August 29, 2016
Exodus 1:8-11
(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)
Again, our attention is on Exodus 1:8 through 11:
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he
said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and
mightier than we; come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and
it happen, in the event of war, that they join our enemies and fight against
us, and so go up out of the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them
to afflict them with their burdens.
I mentioned in the last blog that this Scripture tells of the Hebrews’ slavery in Egypt. Paul wrote in I Corinthians 10:11 that “…all these things happened to them as examples; and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.” So their experience of bondage can teach us some valuable truths concerning our slavery to sin before we come to Christ!
Yes, Pharoah “…set taskmasters over the…[Israelites] to afflict them with their burdens.” They were enslaved and mistreated (see Exodus 1:13, 14; 2:11; 5:6-19), even to condemning their baby boys to death! (See Exodus 1:15-22).
How does that relate to us? Remember Didymus the Blind from the last blog? I quoted him as saying, “Egypt represents the world…Pharaoh and his soldiers are the Devil and his satellites.” The Bible instructs us about the godless world, the devil, sin and slavery!
• The world
✞ Luke 4:5, 6 – “Then the devil, taking Him [Jesus] up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, ‘All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.’ ”
✞ John 17:14 – “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”
✞ James 4:4 – “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?”
✞ II Peter 3:10 – “…both the earth and the works in that are in it will be burned up.”
✞ I John 2:15-17 – “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it….”
• The devil
✞ John 8:44 – “…the devil…was a murderer from the beginning, and…a liar and the father of it.”
✞ John 10:10 – “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”
✞ II Thessalonians 2:3, 4 – The antichrist (the devil incarnate) is identified here as, “…the man of sin…the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God showing himself that he is God.”
✞ I Peter 5:8 – “…your adversary, the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
• Sin
✞ Romans 3:10 – “As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one.”
✞ Romans 3:23 – “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
• Slavery
✞ John 8:34 – “Jesus answered them [the Jews] ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.’ ”
✞ Romans 6:16 – “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? ”
We are naturally in slavery to sin, Satan and the world’s ways! We need deliverance from such slavery as much as the Israelites needed deliverance from their taskmaster Egyptians! But as Moses was their deliverer, Jesus Christ is ours! More on this in the next blog coming on Wednesday.