Exodus: Chapter 1

~~~~~Lesson: Exodus: Chapter 1

The stage is set in these verses. The Israelites have become numerous, the fulfillment of one of the vows made to the early patriarchs. Pharaoh's futile attempts to check the population growth are useless. Even the midwives (it is commonly believed that the midwives were Egyptian midwives TO the Hebrew women, not Hebrew women who were midwives to their own) showed decency and honor by not carrying out the orders of their King. The King's final order, to throw the babies into the river, is the final puzzle piece needed for Moses' miraculous survival.

-The Pharaoh forgets the great service done in the past by a Hebrew man (Joseph) and thinks only of the situation he is currently in. Do we, as communities and nations, sometimes think only about our current situation, not thanking God for the blessings of our past or thinking about how our actions will be construed in the future?

- The midwives are disobeying an order from a man who is worshipped as a god to save the lives of innocents. Could we have been that moral or would we have buckled under the pressure? Are we sometimes in situations in which no one questions the behavior, and it somehow becomes accepted as "all right" or "moral" to do over time?
Can you give an example?

In the harsh conditions they were living in, do you think any or many of the Hebrews lost faith with the God of Abraham? What would have been good actions for them to take to help them keep faith?


~Reading: Exodus: Chapter 1

These are the names of the sons of Israel who, accompanied by their households, migrated with Jacob into Egypt: Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. The total number of the direct defendants of Jacob was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt.
Now Joseph and all his brothers and that whole generation died. They became so numerous and strong that the land was filled with them.

Then a new king, who knew nothing of Joseph, came to power in Egypt. He said to his subjects, "Look how numerous and powerful the Israelite people are growing, more so than we ourselves! Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase; otherwise, in time of war they too may join our enemies to fight against us, and so leave our country."
Accordingly, taskmasters were set over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. Thus they had to build for Pharaoh the supply cities of Pithom and Raamses. Yet the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. The Egyptians, then, dreaded the Israelites and reduced them to cruel slavery, making life bitter for them with hard work in mortar and brick and all kinds of field work- the whole cruel fate of slaves.

The king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was called Shiphrah and the other Puah, "When you act as midwives for the hebrew women and see them giving birth, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she may live."
The midwives, however, feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt had ordered them, but let the boys live. So the king summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you acted thus, allowing the boys to live?" The midwives answered Pharaoh, "The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are robust and give birth before the midwife arrives." Therefore God dealt well with the midwives. The people, too, increased and grew strong. And because the midwives feared God, he built up families for them. Pharaoh then commanded all his subjects, "Throw into the river every boy that is born to the Hebrews, but you may let all the girls live."