AFTER the fall of the Tower of Babel and the scattering of the people throughout the earth they gathered in tribes in various parts of the earth. Many of these found an abiding place in Egypt, and there Satan erected his first great world power on earth. According to history Menes was the first ruler. Without hindrance from God, and therefore by his permission, men there built a great world power. It proved to be a mighty military system and a great oppressor of the people. It was an empire of riches, learning and religion; and these three elements combined to rule the people and make their burdens grievous to be borne.
In the meantime God was dealing with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and working out his great plan which he had made from the beginning. In due time Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob, was sold by his brethren to a band of wandering tradesmen; and by them he was carried away to the land of Egypt. Both Joseph and his father served Jehovah God, and the Lord God overruled for good this experience of carrying Joseph away. After a time Joseph, on a false charge, was wrongfully confined to prison, where he lingered indefinitely. Then the king of Egypt had a dream which he could not understand and none could interpret for him. He called the magicians, the Devil's representatives on earth, to
interpret his dream; and they could not. He was told of Joseph in prison, and the king sent and had Joseph brought before him. Here again the Lord Jehovah rewarded his faithful servant. By the grace of the Lord God Joseph interpreted the dream of the king, foretelling that there was to come upon the land of Egypt seven years of plenty and seven years of famine; and he advised the king to cause to be laid up great quantities of food during the seven years of plenty to be used during the famine. Joseph was here a faithful and true witness to the only true God, and for his faithfulness God rewarded him. God never fails to reward faithfulness to him.
The king then made Joseph the first man of the land under the king, and Joseph thereafter became the active ruler of the land of Egypt: "And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the spirit of God is? And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou." — Genesis 41: 38,40.
Joseph was a great and good witness to the people of Egypt. He showed the people an outline of the Lord Jehovah's great plan to redeem them and deliver them and to bless them. Of course they did not understand it then but it was written more particularly for the benefit of the people now who are being permitted to understand the divine plan.
During the seven years of plenty Joseph with absolute power had caused great stores of grain to be laid up. When the famine was sore upon the land the peo-
ple were in need. Joseph bought all their corn for the king. The next year the people came back and said to Joseph: "We have no corn for sale." Joseph then said to them: "Sell me your cattle." And he bought all the cattle from the people for the king. The next year the famine continued and the people came to him and said: "We have no corn and no cattle"; and then Joseph said: "Sell me your land." And he bought all of the land for the king. The famine continued upon the people, and the next year they came back and said to Joseph: 'We have neither corn, nor cattle, nor land, but we will voluntarily sell ourselves and become the servants of Pharaoh the king.' (Genesis 47:14-23) Thus the people gave up everything that they might get bread from the hands of Joseph.
This pictured how the people in due time will become the voluntary servants of the antitypical Joseph, the Lord of righteousness, that they may get the bread of life and live. Joseph readjusted the affairs of Egypt and the people were content. Thus God showed the people how goodness and faith bring the reward of peace and blessing. Joseph therefore was a mighty witness for the Lord in the land of Egypt.
After the death of Joseph there came to the throne a new king in Egypt who fell an easy victim to the wiles of Satan the Devil. "Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph." (Exodus 1:8) Under the reign of this arrogant tool of Satan the people soon forgot the goodness that they had received from Jehovah through the hands of his faithful servant Joseph. Egypt then grew to be a great and Wealthy world power, the like of which the earth had never known. The Devil now overreached the people;
they forgot God and worshiped four-footed beasts and creeping things instead. They fell easy victims to his scheme of government.
The ultra-rich were sponsors for the military, the learned became the political schemers, and the priests of the devil religion led the people into a senseless worship of the Devil and things which he created for them to worship. These three elements, the commercial, political, and ecclesiastical factors which Satan organised, operating together formed the world power by which he controlled the people. Such a world power is properly symbolized by a beast. The government, and by that is meant the ruling factors, became arrogant and rebellious against God and great oppressors of the people. Images of the Pharaohs are preserved to this day, and upon the face of them will be seen the expression of arrogance, disdain and contempt. Satan established amongst the people various images and false gods which he induced them to worship; thus following his usual practice of placing before mankind anything that would turn them away from the true and living God, that they might not learn about the divine plan.
All this time God was not without some witness in the land. Joseph had brought his father and his brethren into Egypt. Their offspring had greatly multiplied, and now there was a host of Israelites in the land of Egypt. These were the people of God who worshiped the true and living God, and from the death of Jacob they were recognized by Jehovah as his chosen people on the earth. For this reason the Devil saw to it that they were greatly oppressed. He would have caused their complete destruction except for the protection of
the Lord. "Without doubt the Lord permitted his people to abide for a time in Egypt in order that he might teach his intelligent creatures certain lessons which they needed, and which in due time they would begin to understand.
