Moses and Aaron deliver God’s demand to Pharaoh, and it goes worse than badly. Pharaoh has never heard of this God and does not intend to obey Him; he takes away the straw and keeps the brick quota, and the Hebrew foremen are beaten for the shortfall. They turn on Moses. Moses turns on God: why is it that thou hast sent me? And God answers by speaking His covenant name again, and stacking up seven promises that all begin the same way: I will.
A study in Exodus 5-6 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 8 min read
Who Is The LORD
“And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go… 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.”
Exodus 5:1-2
Two men who represent a nation of slaves walk into the throne room of the greatest power on earth and give the king an order. His reply is a question that the rest of the book will answer at length: Who is the LORD? By the end of Exodus, Pharaoh and all Egypt will know the answer, and it will cost them everything.
“The two brothers entered the palace of the Pharaohs as ambassadors from the King of kings, and they spoke in His name.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 257
Get You Unto Your Burdens
“Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof.”
Exodus 5:7-8
Pharaoh’s response to “let my people go” is to make the slavery worse. The first result of God beginning to act is that things get harder, not easier — and the people who prayed for deliverance now have a reason to wish it had never started. Ellen White reads the timing as deliberate: the request to worship exposed how far the nation had already drifted.
“In their bondage the Israelites had to some extent lost the knowledge of God’s law, and they had departed from its precepts. The Sabbath had been generally disregarded, and the exactions of their taskmasters made its observance apparently impossible. But Moses had shown his people that obedience to God was the first condition of deliverance.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 258
Wherefore Hast Thou So Evil Entreated This People
“And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.”
Exodus 5:22-23
The foremen said, “The LORD look upon you, and judge” — the man sent to rescue them has made their savour to stink before Pharaoh. Moses takes the accusation straight to God, and he does not soften it: thou hast not delivered thy people at all. This is a real prayer — the honest, wounded kind — and God does not rebuke it. He answers it.
Now Shalt Thou See What I Will Do
“Then the LORD said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.”
Exodus 6:1
God does not explain the delay; He points forward. Now — not before — Moses will see it, because the deliverance is going to be a demonstration, not a quiet exit. The same “strong hand” will let them go and drive them out.
“Therefore the Lord did not deliver them by the first manifestation of His power before Pharaoh. He overruled events more fully to develop the tyrannical spirit of the Egyptian king and also to reveal Himself to His people.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 260
By My Name JEHOVAH
“And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.”
Exodus 6:2-3
The patriarchs knew God as El Shaddai, God Almighty — the God of promises made. This generation is about to know Him as the LORD, the covenant name from the burning bush — the God of promises kept. Same God; a new depth of knowing Him, learned in a deliverance.
I Will Take You To Me For A People
“I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm… and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God… and I will bring you in unto the land… I am the LORD.”
Exodus 6:6-8
Seven times, I will. Bring out, rid, redeem, take, be, bring in — bracketed at both ends by “I am the LORD.” This is the whole of salvation in one paragraph: God does the acting, from the escape to the inheritance, and the goal of all of it is the fourth clause — I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God. Rescue is the means; relationship is the point.
They Hearkened Not For Anguish Of Spirit
“And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.”
Exodus 6:9
Seven promises, and the people cannot take them in. They are too crushed to hope. It is not unbelief so much as exhaustion — a spirit worn past the point of listening. God’s answer is not to wait for them to feel better; He sends Moses back to Pharaoh anyway. The deliverance does not depend on Israel’s morale.
“The Hebrews had expected to obtain their freedom without any special trial of their faith or any real suffering or hardship. But they were not yet prepared for deliverance.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 260
