoh in your own mind, but God is the one who broke through and redeemed you not yourself, He paid the price and so now you have no place to see yourself as the any type of Pharaoh but rather as the humble recipient of the grace of God who saved you. just as Israel will. We can not place ourselves above one another but rather in humility understand our place equally as recipients of God’s grace

So from the place of Pharaoh’s complete rejection of anything Moses just said Moses responds:

III. A Purposeful Response (3)

Exodus 5:3 “Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.””

Now Moses Returns to the original wording of chapter 3 when he was first commissioned to go:

-Yahweh is the God of the Hebrews

-He has physically meet with them (They are not coming of their own accord or power)

-It is not a call to permanently release the people but a simple request of a three day trip to worship God

-We covered this back in chapter 3 that this was to proves the pride and hardheartedness of Pharaoh that even this simple request was too much for him (according some ancient tablets dating back into approximation of the exodus It was common in Egypt to let slaves have a break/ holidays if you will for the purpose of worship (Now ether that was a result of the exodus or common practice can be debated)

-He adds though here at the end an very interesting addendum: If we don’t go free the pestilence and sword will come

-Now no where do we see God saying this to Moses about Israel but he says it often about Egypt so Moses is doing 1 of 2 things:

1. He is trying to leverage sympathy for Israel with Pharaoh that God would punish Israel and Pharaoh should show kindness. (Seems like a stretch)
2. He is saying that the us in view is both Israel and Egypt. God will rain down on them all with pestilence and the sword. (Thus giving Pharaoh a warning that judgment is coming if he doesn’t listen and it will be widespread)

-Ultimately we see in Moses second response a fuller explanation to Pharaoh about who God is and what he has in store for the future should pharaoh not relent and let the people of Israel go to worship their God.

-Of course God has already revealed to Moses that they will not be released except after Pharaoh is humbled greatly and the Lose of his first born, but that doesn’t equally negate God command for Moses to warn and offer the hand of repentance (in this case releasing the people and rejecting his own false sense of Lordship over them).

So even here we now have another example of Moses after being rebuffed:  calmly and accurately presenting the word of God to Pharaoh.

-He isn’t enraged if anything he might be a little more subdued, but he doesn’t back away

-Which is still a great reminder for us that people will reject the gospel, but that doesn’t negate our call to be a light in the sharing of it.

-The rejection of the message is not an excuse to cease being a messenger, especially when we unlike Moses don’t know the final result of the message’s proclamation

However Moses’ calm and polite response to Pharaoh’s prideful first response is now an out right and malevolent denial of the whole endeavor:

IV. A Malevolent Denial (4-9)

Exodus 5:4–9 “But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.” And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!” The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.””

-With Pharaoh’s First response we see he has no regard for God now we see has no regard for man

-Pharaoh doesn’t even interact with their request he simply dismiss them as a waste of his time.

-Pharaoh’s heart isn’t just dismiss’ of the word that they brought his actions indicated he is angered by them.

-He will now seek to crush this new found optimism  in this Hebrew God Yahweh who claims to be worthy of his peoples worship,

Pharaoh’s authority is challenged by God and so in many ways pharaoh’s is going to show them whose “god”

-So he calls them lazy for wanting to take a break and worship God, if they have so much free time maybe they need to work harder.

-The goal as we see is to stomp out their faith through brutal labor showing that Pharaoh is stronger than their god.

He is no different than those today who see the experiences of the saints and are confused by the faith in the midst of hardship and the belief in that which is unseen. Od those who wish only to make life more difficult based on their misperceived reality.

1 Peter 3:12–17 “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.”

2 Peter 3:4–7 “They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.”

In the end though Pharaoh’s attempts to bring Israel down into a miry pit of pain and sorrow will only lead to a greater display of the truth of who their God really is and how much more powerful he is over Pharaoh.