When Jacob was on his death-bed he prophesied that there should come from the tribe of Judah a mighty One who would be the great Deliverer of the people, and that unto him should the gathering of the people be. (Genesis 49:10) The Devil knew about this prophecy, of course. He set about to devise schemes for the destruction of this promised One. The children of Israel continued to reside in Egypt, and their offspring had multiplied at a greater rate than the Egyptians. Therefore the king gave instructions that the mid-wives should take notice at the time the Hebrew women gave birth to children and that if a son was born it should be killed, but if the child was a daughter it should be permitted to live. Clearly this was a scheme of the Devil; he would have all the males killed in order that he might be certain to get the One that was promised to come through the tribe of Judah. The Devil was taking no chance of this Mighty One being born and being permitted to live. But of course he had not the power to thwart God's purposes even though he egotistically thought he had.
God helped the Israelitish women, and the birth of Hebrew children continued. Finally Moses was born, and by a miracle of God he was saved from being destroyed. He was taken into the home of the royal family, or rather into the royal house, and there received all of its privileges. (Exodus 2:1-10) The Lord saw to it that Moses was preserved, because of and through Moses he
would now make a type of the mighty Deliverer who was to come; and we will hereafter see how the Devil employed the same kind of scheme to destroy tho Savior of the world that he employed to destroy Moses.
Moses had faith in God. (Hebrews 11: 24, 25) Moses would rather take his chances with his own people and serve the true and living God than to have all the comforts and ease and honor that the Devil and his world power could confer upon him. God continued to overrule and shape the conditions of his chosen people, that in his own due time he could give a testimony to man of his goodness and loving kindness.
Conditions arose that made it necessary for Moses to go to live in another land. Oppressive measures employed by Pharaoh the king of Egypt against Israel grew worse and worse. Their cries came up to Almighty God. "And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt." — Exodus 3: 7-10.
Moses went at the direction of Jehovah to act for the people of Israel, and Aaron was sent by the Lord to
assist Moses. Obedient to the command of the Lord Moses and Aaron appeared before Pharaoh and said: "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." A mighty world power now was Egypt, and the Devil was its invisible ruler. Egotistical and wicked beyond description of human words Satan caused his visible representative, the king of Egypt, to manifest the greatest degree of arrogance and defiance to the Almighty God. To the request made by Moses to the ruler of Egypt, the Devil's representative said: "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." — Exodus 5:2.
The oppressive burdens of the Israelites were then greatly increased. God said to Moses in substance: 1 will show Pharaoh who I am. Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh.' (Exodus 6:1) The oppression and injustice heaped upon the people of Israel in the land of Egypt furnished God an opportunity to make a demonstration of his power, and to testify again to man that the Lord is the Almighty and Eternal God and that he is the God of justice, wisdom, love and power. The people had forgotten God, and now the time had come for God to go down into Egypt and through his visible representatives to make for himself a name. Afterwards the prophet, referring to this event in Egypt, wrote: "And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemest to thee from Egypt from the nations and their gods?"
(2 Samuel 7: 23) Then God said to Moses: "And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them." — Exodus 7: 5.
In carrying out his plan and purposes God again sent Moses and Aaron in before the king of Egypt and requested that the people might be permitted to leave Egypt. This was refused. Then God sent plagues upon Egypt. The river was turned into blood. There came a plague of frogs, lice and flies. Pharaoh would repent and promise to let the children of Israel leave Egypt, only again to become arrogant and refuse to let them go.
Then God said to Moses: "Yet will I bring one more plague upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether." (Exodus 11:1) The Lord now began to make preparation for a great demonstration by which he would teach the people and all of his intelligent creatures that he is the great Jehovah God. He directed Moses to call together the leaders of Israel and instruct them that each family should on the tenth day of Nisan, the first month, take up from the flock a lamb without blemish, a male of the first year, that they should keep this lamb up until the fourteenth day of that month, and then it should be killed and the blood sprinkled upon the doorposts and over the door. This was intended as a protection to the Israelites who would observe this law. "For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and
when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt" — Exodus 12:12,13.
Moses caused the Israelites to carry out the instructions, and everything was made in readiness for the night. Each family that had taken up the lamb and had sprinkled the blood on the doorpost went inside and waited. On that eventful night, when the arrogant king and the other Egyptian subjects of the Devil who trusted in the evil gods for protection, were sleeping, apparently in security and peace, the great God of the universe caused his angel to pass over the land and cast down their false gods and smite with death every one of the firstborn of Egypt. None were spared except those of the Israelites who had obeyed the Lord by sprinkling the blood over the doorposts. The smiting included both man-child and beast, even from the son of the king to the humblest in the land. At midnight the king arose and found his firstborn silent in death. The alarm was given and a great cry and wail went up from the people all over the land, because there was not one house of all the Egyptians where there was not one dead.
