Have you ever just wanted to get out of somewhere?
On February 23, 2007 in Parrish Florida 13 Year Old Boy was kidnapped at gunpoint at his bus stop by a 22 year old kidnapper who drove him into the country. He chose the boy at random planning to hold him for ransom. Once he had 13 year old Clay Moore in his car, he drove him into the country and using rope, duct tape, & having stuck his own sock in Clay’s mouth as a makeshift gag, the kidnapper bound him to a tree and left. What the kidnapper didn’t realize is that during the drive to the country, the boy had managed to remove a safety pin from his school uniform, placed there just that morning by his mother. She had been angry with him for tearing the shirt and had chastised him, stating that she wasn’t going to sew it up for him, he would have to use a pin for now. That little safety pin ended up saving Clay’s life. Without the kidnapper noticing, Clay removed the pin and put it in his mouth. Once left alone, Clay went to work. Using the pin, he methodically picked away at the duct tape that was placed across his mouth. Once that was removed he used his teeth to pick and tear at the ropes binding him to the tree. Once he had freed himself he ran down the road and spotted a farmer in his field. The farmer had a cell phone and quickly called authorities. Thank God Clay had that pin in his shirt that morning, and the sense and fortitude to use it!
After being in Egypt for 400 years, the Israelites wanted out! Originally they came to Egypt in a time of famine for the food that Joseph had wisely stored up. At first, things were pretty good for the family of Jacob. They were reunited with Joseph, there was plenty of food in Egypt despite the famine in the land, and the Pharaohs honored them on account of Joseph. But over the years things drastically changed and the Jews just wanted out.
The title of the Old Testament book detailing their deliverance from Egypt is called “Exodus” which literally means “way out”. In this book we’ll see two main themes:
1. God delivering His people from the oppressive Egyptians
2. God establishing the Jew’s theocratic nation of Israel
Basically, how the Jews were delivered to worship! By God’s power and according to God’s purpose, the nation of Israel was delivered to worship! (Just like you and I are today.)
Background material:
This book, along with the other first four books of the Bible, was written by Moses during the Exodus itself between the years of 1450-1410 bc. Both Joshua and Jesus attest to the Mosaic authorship.
Moses ends the book of Genesis with the death of Joseph which was around 1805 bc. He begins the book of Exodus with a recap of Israel’s origins in Egypt and he then picks up her history a couple hundred years later around 1570 bc.
Things had started to drastically change for Israel under Egypt’s government and the time of their deliverance was near. Moses is setting the stage for that in chapter one.
I. Israel’s population explosion
[Read Exodus 1:1-7, Numbers 1:45-46.]
[600,000 men = 2,000,000 total population, (annual growth rate of 5%).]
God had told Jacob to be fruitful and multiply back in Genesis 35:11 in accordance with the covenant He made with Abraham that He would give him a multitude of descendants. God was again showing Himself faithful as He brought forth millions of people to Israel – even while they were living in a foreign land.
Now for many years the Israelites lived a peaceful existence in Egypt. But they were still visitors there and had to live by the Pharaoh’s laws. Even though they didn’t have a land of their own, God made them incredible fruitful.
But while Israel’s growing and prospering, the Egyptian government was going through lots of changes. And these changes brought about a fear of the Jewish people which caused the Egyptians to hate and oppress them.
II. Egypt’s harsh oppression
1. Egypt’s new king
[Read Exodus 1:8.]
Now of course, the new king wouldn’t have known Joseph personally. Too many years had passed. But this verse means he didn’t know the history of Joseph and what a blessing he was to the Egyptian people. So since he didn’t care about the Jew’s history in the land, he viewed them as unwelcomed foreigners in the land.
Just who was this king? Well, there were three Pharaohs that ruled during this time in history. But I believe it was Ahmose 1. You see, before he came into power, the Hyksos people had taken over the government of Egypt for some time. The Hyksos were a group of people who were made up of people from Semitic and Asiatic descent. (They were not Egyptians!) And since they were a foreign group of mixed people they tolerated foreigners in Egypt more than ever before. So native Egyptians never accepted them as true Egyptians.
The Hyksos were finally expelled from Egypt under Ahmose 1 and a new atmosphere of nationalism swept through Egypt.
