Who Is This Lord Jesus

Exodus 5:1-6 “And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who [is] the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.

We find here in our text the part of history known as the Exodus. The word Exodus means to depart or come out. Here in the book of Exodus the Children of Israel came out from under the bondage of the Egyptians of whom they have been held captive by, for 430 years. In this situation God is not playing, he was going to bring them out and he was going to bring them out of Egypt by a strong hand.

The Bible says in Exodus 3:7-10 “And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which [are] in Egypt, I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land, and unto a good land, a large land, unto a land that will be flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt’.

So as we look at the text, we see that God sends Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh to tell Pharaoh to let my people go. The Bible says in Exodus 5 “Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, what Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness’. But Pharaoh said “Who is the Lord that I should obey him”.

Understand Pharaoh didn’t know the Lord. Pharaoh and all the people of Egypt had a religion, but they did not know God. They worshipped many different gods, they worshipped Hapy the god of the Nile, Heget the goddess of birth, Ra the sun god, Set the god of storm, Seker the god of death, they reverenced and honored these idol gods, but they did not know the living true God.

They only cared about following the religion of their ancestors. They did not care about knowing the living and true God the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Pharaoh and the Egyptians put their confidence in their customs, their idols, their fetishes and their religious leaders, they put their confidence were a group of people that walked and operated by sight and not faith.

Pharaoh was the ruler of Egypt, which was the most powerful country of that time. His armies were powerful, they relentless, superior to any other army of its time. Pharaoh was feared by kings, respected by all, and he was wealthy. He had power, and he could order the death of a person or cause them to live, just by the nod of his head. Pharaoh no-doubt thought in his mind and the mind of the Egyptians. It was believed that when he died he would automatically become a god; therefore, Pharaoh was not interested in knowing the one true God.

When God sought to speak to Pharaoh through His prophets, Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh didn’t see some great army standing behind Moses and Aaron. He didn’t see the military presence and power and because Pharaoh operated by sight and not by faith he answered them, saying, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I don’t know this Lord and I will not let Israel go!" (Exod. 5:2)

He didn’t know the God who established an eternal covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He didn’t know the creator of everything even himself. He did know the I Am That I Am.

In other words, Pharaoh had a religion, but he did not have a relationship; therefore, Pharaoh’s heart was closed to the truth that came from the one true God and he ignored the message which God spoke to him through Moses and Aaron, even after the Nile River was turned to blood, making the water unable to drink, killing the fish in the river, and showing that the God of the Hebrews, the I Am That I Am was greater than Hapi the Egyptian god of the Nile. Pharaoh’s heart was still hardened and he refused to listen to the voice of God and would not develop a relationship with God Almighty.