From A Free People To Slaves Series

February 01, 2025

Last week we concluded Genesis with Joseph’s death at 110. By that time his family had been living in Egypt for 70 years.

Much like Genesis, there are things in Exodus that God has chosen to leave out – things not important to the story he is trying to tell.

In the first 2 chapters of Exodus time is compressed – they cover a span of time from the death of Joseph to the time of Moses’ call in Midian. They are heavy on information, but light on the details.

An important detail is that when Jacob and his family came to Egypt there were just 70 direct descendants of Abraham.

Eventually, Joseph and his generation died but the family continued to grow and multiply and fill the land.

“Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.”

It is highly unlikely that this new Pharaoh didn’t know who Joseph was. It is more likely that he desired to minimize what Joseph had done because Joseph was a foreigner and may have served during the time of the Hyksos rulers (who were also foreign). To this new king, Joseph’s work on behalf of Egypt meant nothing.

The one thing that the new Pharoah did take notice of was the situation in Goshen and he was nervous.

His concern? There were a lot of Israelites and if a foreign power ever attacked Egypt, they might join with the enemy against Egypt.

It was extremely important to the Egyptians that Ma’at be maintained:

• Ma’at was the Ancient Egyptian concept of truth, justice and cosmic order – all things being in their correct place. Ma’at was represented by a goddess with an ostrich feather on her head.

• Ma’at was charged with regulating the stars, seasons, and actions of both mortals and deities. At the moment of creation, Ma’at had set the universe in order and the Egyptians believed that she maintained balance and harmony in the universe and prevented it from returning to chaos.

Anything outside the borders of Egypt was chaos - the land of Seth:

• Seth (Set) was a god of war, chaos and storms. He was associated with the desert, foreign lands, eclipses and earthquakes. His glyph appears in the Egyptian words for "turmoil", "confusion", "illness", "storm" and "rage". He was a powerful and frightening deity.

It was the responsibility of Pharaoh to maintain Ma’at – one way to do that was by keeping foreign people OUT of Egypt. Foreigners were viewed with suspicion because they might disrupt the order of things and reintroduce chaos, so you can understand Pharaoh’s concern regarding another group of people who came from the land of Seth and who outnumber the Egyptians. It would be important to keep that group of people under control.

His solution? Enslavement and forced labor.

I want to remind you of the Villain. A this point in history his primary goal is to make sure the “bruise his heel and crush your head” prophecy in Eden never transpires.

The only way that happens is if he can disrupt or destroy the family through whom the prophecy would be fulfilled.

He would use Egypt’s belief system to create fear, which would eventually lead to oppression and enslavement.

Never, ever forget the Villain!!

Pharaoh’s plan backfired. The more Israel was oppressed the more they multiplied, so the Egyptians worked them harder and made their lives bitter AND YET they continued to grow, so the king came up with a different plan: kill all the male babies at birth.

Why not all the children? In that time and culture, nationality was determined by the father, so if the father was Egyptian the children would be considered Egyptian regardless of the nationality of the mother. With all subsequent generations of male Israelites dead, their destruction as a distinct group of people would be ensured.

To implement his plan, Pharaoh enlisted the help of the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah.

The midwives defied Pharaoh’s orders and when called before him to explain why the baby boys were not being killed, they responded: “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

The Children of Israel increased and became even more numerous….. So, despite the Villain’s best efforts, God was with his people – turning evil to good and making 12 small tribes into a great people.

Pharaoh changed tactics again. He gave orders to all Egyptians, “Every boy that is born, you will throw into the Nile, but you will let the girls live.”

Enter a man from the house of Levi.

This man and his wife had a baby boy. He was a beautiful child and his mama chose to hide him rather than risk him being killed. After 3 months she could no longer hide him, so she constructed a basket from Nile reeds, coated it with tar and pitch, placed the baby inside and set it adrift on the river.