Exodus 1: 1-7: “Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.”
While Genesis gives us the long term context for the formation of the nation of Israel Exodus gives us the immediate context for the formation of that nation. How did a nation of slaves become God’s agents in punishing the Amorites for their sin and then take possession of the Promised Land? Why did they have any right to possess the Land at all? (These questions are specifically answered in Genesis 15). However, this book begins with a nation of slaves . Never the less, God still remembered each one of these slaves and their names were graven upon the palms of His hands (Is 49: 16). We may be in the most difficult of circumstances and we may feel that escape is impossible but the Lord still remembers who and where we are. The first time that we read about “fruitful and multiply” is on the fifth day of creation (Gen 1: 22, “And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.”) Even though these people were slaves God was still blessing them because being fruitful and multiplying is a consequence of being blessed God. The whole story of Israel began when God promised that He would bless Abram and God still blessed Abram even though his descendants were slaves in a strange land God was defining Israel’s sons as a distinct and exceptional nation.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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