Exodus 1

So as we resume the narrative, let's recap:  The children of Israel, a couple of hundred souls all together, have come to Egypt to weather the drought.  While there they have been granted land to live in thanks to their brother Joseph, the 2nd in command of the nation.  Now, remember, God had already told Abraham about his descendants moving south and going into slavery for centuries and then returning to Canaan to establish their nation.  I have to believe that the patriarch of this clan did not keep that story a secret.  If his children have the imagery of the "Promised Land" they should know the rest of it, right?  So we begin Exodus...

Exodus 1

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household:² Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, ³ Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, ⁴ Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. ⁵ The total number of people born to Jacob was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt. ⁶ Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and that whole generation. ⁷ But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

The Israelites Are Oppressed

⁸ Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. ⁹ He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. ¹⁰ Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” ¹¹ Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. ¹³ The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, ¹⁴ and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.
¹⁵ The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ¹⁶ “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” ¹⁷ But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. ¹⁸ So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” ¹⁹ 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.” ²⁰ So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. ²¹ And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. ²² Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews^[a] you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”

            _________________________________________

Power and fear.  They seem to go hand in hand.  Specifically power and the fear of losing power.  The Israelites are growing...wait, first off:  Jacob had 70 children?  What the what?  "The total number of people born to Jacob was 70!" Let's just sit with that for a moment.  Wow.

Anyway, the Israelites are growing in number and strength.  Every hard labor or persecution only seems to multiply them.  The Egyptians fear that they will lose power someday...when some imaginary enemy attacks and rallies the Israelites to rebel...and so the only solution is to oppress them more?  How does that make sense?  You could develop friends and allies, but bullying seems more practical?  It doesn't make sense, but that is what fear does.  It clouds the mind and demands immediate action, be it fight or flight.  So they decide shrewd manipulation, oppressions and population control will be the best way to extract all benefit from the Israelites without losing control.  It is the way that nations have acted over the centuries and it never ends well.