Exodus 1:7-14
7 And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.
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 Rameses.
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.
Having seen the clear biblical rationale for the need for God to redeem Israel, we now move into seeing how God made the need personal to them. Ultimately, God was simply allowing life in Egypt to reveal its “true colors” to the Hebrew people. Experiencing these aspects of wretchedness certainly drove them to deeply long for deliverance.
From our verses we can plainly see at least four aspects of life in Egyptian bondage that would drive them away.
First, compare verse 7 with verse 14:
7 And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.
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.
Clearly, when Israel first came into the land they prospered greatly. All was well, and they had great favor there. But prosperity is always short-term in Egypt. The fabric of seeming prosperity in Egypt is illusory. All of life in this fallen world is vanity, even at its best moments. They had experienced many years of prosperity in Egypt. But now they were seeing the true nature of that façade of blessedness. This had to happen so that their desire to remain in Egypt could be ultimately broken. They had to learn the meaning of true spiritual prosperity, something they would never do in Egypt.
Additionally, when they first came into the land, they had great favor with the current Pharaoh. Not so any longer. Notice verse 8:
8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
One of the clearest evidences of the deep need for redemption for them was their reliance upon having favor with an untrustworthy master. Connections in Egypt do not last. Just because God gave them favor with one heathen king certainly did not mean that this state of affairs was ever to be expected to be the norm. When any of God’s true people get to the place of relying upon “connections” in this life, God will destroy those connections, that their reliance may truly be upon Him alone. Israel deeply needed to be delivered from reliance upon human connections in any form.
Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help.[1]
That verse identifies that much later in their history,[2] the Hebrews retained a kind of dependence upon what the world could do for them, rather than abiding fully in faith that their God was more than enough for them. This had become deeply embedded in them during their four hundred years of slavery in Egypt. Relying upon good connections in this life is simply another form of slavery that God seeks to deliver us from. Christ never relied upon any such connections, and through Him we shall not do so either. Placing any confidence in dying men brings only vanity.
God also allowed the new Pharaoh and his followers to change everything in the lives of the Hebrew slaves. Originally, Joseph and his father and brethren were favored by Pharaoh and given excellent land for their flocks and herds in Goshen. But this new Pharaoh replaced this favored position with one of bitter hard bondage and serving with rigor.
Life in Egypt will eventually become one of “bitter hard bondage and serving with rigor.” This is an out-working of the Fall, and the dominance of sin among the fallen race of men. It can be no other way. Thus, as it was for Israel then, so it is for us today: We must learn this truth the “hard way.” Working hard, only to die under the sway of Egypt, is simply not rewarding at all. It is slavery. Being brought out from that slavery to serve the true King is liberty and abundantly satisfying. God uses this same reality to bring men to Himself today.
[1] Isaiah 31:1. [2] Isaiah’s ministry took place between eight and nine hundred years after what we have early in Exodus.