How did Israel end up enslaved in Egypt?

In Exodus 1-2, the family of Israel has grown into a nation — and into slavery. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt opens the book of Exodus and shows that its story is, in a sense, our story too. Generations after Joseph, “a new king arose who did not know Joseph” and enslaved the Israelites, even ordering their baby boys killed. Yet God was at work: a Levite child named Moses was hidden in a basket and rescued — placed, by God’s irony, inside Pharaoh’s own household. Dr. Holt shows how God keeps the promises He made to Abraham centuries earlier, preserving His people against every threat. Exodus is ultimately a picture of God redeeming a people for Himself.

Questions this study answers:

1. Who was Moses, and why was he born under a death edict? He was a Hebrew child born when Pharaoh had ordered every Israelite baby boy killed. God preserved him to become Israel’s deliverer.

2. Why did Egypt enslave Israel? A new Pharaoh, who did not honor Joseph, feared the growing nation and forced them into brutal slavery. Fear drove his cruelty.

3. How is Exodus a picture of the gospel? It shows God rescuing a helpless, enslaved people for Himself. That deliverance points to the greater rescue from sin in Christ. “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” — Exodus 1:8 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Listen and go deeper: This sermon is part of the Exodus Explained study from New Geneva Theological Seminary. Find more verse-by-verse teaching across the Bible at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.

Welcome to part one of our ten-part series on the book of Exodus.

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In today's study, we'll learn about the birth of Moses, the threats of Pharaoh,

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and the prayer of God's people for deliverance.

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Why Exodus? Of all the books of the Bible, why this particular one?

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You see, of all the books of the Bible, I've got a theory, and my theory is this.

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You probably know Exodus more than just about any other book, at least in the Old Testament.

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You've heard about the plagues and the Ten Commandments and the Passover and the burning

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bush and the manna in the wilderness and the like. You've heard these things. You've heard

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the story of the slavery and the oppression that the Israelites went under at the boot of the

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Egyptians and their Pharaoh. And you've heard the story of the deliverance brought about through

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Moses. Most everything that we're going to cover in these 10 weeks, you've encountered.

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So why study Exodus? Well, here's the thing. In spite of all that we know, I think we know about

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exodus there's one thing most folks have missed and here's what it is most of the time when we've

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heard the story of exodus we've filtered it through the lens of something happened to the jews to the

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israelites to a different people than us a long time ago in a place far far away so we think of

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pharaoh and his boot down upon them we think of the deliverance and we think of all these things

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we filter through well that's what god did with the jews and at the same time we miss this the

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book of exodus is not simply the story of some other ethnic people rather it is the story of us

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you and i if we have the faith of abraham then we're abraham's children and if you and i are

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abraham's children then exodus exodus is our story across 10 weeks we're going to see exodus is the

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story of us is the story of the church all right let's dive right in and see how this is so let's

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look at verses one through seven the very start of this book chapter one verses one through seven

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I'm going to read this text, and as we usually do, I'm just going to work our way through as time

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would allow. Verses 1 through 7. Now, these are the names of the children of Israel who came to

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Egypt. Each man in his household came with Jacob. There was Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar,

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Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. All those who were descendants of Jacob were 70

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persons because Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph then died. I like how God is just a matter

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fact joseph is dead joseph died and all his brothers and all of that generation but but the

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covenant continues but the children of israel were fruitful and they increased abundantly they

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multiplied and they grew exceedingly mighty and the land was filled with them all right let's stop

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there as we said a few moments ago the book of exodus continues the historical record that we

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found in genesis you have genesis and you have exodus and the one story feeds right into the

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But second, Exodus picks up at the time where Genesis left off.

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God's people, as you remember, at the end of Genesis,

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they'd gone into Egypt in order to escape a famine.

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If you remember the narrative at the end of the book of Genesis,

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a famine had hit Jacob and his family in the land of Canaan.

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And so they looked for supplies and help.

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Where? In Egypt.

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And so they reached out.

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Ten of the eleven brothers initially reached out to Egypt,

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and they got connected with Joseph.

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And as the story goes, Joseph ultimately recognizes these as his brothers.

