Obedience and Opposition

In 1787, William Wilberforce sensed God calling him to end the British slave trade.

He thought that obeying God in Parliament would bring swift change. Instead, it brought nineteen years of failure, slander, and threats to his life.

Each time he spoke for freedom, the opposition grew louder.

Yet he kept going until, in 1807, Parliament finally voted to abolish the trade.

Obedience didn’t make life easier—it made it harder—but God used the struggle to set captives free.

Have you ever obeyed God — really obeyed Him — and watched your life get harder instead of easier?

You finally forgive.
You finally surrender.
You finally step out in faith.
You finally say “yes, Lord.”

And instead of doors flying open, they slam.
Instead of relief, pressure.
Instead of applause, pushback.

That’s Exodus 5.

Exodus 5 is the moment after obedience.

Exodus 5 is what it feels like when you do the right thing and everything seems to fall apart.

This is not the moment of the Red Sea parting.

This is the moment before that, when it looks like obedience actually made things worse.

And if we’re honest, some of us are living in Exodus 5 right now.

So here’s where we’re going today from Exodus 5:1–23:

Where We’re Going Today

1. Obedience Invites Opposition.
2. Opposition Exposes Worldviews.
3. Opposition Reveals What We Really Believe About God.

And we’re going to see that God allows this pressure not to destroy you, but to position you — because He is confronting false gods and putting His glory on display.

EXODUS 5:1–9
Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” 2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” 3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” 4 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.” 5 And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many,[a] and you make them rest from their burdens!” 6 The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, 7 “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.”

That is the clash. That’s where everything explodes.

Now let’s slow it down. Let’s look at our first point:

Where We’re Going Today

1. Obedience Invites Opposition.

WHY DOES THIS OPPOSITION COME?

Well, take a step back with me for a moment. Before we talk about how Pharaoh reacts, we need to answer this: Why are Moses and Aaron even standing there?

They didn’t wake up one morning and say, “Let’s go pick a fight with the most powerful man on earth.”

They are there for one reason: God sent them.

God chose Moses and Aaron to do two things:

• To deliver Israel out of bondage.
• And to confront a ruler and a system that were chaotic, oppressive, and unjust.

That’s critical. God didn’t just say, “Get my people out.”

He said, “Go stand in front of Pharaoh. Address him. Call him to obey the LORD.”

Don’t miss this for our own lives as we dig into this story:

• God sent His servants directly into the center of power.
• Obedience will always pull you into conflict with whatever false god is sitting on the throne of a place.
• You will be sent into places where darkness has gotten comfortable.

Another way to say it is this:
“God does not just rescue His people out of darkness — He confronts the darkness on the way out.”

So, listen:

• If you are experiencing pressure after obedience…
• If you are feeling attacked for doing the right thing…
• If people are pushing against you when you step out in faith…

That is not proof that you missed God. That may be proof that you were sent.

Opposition is often the evidence of assignment.

Pharaoh didn’t resist Moses because Moses was wrong. Pharaoh resisted Moses because Moses was right, and that truth threatened the kingdom Pharaoh had built.

You see, when you obey, hell pushes back.

That’s the pattern of Scripture:

• Elijah stands before Ahab.
• Daniel stands before Babylon.
• The apostles stand before the Sanhedrin.
• Jesus stands before Pilate.
• Moses stands before Pharaoh.

Obedience to God often ends up in front of some Pharaoh.

So, here is what is true:

Opposition is not unusual. It’s normal for people who are sent.

So, when opposition comes, what is going on? Again, let’s look at where we are headed today.
 
Where We’re Going Today

1. Obedience Invites Opposition.
2. Opposition Exposes Worldviews.

Let’s take a moment to familiarize ourselves with Pharoah, the King of Egypt. And I want us to try to understand how he sees the world, what his theology is, and how he understands his role, his politics, for Egypt and the world beyond.
 
To understand Exodus 5, we have to understand Pharaoh.

In the ancient Egyptian worldview, Pharaoh was not just a ruler. He was considered divine — the son of the sun god, Ra; the embodiment of a god on earth; the appointed guardian of cosmic stability.

