When God told Abraham that his descendants would be slaves for 400 years (Genesis 15:13), I wonder if Abraham realized that this was actually for their own good?
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Now, you may be thinking how can 400 years of slavery be good for anyone, and that is a fair question.
But first, what were we dealing with before the family of Israel went down into Egypt?
We had the 11 sons of Israel, their sons, daughters, and slaves numbering about 73.
Joseph had already been placed in a position of power in Egypt by God to provide the means by which the descendants of Abraham would be enslaved.
And what about the rest of the world?
Well, the family of Israel (not even close to being a nation at that time) was living in Cana’an, and there were many other tribes and clans surrounding them. It seems from what we read about them that they were pretty well off, having cattle, herds, and money, so that means they were a tasty target for raiding parties.
These “Hebrews” were taking up a lot of land for their livestock, and they weren’t really natives- in truth, they were strangers in a strange land, and as such weren’t seen as “one of the regulars”, so to speak.
Now God had plans for this family, in that he wanted to fulfill his promise to Abraham that his descendants would be as many as the grains of sand on the beach, so to protect them he had to provide a safe environment for them to grow into a nation.
Egypt was the most powerful country in the world at that time, so what better way to protect this small family then to have them under the protection of the most powerful country in the world?
The problem was, of course, that once they were placed there, the tides would change and they would go from a small family to a large nation, which scared the Egyptians who didn’t know Joseph or all that he had done for Egypt.
It seems we are quick to forget the good people do for us. In the desert, the people often forgot all that God had accomplished when the smallest problems occurred. Later on, the family of Gideon was betrayed and murdered by the very people who they had helped to free from the Midianites and their allies, the Amalekites.
And let’s not forget how the people living in Jerusalem, who knew and experienced all the wonderful things King David had accomplished, were so easily redirected to following Absolom who had not one victory or had ever done anything for the people.
But I digress, so let’s get back to today’s lesson about the Egyptian slavery.
As slaves, the growing family of Israel would still be under Egyptian protection because they would be necessary for the Pharoah in building his tombs and edifices to demonstrate his power.
In other words, being slaves to Egypt was the safest place for this young tribal family to be while growing into a vast nation.
Through Egypt, God provided the protection from the outside world that Israel needed to become the nation he would anoint as his nation of priests (Exodus 19:6) so that they could bring God’s own instructions for how to worship him and how to treat each other to the world.
And that’s all there is to it! God provided Abraham’s descendants a safe haven, although it was hell to live in, so that they could grow into the nation he promised he would make them.
There’s plenty more to tell, but that, my friends, is another story.
Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for today, so L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!