Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 1:20-22

20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.

21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.

22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

The midwives made a clear choice of who their master would be. Rather than fear the Pharaoh, who held their lives in his hand, they cast their lot with God, who held their souls. For their faithfulness, we are told, God rewarded them with houses. It doesn’t say how they came to possess those houses, but one would assume it wasn’t the Pharaoh, given that the midwives had failed to meet his demands. However it came to pass, the midwives were taken care of, and we are told it was because they were Godfearing and faithful.

As for Pharaoh, he only became more emboldened. Where he had conspired against the Israelite children in secret, now he expressed his desires publicly, proclaiming to “all his people” that they should grab any newborn Israelite son and cast him into the river! What a horrible realization this must have been for the Israelites, seeing that they would be denied the right to the lives of their own children.

And on this sober note we conclude Exodus 1. The stage has been set. We have had detailed for us the Israelites’ terrible bondage. They were hated of their neighbors, stripped of personal freedom, forced into heavy labor, and losing their lives at the Pharaoh’s whim. It is into this most hopeless of circumstances that Moses would be born, a most unlikely hero to be sure.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 42:21-24

21 And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.

22 And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required.

23 And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.

24 And he turned himself about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.

Joseph’s test yields its first fruits. The brothers see the punishment as the working of karma, compensating them for their crimes against Joseph, and they are even more right in that thought than they realize!

We also learn an interesting detail in verse 21 about the time that Joseph’s brothers betrayed him. In the original account we heard nothing of Joseph’s reaction, but here we learn that he begged them for deliverance, in anguish, and they refused to listen.

Joseph is deeply moved to hear the brothers speak of that traumatic event, and perhaps this is the first he is learning of Reuben’s failed attempts to spare him. Now he knows that there is some remorse among his brothers, though how far it extends he has yet to prove.

And so, he continues with his stated plan. It is interesting to note which of his brothers he selects for bondage. Reuben might have been the most dramatic choice, given that he was the eldest, but he is the one that has shown the most remorse so far. Simeon was the second eldest, and one of the first to sully himself when he and Levi slaughtered the men of Shalem.

Whether those were the actual reasons that Joseph selected Simeon, or if it was something else, we do not know. But in any case, he made an impressive show of it, having Simeon bound right in front of his brothers, a grim warning to all the others not to cross Joseph.