Exodus 1

Exodus 1:1

I. ISRAEL’S BONDAGE IN EGYPT (Chap. 1)1:1-8 The first words of the book, “Now these are the names” (Heb., welleh shemf4th), constitute the title of Exodus in the Jewish tradition. How personal God is! Not numbers or notches in a computer card, but names. Jesus said of the Good Shepherd, “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (Joh_10:3). This is very fitting here. The Israelites came down to Egypt as shepherdsbut now they are slaves. But God, the Good Shepherd, has plans “to lead them out.” For explanations of the seventy persons who were descendants of Jacob, see the notes on Gen_46:8-27. The seventy people had multiplied to a few million, including 603,550 men of war, by the time the Jewish people were ready to leave Sinai for Canaan (Num_1:46). Verses 6 and 7 indicate that many years elapsed between the end of Genesis and the events of Exodus. The meaning of verse 8 is that a new king . . . arose who did not look with approval on the descendants of Joseph; Joseph himself was already dead, of course. 1:9-10 The Israelites had so increased in number and in power that the Pharaoh thought they would pose a threat in time of war, so he decided to make slaves of the people and to destroy every male child and thus eventually wipe out the Hebrew race. Three evil rulers in Scripture ordered the slaughter of innocent children: Pharaoh, Athaliah (2 Kgs. 11), and Herod (Matt. 2). These satanically inspired atrocities were aimed at the extinction of the Messianic line. Satan had never forgotten God’s promise in Gen_3:15. 1:11-14 Pharaoh used the enslaved Jews to build the supply cities of Pithom and Raamses. But instead of being wiped out by his repression, they multiplied all the more! Pharaoh meant the hard bondage for evil, but God meant it for good. It helped prepare the Jews for their arduous journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. 1:15-19 When Shiphrah and . . . Puah, who were probably the chief Hebrew midwives, saw the Jewish mothers bearing children on the birthstools, they did not kill the male children, as Pharaoh had ordered. They excused their inaction by explaining that the Hebrew children were usually born too quicklythat is, before the midwives could get to the mothers. This assertion probably had some truth to it. 1:20-22 The Daily Notes of the Scripture Union comment on the midwives: The reward given to the midwives in terms of a flourishing family life (v. 21) was granted them not for their falsehood but for their humanity. This is not to say that the end justified the means, still less that there are no absolute standards of morality. But in a world as charged with sin and its effects as ours has become, it may be that obedience to greater duties is possible only at the cost of obedience to lesser ones. In this as in all else, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Foiled by the Hebrew midwives, Pharaoh now commanded his own people to enforce the decree.