Pharaoh Oppresses Israel

 

Exodus 1:8-14

 

August 4, 2024

 

Pharaoh Oppresses Israel

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.  And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.  Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”  Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.  But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.  So, they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

They fear the people of Israel, in that they had gone from 70 who came to Egypt, to a vast number.  But it was not that they wanted them to leave, in that slaves were a low-cost labor force.  Note: In the USA, we have the same things, not slaves, but illegal people, and the business people use them for cheap labor.

One would be ignorant of Scripture to not see the hand of God in this fear and the treatment of His chosen people.  He had made a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob about a promised land for His chosen people.

The Lord was getting them ready for Moses' leadership.

From our Back Porch,

Bob Rice