Exodus Chapter 1 Deep-Dive: The Israelites Opressed

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Deep-dives into the Bible beyond what Sunday teaches you.

 

Exodus (Greek: Exodus-going out, Hebrew: Names/first word in the book)

This is the start of the main story … the nation of Israel and its relationship with (striving / wrestling with) God.  It occurs during the collapse of the Bronze Age of world-wide civilization 12-15^th century BC). Hammurabi is emperor in Babylon and he’s the high water mark; smelting Bronze with Copper from Cyprus and Tin from Afghanistan, with world-wide trade routes that eventually collapse and there is a huge regression into the Iron Age … an apocalypse.  Joshua – 2 Kings is set in a post-apocalyptic world.  Egypt is the only civilization that survives but just barely …  So, the Mycenaean-Greek empire, the Hittite empire, Hammurabi’s Babylonian empire, all collapse due to a major change in the climate & drought/famine throughout the Mediterranean, the Fertile Crescent and into the Middle East.  The ability to grow and store crops is the key to the growth of civilization … food security for large numbers of people, the very thing we see Joseph doing in Egypt during the major world-wide famine that God is causing.  Gen 41:25Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.  v32 And the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.  v56So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. 57Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.

This world-wide famine leads to mass-migrations and subsequently war … invading people who need your food.  It’s during this time that the Mycenaeans (Greece/Crete/Cyprus) try to invade Egypt, are repulsed and then settle near Egypt in the Levant/Canaan, these are the Philistines (sea peoples). 

For those of us who have become steeped in Western civilization’s human wisdom and don’t believe that God causes painful things like war, famine, hurricanes, tornadoes and other disasters, consider Is 45:6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun (the east) and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. 7I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.  Or, east to west, light to dark, prosperity to disaster … I am the Lord who does all these things. 

So, from Joseph to the Exodus God is causing massive change in the world … it’s during that time that Israel grows from Jacob’s small tribe of 70 people planted in Egypt into a nation of @ 600,000 men, probably nearly 2 million people.  Also, there are many Egyptians and peoples of other nationalities who have become Israelites through marriage during that period of growth.  God arranged for Joseph to marry an Egyptian and so do the rest of the people, remember, Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh – two tribes of Israel, are also sons of Asenath, the daughter of the priest of On.  So the nation grows into a genetically diverse group interwoven with the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob over the nearly 400 years from Joseph/Jacob to the Exodus.  Also, since the world-wide civilization is in collapse/chaos due to food insecurity we would not expect to find a lot of records about all of this outside the bible and Egyptians would not have recorded the events because Yahweh pounded them into submission and the Egyptians were notorious propagandists … who wants to remember that?!

Ex 1:1These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt.  6Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.  8Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. 9“Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”  REMEMBER, WORLD CIVILIZATION IS COLLAPSING AT THIS POINT AND EGYPT IS BEING THREATENED BY THE SEA PEOPLES AND OTHERS, THEY’RE FIGHTING A LOT OF BATTLES AND PHAROAH IS CONCERNED THAT THE ISRAELITES MIGHT HELP EGYPT’S ENEMIES.  11So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.  THE PYRAMIDS HAD ALREADY BEEN AROUND FOR HUNDREDS OR THOUSANDS OF YEARS AT THAT POINT AND “BUILDING” CITIES IN EGYPT OFTEN MEANT “REBUILDING” THEM/FRESHENING THEM UP AND RENAMING THEM FOR THE NEW PHAROAH.  ALSO, PEOPLE WHO ARE BEING OPPRESSED DON’T HAVE LOTS OF BABIES, HOWEVER … v12But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13and worked them ruthlessly. 14They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.  SO, PHAROAH DOUBLES DOWN IN OPPRESSING THEM … LET’S STOP FOR A MINUTE AND CONSIDER A FEW THINGS:

