Slaves in the Land
Exodus • Sermon • Submitted
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Exodus covers a period of nearly 431 years from the going of the family of Jacob into Egypt, their servitude of 400 years, their redemption out of Egypt, the giving of the law and instructions for the tabernacle at Mount Sinai together with its construction and God’s dwelling therein among His people.
The prophecy given to Abraham is specific and clear:
God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.
“But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.
“As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.
“Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
Here the passage specifically states that they will be out of the land of Canaan. They will be serving or slaves to one nation, and that nation will be judged. The length of time that they will be in bondage must be 400 years and is confirmed absolutely by Stephen in Acts 7:6 so there can be no question.
Now look at Exodus 12:40-41.
Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.
These verses expressly states that the duration of the sojourn in Egypt was 430 years. So significant is this very day that the children left Egypt that Moses writes it was to the very day. The only way any date could be reckoned to the day was that it involved Egypt alone. Stephen confirms that the time for the fulfillment of God’s promise made to Abraham drew near in.
“But as the time of the promise was approaching which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,
So that there had to be an exact beginning that recognized the commencement of the reckoning.
We are also told that at the time of the Exodus there were about 600,000 men above twenty years of age in Exodus 12:37. This approximate figure is specifically given elsewhere as 603,550 fighting men (Exodus 38:26; Numbers 1:46). From this starting point we can figure the approximate size of the nation, using very conservative figures:
Fighting men 600,000
Older men 100,000
Children 1,200,000
Wives 750,000
“Mixed Multitude” 100,000
2,750,000
The question comes, how long would it take for 70 souls to increase to at least two and a half million? There is what is known as a doubling rate. The fastest doubling rate since statistics have been kept is from 1950-1987 where the population of the world doubled from 2.5 million to 5 million in 37 years. If we assumed the children of Israel doubled every 25 years (a very possible situation), they would reach this size:
70 x 2 = 140
140 x 2 = 280
280 x 2 = 560
__ 560 x 2 = 1,120 100 years
1,120 x 2 = 2,240
2,240 x 2 = 4,480
4,480 x 2 = 8,960
8,960 x 2 = 17,920 200 years
17,920 x 2 = 35,840
35,840 x 2 = 71,680
71,680 x 2 = 143,360
143,360 x 2 = 286,720 300 years
286,720 x 2 = 573,440
573,440 x 2 = 1,146,880
1,146,880 x 2 = 2, 293,760
________________________400 years
-------------------------------------- 430 years
As a reminder these are not the number of generations, but the number of times it is necessary to double to reach about two and a half million.
How did the Hebrews understand generations? 1 Chronicles 7:23-27 lists ten generations between Jacob and Joshua the son of Nun whereas Exodus 6:16-20 mentions only four generations in the family of Levi. Many times the genealogies do not mention each person in sequence. To the Hebrew mind this was not necessary; for them a great-grandson would be the same as a son. Something of the absurdity of trying to have only four generations from the time of Levi to the exodus is seen in the line of the Kohathites, where the genealogy of Exodus 6 has Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amram and Moses. Kohath himself had four sons: Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. According to Numbers 3:28, at the time of the exodus the descendants of these four men through Kohath numbered 8,600. This makes Moses’s father the father (averaging it out among the four brothers) of 2,000 men besides women and children. The point is Exodus 6 is not meant to be a complete listing, which would have been burdensome and out of place for Moses’s historical narrative. Compare this with Genesis 50:23 where Joseph, who lived 71 years after Jacob came into Egypt, saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation,or a total of five generations living at one time.
Galatians 3:15 speaks of a covenant being established once that cannot be nullified, then in Galatians 3:17 declares God Himself ratified His covenant that 430 years later can not be changed. God historically established His covenant with Abraham. The promise of the covenant was made in Genesis 12, 13; and was ratified in Genesis 15 through blood. Then this ratified covenant was reconfirmed or restated to Abraham himself (Gen. 17:1-22; 18:16-19; 22:16-18), Isaac (Gen. 26:2-5), and Jacob (Gen. 28:12-15; 35:9-12; 46:1-4). This is why the Lord repeated over and over, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” The reason is that the covenant ratified once was confirmed to each one.
It is this last confirmation to Jacob that is important. It was made to Jacob as he was at Beersheba on the way to Egypt. The next day he leaves Canaan and enters into Egypt. It is from this last confirmation of a previously ratified covenant that begins the date of 430 years.
Thus Egypt was in Egypt 430 years, and 400 of these years were in bondage.
1. God’s Blessing of the sons of Israel, Vs. 1-7.
1. God’s Blessing of the sons of Israel, Vs. 1-7.
The Hebrew name of Exodus comes from verse 1. The rabbis called it “The Book of Names.” Verses 1-5 names the sons of Jacob that came with Jacob into Egypt, with their families. They came to Egypt to escape the famine in Canaan, and God had providentially placed Joseph in Egypt before them. The living direct descendants of Jacob came down and were numbered 70, Joseph already having preceded them. This count does not include the wives nor did it include any of the servants, the members of the household.
