Chapter 1: Who Is the LORD?

Thousands of Israelites bent under the Egyptian sun, hauling mud and stacking bricks across an endless construction site in Pi-Rameses. But one man had come back to Egypt. Moses, who had spent forty years as a shepherd in the Midian desert, walked into the throne room of the most powerful ruler in the ancient world with his brother Aaron. A man raised in this very palace now stood before a new Pharaoh, not as a prince, but as a messenger of God.

MOSES“Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.'”— Exodus 5:1

PHARAOH“Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go.”— Exodus 5:2

And then he made Moses pay for asking. That same day, Pharaoh sent new orders to the taskmasters.

PHARAOH“You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. You shall not reduce the quota. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.'”— Exodus 5:7-8

Straw held the bricks together. When the quotas fell short, the Israelite foremen were beaten.

The foremen went to Pharaoh and begged for relief. He called them lazy and sent them away. When they came out and found Moses and Aaron, they turned on them.

ISRAELITE FOREMEN“Let the LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”— Exodus 5:21

He turned back to God.

MOSES“Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.”— Exodus 5:22-23