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and after a bunch of palace intrigue, he invites them to come and stay, and so they do. The family

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moves into Egypt in order to escape the famine that otherwise would have consumed them. So they

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move to Egypt for a significant amount of time, a time that's so long that Joseph dies, and the

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brothers die, and everyone of that generation dies, which is what we see here in the first

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few verses. Now initially, when God's people had been in Egypt, things had gone well, right?

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Initially, things had gone swimmingly, honestly. There had been a great time for all at that point.

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when they had been in Egypt.

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Under Joseph's initial protection, and even for a season thereafter,

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the people, they had been given a good land, a good stead,

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they were blessed for a great multitude of time, after Joseph's death even.

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And verse 7 says that as a result of the blessings that they received,

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verse 7 says that they were fruitful and they multiplied,

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which is the dominion mandate that we see elsewhere in Scripture.

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They were fruitful and they multiplied, and they began to fill the land.

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So, so far, so good.

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So far, the story's going well for God's people.

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But in due time, as we see in verse 6, Joseph dies.

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He reaches the age of 110, as we see in Genesis chapter 50, and then he is dead.

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Now, the ensuing generations would die off as well, and that brings us to verse 8.

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In verse 8, there's a change in the winds.

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In verse 8, there's foreboding news.

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What news is that?

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Let's look together.

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Verse 8, now there arose a new king over Egypt,

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And he did not know Joseph.

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There arose a new king over Egypt.

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With these simple words, we see the entrance to the greatest villain of the Old Testament.

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Bum, bum, bum.

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There rose a king, and he did not know Joseph.

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Now, who is this guy? What king is this? What pharaoh is this?

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Well, honestly, there's a lot of debate over what pharaoh this was.

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According to the noted theologian Cecil B. DeMille, the pharaoh named Ramses was the pharaoh here.

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Now, others don't agree with Cecil B. DeMille.

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They would say Amenhotep or a guy named Thutmose or Tutankhamen, who you know as who?

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King Tut.

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So there's a number of different guys.

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Honestly, I'm not even covering all of them.

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There's a number of different people that think, well, maybe it was this pharaoh or that pharaoh, what have you.

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What's fascinating is the Bible doesn't even bother to name this guy, which to my view is a case of divine irony.

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Here's the reason why.

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Of all of the cultures of antiquity, of all of them,

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can you guess what culture's leaders put the greatest primacy

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on being remembered in the years to come?

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Egypt.

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Pharaohs wanted to be remembered.

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That's why they built all these pyramids and all other things.

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Pharaohs wanted to be remembered after they were gone.

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It was really, really important to the pharaohs that they be recalled at time after,

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which is why they had all these building projects and the like.

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They built shrines for the namesakes.

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They wanted to be remembered.

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And because of that is wonderful divine irony

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that God in scripture doesn't even bother giving the name.

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With that said, the salient point to verse eight is this,

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that whoever this Pharaoh was, he didn't know Joseph.

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He didn't know Joseph.

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And that implies that he felt no sense of empathy

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or obligation to Joseph's descendants.

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All right, let's look at verses nine through 14 now.

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and this pharaoh this king whoever this guy was he said to his people verse 9 he says look the

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people of the children of israel they're more and they're mightier than we come therefore let us

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deal shrewdly with them lest they were to multiply and it were to happen in the event of a war that

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they were to join our enemies and that they were to fight against us and then go up out of our land

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therefore they set up taskmasters over to afflict them in their burdens and they built for pharaoh

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supply cities pitom and ramses but the more they afflicted them the more they multiplied and grew

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and they were in dread of the children of israel so the egyptians made the children of israel serve

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with rigor and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage and mortar and brick and all manner

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of service in the field and their service in which they made them serve was with rigor it's repeated

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because the emphasis is on how hard and how brutal and how uncomfortable this service was all right

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in these verses in verses 9 through 14 we see that this new pharaoh he's going to change the

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arrangement that the people that the jews had with the egyptians there had been a certain

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arrangement that had gone for a period of time and it probably altered somewhat across the centuries

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here but he's going to change it significantly now why would he do that what's the reason for

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doing that well the pretext for this change in verse 9 was the threat that the jews if we keep

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letting them grow and they're fruitful and multiplying they'll overtake the land and he

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says, no, we can't have this. He says, look, if the Jews become so fruitful and multiply, they'll

