Exodus 1:7–8: “But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.”

November 5th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

We can easily see from this verse that God fulfilled the promise He made to Abraham: “I will make you a great nation” (Gen. 12:2). He also promised Jacob that He would send Abraham’s children into Egypt and “make of [them] a great nation there” (Gen 46:3). God directed a miraculous population explosion among the descendants of Abraham while they were in Egypt. But the next verse has a shadowy and dangerous feel to it. The new Pharaoh had no regard for the history of Joseph and turned his power and nation against the Israelites.

Because of the legacy of Joseph, the Israelites had enjoyed the favor of Egypt; but the new Pharaoh incited fear among the Egyptians. This opened the way for him to force the Israelites into slave labor, using them for government building projects. He saw in the numerous Israelites a clever way to gain a cheap labor force. But the Israelites continued to multiply, which worried Pharaoh to the point of ordering genocide. He commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill all Hebrew-male newborns. And when that failed, he commanded all Egyptian citizens to throw Hebrew-baby boys into the Nile to die.

God kept his promise to give Abraham descendents too numerous to count, but a world ruler was trying to reverse the promise. The Book of Exodus is the record of God’s faithfulness to His promises. Even when the most powerful nation on earth pitted itself against God, its designs could not stand against God Almighty’s will. Often we are reminded that, spiritually, things have not changed much in 3500 years. We as believers can easily remember our time of slavery to the flesh, when we were held in bondage for years in our own Egypt. But just as God Almighty’s promises for the Israelites prevailed over the designs of the god of this world, Satan, so will they for us today.

“LORD, we never want to go back to Egypt again. Help us to see with spiritual eyes those caught in bondage around us this day and please give us a word of life for them.”