·        Israel fell into idolatry while in Egypt, they became part of the Egyptian culture, and ended up as slaves. EZEKIEL … THE POINT IN THE OT WHERE GOD IS THE MOST ANGRY WITH ISRAEL …  Ez 20:4“Will you judge them? Will you judge them, son of man EZEKIEL? Then confront them with the detestable practices of their ancestors 5and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On the day I chose Israel, I swore with uplifted hand to the descendants of Jacob and revealed myself to them in Egypt. With uplifted hand I said to them, “I am the Lord your God.” 6On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of Egypt into a land I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands. 7And I said to them, “Each of you, get rid of the vile images you have set your eyes on, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” 8“ ‘But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me; they did not get rid of the vile images they had set their eyes on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger against them in Egypt. 9But for the sake of my name, I brought them out of Egypt. I did it to keep my name from being profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they lived and in whose sight I had revealed myself to the Israelites. 10Therefore I led them out of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness.  SO, GOD WAS ALREADY ANGY WITH THE ISRAELITES BEFORE HE LED THEM OUT OF EGYPT … THEY WERE IDOLATORS!!  ALSO, CONSIDER WHAT RAHAB THE PROSTITUTE, IN JERICHO, SAID TO THE HEBREW SPIES WHEN ISRAEL WAS ENTERING THE PROMISED LAND: Josh 2:8Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof 9and said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. 10For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. 11And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.  FOR THE SAKE OF MY NAME I BROUGHT THEM OUT OF EGYPT.  MUCH OF THE EXODUS WILL END UP AS A TOTAL DISASTER BECAUSE OF ISRAEL’S STIFF NECKED REBELLION AND GOD WILL USE ISRAEL TO DEMONSTRATE TO THE REST OF HUMANITY THAT THE “FEAR OF THE LORD” IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM.  WHEN  YOU CONSIDER THAT MAN IS EVIL AT HEART AND A REBEL TOWARDS HIS CREATOR THEN GOD IS THE ONLY VICTIM IN SCRIPTURE, AND, GOD IS THE MOST DANGEROUS PERSON IN THE UNIVERSE … FEAR THE LORD! 

·        AS WE CONSIDER THE EVILS OF SLAVERY LET’S PUT ON OUR NT DECODER GLASSES AND CONSIDER WHAT PAUL SAID: Col 3:22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving … seek your approval from GOD in all things.  GOD IS IN CONTOL OF EVERYONE’S CIRCUMSTANCES … OUR CONCERN SHOULD BE TO RESPOND IN A GODLY MANNER IN THE MIDST OF OUR CIRCUMSTANCES.

·        This Pharaoh who knew not Joseph was from God, sent to prepare God’s people for being “birthed” out of Egypt.  Rom 9:17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.  God needed to break Israel’s ties with Egypt – Egypt needed to become an uncomfortable place to be.  Did God work the same way with the early church?  Acts 8:1 On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.  4Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. DOES GOD CONTINUE TO WORK THAT WAY?  Rev 2:10 JESUS SPEAKING TO THE CHURCH IN SMYRNA Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life … THINK OF JOB. 

·        Ps 22:24For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.  GOD IS AWARE OF THE SUFFERING OF THE AFFLICTED

·        Ps 119: 67Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.  71It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.  75I know, Lord, that your laws are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.  GOD USES AFFLICTION TO DISCIPLINE AND TRAIN US.

BACK TO EXODUS CH1:15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16“When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.  THIS PASSAGE ALSO REFERS TO THE EGYPTIAN PRACTICE OF DETERMINING THE SEX OF THE CHILD BEFORE ITS BORN (50% CHANCE OF BEING CORRECT!) THEN REQUIRING THE MIDWIVES TO CAUSE AN ABORTION OF THE CHILD IS A BOY … GIRLS/WOMEN COULD BE MARRIED BY EGYPTIANS WHO PRACTICE POLYGAMY THEN EVENTUALLY WHEN ALL THE BOYS/MEN DIED OUT THERE WOULD BE NO MORE ISRAEL YET EGYPTIAN POPULATION WOULD CONTINUE TO INCREASE.

·        Ps 105 is a recap of Abraham to Jacob to becoming Israel and growing into a nation in Egypt 24The Lord made his people very fruitful; he made them too numerous for their foes, 25whose hearts he turned to hate his people, to conspire against his servants.  GOD caused the Egyptians to hate the Hebrews … HE was totally in control of their situation.

·        Interesting commentary on this by Calvin: Why two midwives only are mentioned by name, when it is probable that, in so great a population, there were many? Two replies may be given; either that the tyrant Pharoah addressed himself to these two, who might spread the fear of his power amongst the others; or, that, desiring to proceed with secret malice, he made a trial of the firmness of these two, and if he had obtained their acquiescence, he hoped to have easily succeeded with the others; for shame forbade him from issuing an open and general command, and he feared open rebellion by the Hebrews.

BACK TO EX 1:18Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” 19The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”  20So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.  WE AGAIN SEE GOD INTERACTING DIRECTLY WITH HIS CREATION … HE WAS KIND TO THE MIDWIVES BECAUSE THEY DID THE RIGHT THING AND PROTECTED THE INNOCENT EVEN IF WHAT THEY WERE SAYING WASN’T TRUE, BUT WHAT THEY SAID MOST LIKELY WAS TRUE IN MOST CASES BECAUSE OF THE INCREASING POPULATION GOD HAD CAUSED.

·        Are we always rewarded by God for doing the right thing?  Rev22:12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.

BACK TO EX 1:22And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

·        Pharaoh is becoming desperate and is now willing to make this heinous act public policy.   Things are heating up for him. 

 

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