In our passage we see Pharaoh’s response to the command of the Lord to “Let my people go.” This is an offensive thing to Pharaoh for several reasons. This would set Israel’s God as a rival to the Egyptian gods beginning with Pharaoh himself who was regarded as a god. Pharaoh did not want any other gods before him.
Therefore, this was also a point of honor. This was an assault on his power and authority. To say, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel,” implied a threat. The sting of Moses beginning this way would have struck deep in Pharaoh, starting a boil in the blood of the emperor. Also, this was attacking the interests of Pharaoh economically. The slave labor of Israel was used to make Pharaoh and Egypt great; he would not consider jeopardizing it. When you strike one’s pride and wallet, it doesn’t matter if it is the Lord God, there will be anger.
Pharaoh says, “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.” This is the language of contempt and defiance. Pharaoh does not know what he is doing, nor what he is headed for. We do because we know the story. Yet we should understand Pharaoh is a depiction of everyman.
The pride and fallen nature of man is not commonly as obvious as it is in Pharaoh. We have seen it in other dictators: Mao, Stalin, and many others throughout history have demonstrated where the sinful nature will go if restraints are taken away. Hell is such a place where vitriol toward God is unrestrained.
It is not an easy thought to think of being an enemy to God. God is good and holy. He is perfect love. Yet the word of God depicts us all this way by nature; the carnal mind is enmity toward God. The reason salvation is a great salvation is because of the deplorable condition we are in and the holy one who was willing to embrace the hellish wrath it justly deserved. In Christ we are made clean and liberated to love God.
When we read “Let my people go,” we are hearing the principal theme of redemption; the one thing necessary for us is to be freed from the guilt and power of sin. Nothing else is vital. There are social issues that are important, there are relational issues, economic issues, and we can go on and on. But it doesn’t do any soul any good to gain the whole world yet still perish. Pharaoh gnashes his teeth at God. So will I without a genuine embracing of Christ. You, too.
What does it look like to be liberated in Christ you may ask. Let me give you three Scriptural signs from Thomas Watson, the 17th century English Puritan. First, there is a change wrought in the understanding. Before there was ignorance and darkness, now there is light. The first work of God in creation was light; so it is in the new creation. He who is savingly called by God says with the man in the gospel; “Whereas I was blind, now I see.” He now sees sin for the evil it is and the excellency in the ways of God. The apostle Peter calls it “a marvelous light.”
Secondly, there is a change wrought in the will. The will, which before opposed Christ, now embraces him. The will which before was like iron, is now melting wax; it readily receives the stamp of the Holy Spirit. Now it prays, “Thou will be done.” The will now becomes a volunteer; it enlists itself under the Captain of salvation.
Third, there is a change in conduct. He who is called by God now follows Christ. He walked before in envy and malice, now he walks in love; before he walked in pride, now he walks in humility. The current runs is a different direction. The Christian still sins, but he wages war against his sinful nature rather than God.
Pharaoh perished in his sin. Theodosius was a rare convert for a man of power. An emperor of Rome, he once stated that he thought it a greater honor to be a Christian than to be an emperor. For us to live, we must value Christ above all else.
