“For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.”
Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all. Moses' lament is complete: he has done what God asked, the result has been worse than before, and God has not acted. The honesty of this prayer — you have not rescued — is not blasphemy; it is the language of covenant relationship where both parties can be held to what they promised. Job 30:20 records the same: I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer. Habakkuk 1:2 asks: how long, Lord, must I call for help and you do not listen? The tradition of prophetic complaint is ancient and authorized. What God will answer in the very next verse — the opening of Exodus 6 — is precisely the kind of renewed promise and deepened revelation that comes in response to exactly this kind of honest, desperate prayer. Moses asks the question; God answers with His name.
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