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Jacob and his sons had migrated to Egypt at God's command to escape famine in the land they were inhabiting. He'd already prepared the way, putting Joseph as second in command of Egypt. For their lifetimes and many more, God caused the Egyptians to bless them as they had brought blessings to Egypt. They'd watched the dynasties come and go, until finally a pharaoh came to power who'd never heard of Joseph or what he'd done. The Jews had become a significant minority in Egyptian society, and he saw them as a national security risk, deciding that invaders might form an alliance with them to overthrow the Egyptians.
Reversing the idea of emancipation, he three them into slavery in an attempt to reverse their population growth, but it had the opposite effect! When afflicting the adults didn't work, he tried killing all Jewish boys at birth. He probably thought he'd absorb the girls into the Egyptian race through marriage to Egyptian slaves, my commentary said. "But Genesis 3:15 and 12:1-3 said that God would not permit such a thing to happen, and He used two Jewish midwives to outwit Pharaoh. This is the first instance in Scripture of what we call today "civil disobedience" -- refusing to obey an evil law because of a higher good."
Seeing that so many Jewish boys were surviving birth, Pharaoh decided to put the entire ethic Egyptian population into action, getting them to report the presence of male Jewish babies so that they could be drowned in the Nile. That river was sacred to the Egyptians, yet it would be polluted with decaying bodies! "The real cause of the conflict announced in 3:15 was the enmity between the people of God and the children of Satan: a conflict that still goes on in the world today."
Father, it's always so amazing to watch Your plan at work throughout history and despite Satan's best efforts to thwart Your plans! Guide me as I read this again to see how even this prepared the world for the arrival of Your Son.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
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