Exodus Study: When Obedience Meets Resistance (Exodus 5:1-23)

When Moses and Aaron stood before Pharaoh and declared, “Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go,” they were not relying on their confidence or ability. They were standing on the revelation of who God had already declared Himself to be—I AM. Before Moses ever faced Pharaoh, God anchored his faith in His own nature. God did not tell Moses what he could do; He told Moses who He was. I AM means God is self-existent, eternal, unchanging, and sufficient. He depends on nothing, derives life from no one, and simply is. The same God who helped Abraham, delivered Israel, strengthened David, and saves sinners today is the God who sent Moses. And that same name—I AM—would later be spoken by Jesus Himself, making it clear that the God who stood behind Moses is the God who came in flesh to redeem us. Moses may have felt weak and afraid, but his confidence rested in the unchanging nature of God.

Pharaoh’s response exposes the real conflict: “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice?” This was not a question of curiosity but of defiance. Pharaoh rejected God’s identity, authority, and command. To him, worship was wasted time, rest was dangerous, and people were nothing more than workers meant to serve the system. What God called worship, Pharaoh called laziness. When obedience did not produce immediate relief, resistance followed instead. Pharaoh increased the burdens, dismissed God’s Word as vain, and used busyness as a weapon to silence obedience. Two voices echoed through Egypt that day—“Thus saith the LORD” and “Thus saith Pharaoh.” Two authorities. Two kingdoms. And the lesson is clear: the first response to obedience is not always deliverance—it is often resistance. Yet God was not absent in that resistance. He was preparing to reveal His power, proving once again that when every other voice speaks, God alone remains true.