"Choices, Choices, And More Choices" Part 1

   Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land." Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage--in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor. Exodus 1:8-14
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Did you notice that the new leader of the Egyptians noticed something about the Israelites that they didn't notice about themselves. He noticed that they were more and mightier!  He realized that if the Israelites decided to go against them then they would lose. So he made a choice. His choice, to 'deal wisely' with them. As Pharaoh he assigned taskmasters over them and put them to work. The Israelites seemed to just submit to the ruling authority without much thought, after all they were the foreigners living in the Egyptians land. Next thing you know it was more than that they were just taskmasters over them but slave masters and the Israelites had become a  forced labor that was building cities and working the fields for them, totally submitted and subject to the whims of their Egyptian taskmasters.

I tend to think that the Egyptians did 'deal wisely' with them. I think that they brought about the enslaving of  of the children of Israel in such a way that it was done before the Israelites knew or even realized it was happening. I tend to think it was a frog in a boiling pot type scenario. We all know the concept. If you put a frog in a pot of boiling hot water it will sense the danger and just jump out but if you put it in cold water and turn up the heat it will just sit there till it is cooked! I think the Israelites just got cooked! If they, like the frog, had felt the danger coming, then they would have risen up and as the Pharaoh had feared they would have left Egypt and taken all their skills and labor with them.

I must admit I have often wondered why the Israelites allowed it to happen. Today as I was reading I realized that it was because they didn't see it coming and more importantly, they didn't see themselves as the more and mightier. They didn't understand that the Egyptians saw them as a force to be reckoned with and that even after they were enslaved into hard labor and were ruling over them, the Egyptians still feared them.  It says that, 'the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel.' They were in dread but because of their choice to 'deal wisely' with them they were the taskmasters and the children of Israel the work force instead of being what they really were, a force to be reckoned with.

I wonder how often we, like the children of Israel, let the choices of others decide our fate; not realizing that we should be walking in the 'more and mightier' that we have available as His children. It is time that we make the choice to walk as His children and not let the enemy convince us that He is the one with the power. The truth is even though he has many people in bondage he is the one who lives in dread of the day we understand that we are the ones who are 'more and mightier' as children of the Most High God!