The first of the Ten Commandments takes us right back to Egypt and the basic political issue at the heart of the conflict. It is not a matter of oversized egos in battle, but the limits of human authority. God's intervention is a direct challenge to Pharaoh's claim of absolute authority over human life. No man has the right to enslave another. The Exodus from Egypt is a revolutionary act of universal import.
All human power is derivative and, therefore, restricted.
God alone is the seat of absolute sovereignty. To serve Pharaoh without rest or remuneration is slavery, the most abysmal form of human degradation. To serve God is to enhance human dignity. The experience of bondage in Egypt, a system of human exploitation without bounds, prepared Israel to offer the world a conception of human authority drastically restricted. For the Torah, absolute power is the prerogative of God alone, before whom all human beings are equal.