We're about to enter a long period of time for the Israelites who made Egypt their homeland by following Joseph. The land of Goshen, far to the north part of Egypt and given to Joseph and his family, was primarily for shepherding. The Egyptians were biased against shepherds and their sheep. Therefore, the Israelites were not considered Egyptians and, eventually, during the reign of a new Pharaoh who did not know the history of the Israelites, they were put into slavery rebuilding and building cities such as Pithom and Ramses, both just south of the Mediterranean Sea.
But God had his eye on his beloved Israelites, and began a plan which would take many years to complete. The Bible's book of Exodus carries this fascinating story and we will do part of the story here on these pages, God willing.
Most of us, at one time or another, have had to move their workplace/homesite, whether it has been
beneficial or not. It is always painful in some ways and wonderfully healing in other ways, but stressful? Yes. It can be very stressful, and for the Israelites, it was. In the realm of a new Pharaoh who detested the growth of this group who weren't even Egyptians, he decided the people of this northern group who worshipped some unknown god should be made into slaves and their boy babies should be killed. That would keep their numbers down and still have people who could continue in slavery.
During this awful time, a man of the house of Levi had married a Levite woman and she became pregnant and they had a son. He was a fine child, and she couldn't bring herself to kill him, so she hid him for three months. When she could hide him no more, she put him in a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile River, his sister hiding a distance away to see what would happen to him.
When Pharaoh's daughter came down to the river to bathe, she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. She opened the basket and saw the baby. He was crying and she felt sorry for him. But she knew..it was one of the Hebrew babies.
The sister, who had been hiding, came forward and asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?" "Yes, go!" she said, and the girl went and brought back the baby's mother. Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses.
After Moses grew up as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their labor. When he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people, he killed the Egyptian and hid him. The following day he saw two Hebrew men fighting and stopped them, asking the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?" And the man quickly responded, "Who are you that you judge me? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?" Then, Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known."
Moses ran, because Pharaoh became so angry that he swore to kill him. He ran to a priest 's house in the area of Midian, and eventually married the man's daughter, Zipporah. In due time, she gave birth to a son, Gershom, which means 'having become an alien in a foreign land.'
During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out to God. God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And He was concerned.
The people of God had waited a long time for the promise God had made to be kept, but God rescued them when he knew the right time had come. God knows the best time to act.
When we feel that God has forgotten us in our troubles, remember that God has a time schedule we can't see. Only He knows the best time for His action, whatever it might be.
We are never alone, in spite of what we may feel. We are not alone.
Jo INMN
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