More Afraid of YOU!

When I was a child, my grandparents had a rose bush next to the front porch. The carpenter bees would chase smaller insects and flies away, defending the nest; but even went after larger objects like me for instance. I was terrified of them. Sometimes they would hover near my face, and zip past me. But my grandmother would say, “They are more afraid of you than you are of them.” As I’ve been reading Exodus I am reminded of those wise words, especially in light of the past few years. Covid-19, experimental ‘vaccines,’ masking, taking away gun rights, trying to eliminate your ability to defend your home or person, and all the related things really “woke” us up in some ways. The point is, “They are more afraid of you!”

Exodus 1

Through Joseph, God saved Egypt and the surrounding land from a destructive famine that would have killed everyone, Israel’s family moved into the area of Goshen to raise cattle, for they were shepherds. The original number of the family was seventy (Exodus 1:5). The children of Israel were fruitful, increased abundantly, and multiplied. They were exceedingly mighty, and the land was full of them (Exodus 1:7).

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; “come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage–in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.

– Exodus 1:8-14 NKJV

The king of Egypt realized that the Israelites were mightier than they, and in much greater numbers. How many? It is estimated that there was 600,000 men of fighting age, which brings the total to about 2.4 million people! Got Questions has a pretty accurate article on the topic. Just imagine, from 70 to 2.4 million in about 430 years! This made the Egyptians scared and in dread of them. So, in order to put them under control so they wouldn’t rise up against them, they instilled fear in the children of Israel and put heavy burdens on them. They controlled their livelihood and their health because they were in dread of them. Dread, meant they were afraid of the Israelites, and afraid of what they might do if they realized the power they had in numbers. But the more the Egyptians afflicted them, the more the Israelites grew in numbers (Exodus 1:12).

Since this only increased their population, the king of Egypt incorporated eugenics into the mix and told the Hebrew Midwives to kill the male infants but spare the females (Exodus 1:15-16). But the Midwives feared God more and did not do as the king of Egypt said (Exodus 1:17-21). God blessed their faithfulness. Since Pharaoh couldn’t count on the Midwives to do his dirty work, he commanded all the Egyptians saying, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.” (Exodus 1:22 ESV).

Here you can clearly see that it was the Egyptians that struck the first blow when it came to the sacrificing of the male infants, not God when He first, turned all the waters to blood; and last, killed all the firstborn males who did not perform the Passover rites as He commanded. God shown warning first, and through all other plagues. But even the last, God showed even more mercy by only killing the first born, not the entire house of male children.

No different than our history?

Throughout history, man has been trying and sometimes succeeding in controlling others for gain or eliminating a threat. Stalin, Hitler, slavery, and even Planned Parenthood under the guise of Margret Sanger and her involvement in the eugenics movement just to name a few. Man wanting to control others is based on fear. Fear motivates people to do the most unimaginable to other human beings. Fear makes us do things that we wouldn’t otherwise do.

How are we to respond?

The world is no different today than that of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and this should give us Christians a good example to follow.

Contrary to some beliefs of Christians, we are not to listen to government and do everything they say, especially when it goes against what the Bible teaches. The king of Egypt, Pharaoh, and the leaders were afraid of the Israelites more than the Israelites were afraid of them. That was obvious.

To make even more of a point, at the Red Sea crossing, there were 2.4 million Israelites who went out with boldness. But who did Pharaoh take with him to go after the Jews? 600 chariots. Even if each chariot consisted of two men, that is 1,200 Egyptian soldiers vs 600,000 Israelite men. Yet it was the Israelites who were trembling with fear. Why? If the Israelites would have stood up against the Egyptians from the start, they would have seen the value in their numbers.

Think we are any different today? We are not.

Remember during Covid lockdowns in Victoria, Australia when people were locked in their homes, no way to get food, water, and people were getting arrested for being out. According to Google, there were over 6.6 million people that lived there in 2020. Want to take a guess of how many police there were in Victoria, Australia at the same time? 16,140. That means 408 people were controlled by one officer. So, who should be afraid of who? Secretly, they are; that’s why they want control. No different than Pharaoh.