So since they had just gotten rid of a group of foreigners that had challenged their Egyptian way of life, this new king looked at this huge group of foreigners living in his own back yard and decided something had to be done. They wouldn’t let foreigners rule them ever again!
2. Egypt’s new fear
[Read Exodus 1:9-10.]
So the new administration’s worried about a couple of things as he looks at the 2 million Jews in the land. First he’s scared they’ll join forces with one of Egypt’s enemies and create a huge army that would easily defeat them. Maybe they’ll join up with the Hyksos? After all, they’re of Semitic descent just like them.
And secondly, if they do defeat us and leave our country, a huge part of the Egyptian economy would go with them. (It seems like the Egyptians might have known that the Jews wanted to leave the Egypt instead of conquer Egypt.)
So the king made a decision to oppress the Jews into submission hoping that would keep them in line.
3. Egypt’s new tactic – slavery
[Read Exodus 1:11-14.]
Now remember, everyone in Egypt had to pay taxes to the government. And they didn’t own any of the land they lived and worked on. But here we see the government forcing the Jews into slave labor as they continued to build their empire.
It describes their slavery as an affliction, hard, rigorous, and bitter. When Moses describes it later in the book of Deuteronomy he compares it to working in an iron-smelting pot.
[Read Deuteronomy 4:20.]
But the more they oppressed the Jews the stronger they became. It’s like when you go to the gym and work out your muscles. As you lift weights you’re actually tearing them down a little at a time. But they continue to grow back stronger and stronger and stronger. The continued growth of the Jewish people really intimidated the Egyptian government. And this moved them to the unthinkable.
4. Egypt’s new desperation – infanticide
[Read Exodus 1:15-16.]
Now first of all, the two midwives weren’t the only Jewish midwives. They were probably the main Jewish midwives in the land. So Pharaoh started at the top with his new policy.
Secondly, Jewish boys would grow into future Jewish warriors, so they were to be killed. Jewish girls would grow into future slaves and concubines, so they were allowed to live. Let’s see if Pharaoh’s sick plan worked.
[Read Exodus 1:17-21.]
These godly women decided to follow God instead of man and didn’t go through with the infanticide. They probably told all the other midwives in the land to really ‘take their time’ in getting to the bedside of a woman giving birth.
Now, that meant the Jewish ladies had to give birth either by themselves or just with the help of family members. But at least their boys would live.
Pharaoh’s plan wasn’t working, so his desperation reached a new level.
[Read Exodus 1:22.]
He turned the Egyptian people completely against the Jewish people by instructing them all to kill every newborn Jewish boy.
You know that sadly, there still places in the world today that are as oppressive and godless as ancient Egypt. Parts of Eastern Africa, the Middle East, and even parts of China consider life to be cheap and expendable. The people are oppressed with little or no real freedom. Could you imagine how hard it would be to live under these circumstances? Having to hide your little boys until they were old enough to fight back? Having to live as a slave or else suffer being beaten or killed? This was a terrible time for the Jewish people.
But, through it all God was faithful to His people and protected them from the Egyptians.
III. God’s sovereign protection
[Read Exodus 1:12.]
Somehow, even though they would be working in incredibly harsh conditions all day, every day for the Egyptians, they still had enough energy to continue to make babies and raise families. The more they beat them down, the more the people would grow.
[Read Exodus 1:20-21.]
As Pharaoh actively tried to reduce the population of the Jews, the opposite happened! The more babies he tried to have killed, the more babies showed up on the scene.
Pharaoh must have been one frustrated individual. The people just wouldn’t break! But that’s because they had the strength of the Lord holding them together. God was causing them to strengthen. God was causing them to be fruitful. God was causing them to be fertile. God’s strength is perfected in our weakness.
[Read II Corinthians 12:7-10.]
When we rely on our own strength, we will eventually give out and give up. But God’s strength isn’t like ours. God’s strength knows no limit. So when we rely on Him, in our weakness we are strong. The Jewish people found the strength and blessing of God in the midst of oppression and weakness. God was sovereignly protecting the people.
God was also sovereignly preparing a deliverer to completely protect them from the Egyptian oppression. Moses is coming on the scene to deliver them. And not just for their political freedom, but they would be delivered to worship their God. (Just like we are today!)
