So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Moses and Aaron come to Pharaoh again, and the message they bring is not a polite request. Three things carry the verse: who is speaking, what He asks of the king, and why He wants Israel let go.
The One who speaks
One writer points to the tone of the message:
C. E. StuartAgain Moses and Aaron entered the king's palace. Again they addressed him, carrying a fresh message from the God of the Hebrews. The language was plain. It was not the language of a courtier addressing his master. It was the true God speaking to His creature.
Pharaoh had once asked who this Lord was. He was finding out:
C. E. StuartPharaoh was learning, but was he submitting? He had now learned that the Lord was the God of the Hebrews. "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?" he had asked, in anything but a meek spirit. Now he learns that the Lord really exists, and something of His power… God was becoming known to the Egyptians by acts of judgment — a fearful way of revealing Himself.
"How long?" — the measure of God's patience
The question itself is a mercy. God sends one more message, and He warns of the locusts a day in advance:
F. B. HoleYet such is the patience of God that Moses was sent once more to Pharaoh with a protest and a demand that he let the people go. God warned him that, if he still refused, He would strike Egypt with swarms of locusts. This was to happen "tomorrow." In the previous chapter God twice announced a plague for tomorrow. That gave at least twenty-four hours' delay, in case Pharaoh should relent. In contrast, salvation, as we know, is always presented today.
The locusts were not inevitable:
F. B. HoleThe message named the only way of escape: Pharaoh must humble himself before the Lord, and let Israel go.
"My people" — a contest over ownership
One word in the demand — "My" — settles the whole struggle:
F. B. HoleThe word to him was, "Let My people go…" So the Lord at once claimed the people as His. For a century or two the Pharaohs of Egypt had regarded the people as theirs, and enslaved to them. From the very start the two claims stood against each other. The Lord claimed the people that Pharaoh regarded as his own. Which claimant would prevail? The issue could not be in doubt for one moment.
Released for a purpose: "that they may serve me"
God is not only ending their misery. He gives a reason for the rescue, and He gives it again and again:
F. A. HughesWhen God took up the people of Israel, He set His love on them, and wanted them to serve Him in response. The beginning of Exodus shows them under a slavery that was nothing like what God wanted for them. They were Pharaoh's slaves. Seven times, as far as I can trace, God said, "Let My son (or, let My people) go that they may serve Me." For the moment they were Pharaoh's servants. But God regarded them as "the sons of Israel," and He sets them free so that they might serve Him.
But why did they have to leave Egypt to do it?
J. G. BellettThe Exodus is the separation of the people of God from the world… Israel was to go out of Egypt to serve the Lord, or hold a feast to Him. They could not serve Him or offer sacrifice to Him in the land of their slavery, in front of that people. Their religious service was of such a character that Egypt would not tolerate it.
What refusing to humble yourself looks like
Pharaoh does eventually say the word "sinned" (v. 16) — and still does not bend. Commentators read him as the standing example of a confession that costs nothing:
F. B. HoleHe gives us the classic example of the sinner who defies God. Yet he is quite ready to take a humble attitude, if that helps him avoid reaping the punishment he deserves. We have to remember this word: "Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy" (Proverbs 28:13). Under punishment Pharaoh did not mind doing a little confessing. But he had no idea of giving up his self-willed way.
Summary
- Who asks. This is the true God speaking to His creature. It is not a courtier's request, but the Creator's claim on a king who had asked who the Lord was.
- How long. God's patience comes with a deadline. He sets the locusts for "tomorrow" — while salvation is always offered today.
- Whose people. Two owners claimed the same nation, and the outcome of that contest was never in doubt for a moment.
- What for. The demand carries its own purpose. They go free so that they may serve, and that service could not happen in Egypt.
- What refusing costs. Pharaoh confessed but did not change. God named one way of escape — humbling himself — and that was the one thing he refused.