The king called for Moses and Aaron and commanded that they and all their children leave the land immediately. "Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste: for they said, We be all dead men." (Exodus 13: 33, 33) Thus God, true to his word, gave Pharaoh the king ample reason to know who is God, in answer to his arrogant and disdainful question. (Exodus 5:2) The Lord had smitten
and destroyed all of the Egyptians' images and false gods throughout the land, and had filled the land of Egypt with grief and woe. It is recorded: "For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which the Lord had smitten among them: upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments." — Numbers 33: 4.
Seemingly this terrible disaster which befell all the firstborn of Egypt, and which threw down and destroyed all their false gods, would have been a sufficient lesson to Pharaoh, and even to his super-lord the Devil, that it is useless to fight against God. But the egotism and arrogance of the evil one seemingly knows no limitation. God knew what would be in the heart of Pharaoh, and what Satan would induce him to do. He purposed now to further teach them a lesson: "That the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord." — Ex. 14: 4.
A great multitude of Israelites, the men alone totalling 600,000, camped on the shores of the Red sea. After the king of Egypt had mourned a time for his dead son, and awakened to the fact that the Israelites had fled, he ordered his army of chariots and men to follow the Israelites and destroy them. The Egyptians came upon the Israelites encamped. The Israelites were greatly afraid, and cried unto the Lord and reproached Moses for having brought them there to be slain by the Egyptians. "And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight, for you, and ye shall hold your peace." — Exodus 14: 13, 14.
And now behold the mighty power of God. He caused his angel to go before the camp of Israel and to cause
the pillar of cloud to stand between the Israelites and the Egyptians, but he gave light to the Israelites. Then Moses, at the command of the Lord, stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night and made the sea dry land and the waters were divided. — Exodus 14: 21-31.
Having been safely delivered on the eastern shores of the Red sea, saved from the hordes of the Egyptians, the children of Israel sang a song of deliverance. "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation; he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name." — Exodus 15:1-3.
Thus ended the Devil's first world power. Like a mighty millstone it was cast into the sea. Thus God executed his judgment against the false gods and magnified his own name. (Exodus 12:12) The Lord intended that the people should ever remember that day for their good. To this end he caused his prophets to make record of that great event for his own good purposes:
"And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them." — Exodus 18:10, 11.
"Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. . . . And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt; and heardest their cry by the Red sea; and shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a name, as it is this day." — Nehemiah 9: 6, 9,10.
"Nevertheless, he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known." — Psalm 106: 8.
Jehovah was good to the nation and people of Egypt through the ministration of his faithful servant Joseph. The Egyptians failed to appreciate that goodness and refused to take heed to God, but followed after the Devil and his representatives. God expressed his indignation against Satan and the world power he had builded and at the same time made a picture of greater things to come.
Egypt was typical of the end of the world, and pictured the present organization of world powers which shall go down in a terrible time of trouble. (Revelation 18: 21-24) God's goodness has been wonderfully made manifest to the peoples of this world. His goodness has been spurned and this has been done at the instance of Satan the enemy. What befell Egypt shall again be repeated, only on a far greater scale. — Matthew 24: 21, 22.
But why should God kill the firstborn of Egypt and then overwhelm the entire army in the sea? Was that
done merely to express the vengeance of Cod, and. was it done for a selfish reason? There was no selfishness on God's part whatsoever. Life is a gift from God. (Romans 6:23) All the human race, because of Adam's sin, live only by the grace of God and without any right to live. The firstborns of Egypt, of course, came within this rule. God's plan provided that in the future he would awaken these out of death and give them individually an opportunity for life under favorable conditions. The heart of each one of the governing factors of Egypt was closely attached to his firstborn. The death of the firstborn, as a punishment for their defiance of God, would teach these governing factors of Egypt that their gods were false gods and had no power to give them life, and no power or ability to stand before the great Jehovah God.
These scriptures above quoted declare that this great demonstration of power was that God might get for himself a name. In whose mind did God desire to magnify himself and make for himself a name? Not in the mind of the Devil, because the Devil had gone on in the way of wickedness in utter defiance of God and was then under the sentence of death. It was in the minds of the people of Israel that God desired to establish a name for himself. He had selected that people as his own and would now use them for his own purposes. It was therefore for their benefit, and for the benefit of all the peoples of God who should come after, that God performed this marvelous act.
Let the people take notice that Jehovah is the Almighty God and that the destruction of Egypt was but one of the steps in the outworking of his great plan, As the peoples of earth learn that the power of Al-
mighty God operates always in exact harmony with love, and for the benefit of mankind, then they will learn to love and obey and serve him and will receive from the Eternal One the blessings which he has provided for all those that do manifest their love and obedience for him.
God had saved the firstborn of each household of the Israelites because of the faith and obedience of their fathers. This should serve as a lesson to them that ever thereafter they would render obedience to the true and loving God. Would they do it?
