Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. 10″Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land.” 11So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel. 13The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously; 14and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them. 15Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah; 16and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 17But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live. 18So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?” 19The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.” 20So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty. 21Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them. 22Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.”
Life can change quickly. One day you’re up and the next you can be down. The family of Jacob (Israel) had moved to Egypt where they were treated well because of Joseph. They were given choice land to graze their cattle and their life was pleasant. But Joseph died and a new king came into power over Egypt. The king did not know Joseph or what he had done for the previous king. When the new king saw that the Hebrew people were increasing in number rapidly he feared they might join in league with an enemy to overthrow the Egyptians. He gave orders that newborn baby Hebrew boys were to be killed. Also he enslaves the Hebrews and made their lives miserable. Life became almost unbearable for them.
Even today, we can be enjoying a good, prosperous, and healthy life and suddenly some sort of unexpected disaster takes places. Our first response usually is, “why is this happening to me?” Sometimes people will even wonder why God allows such things to take place. It is a reasonable question and one that must be answered because if we do not find a reasonable answer we go on blaming God and rather walking with God turn away from Him.
Send for our booklet on “Why God Allows Suffering?” Also, we have a sermon entitles, “Why Didn’t God Destroy Satan?” that will help you understand better the problem of suffering and why God allows it. Just fill out the request form below and we will send the booklet and the sermon on CD absolutely FREE. We hope to hear from you.