Egypt believed the universe was held together by something called Maʿat (M-A-A-T).

Ma‘at means truth, balance, justice, harmony, order; everything in it’s right place.

• If Maʿat held, the Nile flooded on time, crops grew, the sun rose, people were fed, Egypt was strong.
• If Maʿat failed, chaos (which they called isfet) would break loose — famine, rebellion, darkness, death.

Pharaoh’s #1 job was to maintain Maʿat.

One Egyptologist, Jan Assmann, writes: “Maʿat is constantly threatened by isfet — by chaos — and it is Pharaoh’s role to dispel it and maintain order.”

So, Pharaoh didn’t just see himself as a man. He saw himself as the hinge of the universe.

He believed: “If I lose control, the world falls apart.”

That is Pharaoh’s theology.

Now — why does that matter for Exodus 5?

Because in Pharaoh’s worldview:

• His rule equals order.
• His system equals stability.
• His economy equals survival.
• His control equals safety.

So, any challenge to his rule is, in his mind, a threat to creation itself.

Now watch Moses and Aaron walk into that throne room and say:
“The LORD, the God of Israel, says ‘Let My people go.’”

Exodus 5:1
Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’”

Understand what Pharaoh hears.

• He doesn’t hear, “We’d like a long weekend.”
• He hears, “We’re removing several hundred thousand laborers from your control to go worship a God you don’t recognize.”

And Pharaoh responds in verse 2:

Exodus 5:2
But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”

That is not ignorance.

That is defiance.

That is Pharaoh saying, “There is no name higher than mine inside Egypt.”

 Pharaoh is basically saying:
 “Your God is not part of my order. Your God is not over me. Your God is not God here.”

 This is the collision. Again, opposition exposes worldviews.

  Now, let’s understand PHARAOH’S theology of work. Let’s understand how the labor of the Hebrews fits into Ma‘at.

 This is where it gets personal and nasty.

 If Pharaoh’s job is to keep order (Maʿat):

• then labor is sacred.
• Work is worship.
• Production is loyalty.
• Quotas are proof that Pharaoh is holding the world together.

 So, from Pharaoh’s view:

• Every brick is part of cosmic stability.
• Every Israelite making those bricks is participating in Pharaoh’s religious system.
• Slavery is not just economics; it’s theology.

 So, when Moses and Aaron say, “We need to go hold a feast to Yahweh,” he explodes.

Exodus 5:17
  But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.

 That word “idle” is not him just saying “you’re lazy.”

The Hebrew idea behind that word (root rāphāh) means to slack off, let up, loosen the hand.

 From Pharaoh’s mouth, “You are idle,” really means:
“You are rebelling against the system that keeps the world standing.”

 In his worldview:

• Rest is rebellion.
• Worship is disloyalty.
• Making space for God is dangerous.

 Pharaoh’s logic is:
 “If you stop working for me, the whole machine breaks. You’re threatening the order. You’re destabilizing Maʿat.”

R. James Ferguson notes that:
 Maʿat included “order, harmony, rightness, and the social obligations that maintain the world’s stability.”

 So, Pharaoh punishes them “for daring to rest.”

He increases their quota, removes their straw, drives them harder (Exodus 5:6–9).

 Catch this…

When God calls…
When God calls His people to worship, Pharaoh calls them lazy.
When God calls His people to rest, Pharaoh calls it rebellion.

  That is still true today.

 We still live under voices that say:

• “You don’t have time to pray.”
• “You don’t have time to worship.”
• “You don’t have time to rest.”
• “If you slow down, everything will fall apart.”

 Pharaoh is alive and well in hustle culture.

 We still believe the lie:
 “My worth is in my output, my identity is in my productivity, and if I stop, the world will collapse.”

 That’s Maʿat theology in modern clothes.

 But God is about to expose it.

Let’s pause and get honest about what this does to the people of God.

 Remember where we are headed today.

