Exodus 1:1-22: "1 Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his household came with Jacob: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; 4 Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 5 All those who were descendants of Jacob were seventy persons (for Joseph was in Egypt already). 6 And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation. 7 But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. 8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, 'Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; 10 come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.' 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. 13 So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. 14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage--in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor. 15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; 16 and he said, 'When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.' 17 But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. 18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, 'Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?' 19 And the midwives said to Pharaoh, 'Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.' 20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. 21 And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them. 22 So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, 'Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.'"
God causes the descendants of Israel to increase and multiply so that they filled the whole land. This fulfills the promise that was made in the book of Moses, commonly called Genesis. A couple things should be pointed out, one, the names of the sons of Jacob are listed according to their mothers, from first born to last born. The sons of the two concubines are listed after these names. This is why Benjamin, even though the last overall born, is listed seventh in the list, and not twelfth. The second thing is that Joseph is not listed in the names of the twelve sons. There are a couple of reasons for this, one, he was already in Egypt and this list lists the names of the sons of Jacob who came with him into Egypt from Canaan. Second, Joseph's sons, as we learn from Genesis 47, supplanted Joseph as sons of Jacob. Therefore he is not listed among Jacob's sons.
It is from these sons, that Jacob, who was renamed Israel, is given by God an abundant family. The English doesn't quite capture the nuances of the Hebrew. To "increase abundantly" in the Hebrew means "swarmed." The idea portrayed in the word, is that the descendants of Israel were everywhere. This fruitful increase is a blessing of our Lord God. It is part of the blessing that God made upon all creation when He first created it, when He said, "Be fruitful and multiply." It should be pointed out, since the English language doesn't carry the full wait of what our Lord God is saying through Moses, that this increase of offspring was not just the normal increase that one would see from twelve families having children and their children having children and so forth. This increase was a super-abundant increase, meaning more offspring than was usual. This is why the word "swarm" is used in the Hebrew, for it brings to mind a swarm of bees or locusts or cockroaches. They had so many offspring they filled the whole land.
Well, this becomes a problem for a Pharaoh of a generation long after when Joseph lived. And so he enslaves them, so that they become too weary to fight back, or overthrow their oppression. But again we see our Lord God's abundant grace, for even in the midst of this slavery that basically works the Israelite nation to the bone, the people of Israel still increase abundantly in producing offspring. One has to wonder when they had the time or energy to produce this amount of offspring. It reminds one of the pastor who was a tireless work-aholic, but had a dozen children, and when asked when he found the time, he responded, "A little here, a little there."
Pharaoh it seems is at a loss, for he tries to slow down the producing of offspring by hard labor, but that doesn't work, so he tries another way. He goes to the midwives, who were in charge of assisting with labor of the Hebrew women, and tells them to kill the male children, so that they will eventually not be able to produce as many offspring. However, this also backfires on Pharaoh, for the midwives worshipped the One True God, and followed His commands rather than Pharaoh's and spared the male children. When this plan of Pharaoh's doesn't succeed, he puts the announcement out to all Egypt, that every male child shall be cast into the river. This sets us up for the birth of Moses and the Exodus of the people of God.
We see in this narrative, from a spiritual standpoint, the devil attacking the Church of God on earth. Pharaoh represents the devil, who seeks to destroy and kill the Church, however, our Lord God, despite the devil's best efforts, still increases His holy Christian Church on earth, giving it an abundant increase, so that it swarms over all the world. We can see this especially in the Church's history when it grew exponentially in the first few centuries despite the onslaught of the devil through martyrdom and persecution. The holy Christian Church grew into a great holy nation, through its twelve fathers, the holy Apostles.
We are a part of this family, this Church, and even though the devil still continues to make our lives burdensome and toilsome, so that we face the rigor of sin, death, and the devil, our Lord God still increases His holy Church on earth by granting us new sons and daughters through the birth of Holy Baptism. And someday, our Lord God, will lead us out of this world, this land of Egypt into the promised land of Canaan, that is, Heaven. A land flowing with the pure milk of His holy Word, and the honey of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
May the Lord God ever keep you in His grace.
God be with you!
Deacon Dulas
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