God's Promises - Exodus 1
Welcome to the land of Egypt, where the sun is hot and the Israelites are heavily burdened slaves. It is interesting that God is honoring His promise to Abraham and blessing them with accelerated fruitfullness! The Israelites are multiplying so quickly that the new Egyptian government is alarmed:8 Then a new king came to the throne of Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. 9 He told his people, "These Israelites are becoming a threat to us because there are so many of them. 10 We must find a way to put an end to this. If we don't and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will escape from the country."
This kind of reminds me of a certain crisis in our country right now with the illegal immigrants (not that I'm comparing our government with the foul Egyptian government).
The thing that stands out is how the new government makes it more and more difficult on the Israelites - increasing their labor to the breaking point, so they would not be able to overtake the land with their huge masses. Still, they increased. Pharoah tried to have all the male children killed as they were born, but God protected them and still they increased.
The encouragement for me is how God is faithful to His promises...even in spite of how His chosen people had disobeyed and pursued their own interests and gotten themselves into bondage in the first place, and in spite of how the enemy might try to prevent the fulfillment of the promises. Still, God is fulfilling His promises.
Thank You, Lord!
peace,
e
