'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. 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.'--EXODUS i. 1-14.
The four hundred years of Israel's stay in Egypt were divided into two
unequal periods, in the former and longer of which they were prosperous
and favoured, while in the latter they were oppressed. Both periods had
their uses and place in the shaping of the nation and its preparation
for the Exodus. Both carry permanent lessons.
I. The long days of unclouded prosperity. These extended over
centuries, the whole history of which is summed up in two words: death
and growth. The calm years glided on, and the shepherds in Goshen had
the happiness of having no annals. All that needed to be recorded was
that, one by one, the first generation died off, and that the new
generations 'were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied,
and waxed exceeding mighty.' The emphatic repetitions recall the
original promises in Genesis xii. 2, xvii. 4,5, xviii. 18. The
preceding specification of the number of the original settlers
(repeated from Genesis xlvi. 27) brings into impressive contrast the
small beginnings and the rapid increase. We may note that eloquent
setting side by side of the two processes which are ever going on
simultaneously, death and birth.
One by one men pass out of the warmth and light into the darkness, and
so gradually does the withdrawal proceed that we scarcely are aware of
its going on, but at last 'all that generation' has vanished. The old
trees are all cleared off the ground, and everywhere their place is
taken by the young saplings. The web is ever being woven at one end,
and run down at the other. 'The individual withers, but the race is
more and more.' How solemn that continual play of opposing movements
is, and how blind we are to its solemnity!
That long period of growth may be regarded in two lights. It effected
the conversion of a horde into a nation by numerical increase, and so
was a link in the chain of the divine working. The great increase, of
which the writer speaks so strongly, was, no doubt, due to the
favourable circumstances of the life in Goshen, but was none the less
regarded by him, and rightly so, as God's doing. As the Psalmist sings,
'_He_ increased His people greatly.' 'Natural processes' are the
implements of a supernatural will. So Israel was being multiplied, and
the end for which it was peacefully growing into a multitude was hidden
from all but God. But there was another end, in reference to which the
years of peaceful prosperity may be regarded; namely, the schooling of
the people to patient trust in the long-delayed fulfilment of the
promise. That hope had burned bright in Joseph when he died, and he
being dead yet spake of it from his coffin to the successive
generations. Delay is fitted and intended to strengthen faith and make
hope more eager. But that part of the divine purpose, alas! was not
effected as the former was. In the moral region every circumstance has
two opposite results possible. Each condition has, as it were, two
handles, and we can take it by either, and generally take it by the
wrong one. Whatever is meant to better us may be so used by us as to
worsen us. And the history of Israel in Egypt and in the desert shows
only too plainly that ease weakened, if it did not kill, faith, and
that Goshen was so pleasant that it drove the hope and the wish for
Canaan out of mind. 'While the bridegroom tarried they all slumbered
and slept.' Is not Israel in Egypt, slackening hold of the promise
because it tarried, a mirror in which the Church may see itself? and do
_we_ not know the enervating influence of Goshen, making us reluctant
to shoulder our packs and turn out for the pilgrimage? The desert
repels more strongly than Canaan attracts.
II. The shorter period of oppression. Probably the rise of a 'new king'
means a revolution in which a native dynasty expelled foreign monarchs.
The Pharaoh of the oppression was, perhaps, the great Rameses II.,
whose long reign of sixty-seven years gives ample room for protracted
and grinding oppression of Israel. The policy adopted was
characteristic of these early despotisms, in its utter disregard of
humanity and of everything but making the kingdom safe. It was not
intentionally cruel, it was merely indifferent to the suffering it
occasioned. 'Let us deal _wisely_ with them'--never mind about justice,
not to say kindness. Pharaoh's 'politics,' like those of some other
rulers who divorce them from morality, turned out to be impolitic, and
his 'wisdom' proved to be roundabout folly. He was afraid that the
Israelites, if they were allowed to grow, might find out their strength
and seek to emigrate; and so he set to work to weaken them with hard
bondage, not seeing that that was sure to make them wish the very thing
that he was blunderingly trying to prevent. The only way to make men
glad to remain in a community is to make them at home there. The sense
of injustice is the strongest disintegrating force. If there is a
'dangerous class' the surest way to make them more dangerous is to
treat them harshly. It was a blunder to make 'lives bitter,' for hearts
also were embittered. So the people were ripened for revolt, and Goshen
became less attractive.
God used Pharaoh's foolish wisdom, as He had used natural laws, to
prepare for the Exodus. The long years of ease had multiplied the
nation. The period of oppression was to stir them up out of their
comfortable nest, and make them willing to risk the bold dash for
freedom. Is not that the explanation, too, of the similar times in our
lives? It needs that we should experience life's sorrows and burdens,
and find how hard the world's service is, and how quickly our Goshens
may become places of grievous toil, in order that the weak hearts,
which cling so tightly to earth, may be detached from it, and taught to
reach upwards to God. 'Blessed is the man ... in whose heart are thy
ways,' and happy is he who so profits by his sorrows that they stir in
him the pilgrim's spirit, and make him yearn after Canaan, and not
grudge to leave Goshen. Our ease and our troubles, opposite though they
seem and are, are meant to further the same end,--to make us fit for
the journey which leads to rest and home. We often misuse them both,
letting the one sink us in earthly delights and oblivion of the great
hope, and the other embitter our spirits without impelling them to seek
the things that are above. Let us use the one for thankfulness, growth,
and patient hope, and the other for writing deep the conviction that
this is not our rest, and making firm the resolve that we will gird our
loins and, staff in hand, go forth on the pilgrim road, not shrinking
from the wilderness, because we see the mountains of Canaan across its
sandy flats.