Sunday: Who Is the Lord?
Daily Lesson for Sunday 13th of July 2025
Following God’s orders, Moses goes to Pharaoh to begin the process in which he, Moses, would “bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:10, NKJV).
What was Pharaoh’s response to God’s demand, “Let my people go” (see Exodus 5:1-2), and what significance can be found in this response?
“Who is the Lord?” Pharaoh declares, not in any desire to know Him but, instead, as an act of defiance or even denial of this God, whom he admits that he does not know. “ ‘I do not know the Lord’ ” (NKJV), he says, almost as a boast.
Image © Lifeway Collection at Goodsalt.com
How many people throughout history have uttered the same thing? How tragic, because, as Jesus Himself said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
Egypt, with the pharaoh as king, is symbolic of a power that denies God’s presence and authority. It is an entity that stands in opposition to God, His Word, and His people.
Pharaoh’s next declaration that “I will not let Israel go” reveals even more this rebellion against the living God, further making Egypt a symbol, not only for the denial of God but for a system that fights against Him.
No wonder many saw this same attitude, millennia later, in the French Revolution (see also Isaiah 30:1-3 and Revelation 11:8). Pharaoh thought he was a god or the son of a god—a broad reference to a belief in one’s own supreme power, strength, and intelligence.
“Of all nations presented in Bible history, Egypt most boldly denied the existence of the living God and resisted His commands. No monarch ever ventured upon more open and highhanded rebellion against the authority of Heaven than did the king of Egypt. When the message was brought him by Moses, in the name of the Lord, Pharaoh proudly answered: ‘Who is Jehovah, that I should hearken unto His voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, and moreover I will not let Israel go,’ Exodus 5:2, A.R.V. This is atheism, and the nation represented by Egypt would give voice to a similar denial of the claims of the living God and would manifest a like spirit of unbelief and defiance.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 269.
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If someone asked, Do you know the Lord? How would you respond? If yes, what would you say He is like, and why? |
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It is useful to review Egyptian secular history as a background to the story of Exodus. Disclaimer: I am not a historian, but I read and enjoy the landscape of history and apply a little of my scientific thinking to what I read.
To a large extent, the Egyptians were polytheists. Amun, Ra, or Aten, the sun god, was dominant, but Oris the god of the underworld was also important. Other lesser Gods were also part of their religious life. The pharaoh was regarded as an intermediary between the gods and the people. This was not a smooth, integrated, unified religion but depended on the ebb and flow of power and control.
A notable disruption to the order of religion occurred during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten (c. 1353-1336 BC). (I know about this because my grandsons had to do a school project on him. It was a case of grandad learning from his grandsons.) Akhenaten moved to a form of monotheism, worshipping only Aten, the sun-disc at the expense of the other deities. This move proved unpopular, particularly with the priesthood, which was a powerful force in ancient Egypt. The situation was reversed by Akhenaten's successors. Tutankhamun who in spite of his youth and shortness of his reign, is the Pharaoh credited with most of the reversal process. It is believed that the Egyptian sojourn and the Exodus occurred during this time, according to Jewish history.
I understand enough about the history to avoid trying to attach particular secular historical events to those recorded in Exodus but at least it gives a background to the political/religous landscape at the time.
Thank you, Maurice. I always like to know the historical background of the Bible when possible.
Reading about the various Egyptian false deities is so interesting, Maurice, and shows where evil tries to overshadow truth. For example, I've read that there’s an ancient inscription on a statue of the goddess Isis in Sais, Egypt that reads: “I am all that has been, and is, and shall be; and no mortal has ever lifted my veil”. Or another translation renders the last part, “....and there is nobody except me.” Modern priests/magicians of hers claim that she is the creator of life and the mediator between the physical and spiritual worlds, the seen and unseen. Wow, doesn't this sound so much like Jesus identifying Himself as the "I AM WHO I AM" and the "Alpha and Omega". A direct defiance of our Creator and Mediator Jesus, the only One who rends the veil between the seen and unseen through His sacrifice on the cross. (Priests to Isis even open their arms wide in a cross-shape to invoke and symbolize what they consider to be her protective powers.)
Also interesting that you note that ancient Egyptians once dabbled with monotheism, but it didn't stick. Polytheism, it seems, requires less of us because no one god/God can claim my all. It keeps each god at arm's length. I can turn to different gods for different things...I get to diagnose and send myself to the specialist. No one god/God has authority over me in polytheism. This feels modern to me also...our secular society has a penchant for specialization and likes the moral convenience of sidelining a one true God. So many times I've heard the argument, "How can there be one God for all the peoples of the world, and that God coming to us through one national group, the Jewish people?" We think life is too complicated for one God to handle it all. And we think ourselves too sophisticated to need to submit to a Savior God that came to us through another culture at a particular time in history.
"We think life is too complicated for one God to handle it all. And we think ourselves too sophisticated to need to submit to a Savior God that came to us through another culture at a particular time in history." great point Esther.
It is not entirely surprising to note why the Pharaoh responded the way he did. “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.” (Exod.5:2, NIV). Moses did not expect Pharaoh to immediately let the Israelites go. God had told him so (Exod. 3:19). How could Pharaoh set the Israelites free while the Egyptian economy depended largely on slave labour? Slaves were important assets worth fighting for. The emancipation of slaves largely caused the American Civil War. Secondly, in Egypt, the Pharaoh was viewed as a god-king; setting the Israelites free in the name of Yahweh would be a challenge to his divine authority. This would be an admission of weakness, humiliation before his people, and a direct challenge to the Egyptian religious power. Therefore, the Pharaoh did not recognise the authority of Yahweh to let the Hebrew people go to worship Him in the wilderness.
