Fearing the Israelites

 Welcome to the Daily Bible Chapter. My name is James Leroy Wilson and I invite you to join me as we discover new insights and new perspectives from a very old book.

Exodus 1

I'm reading Young's Literal Translation (YLT) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Even though Joseph was in charge of all of Egypt, we see a foreshadowing of things to come. Egyptians viewed eating with Hebrews as an abomination, and when Jacob's household moves to Egypt, they are segregated from the Egyptians in part because Egyptians believed shepherding was an abomination. 

Thus, when the Israelites multiplied over the generations, apparently with birth rates higher than the Egyptian norm, Pharaoh began to view them as a threat, as "more numerous and powerful than we."

Joseph's office wasn't a family inheritance, so with his passing the Israelites had no political power. It's unclear if or how the Israelites could really have been more numerous than ethnic Egyptians, and it seems like Pharaoh was paranoid about their power. He seemed to enslave them pretty easily.

As nations were apparently defined by male ancestral lines, killing male Israelite babies was the most efficient way to protect the Egyptian way of life from the alien culture flourishing alongside it.

That this Pharaoh did not "know" Joseph may mean that he did not know of him, that Joseph had disappeared from Egypt's history.

Or it could be that this Pharaoh had lost the consciousness of Joseph,or lost the consciousness of God, that had been brought to Egypt by Joseph. Like Cain, he thought murder, and in this case mass murder, would be the answer to his problems.

Pharaoh's call for violence reflects a mind that isn't at peace.  

James Leroy Wilson writes Daily Miracles, The Daily Bible Chapter, JL Cells, and The MVP Chase. Thanks for your subscriptions and support!

(Photo credit: TyshkunVictor)