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- 371 verse. They will remember that Joseph, having been raised to a place of great influence, encouraged his father and the great household of which he was one to come to Egypt; and, of course, as long as Joseph lived, and his great public service was gratefully remembered, they were treated with favor and enjoyed prosperity. It was a promise to their fathers that their offspring would increase and multiply, and in fulfilment of it the group of people that Pharaoh had welcomed—seventy in number (v. 5)—had now become so numerous that the monarch, who had nothing to do with or to recall Joseph’s services (v. 8), and who ruled that part of Egypt (for all the land was not under one ruler), began to fear them. He dreaded what might happen. If a war broke out—and such events were common where rival races and leaders held portions of a great country—the Hebrews might side with the enemy, defeat him and his army, and so be free to “get them up out of the land.” Incidentally he here confirms
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374 the consistent narrative of the Bible. The descendants of Jacob had been told all along, no doubt, of the promises made to their fathers of another land to be all their own; and when they began to be treated as serfs and slaves, they naturally thought, and no doubt spoke, of this their expected movement. He meant to repress them in numbers and in resources, and to keep them under control.
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376 We who live in the United States speak freely of our liberties and advantages. So we well may, and the deepest gratitude ought to fill our hearts when we look at the bondage in which pride, ambition, and the love of continued power have too often held the feeble. We are to be careful as to the use we make of our advantages, to do all we can to extend such blessings, and to remember that if ever we be tempted to abuse our power, the just Ruler, who is stronger than all nations combined, will humble and punish us. The end does not justify the means. Pharaoh, as a ruler who had freed his
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379 people from an alien neighboring power, meant well, but his cruel and oppressive policy in the end led to defeat and ruin in the waters of the Red Sea. Goshen was (Gen. xlvii. 6) and still is the most fertile tract in Egypt. It is now known as Es-Shurkiveh. The new King, first of a new dynasty possibly, did not wish to lose an industrious race of vassals, but he meant to keep them down and keep them under control. Hence the tasks imposed upon them, after the fashion of the time.
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381 And here it may be mentioned that much study is now being given to Egypt by learned men. In fact, a science is growing up called Egyptology. The proofs of the truth of the Bible thus given are many and wonderful. An inscription, for example, believed by scholars to point to the twenty-second year of this Pharaoh, shows him rebuilding temples and storehouses, and employing foreigners for the doing of the work. Two cities particularly are mentioned in Scripture, the names of which stand on Egyp-
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