In verse 6, the word “generation” is dor, the same word used in Genesis 15:16, and it means a circle, or cycle of years, i.e. in the context a century. Joseph lived 71 years after Jacob came into Egypt. He was 39 when Jacob and the family arrived and he died at 110 years.
In verse 7, Moses places together five statement which emphatically emphasize the increase of the people of Israel. The land of Goshen where they were living was full of the descendants of Jacob. There is every indication that the Hebrews remained in the land of Goshen as their primary habitation, even though some may have been sent to work in other locales in the country. This great increase of the nation was accomplished through God’s providential acts, using natural means to accomplish this. God had given His word that they would greatly increase, and God always fulfills His word.
2. Pharaoh’s affliction of the sons of Israel, vs. 8-22.
2. Pharaoh’s affliction of the sons of Israel, vs. 8-22.
A. Afflicting of the Adults, vs. 8-14.
A. Afflicting of the Adults, vs. 8-14.
Now as we move to verse 8, Moses gives us just the fact: another king arose. The context indicates that this is after all the original immigrants to Egypt had died and that there was a substantial increase in the size of the nation. I would also point out that this did not begin the servitude for they were already in servitude before this happened. The context indicates that this new king increased the burdens of their servitude, making them serve with rigor and hard labor.
The Septuagint OT implies that this is not merely a king of a different character but a king of a different dynasty. This is substantiated by Stephen in Acts 7:18. Here we see that the Hyksos Pharaohs were defeated and the 18th dynasty came into being under Amrose I, and his successor Amenhotep I may have been this king who placed the Israelites into “hard labor.” With their rise to power and the threat that the Israelites may have been to them, this would have been a very natural thing to do. Moses makes mention that this one “did not know Joseph,” a reference to his feeling no regard for Joseph or for anything he had done. So how would this new king control the Israelites?
His dynasty would use strategy, not numbers. After all, there were more Israelites than there were Egyptians, according to verse 9. But God would not allow Israel to overthrow their bondage. God would do it, not they themselves, so “that no flesh should glory in His presence.” In God’s program there is no such thing as self-redemption. Salvation is His work from start to finish.
We find out in verse 10 that the Egyptians and the king of the land want to hold onto their captives. They will not let one of them go without a battle. Here is the picture: every single person living in Egypt at this time was born in Egypt. They were born in slavery. Even though the king of the world had not made their life too bad, they were still in slavery and he could make their lives miserable.
This is a picture of our own bondage in this world's system and slavery to the god-king who rules it. How did we get into this fix? We were born here. And we were born here because of sin, just as the children of Israel came into Egypt because of their sin against Joseph. So how can we get out? The answer is that we cannot, for Egypt is a land whereby once you are in it, you are trapped by it. There is no way to escape over the desert wastes without being caught. Only one man ever escaped from Egypt and that was Moses, who is portrayed as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ who was in the world, but not of the world, and the world had no power over him. He escaped its bondage and spoiled principalities and powers. The satan wants to hold on to every captive he has and to use them to do his work. If he loses a few in death, that is alright. But it is not alright to lose them by redemption.
Verse 11 tells us they appointed taskmasters. The ancient taskmasters used sticks to subdue their subjects and make them do their bidding. All public and royal buildings in ancient Egypt were built by captives, and on some of these works were places in the inscription stating that no free citizen had been engaged in the servile employment. These two cities they were forced to build for Pharaoh were called “treasure cities,” that is, they were “magazines,” “stores”. The Jamison, Fawcett, Brown Commentary says, “The cities were receptacles , such as were common in Egypt for the storing of agricultural produce , either for export or perhaps chiefly for supplying provisions for the coast guard, large military detachments being stationed along the border.” In 1883, Edward Naville discovered the site of Pithom in Goshen. It was a store city-- the storehouses occupying almost the whole area. The bricks were made--some with and some without straw.
What the children of Israel were doing then, is building up the military arsenal that would keep them enslaved. How like the world system and those who are children of the world. All they do only increases their bondage and wraps the cords of slavery tighter around them.
Pithom, says Dr. Unger, is derived from Egyptian Pi-tum, signifying “the house or dwelling of Tum,” the solar deity. Rameses, Gesenius tells us, means “son of the sun.”
What were we doing before we were redeemed out of the slave market? We were contributing to the work of the god of this age and the prince of this world. We were a part of this world’s system and of its false worship. This is just a part of that from which we have been rescued.
Verse 12 tells us that God was continuing to bless the people of Israel. God's people may be in the satan’s camp, but they have been set apart beforehand for salvation whether they know it or not. God is watching over them and protecting them and making everything that happens contribute to his plan and program, just as Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14.
But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.
It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice that the calling of the gospel came after the choosing of them to salvation. The point is this: we are hopelessly lost and if God does not do something, we cannot be saved. Salvation is up the Lord. After we come out of Egypt, then and only then do we realize the precious and glorious fact that he have has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, (Ephesians 1:4).
What is true of Israel is true of us as an illustration of our salvation: 1 Peter 1:2
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.
