Exodus Section 2: Oppression - Notes

Section 2: Oppression - Exodus: 1: 8-22                                  4/21/13

Some notes from our discussion

Initial observations about this passage
frequent words:  numerous, many, strengthened.   Forced labor, oppressed, ruthless, hard service.

Characters in this passage:  midwives, Pharaoh, Israelite people, pregnant women.

The Hebrews didn't do anything wrong.  They were just reproducing a lot, but they ended up being oppressed.

Pharaoh is afraid, which leads to oppression, which leads to Pharaoh being more afraid, which leads to more oppression.

He tried to get the midwives to do his dirty work.

Theme or topic of this section

God will provide and provide and provide and provide….

Perseverance

God laughing at Pharaoh

God protected

Midwives Obey God

Midwives outwit Pharaoh, but oppression of the Israelites continues

Some interesting points

- Pharaoh’s problem:  fear.  He is paranoid.  He wants to contain something uncontrollable.  He didn’t trust anybody.  He asks somebody else to do his dirty work for him.  Pharaoh is gullible, not too smart, afraid.

- Israelite people’s problem:  Pharaoh!  And being oppressed.

- The midwives feared God, rather than fearing Pharaoh.   Only the midwives are mentioned by name.  Perhaps this is a way of remembering them for their bravery.  God is acting in these events, through the midwives.

- We had some discussion of the best posture for giving birth (off topic!)

What we learned about the nature of God from this passage

- God is mysterious.  We don’t know God’s timeline.

- God interjected himself directly in the situation, through the midwives.

- God doesn’t forget to thank the midwives.

- God doesn’t work all by himself, but works through people.

What we learned from this passage that we can apply to our lives

- Stand up to oppression!

- If you do what God wants, you will be rewarded, but it might take a looooooong time.

- Trust God, like the midwives did.