Ex 5:2, But Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go." 
	In this passage, we are brought to one of the most common reactions that mankind, apart from Christ Jesus, has toward God. Note the fact that the emphasis of this statement of Pharaoh to Moses and Aaron is set in the use of I. "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice… and I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go… 
	This attitude takes us back to the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, when mankind first became centered on the interests of himself over the interests of the Lord. The serpent’s temptation was that man could become as God, thereby setting aside the need to utterly rely upon God for everything in such a wonderful and caring personal relationship. The deceit was set in the idea that man could look out for himself, if he would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There would no longer be that need to count on God to make every provision and to guide in every decision. 
	Gen 3:4-7, And the serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die! "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. 
	At this point, mankind began to think of his own state of affairs, represented in the knowledge of his nakedness in shame and impurity. What God had given as beautiful and pure was instantly seen as embarrassment and needing to be covered with some sort of self-protective garment. The focal point of man’s eyes became immediately centered upon his current condition rather than upon the relationship of communion with God. This was to the extent that Adam and Eve immediately hid from the presence of God, with Whom they had, to that point, always enjoyed walking and talking and fellowship. 
	When man is separated from God, in his sin and guilt apart from the righteousness of Jesus Christ, our eyes are always centered on me, me, and me. We become so set in our single pursuit of self-interests and self-promotion that we even begin to think that there is nothing else in the world worthy of our consideration our time our effort. We reject the entire concept that there is One to Whom we owe our every breath and thought and heart-beat. The entirety of the universe revolves around me rather than around its Creator.
	Pharaoh presents to us that aspect of what we are without Christ. He is the type of those who reject the truth and cling to the lie of their own delusions of self-grandeur and haughty disregard for everything that God has revealed of Himself in His creation. It is a complete rejection of God in favor of self and all that man can acquire within this world’s concepts of wealth and fame and honor. Pharaoh rejected the very notion of God because he wanted those slaves to serve to build up his legacy of grandeur and power. 
	We know the result of that self-indulgent theology, when all that matters is what I want and what I think I need to have to make me happy. The entire nation of Egypt would soon rue the day that their king so boasted that he knew not the Lord and would not obey His words of warning to let His people go. The pride of Pharaoh was such that even as God proved Himself over and over again through the various plagues, the king still refused to acknowledge that God even existed and that God’s people should be set free from doing Pharaoh’s bidding. 
	It would be after the final plague, after the Angel of Death had slain every firstborn among every Egyptian home that Pharaoh would finally submit to the fact that there was a God Who wanted His people released from Egypt’s enslavement. That very night, Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and told them to get out of his country, taking whatever they wanted, and asking God to bless him. Ex 12:31+32, Then he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, "Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go, worship the Lord, as you have said. Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go, and bless me also." 
	There are two other kings of great ancient civilizations that we want to, as well, consider in the terms of their representation of those who refuse to admit that there is a God in Heaven Who rules and overrules in all the matters of men. The first king is one with whom most of us are quite familiar. The second king is one whom many of us may not remember very well, even though he is mentioned in three books of the Old Testament. 
Let us proceed in our current discussion by turning in our Bibles to Dan 4:30-37. It is here that we read about what happened to Nebuchadnezzar when he chose to ignore the God of the Hebrews. The Lord had proven Himself through various means with regard to Daniel and his three companions, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. God had shown His power and His keeping might, even through the fiery burning furnace, yet Nebuchadnezzar exalted himself over God even after being warned by God through Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream that it would lead only to much heart-ache and pain to do so.
Reading together then, Dan 4:30-37, "The king reflected and said, 'Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?' "While the word was in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, 'King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you, and you will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you, until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whomever He wishes.' "Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws. "But at the end of that period I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. "And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, 'What hast Thou done?' "At that time my reason returned to me. And my majesty and splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out; so I was reestablished in my sovereignty, and surpassing greatness was added to me. "Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride." 
Note the fact that through this entire account, God ruled and overruled in Nebuchadnezzar’s life to bring him to the point that he wrote to all the ends of his kingdom the fact that God was to be exalted because His sovereignty was eternal and just. God was to be given the full recognition that He was due as the Lord God Almighty Who performs His will and Who puts all leaders into power and removes that power as God Alone so chooses. Nebuchadnezzar recognized that he had proudly promoted himself into the position that God, Alone, deserved to occupy and so he was humbled until he so honored and worshipped God as The Sovereign Lord of Heaven and earth. 
Our last king to consider this morning is Sennacherib, King of Assyria, who besieged Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah. He, as well, declined to honor God and even announced that he considered The Lord God Jehovah as only one of the many other pagan deities. God was besmirched as simply one of the powerless figments of the imaginations of those whom Sennacherib had already conquered. Please turn in your Bibles to 2 Chron 32:9-22 as we read this passage together. 
2 Chron 32:9-22, After this Sennacherib king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem while he was besieging Lachish with all his forces with him, against Hezekiah king of Judah and against all Judah who were at Jerusalem, saying, "Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, 'On what are you trusting that you are remaining in Jerusalem under siege? 'Is not Hezekiah misleading you to give yourselves over to die by hunger and by thirst, saying, "The Lord our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria"? 'Has not the same Hezekiah taken away His high places and His altars, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, "You shall worship before one altar, and on it you shall burn incense"? 'Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands able at all to deliver their land from my hand? 'Who was there among all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed who could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you from my hand? 'Now therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you like this, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less shall your God deliver you from my hand?'" And his servants spoke further against the Lord God and against His servant Hezekiah. He also wrote letters to insult the Lord God of Israel, and to speak against Him, saying, "As the gods of the nations of the lands have not delivered their people from my hand, so the God of Hezekiah shall not deliver His people from my hand." And they called this out with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them, so that they might take the city. And they spoke of the God of Jerusalem as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of men's hands. But King Hezekiah and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed about this and cried out to heaven. And the Lord sent an angel who destroyed every mighty warrior, commander and officer in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned in shame to his own land. And when he had entered the temple of his god, some of his own children killed him there with the sword. So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all others, and guided them on every side. 
We see the utterly disastrous results of the placement of God as but another delusional mental idol of humanity. There are so many people for whom any idea of The Divine Sovereign is absolutely seen as fantasy and unreality. They have no place in their minds or hearts for the Holy Lord God Creator of Heaven and Earth. They have become so set in their conceptual entrapment by the powers of this age that there is no manner of them seeing the truth that the Lord does reign over all His Creation, as was acknowledged by Nebuchadnezzar. 
Rather than honor the Lord God Almighty, these haughty and egotistical ones hold to the horrifying deception of Sennacherib with his arrogant claim 'Who was there among all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed who could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you from my hand? 'Now therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you like this, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less shall your God deliver you from my hand?'"
As surely as the Lord God Almighty did deliver His people from Sennacherib and caused his own children to kill him, so will those who rail against God in our current society suffer the eternal consequences of their rejection of Jesus Christ. Their abject failure to set aside their self-exaltation and defiant refusal to accept the free gift of salvation from the God, Whom they despise and ridicule and dismiss with contempt, will only lead them to everlasting torment in the eternal awareness of their folly and shame. 
We will continue, next time, Lord willing, with our deliberation of what God has to tell us about those who so selfishly choose to dismiss Him as inconsequential in the scheme of their exaltation of humanity as the focal point of what life entails. His Word has some very earnest and severe things to tell us about how we are to regard God in the light of His Holiness and His Sovereignty and His just and perfect judgment. We dare never regard Him with anything less than utter amazement and reverence. So be it!    
But Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go." Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Ps 134:3. May the Lord bless you from Zion, He who made heaven and earth. Amen.