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“Who is Yhwh that I should listen to him” Pharaoh

The story of the Exodus is not so much the story of Moses vs. Pharaoh but a story about God vs. all of us. God in this story is more than an annoyance. He is a threat and a trouble maker. On this Moses and Pharaoh agree.

In the New Testament, especially in the gospel of John the Bible talks about “the world”. It is our system for how things work. At this time and place Pharaoh is on top of this system and the system is doing what it is designed to do. The system of the world is utterly practical, utterly obvious, and completely understandable. If I can derive well being at the expense of others, it helps me out-compete, out-produce, and out-survive my competition. Pharaoh is top dog in his world in this game.

Moses, who has not formally agreed to God’s plan has nevertheless gone with his brother Aaron to deliver the message of Yhwh to Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s response is utterly reasonable and understandable.

1. Pharaoh doesn’t know Yhwh, or Moses and Aaron for that matter. Why should he listen.
2. In the purview of Biblical polytheism Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt are powerful and successful gods in comparison to this unknown god of the Hebrew slaves. Why should they pay attention to Yhwh’s demands. Yhwh has no status in their system of “the world”.
3. If your goal is to maximize the amount of value you can extract from people, a reasonable hope for a better future is a threat. The sooner you can squash people’s hopes the more secure you can make your system for extracting value from them. As long as people think “this is the best I can reasonable do” you will keep them compliant and locked into the system that is extracting their value. The minute they imagine “there might be something better for me” you begin to lose control. Pharaoh knows this and acts immediately and ruthlessly to quell the potential threat that even hope, however reasonably unfounded, might arise.

The LORD has brought Evil to his People

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