Israel Leaves Egypt
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of the children of Israel, and derided their hopes of deliverance, and
spoke scornfully of the power of their God. They pointed them to their
own situation as a people, as merely a nation of slaves, and tauntingly
said to them, If your God is so just and merciful, and possesses power
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above the Egyptian gods, why does he not make you a free people?
Why not manifest his greatness and power, and exalt you? The Egyp-
tians then called the attention of the Israelites to their own people, who
worshiped gods of their own choosing, which the Israelites termed
false gods. They exultingly said that their gods had prospered them,
and had given them food, and raiment, and great riches, and that their
gods had also given the Israelites into their hands to serve them, and
that they had power to oppress them and destroy their lives, so that
they should be no people. They derided the idea that the Hebrews
would ever be delivered from slavery.
Pharaoh boasted that he would like to see their God deliver them
from his hands. These words destroyed the hopes of many of the
children of Israel. It appeared to them very much as the king and his
counselors had said. They knew that they were treated as slaves, and
that they must endure just that degree of oppression their task-masters
and rulers might put upon them. Their male children had been hunted
and slain. Their own lives were a burden, and they were believing
in, and worshiping, the God of Heaven. Then they contrasted their
condition with that of the Egyptians. They did not believe at all in
a living God, who had power to save or to destroy. Some of them
worshiped idols, images made of wood and stone, while others chose
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to worship the sun, moon, and stars, yet they were prospered, and
wealthy. And some of the Hebrews thought if God was above all gods
he would not thus leave them as slaves to an idolatrous nation.
The faithful servants of God understood that it was because of their
unfaithfulness to God as a people, and their disposition to intermarry
with other nations, and thus being led into idolatry, that the Lord
suffered them to go into Egypt. And they firmly declared to their
brethren that God would soon bring them up from Egypt, and break
their oppressive yoke.
In the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, God plainly showed his
distinguished mercy to his people, before all the Egyptians. God saw
fit to execute his judgments upon Pharaoh that he might know by sad
experience, since he would not otherwise be convinced, that his power