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outnumber us. And honestly, what will happen is that the Hittites up to the north, you know, they

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want to come in and mess with us anyway. And if they come mess with us, and then they find the

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Jews are willing, complicit with that, we might find ourselves outnumbered in our own land. We've

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got to act. We've got to do something. So the Pharaoh, the Pharaoh, he sees a threat in the

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people of israel and he determines to act that's at least part of his motivation with that said

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pharaoh probably didn't understand egypt's history as well as he should have before making these

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choices he didn't look back at egypt's own history and recognize that so long as the jews had been

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within his borders things had honestly gone very well as long as god's people were there god's

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provision had been there now the pharaoh evidently he didn't know that or pay attention to that or

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read the history books or he didn't care so what did he care about well like all the pharaohs we

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mentioned it before he cared about his namesake he cared about his ambitions he cared about his

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building projects he cared about expanding egypt's might and authority during his reign and because

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he looked around and said you know i really want to make egypt great you know we're going to really

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improve egypt and the like when he looked at the jews then he saw a source of forced labor

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of compelled labor that might expedite his vision so on the one hand maybe he saw them as a threat

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that's certainly what he said but beyond that you also get a sense he looks around the things he

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wants to do and he says you know what these guys we use these guys we've really put them to work

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i mean they've been working before but we really turn the screws here we really put them to work

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with vigor or rigor remember that came up multiple times and then we'll really we'll really be able

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to build so this is his desire and this is the labor that verses 12 through 14 describe and

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verses 12 through 14 whatever relationship the jews had up to this point becomes far worse and

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now it's depicted as flat-out enslavement in order to assist pharaoh's building projects now

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let me ask you a question do you think anyone could have seen that coming the answer is yes

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Let me explain why.

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You know, if you were to look way back at Genesis, I mean way back, Genesis 15, this is early in the book.

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This is the time God's making covenants with Abraham, who's the first Jew, the first Jew.

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God's making a covenant with Abraham back in Genesis 15, and God's talking to Abraham about what the future's going to bring.

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The descendants, as many as the seashore, and the stars in the sky, and the land of Canaan, the promised land, all those different things.

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The future's so bright you have to wear shades, but something's coming.

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something's coming and the people the very people that will be descendants from you

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at a certain point they're going to become enslaved by four nations genesis 15 god warns

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abraham about egypt a long time before it happened he said this he said no certainly that your

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descendants will be strangers in a land that's not theirs and they will serve them and they will

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afflict them for 400 years centuries earlier god had told abraham the father the jews the first

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jew what would happen now moses would have known this outcome too i mean he's the one who wrote

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genesis with that said moses also knew that even though this season would occur that in time

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god would deliver his own because right after god told abraham about the jews affliction right after

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he warned him about what was going to happen. He also told Abraham, he says, you know, the nation

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I'm talking about, the nation that they're going to serve, the nation they're going to be enslaved

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to, I will judge it. And afterwards, my people will come out with great possessions. The time's

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going to come, Abraham, when the people, they're going to be enslaved in a foreign land and they're

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going to be there for a long time. But in due time, they're going to come out. In due time,

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I'm going to send and deliver. They're going to be taken out of bondage. And when they come out

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of bondage they're going to come out with great possessions which is interesting because that's

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exactly what we're going to see when we get a little further into our study so the point is

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this way back in genesis in genesis 15 you see the whole plot line for the book exodus in the book of

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genesis what god told abraham was the basic plot points for what would happen centuries later in

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the book exodus and even though we see great oppression that would come it would not last

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forever now we've talked about the pharaoh's intentions to oppress god's people to enslave

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them unfortunately that was only part of his evil plan the next few verses here pharaoh's going to

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double down on his wicked intentions verses 15 through 22 then the king of egypt spoke to the

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hebrew midwives of whom the name of one was shipra and the name of the other puah and he said when

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you do the duties of a midwife for the hebrew women and you see them on the birth stools if it

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is a son then you shall kill him but if it's a daughter then she shall live but the midwives

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they feared god and they did not do the thing that the king of egypt had commanded them and they

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saved the male children alive instead so the king of egypt called for the midwives and said to them

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why have you done this thing and saved the male children alive and the midwives said to pharaoh

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because the hebrew women they're not like the egyptian women they're lively they give birth

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before the midwives even get to them and therefore god dealt well with these midwives and the people

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multiplied and grew very mighty and so it was because the midwives feared god that he provided

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households for them and so pharaoh commanded all his people saying every son is born you shall cast

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into the river and every daughter you shall save alive all right in the first half of chapter one

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pharaoh demonstrated his depravity remember we called him the greatest villain in the old testament

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Well, he demonstrated that in the first half of chapter 1, when he enslaved all God's people.