Where We’re Going Today

1. Obedience Invites Opposition.
2. Opposition Exposes Worldviews.
3. Opposition Reveals What We Really Believe About God.

 Obedience sounded amazing in chapter 4. But in chapter 5? It hurts. And this pain and adversity often exposes our understanding or lack thereof, of who God is and what He does, and what we believe about Him.

 Look at what happens in Exodus 5:10–19.

Exodus 5:10-19
 10 So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw. 11 Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.’” 12 So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13 The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.” 14 And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?”

 15 Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this? 16 No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.” 17 But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18 Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.” 19 The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, “You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.”

  So, what happens here?

• The work gets harder.
• The resources get thinner.
• The expectations get higher.
• The Hebrew foremen get beaten.
• And the very people Moses came to help turn on him.

 Look at verses 20 and 21 now.

Exodus 5:20-21
 20 They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; 21 and they said to them, “The Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

Have you ever tried to obey God and somebody you love turns to you and says, “This is your fault”? I would think many parents of teenagers have felt this very thing.

 This is what Moses feels.

 And Moses does what most of us do when obedience gets hard -- He questions God.

Exodus 5:22–23
22 Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

  Moses literally says to God:
“Why did You even send me?
Why did You make it worse?
Why haven’t You fixed it?”

 This is important:
Moses is blaming God for what Pharaoh did.

We do that too. We confuse spiritual attack with divine abandonment.

 We say:
 “God, why are You doing this to me?” when in fact it’s Pharaoh tightening his grip because he feels threatened.

 Listen to me: Pain in obedience is not proof that God has failed you. Often, it’s proof that the enemy is panicking.

  This is the emotional reality of obedience:

• It will test your motives.
• It will expose your fears.
• It will surface your doubts.
• It will make you wonder if you should have just stayed quiet.

 Faith that is untested is faith that is unproven.

  And God is letting Moses’ faith — and Israel’s faith — get tested under pressure, because He’s about to reveal something bigger than they can see yet.

  Let’s look at GOD’S RESPONSE: “NOW WATCH ME”

 Right after Moses breaks down in Exodus 5, God answers in Exodus 6:1.

Exodus 6:1
 But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

 “…Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh…’”

 Not: “Now you will see what you will do.”
Not: “Now you will fix it.”
Not: “Now you will negotiate better.”
 “Now you shall see what I will do.”

 God is saying:
 Moses, I didn’t send you into that throne room so you could prove yourself.
I sent you there so I could display Myself.

 In other words:

• You obey.
• You stand.
• You speak.
• You stay faithful.

 And I will dismantle Pharaoh.

 That is who God is.

 Now, let me fast forward just a bit. I want to do a high-level fly over of some of the plagues. Because it is with THE PLAGUES that GOD TAKES APART THE FALSE GODS.
 

• Now that we understand Pharaoh’s theology — “I hold the world together; Maʿat depends on me; work keeps chaos at bay” — we can finally understand the plagues.
• The plagues are not random lightning bolts.
  The plagues are targeted theology.

 Each plague is God pulling a brick out of Pharaoh’s claim to divine control.

Understanding the Plagues
 

Plague or Event	What It Targeted	What God Was Saying
Nile to Blood	Egypt’s “source of life”	“Life doesn’t come from your system. It comes from Me.”
Frogs / Gnats / Flies	Egypt’s fertility gods	Creation doesn’t answer to you. It answers to Me.”
Hail / Locusts	Agricultural abundance	“I, not your gods, command the land and the sky.”
Darkness	Sun god Ra	“Your greatest god bows to Me.”
Death of the Firstborn	Pharaoh’s divine lineage	“Your dynasty is not eternal. Your throne is not eternal. Your order is not eternal. Only Mine is.”

