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| Exodus 1:8-9 |
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Lesson # Exodus 1:8-9 Study Material - Exodus 1:8-9 You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth. Ex. 1:8-9 8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, 'Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. A new Pharaoh came to power. This is most probably not the next succeeding Pharaoh at the time when Joseph was alive, but probably a Pharaoh who, after a number of successions, came to power and did not know Joseph very well. Actually he appears to not have known him at all. Lets put this in a time line, to get some concept of where we are in history. Most people place the completion of the temple at or very near 966 BC. We know from scripture that it took 20 years to construct the temple and all of the royal buildings related, 1 Kg. 9:10. The temple portion took 7 ½ years of that 20. Anyway, if it was completed in 966, then we know that the temple was begun in 988 BC, by adding the 20 years of construction. In 1 Kg. 6:1, we know that the temple construction begun 480 years after the exodus. So that year must have been around 1468 BC. The Israelites were in Egypt 430 years so that year of their move to Egypt must have been 1898 BC, or thereabouts. The Egyptian dynasty in effect at that time, around 1900 BC, was the eleventh and twelfth dynasty. There were over a dozen Pharaoh's who ruled during that time. I browsed several web sites covering the 31 dynasties of Egypt, and the historical dates between all of the sites I looked at were different, unfortunately. There is apparently very little history outside of Egyptian records and the Egyptian records only seem to portray their history in a good light. There were virtually no records regarding any of their defeats, anything negative, or anything that was foreign to Egypt. So the history is limited to be sure. This is the environment in which the Israelites moved to Egypt. Their numbers apparently grew rapidly. Probably more rapidly that the normal growth rate of any given nation. Such that the Pharaoh of a later generation became concerned with their living in Egypt. They being foreigners and all. We know from the previous verse that their numbers were counted by the adult males in the group, or seventy. If you add wives and maybe even some girl friends, children and other servants, then this number could easily have been a total of 500 or even a thousand persons. At the end of the first hundred years, then the population of the Israelites could easily have been 10,000 to 20,000 people or more if they grew in numbers faster than usual. We know that the adult men numbered 600,000 at the end of the 430 years, which most historians put their total number at two to three million persons who left Egypt in the Exodus. It is then easy to see how a Pharaoh would be concerned about having a nation growing in number and living within the borders of Egypt. Even after the policy of task mastering began, and the building of the various cities began, the Israelites continued to grow in numbers to quite a sizable population. As I mentioned before, with this size and with the lack of Bible study within their group, the sheer size would serve as a protection for the nation. They chose to live in the jungle and so they needed some kind of protection. A few people would probably cease to exist in that environment of slavery. Too with their increase in numbers, one would think that they would realize their potential power as a large force. They instead remain passive in their place in Egypt and allowed the Egyptians to rule over them. Still not much Bible study. Not much reference to their heritage, to the promises made to their ancestors, but they did remember their promise of deliverance after 400 years of bondage. They could have easily left on their own almost at anytime during that first century, but they did not, of course. The rational? Well there were plenty of good things in Egypt, why go back to Canaan? What was there, there for them? And of course when Joshua sends his spies to check out the land we see a land flowing with prosperity. There is decadence too, but there are vineyards and produce and all manner of wealth. Anyway, Canaan was not in famine for all of that 400 plus years. Joseph and family could have moved back. They did not. Was their slavery forced on them? No. They chose to remain in the land, and Pharaoh initiated a policy of labor control which in the second and third and fourth centuries deteriorated in to terrible slavery. When we meet Moses we'll see that their affliction was 'great'. We then place ourselves in harms way by our own decisions as the Israelites demonstrate. Usually by ignoring Bible doctrine in our lives, we get ourselves in to trouble. So if you ignore your Bible study and then find yourself in trouble and hurting badly, then who do you have to blame? Yourself of course and no one else. 
Now is the time to post a prayer. End Of Lesson Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth. |
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