Exodus 1:8 sets the stage for the coming oppression that the descendants of Israel would have to suffer. A new king who did not know about Joseph came into power. The future of their stay in Egypt had become bleak. In God’s design, Egypt was not their home. In Genesis 50:24, Joseph in his deathbed reminded the people of Israel. He told them, “God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land He promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” Like Egypt to the people of Israel, so is this world to us. Every time we feel comfortable with the world and then the good times seem to be coming to an end, remember this world is not our home. We are just passing through. Like what He had for Israel, God also has a grander goal for us. And He intends to take us there. The discomfort we may feel about what’s happening around us could be a signal of hard times ahead but also the start of a new journey into the grander plan God has for us.
In politics, it’s all about who we know. Unfortunate for the children of Israel, the new Pharaoh did not know Joseph. And it meant that the future of Israel would be gloomy. The new monarch didn’t feel obligated to be cordial to the descendants of Israel. In the process of time, the Egyptians began to fear the increasing number of Israelites. And soon their fear caused them to see the Israelites as a threat. Eventually, the threat turned into hate. And with intense hatred, they then sought to suppress them. What the new king did to the descendants of Israel, is what Satan through his legions of dark forces would do to us. Their attack could be relentless when we are right smack in the centre of God’s plan for our future. This makes it necessary for us to stay faithfully connected to God. Yes, even in times of unrelenting hardship.
The craziness of the whole scene is that the new Pharaoh, despite his superior military advantage, could be so fearful and paranoid of a people who had none. So, he created an excuse to impose hardships for the people of Israel. An excuse we know is just pretense and lies disguised as truth. He vainly imagined that the people of Israel would join with an enemy force to attack them. So, he organized them into bondage and make them do their bidding. Verse 11 tells us that the Egyptians “…appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses.” But the cruelty did not help their cause. “The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel.” They were oblivious that those were God’s people and He was their backing. We too can take heart in times of our hardship. In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul asserted that “If God is for us, who can be against us?” And also “If God did not spare His only Son but gave Him for us, will He not together with Him gives us all things?” This question presupposes “Yes” for an answer. Yes, God will grant us the victory.
Pharaoh’s strategy was demonically inspired. His plan was to supress the people of Israel and to disable them from focusing on God. This is a lesson for us. Trials and temptations can cause us to turn our focus away from God, and to the difficult circumstances that we may be facing. Satan uses hardship to distract us. Through them he makes us discouraged and drives us into despair. We refuse to let him do that to us. We take the example of Jesus, who though He was God’s Son, learned obedience through the things He suffered. According to Hebrews 12:2, Jesus, “…who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” He left us an example to the path of victory.
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