The first chapter of Exodus is introductory. It describes the intolerable conditions which came upon the Israelites in Egypt which inspired the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. The name of the book is most fitting, for it is chiefly concerned with the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and some things which followed because of the exodus. Exodus 1 can be divided into three major parts as follows:
Exodus 1:1-7
The text begins with a summary of the Israelites in Egypt. It is a good introduction to this first chapter of the book and makes a smooth transition from Genesis to Exodus.
"These are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt" (Exodus 1:1). The first thing we learn about the souls of the Israelites is their location or place of dwelling. They are in Egypt, not Canaan. Genesis informs us why they are not in Canaan—there was a very bad famine and Joseph invited them to come to Egypt where he would take care of them. Thus a knowledge of Genesis is necessary to understand Exodus.
Some details are given regarding the Israelites that were in Egypt and how they are organized.
•The names of the people. "These are the names of the children of Israel... Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher" (Exodus 1:2-4). The names are given according to the tribes, a practice followed throughout the Old Testament. The order of the names here lists the sons by the concubines (Bilhah and Zilpah the maids of Leah and Rachel) last. Joseph is not mentioned but will be in a footnote of the numbering.
•The number of the people. "All the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls; for Joseph was in Egypt already" (Exodus 1:5). This speaks of those who came from Canaan. The number does not include the wives and children. Joseph is footnoted after the number because he was already in Egypt when the family moved there during the famine, but he is counted in the total number.
"Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation" (Exodus 1:6). Scripture quickly moves from the generation that moved to Egypt on to later generations who came under slavery which prompted the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. This verse reminds us that death is a Divine appointment for all people (Hebrews 9:27).
"The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed [became] exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them" (Exodus 1:7). This verse shows the great productivity of the Israelites over the years while they were in Egypt. God had promised that they would become a great nation (an abundant population) in Egypt (Genesis 46:3), and they certainly did. When they left Egypt, they numbered over six hundred thousand men twenty years and older which conservatively says the total number of Israelites was easily two to three million people or more. And it all started with just a small group that came from Canaan (Exodus 1:5).
Exodus 1:8-14
After the Israelites had grown into a sizeable populous, slavery was imposed upon them.
The human cause for the slavery of the Israelites was the prince (Pharaoh) of Egypt, called the "king" in our text.
•The dynasty of the prince. "There arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph" (Exodus 1:8). The words "new king' indicate "a king who follows different principles of government from his predecessors" (Keil). This can refer to a conquering king or simply a successor who is of a different attitude than his predecessors. In either case his attitude about the Israelites was different from his predecessors.
•The deficiency of the prince. "Knew not Joseph" (Exodus 1:8). This deficiency led to the destruction of Egypt. This new king could know ten thousand other things, but failure to know about Joseph and, therefore, to understand his value to Egypt, will be disastrous for Egypt. Lack of pertinent knowledge destroys. The prophet Hosea said, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). This is a good picture of the failure to know Jesus Christ. There is no greater deficiency in time and eternity than not knowing Christ as your Savior.
At least five things are mentioned in Scripture which prompted the king to put the Israelites in slavery.
•The "more" fear. "The children of Israel are more... than we" (Exodus 1:9). There were more Israelites than Egyptians. That is a questionable statement by the king, but it made good propaganda for dealing evilly with them.
•The "mightier" fear. "Are... mightier than we" (Exodus 1:9). This is another questionable accusation. But over the years nations that have turned against the Jews are always accusing the Jews of having too much influence. Today, as an example, people are still accusing the Jews of controlling our government.
•The multiplying fear. "Lest they multiply" (Exodus 1:10). Fear of population explosion comes in every age—some of that here is simply prejudice against a people folk do not like. The Jews were multiplying, and that had to be stopped. Hitler tried to stop them and others of his kind in every age have tried to stop them, but Israel's oppressors will not succeed.
•The military fear. "When there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us" (Exodus 1:10). The new king feared that in war the Israelites would side with the enemy of Egypt. That could be a big problem. While the king's attitude is anti-Israel, it still shows a good point though unintentional, and that is he wants to be allies with the Israelites in war. That is wise in any age.
•The moving fear. "Get them up out of the land" (Exodus 1:10). He does not want the Jews to emigrate from Egypt. This is not a new attitude, the Soviet Union had to be persuaded by the United States to permit Jews to leave the Soviet Union. Those who hate the Jews often refuse to let them leave the nation wherein they dwell.
The plan for dealing with the so-called Jewish problem was to put the Jews into slavery to the Egyptians, particularly to the government of Egypt.
•The subtlety of slavery. "Deal wisely with them" (Exodus 1:10). The king of Egypt thought he was smart in the way he was going to deal with the Israelites. But Acts 7:19 uses a different word which is translated "subtlety" in our English version. The Greek word there means "crafty." What the king thought was wisdom was actually craftiness. People may cloak their evil in nice terms but that does not change its character.
•The status of slavery. "Set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens" (Exodus 1:11). The Israelites were put into forced labor. We will note the character of the slavery shortly. Here we note the fact of slavery.
•The service of slavery. "They built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses" (Exodus 1:11). This king was neither the first nor the last government ruler to force the citizenry to make huge sacrifices either in money (taxes) or labor (slavery) to do public works projects. Cruel nations and rulers are always burdening the citizenry to build the nation in order to make the current ruler or rulers look good.
Slavery created a population problem for the Egyptians with the Jews.
•The growing of the population. "The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew" (Exodus 1:12). Slavery failed to diminish the population of the Israelites, rather it only increased it. Affliction often appears to be that which will destroy but instead it is that which builds us up. The Psalmist said, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statues" (Psalm 119:71). God promised this affliction (Genesis 15:13). We like promises of fruitfulness but not those about affliction. Yet affliction is often the key to fruitfulness.