  

1. Nile to Blood (Exodus 7:14–24)
   The Nile was Egypt’s lifeline and was associated with the god Hapi.
   God turns it to blood.
   Message: “Life doesn’t come from your system. It comes from Me.”
   God attacks Egypt’s economic stability and fertility at the root.
2. Frogs / Gnats / Flies (Exodus 8)
   Frogs were tied to fertility and the goddess Heqet.
   Instead of polite, controlled fertility, there’s an infestation.
   Message: “Creation doesn’t answer to you. It answers to Me.”
3. Hail and Locusts (Exodus 9:18–10:20)
   Sky, crops, agriculture — everything Maʿat was supposed to hold in balance — now shattered.
   Message: “I, not your gods, command the land and the sky.”
4. Darkness (Exodus 10:21–29)
   Egypt worshiped the sun god Ra — the god Pharaoh was identified with.
   God shuts off the sun. He turns off Egypt’s light.
   Message: “Your greatest god bows to Me.”
5. Death of the Firstborn (Exodus 12)
   Pharaoh’s firstborn son was the next “god-king,” the next protector of Maʿat.
   God strikes the firstborn.
   Message: “Your dynasty is not eternal. Your throne is not eternal. Your order is not eternal. Only Mine is.”

Old Testament scholar John D. Currid writes,
 “Each plague is an attack on an Egyptian deity and on the entire system of Egyptian theology that supported Pharaoh’s kingship. Yahweh is systematically dismantling the Egyptian worldview.”

 Do you hear that?

 This is not just deliverance. This is exposure. God is revealing that Pharaoh is not lord.
Egypt’s gods are not gods. Maʿat is not ultimate order.

Yahweh alone is God.

 So here’s the tension:
While Pharaoh believes he’s protecting Egypt from chaos, God is showing that Pharaoh is actually the source of the chaos.

 The real chaos in the world is not when people stop working like slaves.

The real chaos is when humans pretend to be God.

So why is this important? HOW DOES THIS LAND IN YOUR LIFE?

 Now let’s come out of the ancient world and talk about it.

 Because some of you are in Exodus 5.

• You finally obeyed.
• You finally stepped out.
• You finally said yes to God.
• And it feels like all you got for it was more trouble.

 This is where we want to pastor you.
 
 Here are a couple of relevant conclusions when it comes to opposition:
 

1. Expect it.
   When you obey God, Pharaoh will not applaud.
   He will increase pressure, not decrease it.
   Opposition is normal for people who are sent.
2. Name it.
   Everyone of us struggles with submitting to a Pharaoh – a false god that want’s dominion.

 

• For some of you, your Pharaoh is fear — “You’ll never be enough.”
• For some, it’s control — “If you’re not holding it all together, it’ll all fall apart.”
• For some, it’s performance — “You are only as valuable as your productivity.”
• That voice that says, “Don’t rest, don’t worship, don’t trust, don’t slow down” — that’s Pharaoh.

 

3. Resist it.
   Stand on the truth of God.
   You are not defined by what you produce. You are defined by the presence of the One who called you. You are not sustained by your strength. You are sustained by His Spirit. You are not a slave. You are a son. You are a daughter.
4. Trust it.
   God uses resistance to reveal His power.
   The moment Moses hits the wall and says, “Why did You send me?” — God says, “Now you will see what I will do.”
   Not “what you will do.”
   “What I will do.”

 Some of you need to hear this: Do not quit in Exodus 5 when God’s victory is scheduled for Exodus 14.
 

• Do not give up in the moment of pressure when God’s deliverance is on the horizon.
• Don’t walk off the assignment just because Pharaoh started yelling.

 Because, listen to me:
If obedience brought you here, obedience will carry you through this.

 So here is the invitation:

• Where is God sending you to confront a false god?
• Where is He asking you to step into a place that looks stable on the surface but is spiritually oppressive underneath?
• Where is He calling you to say, “Let my people go,” even if that draws fire toward you?

 Your obedience is not just about you.
 

• It’s about the people God wants to free through you.
• It’s about the lies God wants to expose through you.
• It’s about the glory God wants to reveal through you.

 Opposition is not a sign that God has abandoned you.

Opposition is the evidence that God is at work through you.

 So today we pray:
“Lord, I’ll keep showing up. Use me to confront my Pharaoh. Use me to free who You want to free. Use my obedience — even in the resistance — for Your glory.”