Exodus — Chapter 5

Pharaoh said: \"Who is the Lord, that I should hear his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord.\" Lapide identifies this as the archetypal response of impious power: denial of divine authority over human affairs. He cites Tertullian and Lactantius: tyrants who persecute the Church always first deny that God rules kingdoms. Pharaoh's question \"Who is the Lord?\" would be answered by the ten plagues—not that Pharaoh might be converted (his heart was hardened) but that the glory of God might be made manifest before all nations.

Moses returned to the Lord and said: \"Lord, why hast thou afflicted this people? and why hast thou sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath afflicted this people; and thou hast not delivered thy people.\" Lapide admires Moses's boldness in prayer (fiducia orandi)—he speaks to God as a friend speaks to a friend, with complaints and urgency. He cites Augustine (Conf. I): \"Our heart is restless until it rests in Thee\"; and Bernard (Serm. in Cant. LXXXVI): the soul that loves God greatly dares to question His apparent delays. This bold prayer is not impiety but the fruit of genuine trust.