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He enslaved a whole people group, and he castigated them as enemies.

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It's not just that he enslaved them, he castigated them as enemies of the people.

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And that wasn't the worst of it.

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In order to stop, here in the last half of chapter 1,

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in order to stop them from being fruitful and multiplying,

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he decrees all male children, all male babies will now be put to death.

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Now, let's presume for a minute that it played out just so.

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Well, let's presume that from there on out that all male children had been put to death.

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Taken to its logical extreme, this would have ultimately led to the extermination of the Jews as a whole.

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God's people, God's covenant people would have been wiped out if this had been allowed to continue.

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And that would have been an outcome that Pharaoh, he was just fine with.

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There was a commentator who said that in a sense you could argue that Pharaoh was the first Hitler.

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in both egypt and in germany the jews were portrayed how they're portrayed in both cases

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as enemies of the people enemies within and then their deaths their deaths were portrayed as good

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and necessary for the well-being of the motherland in both cases the jews were scapegoated 20th

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century germany and way way back here in the book of exodus the jews are scapegoated for domestic

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problems to the degree that their deaths even deaths of babies was considered just good policy

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good policy in order to build a more vibrant egypt and the like in a sense all the centuries

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later hitler was just borrowing from pharaoh's playbook in fact a lot of nations tried to borrow

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from pharaoh's playbook because a lot of nations came against israel with israel's extermination

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in view egypt's animosity germany's animosity towards the jews would be replicated in the old

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testament by the philistines by the amrites by the moabites by the hittites and the like

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later on by the assyrians by the babylonians by the greeks by the romans basically everybody

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had the same intention let me ask you a question have you ever met a philistine

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have you ever met an amorite hittite jebusite what have you why not assuming you haven't

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why not why haven't you met one well the obvious answer is this because they're gone

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you haven't met an Amorite or a Hittite or a Jebusite or what have you

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because there aren't any they are

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gone burned with the sand of time Pharaoh this Pharaoh

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all Pharaohs are dead same is true with the Caesars

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as is their empire all the nations that

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enslaved Israel they're gone there they're buried

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in the sands of time however you know what

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the Jews remain all these

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entities all these nations which almost in

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every case were more powerful than the Jews

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they're all gone

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Israel remains

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do you think that's an accident

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the Hittites Amorites the Philistines

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Jebusites Amorites what have you all the

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ites they are gone

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buried in the sands

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of time the Greeks the Romans Babylonians

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alike gone gone

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gone Israel still

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there not an accident

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why because God made a promise

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God had a covenant

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with his people a covenant

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he would protect and preserve and although they would undergo difficult seasons i mean look what

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god told abraham way back in jesus 15 although difficult seasons would come god would always

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preserve a remnant a remnant that he would continually even up into the 20th century

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restore into the very same land he told abraham they would have accident i think not you ever

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want proof that there's a god just pick up a globe draw a circle around israel on the map

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Rand McNally sometimes has better theology than some others.

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Exodus is the demonstration, as we look forward,

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Exodus is the demonstration that no matter what would befall God's people,

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that God would look after them, that he would protect them,

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that he would insulate them.

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And he made no such promise to Egypt.

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He made no such promise to the Philistines.

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He made no such promise to any of these other nations.

