seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Exodus 5:1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”
2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”
3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”
2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”
3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”
Moses knew that God intended to take the Israelites out of Egypt. He knew that if they left for three days, the Nation of Israel would not return. God, had instructed him to ask for the three days.
Moses also knew that Pharaoh didn't know God. Moses grew up in the palace. He knew power and ego personally.
Moses also knew that the Egyptian people didn't like the Israelites. The Egyptians didn't like their occupations, their food and they definitely didn't like the sacrifices. Egyptians wouldn't even share a table with them. I saw evidence of that back in the story of Joseph. Remember, a Pharaoh had ordered that all Israeli male babies were to be put to death at birth, either by knife or by throwing them in the Nile to drown like rats. That Pharaoh was the one that enslaved the Israelites. Enslaving them, making them do hard labor for long hours every day, was supposed to make them too exhausted to procreate.
Now, all these years later, the Egyptians were use to having the workforce and it wouldn't be fiscally responsible to just let them go. Who would build the massive structures Pharaoh had begun? Besides, why on earth would Pharaoh do anything kind of the Israelites. They were not Egyptians and they didn't worship him.
Here's what the blueletterbible.org commentary says about these verses.
To appreciate how audacious Moses' request was, we must understand the power and authority the Pharaohs claimed. Each Pharaoh was said to be the child of the sun; he was a friend to the greatest gods of Egypt and sat with them in their own temples to receive worship alongside them. Pharaoh was nothing like a public servant; the entire public lived to serve the Pharaoh. His power and authority were supreme and there was no constitution or law or legislature higher or even remotely equal to him.
After Moses had the remarkable encounter at the burning bush, and after he saw God turn the hearts of the leaders of Israel towards him, Moses now had to confront the real enemy. Pharaoh was not going to give in easily.
An inscription by a Pharaoh on an ancient Egyptian temple gives us the idea: "I am that which was, and is, and shall be, and no man has lifted my veil." The Pharaoh was more than a man; he considered himself a god, and the Egyptians agreed.
After Moses had the remarkable encounter at the burning bush, and after he saw God turn the hearts of the leaders of Israel towards him, Moses now had to confront the real enemy. Pharaoh was not going to give in easily.
This must have been a strange day for Moses. He once walked those same palaces as a prince, and perhaps was in line to sit on the same throne of the present Pharaoh. Yet, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. Moses knew both man's power and God's power, and he knew in God he was more powerful than Pharaoh.
It's a good thing that God warned Moses that Pharaoh wouldn't give him what he wanted. Moses doesn't seem the kind of man who takes rejection well.
