Exodus 1 - How Quickly They Forgot!

 

Exodus 1 starts out listing the names of Israel's eleven sons that traveled with him to Egypt. Eleven sons are listed because Joseph was already in Egypt. There were seventy persons who were Jacob's direct descendants. Eventually, Joseph, his brothers and all of that generation died. However, the children of Israel were being fruitful and multiplying abundantly. They were growing mightily and the land was filled with them.

Egypt had a new king who did not know Joseph. Even though this king didn't know Joseph personally, one would think that he would have known of Joseph and the history of God using him to save the land of Egypt and surrounding regions during the severe famine. Even if that part of history wasn't passed down through the generations, this new king must have been informed about how the children of Israel came to be in Egypt. Maybe, rather than saying, "How Quickly They Forgot", it should be "How Quickly They Ignored". I can imagine also, that the children of Israel also passed along the history throughout their generations of how they ended up in Egypt. Preserving history as far as keeping a record of the events is important. However, all aspects of history and all those a part of it, should not be honored, especially the negative aspects. Is there any aspect of your family history that has been passed down throughout the generations? Are there family issues that have occurred in the past that "everybody" knows about, but they are kept "hush hush"? One part of history that we should never forget or ignore, is the Birth, Life, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Forgetting or ignoring this important part of history will lead to eternal damnation! The king noticed that the children of Israel were becoming numerous and mightier than the Egyptians. He suggested to his people that they deal shrewdly with the children of Israel because they will continue to multiply and in the event of war, they may join Egypt's enemies, fight against them and depart from the land. Have you ever been the object of someone's plan to destroy you because of God's blessings in your life and they consider you to be a perceived threat? Well, if you are a Born Again Christian, the answer is "YES"! Satan is always planning and plotting to destroy you! Taskmasters were set over the children of Israel to afflict them with heavy burdens and they built the storage cities of Pithom and Raamses. The more they were afflicted, the more they reproduced and grew. The Egyptians were in dread of the children of Israel. Has God ever repeatedly blessed you despite all of the enemies attacks? The Egyptians continually made the lives of the children of Israel bitter with hard labor in making mortar, brick and working in the field. They made the children of Israel work rigorously.

The king of Egypt told two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to kill the babies if they were males, but if they were females, to let them live. The midwives feared God and did not do as they were commanded and they let the baby boys live. Who would you rather obey - God or man? The king called the midwives before him and asked why were they being disobedient and letting the boy babies live. The midwives claimed that the Hebrew women were different from the Egyptian women in childbirth. They said that the Hebrew women were more lively and gave birth before they got to them. God dealt with well the midwives and the people continued to grow and become mighty. Because the midwives feared God, He blessed them with households. The Jewish Women's Archive (https://jwa.org) states that these midwives were Hebrews because their names are Jewish names rather than Egyptian names. Since the nation was growing so rapidly, there must have been more than two midwives. The Jewish Women's Archive states that these two women may have been singled out because they feared God and they may have also been the midwives for the king's harems. This would also explain how they could compare the Hebrew women to the Egyptian women in childbirth in a believable manner to the king. Then the king said for every son who was born to be thrown into the river, but every daughter should be kept alive.

Our next stop is Exodus 2.

To God Be The Glory!

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