When we look at the scripture in the Bible and attempt to understand it, we must look at it the same way we look at any other piece of literature. Keep in mind that the Bible is not just one book, but a combination of books inside of a book that comes together to paint a bigger picture. The underlying theme of the Bible as a whole is abuse vs. love.
What we find as we read is a multitude of stories about oppressed people who are abused by others. God pulled the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt not because they were slaves, but because they were oppressed slaves. Slaves during this time were just servants who were treated very well by their masters for the most part. After 7 years they had the option to go free from servitude or to continue to live with their masters as part of the family.
So when we look closer at the Exodus, we find that the reason God freed Isreal was because of oppressive, abusive slavery. They were not well cared for, they were beaten, and they were worked to the point of death. The Pharoah of the time didn’t care for them and he had no love for them. The Pharoah before him who brought them into Egypt had cared for them greatly.
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.”
Exodus 1:8-10It was a change of regime that lead to the abuse of Israel by the Egyptians. The route that God chose to take to free them from this abuse was a carefully planned one. The reason God had to carefully plan their escape in the way that he did was to make sure that everyone got out safely and no more lives were lost in the process.
7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
Exodus 3:7-10In today’s world, as we fight abuse and domestic violence, we take the lesson from the Exodus and apply it in the same way that God did to Israel. We carefully plan to make a safe exit. We can view from the Exodus how God did this. God didn’t just move the Israelites out immediately, but he did it in a carefully planned out and very specific way.
So when we plan our safe exit from our abuse, we need a safety plan and a list of the items we need to take with us so that we do not have to ever return. As you plan for safety, review the story in the book of Exodus, paying close attention to how God carefully maneuvered Israel out of the hands of Pharoah.