E
X O D U S
CHAP. I.
We have here, I. God's kindness to
Israel, in
multiplying them exceedingly, (ver. 1-7). II. The Egyptians' wickedness to
them, 1. Oppressing and enslaving them, (ver. 8-14). 2. Murdering their
children, (ver. 15-22). Thus whom the court of heaven blessed the country of Egypt
cursed,
and for that reason.
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The
Israelites Oppressed in
Egypt
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B. C. 1588.
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1 Now these are the names of the
children of
Israel, which
came into
Egypt; every
man and his household came with Jacob. 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and
Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan, and
Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 5 And all the souls that came out of the
loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in
Egypt
already.
6 And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.
7 And the children of Israel were
fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding
mighty; and the land was filled with them.
In these verses
we have, 1. A recital of the names of the twelve patriarchs, as they
are called, Acts vii. 8. Their names are often repeated in scripture, that
they may not sound uncouth to us, as other hard names, but that, by their
occurring so frequently, they may become familiar to us; and to show how
precious God's spiritual Israel are to him, and how much he delights in them.
2. The account which was kept of the number of Jacob's family, when they went
down into
Egypt
; they
were in all seventy souls (v. 5). according to the computation
we had, Gen. xlvi. 27. This was just the number of the nations by which the
earth was peopled, according to the account given, Gen. x. For when
the Most High separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people
according to the number of the children of Israel, as Moses observes,
Deut. xxxii. 8. Notice is here taken of this that their increase in Egypt
might appear the more wonderful. Note, It is good for those whose latter end
greatly increases often to remember how small their beginning was, Job viii.
7. 3. The death of Joseph, v. 6. All that generation by degrees
wore off. Perhaps all Jacob's sons died much about the same time; for there
was not more than seven years' difference in age between the eldest and the
youngest of them, except Benjamin; and, when death comes into a family,
sometimes it makes a full end in a little time. When Joseph, the stay of the
family, died, the rest went off apace. Note, We must look upon ourselves and
our brethren, and all we converse with, as dying and hastening out of the
world. This generation passeth away, as that did which went before. 4. The
strange increase of Israel in Egypt, v. 7. Here are four words used to
express it: They were fruitful, and increased abundantly, like
fishes or insects, so that they multiplied; and, being generally
healthful and strong, they waxed exceedingly mighty, so that they began
almost to outnumber the natives, for the land was in all places filled with
them, at least Goshen, their own allotment. Observe, (1.) Though, no doubt,
they increased considerably before, yet, it should seem, it was not till after
the death of Joseph that it began to be taken notice of as extraordinary.
Thus, when they lost the benefit of his protection, God made their numbers
their defence, and they became better able than they had been to shift for
themselves. If God continue our friends and relations to us while we most need
them, and remove them when they can be better spared, let us own that he is
wise, and not complain that he is hard upon us. After the death of Christ, our
Joseph, his gospel Israel began most remarkably to increase: and his death had
an influence upon it; it was like the sowing of a corn of wheat, which, if it
die, bringeth forth much fruit, John xii. 24. (2.) This wonderful increase was
the fulfillment of the promise long before made unto the fathers. From the
call of Abraham, when God first told him he would make of him a great nation,
to the deliverance of his seed out of Egypt, it was 430 years, during the
first 215 of which they were increased but to seventy, but, in the latter
half, those seventy multiplied to 600,000 fighting men. Note, [1.] Sometimes
God's providences may seem for a great while to thwart his promises, and to go
counter to them, that his people's faith may be tried, and his own power the
more magnified. [2.] Though the performance of God's promises is sometimes
slow, yet it is always sure; at the end it shall speak, and not lie,
Hab. ii. 3.
8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not
Joseph. 9 And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the
children of Israel are more and mightier than we: 10 Come
on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass,
that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and
fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. 11
Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their
burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.
12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And
they were grieved because of the children of Israel. 13 And the
Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: 14 And
they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and
in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made
them serve, was with rigour.
The land of Egypt
here, at length, becomes to Israel a house of bondage, though hitherto it had
been a happy shelter and settlement for them. Note, The place of our
satisfaction may soon become the place of our affliction, and that may prove
the greatest cross to us of which we said, This same shall comfort us.
Those may prove our sworn enemies whose parents were our faithful friends;
nay, the same persons that loved us may possibly turn to hate us: therefore
cease from man, and say not concerning any place on this side heaven, This
is my rest for ever. Observe here,
I. The
obligations they lay under to Israel upon Joseph's account were forgotten: There
arose a new king, after several successions in Joseph's time, who knew
not Joseph, v. 8. All that knew him loved him, and were kind to his
relations for his sake; but when he was dead he was soon forgotten, and the
remembrance of the good offices he had done was either not retained or not
regarded, nor had it any influence upon their councils. Note, the best and the
most useful and acceptable services done to men are seldom remembered, so as
to be recompensed to those that did them, in the notice taken either of their
memory, or of their posterity, after their death, Eccl. ix. 5, 15. Therefore
our great care should be to serve God, and please him, who is not unrighteous,
whatever men are, to forget our work and labour of love, Heb. vi. 10. If we
work for men only, our works, at furthest, will die with us; if for God, they
will follow us, Rev. xiv. 13. This king of Egypt knew not Joseph; and after
him arose one that had the impudence to say, I know not
the Lord, ch. v. 2. Note, Those that are unmindful of their other
benefactors, it is to be feared, will forget the supreme benefactor, 1 John
iv. 20.
