And he said to his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more numerous and stronger than we.
A new king rises in Egypt, Joseph's name means nothing to him, and his first words warn his own people about the Hebrews. Why did a nation that welcomed Israel as guests now see them as a threat?
Egypt had once saved Jacob's family from famine. Under this king it became something else.
A century or two rolled by, and their fortunes changed completely. Egypt had been a place of refuge for them, a kindly shelter in the time of famine and affliction. It now became to them the house of bondage. It became the "smoking furnace" that Abraham had seen when the "horror of great darkness" fell upon him, as recorded in Genesis 15:12.
Egypt owed its plenty to Joseph, and the new king had forgotten him.
That land was the ungrateful one, the rebellious one. She had departed from Joseph, and so from God Himself, from Him who had filled her storehouses with plenty and her throne with honour and strength. So Egypt was the world in miniature — the great deserter from its rightful Lord and gracious Benefactor.
Pharaoh's complaint is really a report on what God had been doing. One writer, tracing these events in a psalm, puts it like this.
Through God's favour they increase greatly, and they become stronger than their enemies. Pharaoh's own words say so (Ex. 1:9). This, no doubt, is how we are to understand the verse that follows: "He turned their heart to hate His people." God has only to show His favour like this, and the tide of opposition rises in full force.
Another writer asks whether such a policy was just, or wise in the long run.
There had never been hostility. The sons of Israel were in no way prisoners of war or captives of any kind. They had given no reason for suspicion of seeking rule over Egypt... Yet the king who did not know Joseph dreaded their growing number and strength. They had served him for a long time... Was this in any way just? And is an unjust policy "wise" in the long run, or defensible in itself?
Pharaoh's plan reads like careful statesmanship. He weighs every factor except one.
Pharaoh could list the possible turns of human affairs, and list them correctly. The people might multiply. War might break out. They might join the enemy and escape out of the land. He could weigh all these circumstances with rare skill. But it never once occurred to him that God might have anything to do with the matter. One thought of God would have overturned his whole line of reasoning. It would have written folly across all his schemes.
The stated reasons are national security. Commentators point to a deeper struggle running underneath them.
Political reasons drove Pharaoh and his princes (Ex. 1:9-10). But there was a deeper reason than that. The enemy of souls was in all this, working behind the scenes to ruin the whole human race for ever, if he could. If Pharaoh had destroyed every male child of Israel, Christ could not have come from the house and line of David. The conflict looked like Egypt's interests against Israel's. It was really between God and the devil. God desired to bless men; the devil sought to ruin them.
Commentators differ on whether Pharaoh had real grounds for his fear. One points to where Israel lived, and to what the policy achieved in the end.
Israel lived on the frontier facing Canaan, and there were many of them. If a fresh war broke out with the old enemies in Canaan, they might open up the very heart of Egypt to them. He had grounds for his fears and for his policy, and he succeeded. His slaves made Egypt magnificent; their misery built his temples. But though Pharaoh did not know it, he did more — he made these Hebrew slaves long for liberty, and cry to their God for rest. So the enemy always defeats himself by his success.
There was also a promise standing over Israel that no Egyptian policy could get around.
In any case the righteous Lord loves righteousness. He is never indifferent to injustice, least of all injustice against the family of Abraham, "the friend of God." No one who is unfair or cruel to Abraham's descendants will prosper. "I will bless those who bless you," the Lord said to Abram, "and curse him who curses you."
- Increase — the numbers that alarmed Pharaoh came from God's favour, not from Israel's ambition.
- Fear — that visible favour was enough by itself to turn a whole nation's heart to hatred.
- Forgetting — a king who no longer remembered Joseph pictures a world that has forgotten the One who fed it.
- Scheming — Pharaoh weighed every possibility with skill but left God out. That one gap made folly of the whole plan.
- Defeat — the oppression built his cities, but it taught his slaves to cry to God for freedom. God had already promised to curse anyone who curses Abraham's line.
Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass that, if war occur, they take side with our enemies and fight against us, and go up out of the land.
A new king in Egypt saw Israel's growth as a threat. His answer was a plan: outthink them before they outnumber us. The verse shows a ruler who can weigh every human factor except one. Commentators ask whether that kind of calculation deserves the name of wisdom at all. (Older translations read "let us deal wisely with them," and the quotes below use that wording.)
Pharaoh's speech is a chain of if-then reasoning. Each link holds on its own terms. What ruins the sum is the one factor he never counted.
In Pharaoh's case, we see that he could list every possible turn of human affairs — the people multiplying, war breaking out, their joining with the enemy, their escape out of the land. He could weigh all these things with unusual shrewdness. But it never once occurred to him that God could have anything at all to do with the matter. Had he only thought of this, it would have upset his whole line of reasoning, and written folly across all his schemes.
God had settled the outcome long before Pharaoh was born.
He did not know that, hundreds of years earlier, before he had ever drawn a breath, God's word and oath — "two unchangeable things" — had made the full and glorious deliverance of that very people certain. And these were the people he was setting out, in his wisdom, to crush... He imagined, in vain, that his own management could stop the growth of a people about whom God had said, "they shall be as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore." So his wise dealing was simply madness and folly.
In political terms, the king's worry had real grounds.
What we now know of Egypt's history shows us that on several grounds Pharaoh was wise here in his country's interest. Egypt's armies had only lately conquered the nations of Canaan. A true Egyptian could see the Hebrew only as more or less connected — by custom at least — with the peoples of Canaan. Israel lived on the border facing Canaan, and they were many. If war with the old Canaanite enemies broke out again, they could open up the very heart of Egypt to the enemy, for they lived inside the line of border forts.
Yet fear does not make a policy just. One writer weighs how Israel had actually behaved in Egypt, and ends with a question.
In this case it broke the friendly agreement that had settled Israel and his sons in Goshen. There had never been hostility. They had given no reason to suspect them of seeking to rule Egypt. They had never given up the hope of returning to Canaan as their promised land. The burial of Jacob announced this loudly; the unburied coffin of Joseph, still more loudly... Was this just in any degree? And is an unjust policy "wise" in the long run, or justifiable in itself?
Behind Pharaoh's plan, one writer sees another mind at work.
Satan knows what we tend to forget: the world must hate the children of God, and they, if faithful, must stand against the world. So, in the person of Pharaoh, he seems to plan ahead for the chance of war, and to prevent their deliverance.
The deeper aim reached past Israel altogether.
Political reasons drove Pharaoh and his princes. But there was a deeper reason than that. The enemy of souls was surely in all this, working behind the scenes to ruin the whole human race for ever, if he could. If every male child of Israel had died, Christ could not have been born of the house and family line of David. So the conflict looked like Egyptian interests against Israel's, but it was really between God and the devil.
The forced labour meant to weaken Israel became their training.
The wisdom of the world overreaches and defeats itself. It was bad policy for the Egyptians to live in idleness and luxury, and to dump their hard, skilled labour on their servants as a crushing burden. It was a good apprenticeship for those who were to be mighty as well as populous, and to possess the gate of their enemies.
The policy worked — and its success gave Israel something Pharaoh never intended.
But, though Pharaoh did not know it, he did more — he made these Hebrew slaves long for freedom, and cry to their God for rest. So the enemy always defeats himself by his success.
- Shrewd — Pharaoh weighed every human factor with real skill. He left out only God, and that one gap wrote folly across the whole plan.
- Grounded — his fear was not imaginary. Israel was large, and lived on the border facing Canaan, which Egypt had just conquered.
- Unjust — Israel had given no cause for suspicion. So can an unjust policy ever be called wise?
- Deeper — behind the throne stood an enemy. He aimed past Israel at the family line that would bring Christ.
- Backfired — the hard labour trained a future army, and made slaves cry to God. The enemy defeats himself by his own success.