NOTES for Exo 1:1-22

The situation of Jacob's descendants in Egypt changed fairly soon after Joseph's death. The sacred writer connects these changes with a new pharaoh, who no longer "knew Joseph" (v. 8). And the matter here, of course, was not only the change of power as such. Apparently, very soon after Joseph and his generation passed from life, when Jacob's descendants had grown in number and settled throughout the Nile Delta (vv. 6-7), a new dynasty came to power in Egypt, no longer Semitic but Egyptian in origin, for which the Semitic tribes of the delta were not a support but an obstacle. In addition, the Semites who lived there became hostages of their geopolitical position: they found themselves in the rear of the Eastern Corps of the Egyptian army, which covered the delta region from the Sinai side and the strategic coastal road connecting the central regions of Egypt with the cities of northern and central Palestine, which at that time were under Egyptian rule. The threat came from the Semitic tribes of the Sinai Peninsula, the closest ethnic relatives of the tribes of the delta. No wonder that in such a situation the authorities seriously feared an uprising in the rear of the Eastern Corps in the event of war (v. 10).

Moreover, if we speak not of Egypt as a whole but of the delta region, the Semites evidently greatly outnumbered the Egyptians there (v. 9); such local superiority was apparently explained both by a higher birth rate compared with the Egyptian average (v. 12) and by the fact that the Egyptians themselves were not very eager to settle in the delta region. Evidently at this time the Semites of the delta (including Jacob's descendants) began to be recruited for public works, in which the whole peasant population of the country traditionally participated (vv. 11-14), and which must have seemed like true slave labor to the Hebrews, who were unaccustomed to such activities. However, judging by the fact that their birth rate did not fall as a result (v. 12), the living conditions of Jacob's descendants in Egypt were still not too materially harsh. In this situation the Egyptian authorities began to take measures unprecedented in Egyptian history to reduce the birth rate and the size of the male population (vv. 15-22).

And what, one might ask, can an ordinary person do in such a situation, without power and without the ability to influence the decisions made by the authorities? Not so little, as the experience of the midwives mentioned in the story showed (vv. 15-19). Of course, such an act requires resolve, and that appears when faithfulness to God stands higher in a person's life than fear of the authorities (v. 17).

One could think that the resolve of the midwives did not change the situation of their fellow tribesmen (v. 22), so that they only exposed themselves to risk in vain. But for God, the choice a person makes in one situation or another is no less important than its outcome, since it is precisely on the choice made that a person's destiny in God's eternity depends. And God does not abandon those who choose His path (v. 21). The historical collisions in which people have to participate remain in history, while their participants take a step into the Kingdom of God. Or they do not take it, departing into darkness.