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But he made the promise to Israel, and he's kept it to the point

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where all these centuries later, after undergoing oppression and exile

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and holocaust, they are still there. That defies every expectation that the authors of history

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could ever assign to this small nation-state. Not an accident. God made a promise. God has

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fulfilled it. Let's flip now to chapter two. Throughout our whole study, we're going to see

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God makes promises and God keeps promises. Let's see how the promise continues to be kept. Let's

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look at chapter 2 for a few moments let's look at verses 1 through 10 to see what would happen

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next after pharaoh attempted to deal with the israelites verses 1 through 10 now a man of the

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house of levi went and took as a wife a daughter of levi so the woman conceived and she bore a son

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and when she saw that he was a beautiful child she hid him for three months but when she could

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no longer hide him she took an ark of bulrushes for him she daubed it with asphalt and pitch put

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the child in it laid it in the reeds by the river bank and his sister stood afar off to know what

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would be done then then the daughter pharaoh came down to bathe the river and her maidens walked

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alongside the riverside and when she saw the ark among the reeds she sent her maid to go get it

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and when she opened it she saw the child behold the baby wept so she had compassion upon him and

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said this is one of the hebrews children then his sister said to pharaoh's daughter shall i go and

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call a nurse for you from among the hebrew women does she mean nurse the child for you and pharaoh's

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daughter said her go and so the maiden went and called the child's mother the maiden went and

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called moses's mother then pharaoh's daughter said to her take this child away and nurse him for me

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and i will give you your wages so the woman took the child and nursed him and the child grew and

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then she brought him to pharaoh's daughter and he became her son and so she called his name moses

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saying because i drew him out of the water all right back in chapter one we saw pharaoh's plan

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to kill all the jewish infants and at the start of chapter two we read of the birth of a particular

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infant that was born under this edict now what child was this well this is moses verse one says

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that a man and woman of the house of levi they had a son and after attempting to hide this child

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for three months or so ultimately they're compelled by circumstances to place them in an ark and then

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send the ark down the river now any parents in this room put yourself in the shoes for a moment

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especially the mothers you have a child this beautiful wonderful child and for three months

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you get to hold this child every day and every night this is your child but then through the

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edict of an evil individual an evil state so to speak you're forced to give this child up

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put him in an ark made a bulrush and send him down the river this had to be heartbreaking this

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had to be heartbreaking it would appear that pharaoh's noose had tightened over these months

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causing moses mother to do the unthinkable for any mother any parent to put a child in the river

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just as pharaoh's decree verse 22 had ordered well that said notice in verse 3 that she made

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an ark remember pharaoh said okay all these kids throw them in the river well she did put in the

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river but she did so by preparing an ark and that's significant for a lot of different reasons

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one of which is because when you hear the word ark you think back to noah's ark well noah's ark

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was a vessel an instrument that was crafted and created in order to harbor and protect god's

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people from that which would otherwise have killed them otherwise had drowned them well in this case

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we see the same thing she crafts something in order to harm and protect this child as she sends

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it forth into the world, so to speak, into the tides or rapids there in the river. Now, stopping

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for a moment, do you think Moses' mom did the right thing here? You don't have to answer, but just

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think about it. Did Moses' mom do the right thing? Did she do the right thing by turning Moses over

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to the decree and edict of Pharaoh? I think that's the wrong way to look at it. I don't think she was

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turning Moses over to Pharaoh's decree or edict. Rather, I think at this moment, circumstances

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compelled her to have no other option than this, but to turn her child over into God's

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providential hands. It wasn't a function of tossing the child into the river. It wasn't

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really a function of Pharaoh. At this point, circumstances gave her no other option.

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If the child was to survive at all, she knew it could not be under her watch. And out of love for

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the child, she takes the child and she gives it back to God, so to speak. That which has been

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entrusted to her the past three months, she prepares as best she can this ark and place it

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in the waters, the streams of which are directed by God himself.

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And she turns her son over to the hands of a providential and a good God.

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You know, there are parents in this room that can relate to this to an extent.

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What do I mean?

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Well, even though Moses was only three months old,

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every parent in this room will face the day

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when you send your child out into the world.

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Every parent knows or will know the experience of

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just having to trust God for their baby.

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To trust God that he will do something good with the child he's given them.

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For what is a short season, whether it's three months or 18 years or what have you?

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Every parent understands that sensation of taking that which is precious to them,

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that which has been entrusted to them for a season,

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and giving that child to God's providential hands,

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knowing that they have to step back or recede to an extent.

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And trusting God, watch over my son, watch over my daughter.

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May your good and abiding love that you've shown me all my days

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hold true and be sustained upon my child

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as they go out in the circumstances

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that I can no longer shelter or shepherd them from.

