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More Exodus commentaries
Exodus 1:1-14
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Exodus 1:1-14
© Family Times | About Us | Donate | Contact Us
Search for sermons by: Commentaries | Scripture search | Topics
Exodus 1:1–14
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)
Back in the earliest days of our nation a determined thirty-nine year old radical thinking attorney addressed the Virginia Convention. It was on March 23, 1775 that Patrick Henry made a soul stirring speech which included, “If we wish to be free we must fight!....I repeat it … More
From the book of Genesis, we know how Joseph had become a great ruler in Egypt. He brought his father and all of his family down from Canaan with all their flocks and herds (vv. 1-7). There were seventy people when they moved down to Egypt with Jacob. In due season Joseph and his brothers died, ending that generation. God multiplied them as He had promised their father Abraham, and the Israelites became a large nation.
About four hundred years later, King Pharaoh came to the throne of Egypt who had not known Joseph and felt no obligation to his descendants (v. 8). The new Egyptian king called Pharaoh, as all Egyptian kings were called, became frightened when he saw the great number and strength of the Israelites (vv. 9-10). If there should be war they might join with our enemies and fight against us. So he felt he should do something about this.
First, he treated them as slaves and made them work very hard for the Egyptians while building cities for Pharaoh to store his treasure (v. 11). However, the more the Egyptians mistreated them the more the Israelites multiplied (v. 12). This alarmed the Egyptians so they made the Hebrew slavery bitter with hardship while forcing long and hard work in the fields and carrying heavy loads of mortar and brick (vv 13-14).
Application
Has anyone or anything ever made life difficult for you? Have you been to the end of your resources and then cried out to God for deliverance? Just like the Lord is teaching Israel profound lessons, He wants to teach me and use me in a greater way. Trials can cause me to become stronger when the Lord is with me and I allow Him to work through me.
Exodus 1:1-14 (English Standard Version)
These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. 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.
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