Exodus 1 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence
The book of Exodus picks up where Genesis left off with the sons of Jacob, also called Israel, living in the land of Egypt. By this time, Joseph and his brothers have all passed away, so too has the king of Egypt, and now a new pharaoh has arisen who did not know Joseph nor respect Israel. Even though Joseph was the noble instrument used by God to preserve the lives of both the Israelites and the Egyptians during the great famine, seemingly none of this was preserved in the historical annals of Egypt, or perhaps it was tucked away in the corner of the king’s library hidden from view, or maybe the new king actually knew something of the matter but chose to forget.
Either way, the new pharaoh felt no sense of obligation to the people of Israel and was not thankful for their presence in Egypt especially now that they have grown quite considerably in size. As often happens when a new regime comes to power, the new king was desirous of quickly consolidating his power and of neutralizing or bringing into submission any potential enemy of the state.
The Israelite problem quickly came to the forefront of the pharaoh’s mind based upon their size as well as their status in terms of wealth. Under God’s blessing, Israel had grown both numerically and prosperously, and the pharaoh saw this as a threat to his reign. Consequently, he forced all the Israelites into slavery and oppressed them greatly, but the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied, causing great consternation not only to pharaoh but to the rest of the Egyptians as well. When this didn’t break Israel as a people, the pharaoh commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill any of their newborn sons, but the midwives disobeyed the pharaoh, fearing the Lord instead, allowing the Israelites to continue to grow strong and multiply. So the pharaoh then called on all his own people to cast every newborn child of the Hebrews into the Nile River, in order to keep Israel in check.
How the tables quickly turned for Israel over the course of a generation or two. What once was a favored position for God’s people in the early days had turned into an ongoing distrust and disrespect within the country in the interim, and was heading toward the almost certain destruction of the people of God if God didn’t intervene on their behalf.
Thankfully, the Church in America today isn’t in the same position as Israel was back then, but it is certainly disconcerting to see the Church quickly losing its favor within our society, to have an entire generation of young people who have such a disrespect for the pivotal role of the Church within in our society, and who are now accusing the Church of hate and bigotry for teaching what it has taught consistently for two thousand years. Surely this is one of the reasons that Paul told us in 1 Timothy 2:2 to “pray for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way,” for the sinful fears of kings often lead to the persecution of Christians. So let us pray that the Lord would teach our leaders to fear the Lord and to respect His Church.