Exodus 1:8-14 - There arose a new king over Egypt

1:8

“There arose a new king over Egypt.” This does not necessarily mean the next Pharaoh. Indeed, there was a significant time gap between the times of Joseph and Moses. It could mean the next dynasty. Whatever the details, the new king may have had some factual knowledge of Joseph, but did not know anything of his contributions to the well-being of Egypt, or at least did not appreciate them. We can perhaps see some parallels with the West ‘s current attitudes to Christianity. The gospel has had an enormous effect, mostly positive (well, the gospel itself has had an entirely positive effect, the church has too often managed to corrupt this) on Western society. At one time Western rulers appreciated this, at least to some degree. Now, our leaders  mostly have no appreciation of this and are increasingly anti-Christianity.

1:9-14

So the new king oppressed God’s people. He was fearful of their numbers and strength. He feared that if war broke out they would side with the enemy. It is a common trait of rulers to make scapegoats of a group of people, and the Jews have often been that group of people. So Pharaoh sought to oppress the Hebrews by laying heavy burdens upon them, subjecting them to slave labour. Slave labour is noting new, virtually all societies have practised it, and not just white societies. However, this oppression did not work, the Hebrews just multiplied all the more! “The Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel”. Their response was to increase the level of oppression. One of the lessons of this opening chapter is that rulers may and will oppress, but the oppression will not always work. God can enable His people to overcome. This is not to belittle the oppression at all, it was real, and the associated suffering was real, and God would eventually bring His people out of this oppression.