“Who Is The Lord That I Should Obey His Voice?”

by Micky Galloway

This question was Pharaoh’s answer to the request of Moses and Aaron to let Israel go into the wilderness to hold a feast (Exodus 5:1-2). Pharaoh expressed no obligation to obey the Lord. He obviously spoke under the common persuasion that every place and people had their own guardian deity. Israel was a despised and oppressed people. Pharaoh made the assumption that the God of Israel was no better than the gods of the Egyptians. Pharaoh’s ignorance, contempt, and pride were about to bring him face to face with the work and judgment of the true God who would not be mocked with Pharaoh’s compromises and broken promises. Pharaoh is about to learn that Jehovah is the only true and living God. “Who is the Lord?” Pharaoh’s sneering question was soon to be thoroughly and terribly answered. The apostle Paul answered this question later when he declared to the Athenians, “The God that made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands …” (Acts 17:24). As “Lord” he exercises authority over his creation. The idea that one God created and rules over everything was completely foreign to the thinking of Pharaoh.

God claims to be Almighty. That is, He claims to have the power to do all things. This is evidenced by the creation. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The Bible begins with God. He is “from everlasting to everlasting” (Psalms 90:2). If one rejects God, how do you explain the existence of all that is? The evolutionist must affirm that non-living matter must be eternal and then graduate to life. It is much more reasonable to begin with a living, all-powerful, self-existent, intelligent designer – God. “Let all the earth fear Jehovah: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalms 33:8-9). All of the glories of nature, the mysterious wonder of life itself is enough to show us the might and power of the one who created the “heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is” (Exodus 20:11). The might of God is one of the many reasons why Pharaoh should have desired to obey God’s command to “Let my people go.”

God is all-knowing. In Job 37:16 we are instructed that God is perfect in knowledge! God has perfect knowledge of man and all other things. Pharaoh could not out smart God. Psalms 139:1-6 says, “O Jehovah, thou hast searched me, and known (me). Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Jehovah, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thy hand upon me. (Such) knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” How could Pharaoh play games with God? Yes, the Lord knows and will “judge the secrets of men” (Romans 2:16).

God is all wise. Paul said, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him (be) the glory for ever. Amen” (Romans 11:33-36). Pharaoh could not match wits with such wisdom that so exceeds the wisdom of the world. Paul declares that “the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (I Corinthians 1:25). Isaiah also declared, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

God is omnipresent. There isn’t anywhere I can go to escape God. The Psalmist asks, “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall overwhelm me, and the light about me shall be night; Even the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike (to thee)” (Psalms 139:7-12). Pharaoh was about to learn there was no place to run from God.

God is a Spirit. In John 4:24 we read that God is a Spirit, which shows us that He is not bound by the limits of a body of flesh. Pharaoh had to learn the folly of thinking of God as a man. “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself: (but) I will reprove thee, and set (them) in order before thine eyes” (Psalms 50:21). God cannot be understood by presuming to judge Him by human standards.

He is a God of truth and justice. The injustices wrought against Israel incurred the wrath of God. “And Jehovah said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people that are in Egypt, and 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 now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: moreover I have seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them” (Exodus 3:7-9). God is just in every way; so extremely just that He punishes those who fail to obey His commandments, even though He desires that all be saved. He is so just that it was necessary for His Son to die on the cross to reconcile man back to Him when man could not do it himself (cf. Romans 3:23-26). God is just in that He gives the promised reward to the righteous, but also just in that He gives the promised punishment to the unrighteous. The apostle Paul said, “Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God’s goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Romans 11:22). Pharaoh would be punished for his wicked deeds.

“Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?” Pharaoh asked. He certainly was about to find out! God is eternal, not being limited by time; He is perfect in knowledge, knowing all things; He is almighty, having power to do anything He desires; He is supreme in wisdom, being able to use all of His other qualities in the ways that Pharaoh could not comprehend. He is always present everywhere so that there is no way to escape His discerning judgment and wrath; and He is a Spirit, which makes Him free from the bondage of flesh and blood. God is a Being of such superlative qualities and attributes of character that Pharaoh saw Egypt and all its glory, along with its heathen gods, confounded and rendered helpless by the ten plagues resulting from his defiance (Exodus 7-11) . Finally, God said in Exodus 12:12, “For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Jehovah.” When God had destroyed all of the Egyptian army in the midst of the Red Sea, “there remained not so much as one of them … Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore. And Israel saw the great work which Jehovah did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared Jehovah: and they believed in Jehovah, and in his servant Moses” (Exodus 14:28, 30-31).

Indeed, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). Therefore let us “offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe: for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29).