1. These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family:
2. Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah;
3. Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin;
4. Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.
5. The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.
6. Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died,
7. but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.
8. Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.
9. "Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become much too numerous for us.
10. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country."
11. So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
12. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites
13. and worked them ruthlessly.
14. They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.
15. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,
16. "When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live."
17. The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.
18. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?"
19. The midwives answered Pharaoh, "Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive."
20. So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous.
21. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
22. Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live."
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2 comments:
People fear the wrong things and end up cutting their own blessings.
Because the previous Pharaoh knew Joesph and trusted God of Joseph, Pharaoh was also blessed through the blessings Joseph received.
This new Pharaoh unfortunately was not wise and listened to the wrong advisers. Devil always twists the truth and uses the fear of losing something to control our minds.
Rather than using oppression, Pharaoh should have led everyone in serving and so that people will recognize and respect him as a true leader.
The fear of losing the authority drives one to madness, consuming themselves in fear and darkness.
It is truly sad how far people will go to falsely protect their power...even to a point of killing numerous innocent lives.
Again, God tells me not to be afraid and trust in Him. For the fear of losing something will only drive me further away from God.
Reminds me what Yoda says "Fear is the path of the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to...suffering. You must train yourself to let go of the everything you fear to lose."
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