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That is difficult.

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If you've had to do it, you know it.

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That's difficult.

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And so this mother, this three-month-old,

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this is what she's doing.

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She says, God is good.

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God's in charge.

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God is sovereign.

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God has ordained these circumstances.

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I don't understand them.

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I don't like them.

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but I know he can do that which I can no longer do at this point, and that is protect

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my child. So she sends him into the river. In verses 5 through 10, we see that God responds

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immediately. God responds. It's not like she dropped the child off, and about a week or a

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month later, God came along and said, oh, look, a baby. What to do? The moment she hands this child

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over, who is God's anyway from the get-go, but the moment she hands this child over, figuratively

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he's speaking, God's arms are right there. And in this case, God providentially directs everything.

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The time of day that she did it, who would be down the riverbank, the tide of the river,

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the weather that day, everything was directed in a providential fashion that would allow this

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basket to go right to the arms of she who would take care of this child the best and the most.

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And that would be the daughter of Pharaoh. The daughter of Pharaoh. God used this unbearable,

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unthinkable situation to bring about, honestly, the best possible end they could hope for at this

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moment. God uses this incredible twist of fate with the river and the water and all that different

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stuff to put Moses right where he needed to be. Now, is there irony in this? Absolutely. This is

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highly ironic. You know, God loves to act ironically, so to speak. He loves to confound

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our expectations of what he'll do, and he loves to foil the plots and schemes of evil men. And

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that's what we see in verses 5 through 10. God ironically confounds Pharaoh's own scheme by doing

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what? By sending the deliverer of God's people into Pharaoh's own house. God looks down at this

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whole circumstance, and God determines to confound and flip on its head Pharaoh's scheme and his

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plans by sending the very deliverer of God's own people into Pharaoh's own house. That's not just

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ironic that's genius that's genius and the reason it's genius is because moses is now in the one

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place where pharaoh's death edicts can't touch him you get that he's in the one place that he

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will be protected if some other jewish lady down the stream had found him go look a baby he would

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have been in the same amount of danger right but but this child is now in the hands of she who was

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in the greatest position to protect his child of anyone,

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the daughter of Pharaoh.

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Moses would grow up in this circumstance protected.

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And furthermore, thank you to God's sovereignty,

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he was in a place where he would be able to witness

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the way Egyptians worked, the way Pharaoh worked,

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the way that the court worked, all of that,

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which undoubtedly helped him years later

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when he had to march right back into Egypt

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and say, let my people go.

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everything he learned back then was helpful to that future declaration all right as we wrap up

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here this morning let me offer one closing thought chapter one of exodus has really some dark and

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difficult components it starts with the death of joseph you get joseph he's dead but a few verses

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later god's people are all enslaved there's oppression and the like and then as if that's

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not bad enough, then there's this edict thrown down upon all male children that ultimately,

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ultimately, if God had not intervened, would have led to the extermination of the Jews as a whole.

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If you start in the book of Exodus, you'd say things look pretty bad. Exodus 1, these dark

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components. Exodus 1 also involved the Pharaoh's plan to build an empire by using and abusing God's

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own people to accomplish it. Now, by the time we get to the end of the book of Exodus, here's the

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spoiler alert. By the time we get to the end of this study, nine weeks from now, by the time we

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get to the end of the study, the end of the book of Exodus, everything is going to be flipped on its

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end. Everything is going to be different from what we just read. By the time we get to the end

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of the book of Exodus, Pharaoh will be dead. God's people will be free. And that's just for starters.

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By the time we get to the end of the book of Exodus, Pharaoh's building project, the building

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project that starts this book, it's going to be gone. It is going to be an afterthought, and it's

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going to be replaced by a different building project, God's building project, by which he is

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going to build what? The tabernacle. The building project that Pharaoh, the greatest villain in the

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Old Testament, said, hey, let's do this. That's going to be an afterthought. But God's building

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project to build his tabernacle would ultimately be a picture of the temple yet to come. That was

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just getting started by the end of this book. The last half of the book describes the construction

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of God's tabernacle, a place where God would not oppress the people who constructed it,

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but rather would meet with them there in that sense in many senses exodus is a microcosm

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of the bible's whole story the story of god delivering his people

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in order that he might dwell with his people let's pray