Exodus 1: 8-14: “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.”
Egypt had previously been invaded by the Hyksos but they had driven them out after about a century. The new king of Egypt was probably afraid that the Israelis would try to take over and control Egypt as well. However, Joseph, one of the children of Israel had saved Egypt from complete starvation and had proved to be a good friend of the Egyptians. This Pharaoh was ungrateful for the fact that Joseph, the Israelite, had saved Egypt and decided to enslave them so that they wouldn’t develop into an organised unit and take the kingdom from him. They forced them to work long hard hours to keep them exhausted but the Lord blessed them by allowing them to multiply. The first time that we discover multiplying in the Bible is in 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.”) and it is also the first time that we discover God blessing something. Even though Pharaoh decided that he would enslave Israel, the Lord blessed them. Nothing on the earth can stop the Lord from blessing whoever He chooses to bless.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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