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STUDIES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

—INTERNATIONAL S.S. LESSONS—

SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS DESIGNED TO ASSIST THOSE OF OUR READERS WHO ATTEND BIBLE CLASSES WHERE THESE LESSONS ARE USED; THAT THEY MAY BE ENABLED TO LEAD OTHERS INTO THE FULNESS OF THE GOSPEL

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ISRAEL IN EGYPT

II. QUAR., LESSON VII., MAY 13, EXOD. 1:1-14

Golden Text—”Our help is in the name of the Lord.”—Psa. 124:8

As preceding lessons showed us how God prepared a place for his people in Egypt and transported them thither and planted them in the best of the land and gave them great temporal prosperity during the lifetime of all the first generation, we now come to view them under another course of instruction—this time in the school of adversity.

In the midst of prosperity they had marvelously increased so that the second generation filled the land of Goshen; and the new king which knew not Joseph, and the new generation of Egyptians, too, which forgot the gratitude of their fathers toward Joseph and the disposition to manifest it in favor to his relatives and descendants, began to fear lest this prosperous people in their midst might some time rise up against them or ally themselves with their enemies. Hence the decree of the king mentioned in verse 10.

VERSES 11-14 tell the bitter story of their oppression, under which they were taught valuable lessons of humility and patience, of dependence upon God, and of hope for deliverance inspired by his precious promises. Here, too, their common sufferings bound them together as a people, and kept them distinct and separate from the Egyptians

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and consequently from their influence in matters of religion, etc.

But notwithstanding their hard bondage the promises of God that they should rapidly multiply (Gen. 15:5; 22:17) was being fulfilled, so that, from the handful of seventy souls that went down into Egypt, there

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came out, after about three centuries, about six hundred thousand men, which implies a population of about two millions.

To those who are able, through a knowledge of God’s plan, to rise to his standpoint in viewing his dealings with his people, there is a most manifest exhibition of fatherly wisdom and care in this discipline in Egypt, as well as in all their subsequent leadings. As a wise father, God foresaw that too much prosperity would be greatly to their disadvantage—tending to pride, ambition, independence, self-gratification, self-indulgence, indolence; and to assimilation with friendly aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and the imbibing of their idolatrous principles and practices. All this was checked and guarded against by the bitter experiences of Israel in Egypt, while the opposite tendencies were all encouraged. And thus also the way was paved for a grand exhibition of God’s further care and wisdom in their timely and wonderful deliverance when his purposes for them in Egypt had been fully accomplished.

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— May 1&15, 1894 —