Imagine a leader of a country coming to power. He gathers his advisors and takes stock of his country’s current situation. Pharaoh ascended the throne and while gauging his country’s war and defense capabilities, he realized his country was dangerously full of foreigners.
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land. Exodus 1:8-9
He says, “they are more and mightier than we.” The Israelites were more than 50% of Egypt’s population. If they joined Egypt’s enemies, Pharaoh would lose everything. But why would the Israelites turn on the Egyptians? The answer is in Scripture. We see some of the friction between the two populations when Joseph was governor in Egypt. During this time, his brothers came to eat at his house.
So they set him a place by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves; because the Egyptians could not eat food with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. Genesis 43:32
Also, when Joseph instructed his family what to say to Pharaoh, we can see the Egyptians did not like shepherds.
that you shall say, “Your servants’ occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers,” that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.” Genesis 46:34
Egyptians considered them an abomination. This would have been a very hostile country for the Israelites to live in. Pharaoh’s country wasn’t just full of Israelite foreigners, it was full of unhappy Israelite foreigners. The Israelites were segregated from the domestic population, looked down upon, hated. Egypt would not be something for the Israelites to stand behind, but only to stand against. Pharaoh’s assumption was correct but instead of rebuking the Egyptians for their wrongful treatment and ideology, he instead turned on the Israelites enslaving them. Now classified as slaves, the treatment of the Israelites would just get worse.
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor. Exodus 1:12-14
The word “rigor” is the Hebrew root word ‘perek’ Strong’s H6531 meaning to break apart, fracture i.e. severity. Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon defines it as oppression, tyranny, from the signification of crushing. The Israelites were crushed and broken. It was an all-encompassing crushing life for each man, woman, and child.
However, the more they crushed them the more the Israelites multiplied. This would make sense that their misery would cause the Hebrew husbands and wives to take solace in each other. With that in mind, and with the blessing of God, certainly you would have more children.
The Pharaoh had garnered himself a great workforce, but the threat of insurrection was growing. He decided to take drastic action by targeting their newborn males. He wasn’t concerned about the females because eventually the lack of Israelite men would force the women to either become Egyptian or remain childless. Either way, the Israelite threat would disappear. His attempt to secretly use midwives to kill the infants at birth failed but Pharaoh was determined to carry out the extermination. Pharaoh put the order out to all his people.
So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.” Exodus 1:22
On top of their everyday misery, now they had to endure the absolute terror of having their infant ripped from their arms and taken to the river and drowned. Imagine the stress that those mothers went through during their pregnancy, and the terrible sadness and desperation that would have gripped their people.
It was under this heavy blanket of misery that the Israelites continued building Egyptian projects, and working the fields. The Egyptians ignored the Israelite's plight, instead enjoying their easier lifestyles built on the backs of a broken and bloodied people.
You can understand why God was so angry with the Israelites when they were so quick to return to Egypt and that miserable life. Life in Egypt was no life at all. It was a slow, painful death sentence. God offered freedom and complete care from a loving and powerful protector. All He asked in return was the small sacrifice of obedient faith.
Today, God is replaying the Exodus. The entire world here on earth has become Egypt, worshiping everything but the real living God. Paganism is still oppressing the people with hard labour, doing the devil’s work which is disobedience to God. The moment that Christ opened a door to freedom, the new Exodus began. When people hear the message, they make a choice. They choose to stay in Egypt, or they choose to follow the real God. If they decide to stay, then they remain the enemy of God. If they decide to go, then they enter the testing in the wilderness. This is where they must prove their faith. This is obedient faith, real faith.
Everyone is waiting for the next Exodus, but they don’t realize it’s already happening. People are making those choices right now. People are choosing to stay or to go. Many will fall away during the time of testing, but there will be a short few, a small remnant that will bow their heads to God’s perfect will. They will live. For now, the continuous Exodus is underway. I hope you join us.
Photo credit: Merlin UK, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped
Comments