Exodus 1:1-22--A New King in Egypt

Daily Readings for this Week:

• Day 1: Exodus 1:1-22
• Day 2: Exodus 2:1-25
• Day 3: Exodus 3:1–4:31
• Day 4: Exodus 5:1–5:23
• Day 5: Exodus 6:1-27
• Day 6: Psalm 8

Exodus 1
World English Bible
1 Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, who came into Egypt (every man and his household came with Jacob): 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 All the souls who came out of Jacob’s body were seventy souls, and Joseph was in Egypt already. 6 Joseph died, as did all his brothers, and all that generation. 7 The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.

8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn’t know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. 10 Come, let’s deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen that when any war breaks out, they also join themselves to our enemies and fight against us, and escape out of the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They started to dread the children of Israel. 13 The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve, 14 and they made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.

15 The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah, 16 and he said, “When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God, and didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive. 18 The king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, “Why have you done this thing and saved the boys alive?”

19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women aren’t like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”

20 God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and grew very mighty. 21 Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”

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I love all the books of the Law, but I especially love what we're about to get into with the book of Exodus.  Today, we start looking at Volume 2 of The Gospel Project's 2024 iteration entitled "Law and Life.," which include units 4, 5, and 6.  Unit 4 (which we start today), is called "God's Miraculous Word" and it covers Exodus 1-18 (the story of Israel's slavery in Egypt, and God setting His people free "with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm."  We start today with Exodus 1, which flows naturally from where we left off in Genesis 50.

Remember, there were 70 (some versions may say 72) that came from Canaan to Egypt with Jacob (also called Israel).  When he and his family came to Egypt in the end of the book of Genesis, they were but a single family with lots of animals and servants, but it was during the time after Jacob's death that they grew and started to become the multitude of people promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the book of Genesis.

After many generations, the story of how the LORD used Joseph and his family to save the Egyptian empire and the world from a seven-year famine was either lost or chalked up to mythology and legend (for there was plenty of that in Egyptian paganism).  A new Pharaoh arose that did not know of Joseph, and the large number of Israelites living inside his nation alarmed him because they had grown in size to be able to overthrow him from the inside or to side with their enemies.  The Israelites still lived tax-free, lived on the best land and had the best livestock, and Pharaoh could not figure out why these foreigners were treated so well.  He decided that the best way to deal with them was to enslave them and make them work hard labor--building storage cities for Pharaoh like Pithom and Raamses.  Yet, even though he enslaved them and worked them hard, the LORD continued to bless them so that they multiplied and spread out even more throughout the land of Egypt (they were no longer contained to just the land of Goshen).

The Egyptians feared and even dreaded the Israelites, for they feared they would one day leave the land of Egypt and take their wealth with them (before this unit is over, the Egyptians will be giving all their treasure to the Israelites and begging them to leave).  With a potential army within his borders that could seize control of the nation, take over by sure mathematics (population growth) without ever fighting a war, or who could side with their enemies, the new king of Egypt sees no alternative other than to engage in ethnic genocide.  He orders the midwives to check if it is a male or female child during labor and delivery and if the Hebrew women are giving birth to a male child, they are to kill it and claim that it died in childbirth.  In this way, the older generation who did not have much in terms of strength and vigor and the women would be enslaved and unable to fight back.  The women would also be forced at some point to take Egyptian husbands and the Israelites would lose their identity and would become Egyptians.  However, the Hebrew midwives lied to Pharaoh (though the LORD blesses them for saving the lives of the male babies, be careful that you understand that this is not a prescription to say that lying is righteous under certain circumstances, for we know that it is a sin and is one of the things God hates).

Since Pharaoh was unable to get the Hebrew midwives to commit murder for him, he ordered the Egyptian people to seize all the male infants they found and to throw them in the Nile River (as a sacrifice to the Egyptian gods, for the Nile River was worshiped by the Egyptians as being the source of life for the Egyptians.  We'll see this idea specifically attacked during the coming plagues that the LORD is going to bring on Egypt to show that kingdom that He alone is God and worthy of their worship).  This is all introduction so that we understand the context around the birth of a baby boy born to a family in the tribe of Levi who will be the main human character for most of this historical narrative (the LORD is obviously the main character, but He is going to use Moses to speak for Him both to Pharaoh and His people).  We'll summarize the first 80 years of Moses' life in a single chapter next time--the rest of the book will focus on the last 40 years of his life.