II. Reasons of
state were suggested for their dealing hardly with Israel, v. 9, 10. 1.
They are represented as more and mightier than the Egyptians; certainly they
were not so, but the king of Egypt, when he resolved to oppress them, would
have them thought so, and looked on as a formidable body. 2. Hence it is
inferred that if care were not taken to keep them under they would become
dangerous to the government, and in time of war would side with their enemies
and revolt from their allegiance to the crown of Egypt. Note, It has been the
policy of persecutors to represent God's Israel as a dangerous people, hurtful
to kings and provinces, not fit to be trusted, nay, not fit to be
tolerated, that they may have some pretence for the barbarous treatment they
design them, Ezra iv. 12, &c.; Esth. iii. 8. Observe, The thing they
feared was lest they should get them up out of the land, probably
having heard them speak of the promise made to their fathers that they should
settle in Canaan. Note, The policies of the church's enemies aim to defeat the
promises of the church's God, but in vain; God's counsels shall stand. 3. It
is therefore proposed that a course be taken to prevent their increase: Come
on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply. Note, (1.) The
growth of Israel is the grief of Egypt, and that against which the powers and
policies of hell are levelled. (2.) When men deal wickedly, it is common for
them to imagine that they deal wisely; but the folly of sin will, at last, be
manifested before all men.
III. The method
they took to suppress them, and check their growth, v. 11, 13, 14. The
Israelites behaved themselves so peaceably and inoffensively that they could
not find any occasion of making war upon them, and weakening them by that
means: and therefore, 1. They took care to keep them poor, by charging them
with heavy taxes, which, some think, is included in the burdens with
which they afflicted them. 2. By this means they took an effectual course to
make them slaves. The Israelites, it should seem, were much more industrious
laborious people than the Egyptians, and therefore Pharaoh took care to find
them work, both in building (they built him treasure-cities), and in
husbandry, even all manner of service in the field: and this was
exacted from them with the utmost rigour and severity. Here are many
expressions used, to affect us with the condition of God's people. They had taskmasters
set over them, who were directed, not only to burden them, but, as much as
might be, to afflict them with their burdens, and contrive how to make
them grievous. They not only made them serve, which was sufficient for
Pharaoh's profit, but they made them serve with rigour, so that their
lives became bitter to them, intending hereby, (1.) To break their spirits,
and rob them of every thing in them that was ingenuous and generous. (2.) To
ruin their health and shorten their days, and so diminish their numbers. (3.)
To discourage them from marrying, since their children would be born to
slavery. (4.) To oblige them to desert the Hebrews, and incorporate themselves
with the Egyptians. Thus he hoped to cut off the name of Israel, that it might
be no more in remembrance. And it is to be feared that the oppression they
were under had this bad effect upon them, that it brought over many of them to
join with the Egyptians in their idolatrous worship; for we read (Josh. xxiv.
14) that they served other gods in Egypt; and, though it is not mentioned here
in this history, yet we find (Ezek. xx. 8) that God had threatened to destroy
them for it, even while they were in the land of Egypt: however, they were
kept a distinct body, unmingled with the Egyptians, and by their other customs
separated from them, which was the Lord's doing, and marvellous.
IV. The wonderful
increase of the Israelites, notwithstanding the oppressions they groaned under
(v. 12): The more they afflicted them the more they multiplied,
sorely to the grief and vexation of the Egyptians. Note, 1. Times of
affliction have often been the church's growing times, Sub pondere
crescit--Being pressed, it grows. Christianity spread most when it was
persecuted: the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. 2. Those that
take counsel against the Lord and his Israel do but imagine a vain thing (Ps.
ii. 1), and create so much the greater vexation to themselves: hell and earth
cannot diminish those whom Heaven will increase.
15 And the king of Egypt spake to the
Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the
name of the other Puah: 16 And he said, When ye do the office of a
midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be
a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall
live. 17 But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of
Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. 18 And the
king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done
this thing, and have saved the men children alive? 19 And the
midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the
Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives
come in unto them. 20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and
the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. 21 And it came to
pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.
22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall
cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
The Egyptians'
indignation at Israel's increase, notwithstanding the many hardships they put
upon them, drove them at length to the most barbarous and inhuman methods of
suppressing them, by the murder of their children. It was strange that they
did not rather pick quarrels with the grown men, against whom they might
perhaps find some occasion: to be thus bloody towards the infants, whom all
must own to be innocents, was a sin which they had to cloak for. Note, 1.