•The grieving over the population. "They were grieved because of the children of Israel" (Exodus 1:12). This is a very poor attitude to have toward the Jews. It will curse you if you embrace this attitude. It eventually destroyed Egypt. The word translated "grieved" here means to loathe or abhor something. If you mistreat something, you will eventually come to despise it. If you do not respect God you will eventually despise God. Today our land loathes honesty, industriousness, religion, authority, and godliness because we have for a long time despised these things.
"The Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor, they made their lives bitter with hard bondage... all the service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigor" (Exodus 1:13,14). The word translated "rigor" in these two verses summarizes the pain of the slavery. The word is derived from a root which means "to break in pieces, to crush" (Rawlinson). Israel's slavery was inhumane. They were treated in the same beastly manner as the war prisoners of the Nazis, communists, and other cruel nations were treated. The fact of slavery was bad enough, but what made it worse was the character of the slavery. It was cruel, mean, bloody, and beastly. Furthermore the work conditions were terrible, for "There is no such exhausting toil as that of working under the hot Egyptian sun... where there can be no shade, and scarcely a breath of air, from sunrise to sunset, as forced laborers are generally required to do" (Ibid.).
Exodus 1:15-22
Conditions promised to get uglier for the Israelites. Slavery was not enough to satisfy the new king's blood-thirsty appetite regarding the Jews. He wanted to kill, he wanted to stop the continued rise in the Jewish population. If slavery will not do it indirectly then slaying directly will be employed.
The king's orders for slaying the Jews to decrease their population was to kill their male babies.
•The authority of the orders. "The king of Egypt spake... kill" (Exodus 1:15,16). The authority here to kill was the law of the land. Whatever the king decreed was considered the law of the land. Evil loves to be legalized, and there are plenty in governments everywhere who are quite ready to legalize evil by making it law.
•The accomplices in the orders. "The Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah" (Exodus 1:15). The king tried to get the lowly midwives to do his dirty work. He felt he could lord it over them to do evil and they would not refuse. But as we will note later, they refused to cooperate with the king. They, unlike many, would not do evil in order to curry favor with the powers that be, and they got their names mentioned in Scripture. This murderous king did not even get his name mentioned here. But two of the lowly midwives did. History can only speculate who the king was, but they do not have to speculate as to who some of the midwives were. God honors those who honor Him.
•The awfulness of the orders. "If it be a son, then ye shall kill him; but if it be a daughter, then she shall live" (Exodus 1:16). The order to kill only applied to boy babies, but that does not take away the awfulness of the orders. The awfulness was threefold. First, the baby. Here was murder; cold blooded murder of the innocent. No one is more innocent than a new born child. And no one is more helpless. Second, the betrayal. The midwives would have to betray the mother's confidence in them for a safe childbirth. Third, the brutality. The midwives would have to engage in brutality to kill the new born—suffocation, a blow to the head, or to cause unstopped bleeding.
•The alikeness of the orders. This order to kill is like abortion. Abortion is nothing but cold-blooded murder. It attacks the innocent, is supported by law (laws to protect abortion clinics, and laws to use our taxes to support it), lies to the mothers telling them it will not hurt—yet some report it hurts worse than child birth and the emotional hurt is immeasurable.
The opposition to the king's orders to slay the Israelites was from the midwives.
•The reasons for the opposition. "But the midwives feared God" (Exodus 1:17). The fear of God always produces good conduct. We need to fear God more than we fear cruel rulers.
•The result of the opposition. "Did not as the king of Egypt commanded, but saved the men children alive" (Exodus 1:18). The king's plan was unsuccessful, for the midwives refused to kill the boy babies. It is a shame and national disgrace that we do not have more like-minded nurses and doctors in our land today in regard to abortion.
•The remonstrating of the opposition. "Why have ye not done this thing?... The midwives said... because the Hebrew women... are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come unto them" (Exodus 1:18,19). In spite of the fact that the midwives are the heroes of this story, their lie is not exonerated. It is never right to lie. The Bible will give no encouragement to lying. This text does not justify lying to escape difficulties.
•The reward for the opposition. "God dealt well with the midwives... he made them houses" (Exodus 1:20,21). God favors those who fear Him. This does not justify the lying, it simply shows that God rewards for holy living. "He made them houses" means God gave them families. Giving the midwives families was a real blessing. Today with abortion and day care centers and women career emphasis, few appreciate the blessing of a family. But God values them (Psalm 127:3-5) greatly and so this was a great reward for the midwives. It was also a fitting reward in that they were rewarded in the same way in which they had acted. They had preserved families and now were provided families. We sow and we reap, and we reap what we sow not only in evil conduct but also in good conduct.
Since the midwives would not be accomplices in the murderous schemes of Pharaoh, he came up with another scheme, namely, to drown the babies.
•The drowning in the obstinacy. "Pharaoh charged all his people saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive" (Exodus 1:22). Pharaoh ordered the Israelites to drown their boy babies. It was an extremely cruel and disheartening order which actually worked against Pharaoh. For, as we will learn in the next chapter, this order provided a means by which Moses could be preserved and trained right under Pharaoh's nose at Pharaoh's expense. As evil as the decree was, it eventually resulted in providing an emancipator for the Israelites. God can use the wrath of man to praise Him (Psalm 76:10).
•The demanding in the obstinacy. "Pharaoh charged all his people" (Exodus 1:22). Once again Pharaoh makes his evil the law of the land for all the Israelites. Evil will be forced upon the people through laws. Then if people do not do evil, the government will punish the people for breaking the law. It is a clever scheme which many governments over the years of history have employed. But no government that promotes evil by the law has a good future. Our nation has legalized gambling, abortion, and booze. In so doing it is committing suicide by bringing down upon itself Divine judgment.