Thursday, March 24, 2011

Exodus 1: v1-22 (New king of Egypt enslaves the Israelites)

And so our trek continues with the book of Exodus.

Joseph died, but his family continued to grow until they filled up the place.

Then a new king came into power (Pharaoh, I thought?) and decided to enslave them all. This is separate from the people Joseph enslaved. Not so nice when it happens to you, is it? The king put them to work building things, like storehouses and cities. The harder he worked them, the more they multiplied.

Though their numbers were great, the Hebrews only had two midwives, Shiphrah and Puah. The king of Egypt told them to let only girl babies live when they were at their work. The midwives didn't pay him any heed. According to the author, this is because they loved god. But I'm sure it was also that they were midwives.

The king was angry when there was a normal distribution of boys, and asked them what happened to the baby killing I told you to do? And the midwives responded that they tried, but whenever they got to the place to deliver the babies, the Hebrew women had already delivered. Because they were hardcore, you understand.

So the king extended the baby killing order to his people. But only the boy babies. And god rewarded the midwives by giving them families of their own. Well, that was nice of him.