There is more cruelty in the corrupt heart of man than one would imagine, Rom.
iii. 15, 16. The enmity that is in the seed of the serpent against the seed of
the woman divests men of humanity itself, and makes them forget all pity. One
would not think it possible that ever men should be so barbarous and
blood-thirsty as the persecutors of God's people have been, Rev. xvii. 6. 2.
Even confessed innocence is no defence against the old enmity. What blood so
guiltless as that of a child new-born? Yet that is prodigally shed like water,
and sucked with delight like milk or honey. Pharaoh and Herod sufficiently
proved themselves agents for that great red dragon, who stood to devour the
man-child as soon as it was born, Rev. xii. 3, 4. Pilate delivered Christ
to be crucified, after he had confessed that he found no fault in him. It is
well for us that, though man can kill the body, this is all he can do. Two
bloody edicts are here signed for the destruction of all the male children
that were born to the Hebrews.
I. The midwives
were commanded to murder them. Observe, 1. The orders given them, v.
15, 16. It added much to the barbarity of the intended executions that the midwives
were appointed to be the executioners; for it was to make them, not only
bloody, but perfidious, and to oblige them to betray a trust, and to destroy
those whom they undertook to save and help. Could he think that their sex
would admit such cruelty, and their employment such base treachery? Note,
Those who are themselves barbarous think to find, or make, others as
barbarous. Pharaoh's project was secretly to engage the midwives to stifle the
men-children as soon as they were born, and then to lay it upon the difficulty
of the birth, or some mischance common in that case, Job iii. 11. The two
midwives he tampered with in order hereunto are here named; and perhaps, at
this time, which was above eighty years before their going out of Egypt, those
two might suffice for all the Hebrew women, at least so many of them as lay
near the court, as it is plain by ch. ii. 5, 6, many of them did, and
of them he was most jealous. They are called Hebrew midwives, probably
not because they were themselves Hebrews (for surely Pharaoh could never
expect they should be so barbarous to those of their own nation), but because
they were generally made use of by the Hebrews; and, being Egyptians, he hoped
to prevail with them. 2. Their pious disobedience to this impious command, v.
17. They feared God, regarded his law, and dreaded his wrath more than
Pharaoh's, and therefore saved the men-children alive. Note, If men's commands
be any way contrary to the commands of God, we must obey God and not man, Acts
iv. 19; v. 29. No power on earth can warrant us, much less oblige us, to sin
against God, our chief Lord. Again, Where the fear of God rules in the heart,
it will preserve it from the snare which the inordinate fear of man brings. 3.
Their justifying themselves in this disobedience, when they were charged with
it as a crime, v. 18. They gave a reason for it, which, it seems, God's
gracious promise furnished them with--that they came too late to do it, for
generally the children were born before they came, v. 19. I see no
reason we have to doubt the truth of this; it is plain that the Hebrews were
now under an extraordinary blessing of increase, which may well be supposed to
have this effect, that the women had very quick and easy labour, and, the
mothers and children being both lively, they seldom needed the help of
midwives: this these midwives took notice of, and, concluding it to be the
finger of God, were thereby emboldened to disobey the king, in favour of those
whom Heaven thus favoured, and with this justified themselves before Pharaoh,
when he called them to an account for it. Some of the ancient Jews expound it
thus, Ere the midwife comes to them they pray to their Father in heaven,
and he answereth them, and they do bring forth. Note, God is a readier
help to his people in distress than any other helpers are, and often
anticipates them with the blessings of his goodness; such deliverances lay
them under peculiarly strong obligations. 4. The recompence God gave them for
their tenderness towards his people: He dealt well with them, v.
20. Note, God will be behind-hand with none for any kindness done to his
people, taking it as done to himself. In particular, he made them houses
(v. 21), built them up into families, blessed their children, and
prospered them in all they did. Note, The services done for God's Israel are
often repaid in kind. The midwives kept up the Israelites' houses, and, in
recompence for it, God made them houses. Observe, The recompence has
relation to the principle upon which they went: Because they feared God, he
made them houses. Note, Religion and piety are good friends to outward
prosperity: the fear of God in a house will help to
build it up and establish it. Dr. Lightfoot's notion of it is, That, for their
piety, they were married to Israelites, and Hebrew families were built up by
them.
II. When this
project did not take effect, Pharaoh gave public orders to all his people to
drown all the male children of the Hebrews, v. 22. We may suppose it
was made highly penal for any to know of the birth of a son to an Israelite,
and not to give information to those who were appointed to throw him into the
river. Note, The enemies of the church have been restless in their endeavours
to wear out the saints of the Most High, Dan. vii. 25. But he that
sits in heaven shall laugh at them. See Ps. ii. 4.
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