This
week we make the transition from Genesis to Exodus. The first chapter fills in the blanks of
about 400 years of history from the time of Joseph, his brothers and their
families settling in Egypt to the beginning of his descendants beginning to
suffer under the Pharaohs of Egypt. The
highlight of this transition is the Israelites, in rabbit like fashion, had
been “fruitful and multiplied greatly.” According to Genesis 46, when you count
Jacob and his mail descendants at the time of their moving to Egypt, they
numbered 70. If we estimate that the
women would double that figure the Israelite clan was probably around 140 to
150 people at that time. Maxie Dunnam
suggests that by the time in history of Exodus 1, The nation of Israel had
grown to about 3 million people, all settled in the sleepy little suburban
bedroom town of Egypt known as Goshen.
Staggering! No wonder the king of
Egypt had become a little paranoid.
But this
king was not the brightest crayon in the box for two reasons. First off, he didn’t know his Egyptian
history. No one had passed on to him the
story of Joseph the great dream interpreter and savior of Egypt. Secondly, because he feared how numerous they
had grown, Pharaoh claimed he wanted to deal with the Israelites “shrewdly” (Ex
1:10) but was not shrewd in his dealing with them at all. The Israelites appeared content with their situation
in Egypt. Their growth as a people would
suggest this. Egypt was their home and
they had made roots there. So what does
this “shrewd” king of Egypt do? He riles
them up and makes them work harder than they’ve ever had to. Then after failed attempts to kill Israelite
born boys quietly through the midwives, he makes it a mandate for his entire
country to kill all Israelite born boys.
This must have been before someone came up with the cliché “let sleeping
dogs lie” because Pharaoh could have used that advice. If Pharaoh’s fear was the Israelites would
join forces against an aggressor of Egypt or to leave there to return from
where they came, wouldn’t it be shrewd to give them incentives to stay instead
of giving them reasons to leave? Fear of
losing power has a way of warping the mind and causing poor decision making. We need to look no further than the Penn State
football situation for evidence of this.
(Don’t get me started.)
This is
the narrative that the life of Moses begins in, the people of Israel being
worked to the bone and in the reality of losing any male child born to
them. As we look at the story of Moses’
birth, take note that no names are used to tell the story until the Pharaoh’s
daughter names the child “Moses.” Later
in Exodus we find out that Moses’ parents are named Amram and Jochebed and his
sister’s name is Miriam so it appears that the names are left out here purposely. Perhaps, it is to shine the light on the main
character of this drama, God himself.
What a stark contrast from chapter 1 where the Pharaoh is demanding that
all the attention be given to his plans and his kingdom, when right under his
nose in his own home God is working through the compassion of his own
daughter. Pharaoh was demanding that
lives be sacrificed for the protection of his kingdom and his power, while in
his own back yard the one who will deliver the message and the people of the
true king, the true power of the universe, was being rescued from Pharaoh’s
evil plans. How ironic and how
powerful!
As
parents, we need to look at the courage of Moses’ mother. Upon seeing her son, she resisted against
Pharaoh’s edict by hiding her son as long as she could, for three months. Imagine the difficulty of working all day
under the hand of the slave drivers making bricks, likely relying on her other
children to care for the baby and coming home trying to keep the baby quiet so
as not to draw attention to it. She came
to a point of reckoning and devised a plan to make a waterproof basket and
float her child down the river. She
likely let her son go knowing when Pharaoh’s daughter took her daily bath in
hopes that she would find the child. She
put her child’s fate in the hand of God.
How ready are we to put our children’s fate in the hand of God? Are we preparing them so when we need to let
go, they will be prepared in faith to face the world? How much do we trust in what we have
instilled in them? More importantly, how
much do we trust God to protect them and see them through? No doubt what Moses’ mother did was the
hardest thing she ever had to do, but it was also the wisest for the sake of
her son.
Two of
our “end in mind” statements apply well here.
We see in Moses’ mother that “I can trust God no matter what happens”
and as we see in lives of Moses and all those that helped deliver him from
Pharaoh’s hand that “God has
made me unique and has plans to use me to help others know him.”
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