John Calvin Commentary Exodus 5:2

"And Pharaoh said, Who is Jehovah, that I should hearken unto his voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, and moreover I will not let Israel go." — Exodus 5:2 (ASV)

And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord? It is scarcely believable that such madness could exist in a mortal, to deliberately scorn God and thus, so to speak, fly in the face of heaven!⁶⁷ But we must observe that the tyrant, being devoted to idolatry, insulted the God of Israel in this way to display his great piety towards his false gods. For his mockery, in scornfully using the name of Jehovah, must be understood in relation to the words of Moses, as if to say, "Why do you bring against me this unknown phantom under the title of the eternal God, as though we had no god of our own?"

Thus Pilate, when Christ said, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth,” asks ironically, and not without mockery, “What is truth?”⁶⁸ (John 18:37–38). In short, Pharaoh did not consider himself to be dishonoring the Deity when he rejected this false (prodigiosum) God, as he thought him to be. Yet his error did not serve to justify him, since it arose from insane audacity and contempt of God.

Granted, he was unwilling for anyone to devalue his idols, and he thus imagined himself to be performing a religious duty; still, it was an act of very great impiety to so carelessly reject the name of the true God, and even to assail it with mockery. We may observe a similar madness in all idolaters. Being intoxicated by their errors, they boldly mock God and do not condescend to make inquiries about Him.

The cry of the Papists nowadays is that we are imposing a new God on the world. Applauding themselves in their wildest ravings, they do not hesitate to condemn our whole doctrine as impious—not because they are persuaded that they themselves are worshipping God correctly, but because they are willfully blind, so that they may evade with impunity the sacred majesty of God, stupefy their consciences, and preserve for themselves their death-like sleep. They seem to themselves to be clever and witty when they are mocking the novelty of our doctrine, though its truth would be clear enough if they would only open their eyes.

The Epicureans, too (of which destructive sect the world is now full), although they rant and rave against God, still always take refuge in some cloud under which their detestable madness may be concealed. For they pretend that amidst such a multitude of opinions, it is hardly possible to discern who God is, or what He commands. Still, however, this is their constant object, namely, that they may have nothing to do with God and yet may conceal by jests the shame of their impiety, as if they were free to reject what they are willfully ignorant of.

But after Pharaoh had indirectly derided the message of Moses as a ridiculous matter, he more openly and more contemptuously expresses his pride, implying that he does not care for that God with whose name Moses and Aaron would frighten him.

⁶⁷ Quasi in coelum conspueret. — Lat..

⁶⁸ Comme s’il disoit, Penses tu que je soye un petit enfant, pour ne discerner point entre le blanc et le noir? as much as to say, Do you think I am a little child unable to distinguish black from white? — Fr..