Old Testament - Exodus 1 - March 21/2022

 3/21/2022 – Exodus 1 

Today is the very beginning of the Israelites leaving Egypt. After 430 years in Egypt, things changed for the descendants Jacob and Joseph. They are now enslaved, and terrorized by a new pharaoh “who knew not Joseph”.  (v8)   Moses, who was taken from his mother as an infant, had grown up in the palace and learned much—much that would help him as he moved his people across the deserts.  In Acts 3:22 it says that Christ was called a prophet like unto Moses—what greater introduction can there be than that as we read through this book in the Old Testament.  Elder Mark E. Petersen: “The true Moses was one of the mightiest men of God in all time. …He walked and talked with God, received of divine glory while yet in mortality, was called a son of God, and was in the similitude of the Only Begotten. He saw the mysteries of the heavens and much of creation, and received laws from God beyond any other ancient man of whom we have record.”

The student manual has a statement that certainly caught my attention, and I went back to read it several times: “Moses was a man who, like us, possessed both weaknesses and strengths.” That can be said of all of us—even those who are called to be prophets. The Lord has asked all of us to strive for perfection, but He has also told us that we will not achieve perfection until we have left the earth and are once again with Him.

When Jacob brought his entire family to Egypt, there were about 70 people. But after centuries “…the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, and multiplied and waxed exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.” (v 7). When a new Pharaoh took power he told the Egyptians: “the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we”.  He went on to tell his people that the Israelites posed a great danger, for if enemies attacked Egypt and the Israelites chose to be on the side of the attacking enemies—that would be doom to the Egyptians. So the Pharaoh went on to tell the people of his plan to set taskmasters over the Hebrews and afflict them with burdens. (v 11) “And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Ramses.    

But even being held in hard and difficult bondage “the more they afflicted them, the more thy multiplied and grew…” (v 12) Pharaoh came up with a plan requiring the midwives who helped the Israelite women at birth, to kill the baby male babies immediately, but they could let the female babies live. (v 16) And here is, to me, one of the strongest verses in the scriptures: “But the midwives feared God and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.” (v 17) So the next thing Pharaoh did was to command all of his people: “Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.” (v 22)  It was through the courageous faith of the midwives and their refusal to carry out pharaoh’s orders to execute the male children that Israel continued to prosper, and the life of baby Moses was saved.

Both the ancient Jewish historians Josephus and Jonathan ben Uzziel, another ancient Jewish writer, recorded that the pharaoh had a dream wherein he was shown that a man soon to be born would deliver Israel from bondage, and this dream motivated the royal decreed to drown the male children. (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, bk. 2, chap 9, par.2; Clarke, Bible Commentary, 1:294.)