The Immigrants

 Exodus 1: 8-14

“8 Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13 The Egyptians subjected the Israelites to hard servitude 14 and made their lives bitter with hard servitude in mortar and bricks and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.”

Thousands of Jews, fleeing the famine in the land of Canaan, followed Jacob and his family into Egypt.  They prospered and multiplied there and remained in Egypt even after the death of Joseph.  

With the passage of time, like so many things throughout human history, the wisdom and good deeds of Joseph were laid aside and forgotten.  The number and prosperity of the Jews began to be seen as a threat to the rulers of Egypt.  False rumors began to spread that they intended to align themselves with the enemies of Egypt and rebel against its government.

Over the years the Jews were oppressed and gradually became the slaves of the Egyptians.  And the Egyptians were ruthless taskmasters.  

Exodus 12:40 states that the total length of time the Jews lived in Egypt was 430 years, and in the passage above we are told that much of that time was spent in terrible bondage.

The Jews, fleeing the famine and death in the land of Canaan, thought they were fleeing to a land of abundance and life.  They found those things for only a short while, and then they were given something much worse, something that made them cry out in anguish to God.

And God heard their cry.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)