Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt - Ex 4:22 -

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025356868

 

>> And you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the Lord, Israel is my first-born son, and I say to you, "Let my son go that he may serve me"; if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your first-born son.' (Ex 4:22) << 

 

God called the people of Israel, who lived a slave life in Egypt, his eldest son. God especially chose them, the descendants of Abraham, among the nations of the world, and made them his own people.

 

God promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would give the land of Canaan to their descendants. During the time of these three generations, the number of the family reached nearly 100. Now Jacob's family really began to be checked by the indigenous people. The Canaanites, feeling threatened by them, would remove them any time. God perceived this threat, and sent Joseph to Egypt in advance and later the whole family of Jacob. Jacob's descendants became the slaves of Pharaoh after Joseph's death. Now Israelites began to increase their number under the protection of the king of Egypt, a strong nation at that time. Pharaoh protected them from foreign attacks in order to exploit their labor. Slaves were important assets then.

 

When the number of the adult men of Israel was about 600,000, God said to Pharaoh through Moses that he should set the Israelite free. God told him that he should make them work for him no more and let them go free, because they were originally God's first-born son. Now God thought that Israelites, a people of 600,000 men, could occupy the land of Canaan and keep it themselves.

 

God threatened Pharaoh that he would kill the first son of Pharaoh and the first sons of his people if he refused that. Pharaoh refused God's command to set his people free, and lost not only his first son but also all the other first sons of Egypt, which was a punishment he received.

 

What kind of person is Pharaoh? He is a man who unfairly exploits the labor of the weak. He is a man who loses his first-born son, refusing God's command to set such weak people free. Are there still people who unfairly exploit the labor of others these days? God declares that they are his first-born son, and that they should be set free. He urges on the exploiters that they should free the exploited from slavery to make them workers receiving just pay. God punishes those who refuse this command with a severe punishment, the loss of the first-born son.

 

Those who challenge God's authority must not forget the punishment suffered by Pharaoh and his people.