We continue our journey through the Pentateuch, with Exodus chapter 1, which begins about 400 years after Genesis leaves off with the chosen people, Jacob and his sons settling in Egypt.

There is an intriguing setup:

And a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply and it be in the event of war, that they also join themselves to those who hate us and fight against us and go up from the land.” (Exodus 1.8 – 10, LSB)

It’s an interesting mix here: they don’t like the Israelites, but they don’t want them to leave. Also, “more and mightier than we.” How can that be? Egypt was a nation and Jacob’s family was 70 people 400 years before! Were Egyptians practicing family planning while Israelites were having babies? It’s why Muslims, for example, are gradually taking over some of the European countries they’re in. The Muslims are having kids. Europeans aren’t.

Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah; and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” (Exodus 1.15, 16, LSB)

There must have already been a culture of death in Egypt. That’s probably why there were more Israelites than Egyptians. And if the midwives wouldn’t kill them at birth, then the law was extended to kill them after birth:

And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born (to the Hebrews) you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.” (Exodus 1.22, LSB)

It’s going that way in this country. Abortion up to the time of birth, and if it is born alive, let the baby die. Other countries, apparently, take it further.

Tomorrow we’ll see that Moses is born into such an environment, and he doesn’t escape the culture of death.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2.15 – 17, ESV)

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 14.12, ESV)