The Story Through the Bible Exodus 1
The Story through the Bible • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The setting
The setting
The method for naming a book in the ancient world was just to use the first or first few words. So this book in Hebrew isn’t called Exodus. It’s called “These are the names” “Wuh-ae-lay Shemote” or just Names / Shemote for short. This continuity is important between books. The importance for the Israelites is very great because this is first written to a people who might be learning about their family heritage and tradition for the first time. And because it reminds them of the importance of the promise to the descendants of Jacob.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
This promise was 4 fold - A special land is promised to them, A great increase in the number of descendants, Their Name will be great (important family lineage), All the families of the earth shall be blessed. It’s important therefore to really follow the lineage of your family and understand who they are and what purpose God had for them.
So for this book we start with a reminder of where we were. We ended in Egypt with Joseph’s death. So right in Exodus 1 we just have a quick recap listing the 11 sons of Israel that were with him and came into Egypt - Joseph was already there. Of course a lot of time passed and all that generation eventually died.
Exodus 1:7 “But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.”
We see immediately this reminder back to that promise in the process of being fulfilled they multiply and grow strong.
We hit a dilemma in vs 8
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
If Joseph rose under the Hyksos, the “new king” was likely Ahmose I.
If Joseph rose earlier under native Egyptian rule, the “new king” could be a later Pharaoh such as Thutmose III or Seti I.
📍 1. The Early Date (15th century BC, ca. 1446 BC)
📍 1. The Early Date (15th century BC, ca. 1446 BC)
Sojourn length assumed: Short (215 years in Egypt, 430 years total since Abraham).
Key Text: 1 Kings 6:1 says Solomon began the temple in the 480th year after the Exodus. Counting back from ~966 BC gives ~1446 BC.
Pharaohs involved:
Oppression Pharaoh: Thutmose III (1504–1450 BC) – long, powerful reign; fits the “new king who did not know Joseph” (Exo 1:8).
Exodus Pharaoh: Amenhotep II (1450–1425 BC) – reign length and military campaigns line up with a sudden disruption in Egypt’s strength.
Strengths: Matches the biblical 480 years; genealogies (Levi–Moses) fit better with ~215 years in Egypt.
📍 2. The Late Date (13th century BC, ca. 1260 BC)
📍 2. The Late Date (13th century BC, ca. 1260 BC)
Sojourn length assumed: Long (430 years entirely in Egypt).
Key Argument: Archaeological finds (like cities built with bricks, e.g., Pi-Ramesses in Exo 1:11) are dated to the 13th century.
Pharaohs involved:
Oppression Pharaoh: Seti I (1294–1279 BC).
Exodus Pharaoh: Ramesses II (1279–1213 BC), the traditional “Exodus Pharaoh” in popular imagination (Ten Commandments movie, etc.).
Strengths: Archaeology lines up with the name “Raamses”; a 430-year stay in Egypt is the plain reading of Exo 12:40 in the Masoretic Text.
No matter who it was the more important point was the memory of Joseph, what he did for the country was gone.
And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.
They’re oppressed made into slaves and treated poorly. Even worse that wasn’t enough this king of Egypt he needs to end their population growth.
Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?”
Now, I have a question for you… Is it a sin to lie? The answer might surprise you when I say, not all the time. This is one of those times it’s not sinful to lie to an evil ruler who’s instructed you to murder babies so you lie to protect them and yourself. How are they treated by God in response to their lies to the Pharaoh?
The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
They’re dealt with well, the Hebrew people continue to multiply and grow strong and the midwives become God fearing and are blessed with families themselves. But look where Pharoah pivots!
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”
He’s not keeping to the midwives now he’s empowering everyone, not just empowering or saying if you also hate these people you’re allowed to kill the boy babies, but commanding them to jump in and start the see a baby drown a baby policy.
Well while this policy is going on we get Chapter 2 events
Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.
This kick off in Exod 2:1 is not intended to be a sudden these two people meet and marry and have Moses. It’s a somewhat common literary device to shift the story into a closer picture of something in this case the birth of a savior. We find out later on Aaron is 3 years older than Moses so the introduction of family is there to pivot our story into a smaller scene rather than tell the immediate events. Now in this passage we get a parallel to another savior story. The key to that is the ark word is used. But it isn’t just the single use of a word it’s some of the description of its construction.
(Tevah) Ark
Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.
Make the ark and cover it with pitch is part of the instruction to Noah. So it is reminding us of someone that God choose to save.
And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”
Now, what was she supposed to do according to the law of her own father? See a baby drown a baby, but she had pity and saved him.
Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
