SS Thoughts #27(b): A Follow-up

So how is the joyful journey of the Israelites to Egypt and their subsequent exodus linked? We need to follow the story:

Jacob has now died, and so has Joseph; and a new Pharaoh, who knows nothing about Joseph, comes to power. As the years pass, the Israelites are fruitful and multiply, so that the land becomes filled with them (Exodus 1:4). The new king is alarmed and turns them into slaves – “making their lives bitter with hard labor”, (Exodus 1:14). But the more they are oppressed, the more they multiply, so that the Egyptians come to dread the Israelites. 

Finally the king commands the midwives to kill any male babies born to the Israelite women. But one male child is saved – by being placed in a basket on the Nile. This child is rescued by Pharaoh’s sister and lives in the palace until he becomes an adult. He is Moses – the one who will speak to Pharaoh to let his people go; the one who will lead his people out of Egypt and towards the Promised Land; the one who raises his rod to part the Red Sea so the Israelites can cross on dry land; the one who receives the commandments—written by God’s hand on tablets of stone.

It is well worth reading the entire account in Books 2-6 of the Bible.

{See again SS Thoughts #16 – A L-o-o-o-n-g Road Trip}