The more that the people were afflicted, the more that they multiplied and grew. It is always been the case of God's method of producing his people. The fires of persecution made the early church. The more they persecuted the Christians the more the Christians multiplied as they continued to share the Word. This is the crying need of the hour, to take away the sham and pretense.
They were in dread (“grieved,” KJV) because of the children of Israel. The reason they were in dread is because the children of Israel would not amalgamate with the Egyptians and be one with them in worship and culture. Their distinctiveness was a threat to them. God's people are always a threat to the world system when they are a separate people living unto the Lord but they are never a threat if they will only become one with the world. It is being separate unto the Lord that causes the world to be threatened because of them. This is why Christ said in Luke 6:26:
“Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.
If you are not a threat to the world system, you are not living for the Lord. God's child, living in God's way, will always be a threat to the child of the world.
So verse 13 shows us the persecution simply because of separation and not becoming a part of Egypt through intermarriage in culture. We shall see more of this as time goes on. Proverbs 12:10.
A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal, But even the compassion of the wicked is cruel.
We need to keep continually before us exactly what the world really is like. Israel tended to forget the burden of their servitude, and to desire to go back to the old life. As for us, not only have we God’s promises, and that we have become partakers of the divine nature as believers,
For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
We have escaped the world's power, and received all we need to life for the one who delivers us, 2 Peter 1:3.
seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
We need to be reminded of these truths:
Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.
The work of the Israelites was bitter, hard labor and rigorous according to verse 14. How rigorous was the work? Dr. Merrill Unger tells us, “Semitic foreigners are significantly found among the bricklayers and brickmakers on Rekhmire’s tomb.” Service in the field was with the irrigation and cutting up channels for the water of the Nile to irrigate the crops. In whatever work they did, they were forced to serve with rigor.
That means that if you died because of the severity of the work it made no difference because there were too many Israelites anyway. Something of the conditions of the forced labor can be appreciated from the statement of the Greek historian Herodotus that later on in history Pharaoh Neco lost 120,000 men in the construction of a canal from the Red Sea to the Nile. This is God's picture of people in bondage and what it is to be slaves to taskmasters at rule over your body, soul, and spirit. These people will be redeemed out of this slavery and will become completely free as the sons of God, but that is later; now it is service in slavery and it is bitter.
B. Affliction even focused on Israelite babes, vs. 15-22.
B. Affliction even focused on Israelite babes, vs. 15-22.
1) Killing of Israelite male babes at birth, vs. 15-21.
1) Killing of Israelite male babes at birth, vs. 15-21.
Then in verse 15, Pharaoh prepares to issue an edict to the Hebrew midwives who were evidently Egyptian, even as Josephus tells us, but they are mentioned by name because they became believers in the God of Israel and went out of Egypt with the Israelites. When this happened, they were given Hebrew names and these Hebrew names are recorded for us rather than their original Egyptian names. Shiphrah meant “splendor”, “beauty”; Pauh means “glitter”, “brilliancy.” They were probably chief midwives overseeing all the other midwives, since it would take many midwives to service the Israelites.
Verse 16 is their instructions. Here we see the satan's attempt to destroy the Israelites. If this were practiced for two generations, the Hebrew race would die out for the females could have been absorbed by concubine marriage into the Egyptian families.
Here then in verse 17 their choice is revealed. These midwives came to know the living God and their faith in God showed itself in action. This is always the case. Saving faith manifests itself. They were risking their very lives through what they did. Verse 18 records the king calling them to task because it has been to him that the baby boys were not being killed.
Verse 19 is the falsehood they told, and Moses records it just as it actually happened. Scripture accurately records, but never condones the sins of those who believe. They had strong faith but were morally weak. We never need to lie to do what God wants us to do. “it is never right to do wrong to do good.” If need be, God can save his own out of the fiery furnace, and he does not need our lying to help him.
Verses 20 and 21 tell us the Lord blesses the midwives for their faith, not for their deceit. God rewards faith in anyone and does not wait until we are morally perfect. If God waited until we were perfect to bless his own, we would never be blessed. The Lord is no man's debtor. They were given just as they had given. The greatest blessing of all to those midwives was that they had homes of their own; that is, they were given husbands and families of their own.
2) Drowning of Israelite male babes in the Nile, vs. 22.
2) Drowning of Israelite male babes in the Nile, vs. 22.
Now in verse 22, Pharaoh issues a new edict to all of his people that whenever a baby was born among the Israelites, they were to check and if it were a boy, he was to be drowned in the Nile River. But one boy would be born that Pharaoh could not kill.
God has provided us redemption out of the slave market of sin and bondage. Great is our God and greatly to be praised that He did not leave us in our misery and suffering but has provided deliverance through the Lord Jesus Christ today.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
Spiritually we have been redeemed, but physically today we still live in Egypt and wait patiently for the full redemption of our bodies.
And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?
We are waiting with expectant anticipation for our glorious Redeemer to reappear and take us to be with him. Paul has told us that we are children of the day and children of the light in that this day--the day of our complete and permanent redemption-- should not overtake us as a thief. We should be awake and waiting for it. Our Lord said this.
“But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
Keep looking up for He will come soon!