On a close examination, we act and behave like the Egyptian Pharaoh! Do we recognise God’s authority in every aspect of our lives? It is more likely that we don't. Do we allow God to be the Lord of every aspect of our lives without questions or excuses? Have we allowed God complete lordship in our finances, lifestyle, relationships, diet, mindset, feelings, and worship? The Pharaoh did not recognise Yahweh because he did not know Him. Would it be the same with us, that we do not know God and hence He has no business in “interfering” in some aspects of our lives?
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” - Proverbs 3:5 - 6, NKJV.
Amen brother.
Truth spoken - do we really without question or full understanding turn every area of our lives over to the one and only God??? Mercy!
Many people today are like Pharaoh in Exodus 5:2, asking, "Who is the Lord?" Though they may talk about God, they live as if He doesn't exist—trusting in their own strength, success, or inherited traditions rather than pursuing a real relationship with the living God. They question God’s relevance and dismiss the idea of eternity.
But over 2,000 years ago, that question was answered through the birth of Jesus Christ. Born in Bethlehem, He was no ordinary child. Heaven announced His arrival. Though raised by a carpenter, He lived a life of unmatched power and compassion—calming storms, walking on water, and healing the sick without medicine. He amazed religious leaders and comforted the brokenhearted.
Who is this Lord? He is the Son of God, the Savior of the world. He never authored a book, yet libraries cannot contain all that’s been written about Him. He never earned degrees, yet He is the source of all wisdom. Jesus Christ is Lord of all, and He invites us into a personal, life-changing relationship with Him.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” — John 14:6
“Who is the Lord?” – Ignorance, Defiance, or Forgotten History?
When Pharaoh defiantly asked, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?” (Exodus 5:2), he wasn't just asking a theological question—he was revealing the condition of his heart, the state of his nation, and perhaps the failure of generational teaching.
Pharaoh should have known about the God of the Hebrews. After all, centuries earlier, Joseph, a Hebrew, had risen to power and saved Egypt from famine through God's wisdom. The Hebrews were not an obscure group—by this time, they were a large, distinct people within Egypt. So why did Pharaoh act as if he had never heard of their God?
Perhaps he ignored history, or perhaps it was never taught to him. Either way, the knowledge of Israel's God had clearly faded. That’s a warning for us today: if we don’t pass on spiritual truths to the next generation, they may one day look at the God we serve and ask with genuine confusion or contempt, “Who is the Lord?”
Yet Pharaoh’s question was more than ignorance—it was defiance. As king of Egypt and seen by his people as a god himself, he wasn’t about to yield to a foreign deity. His question was laced with arrogance and challenge.
But God answered Pharaoh’s question—not with words, but with acts of power and judgment. By the end of the plagues, there was no doubt left: Pharaoh, Egypt, and the world would know exactly who the Lord is.
Let’s be faithful to remember God’s works, teach them to our children, and live in humble obedience—so we never find ourselves asking the same defiant question.
So interesting and important, Beverly, the question of whether part of why Pharaoh did not know the Lord was because God's people were not acting like Him or pointing to His glory and power. You're right, Joseph clearly gave God credit for every good thing connected with his life, and the Pharaoh in Joseph's day acknowledged God as a result (Gen. 41:16,25,28,32,38-39,51-52). Do we give God credit so that our unbelieving friends don't mistakenly chalk up any goodness radiating from us as something innate in us and independent of God?
I read that the first time that God calls Himself "the God of Israel" (Israel the nation, not Israel the new name for Jacob) is in Exodus 5:1. So maybe the Hebrews had not really claimed the promise of becoming a nation, or not seen themselves in this covenant first made with Abraham? Perhaps they had an identity problem? Jochebed, Moses' mother, knew the stories of her ancestors and had passed them on to her children, but what about the rest of the Hebrews? Did they worship God in their families and did they ever worship together as a people?
At that time and in that region of the world, I've read that all independent nations were identified with their own gods and goddesses who they claimed protected them. For example, the Canaanites worshiped a pantheon of gods like Baal and Asherah. In Mesopotamia, gods like Marduk and Ishtar were associated with specific cities and regions. Egypt had so many gods, dozens of animal gods and even a god for each of 36 areas of the human body. So had the name of Yahweh been hush-hushed for all those hundreds of years as the Hebrews had become a part of Egyptian culture?
And back to Pharaoh's thinking....The Hebrews had been subjected to brutal treatment for many, many years before he ascended to the throne, so he probably felt confident that Yahweh was an ineffective, weak deity if He demonstrated no protective powers over His people to date. The many Egyptian gods were powerful, Pharaoh may have thought,...as evidenced by the power of the Egyptian nation on the world stage of that time... so why worry about one weak, unknown, measly God to slaves?
Thank you 💕💕 for expressing to us all
God is the One Who gives me life! He gives me everything I have and represents every detail of my cells. Without Him, I am nothing.
I think it’s important to know that Pharoah used God’s personal name, he didn’t just call him “Lord”, as in our modern bible translations. The name Yahweh is used 4 times in Exodus 5:1-3. The Egyptians gods all had names so Pharoah would expect this God to have a name and would have asked what it was if Moses and Aaron had just used His title - he said he had never heard of Him. God had told Moses in Exodus 3:15 that as long as mankind exists, Yahweh is the name He wants to be known as.
Pharoah also would have thought of the Israelite God as weak and ineffective as His people were mere slaves.