I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 4-6.

I wrote yesterday about Moses’ reluctance to following God’s calling to go back to Egypt.  He continues with that in today’s passage, but I am not going to spend any more time on that. Except for this bit to encourage you to think about Moses’ interaction in today’s passage.

What I want to focus on is Pharaohs answer when Moses first demanded he let the Israelites to worship God and God’s answer to Moses when Moses complained that going to Pharaoh had just made things worse.  Pharaoh responded to Moses and Aaron by saying, “Who is he? and why should I listen to what he says?”  Some context, the Pharaohs considered themselves the son of one of their gods, usually the chief god.  They were the ultimate authority on what the gods wanted.  So, really what Pharaoh was saying was, “Who are you to speak on behalf of the gods?” 

Which brings us to God’s answer, the answer He gives to everyone who doubts His power and authority.  To understand that answer we need to consider the Hebrew derivation of God’s name, Yahweh or YHWH.  YHWH is closely related to the Hebrew word for “to be”.  When God told Moses, “I am YHWH,” He was telling him that He was that which is, that everything else existed only because He existed.  Pharaoh rejected God’s authority over him.  Moses went to God and said, in essence, “See, I told you so. I am not the right man to convince Pharaoh.”  God’s answer was that Pharaoh had no more ability to reject doing His will than he had of rejecting gravity.