Blessings bestowed on sinful people are always a gift of God’s grace, undeserved and unearned. But more can be said here about Israel’s spiritual condition. Within the book of Exodus, there are a few fleeting hints that Israel was not living faithfully before God at this time. Nowhere in this first chapter, for instance, do they cry out to God in their affliction. That only happens in Exodus 2:23, at which point God sends Moses to deliver them. Furthermore, when Moses initially visits the Hebrews and delivers one of them from an Egyptian, the Hebrews respond by rejecting him, the appointed deliverer: Who made you a prince and a judge over us?
(Exodus 2:14; Acts 7:23–29).
Elsewhere, however, Israel’s wickedness in Egypt is clearly stated. In Joshua 24:14, Joshua exhorts Israel, “Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.” And in Ezekiel 23:3, the Lord uses graphic language to describe their spiritual condition: They played the whore in Egypt; they played the whore in their youth.
According to Scripture, the Israelites had become idolaters in Egypt.
Thus, although Israel certainly needed deliverance from their physical slavery, this pointed to a greater need: deliverance from spiritual bondage. To put it another way, Israel’s physical slavery under Pharaoh was a picture of their spiritual life under the dominion of Satan. In the exodus, God delivers Israel so that they might live under his gracious dominion, serving him alone (Exodus 20:2–3) and enjoying his glorious presence (Exodus 40:34–35). By God’s grace, they will be transformed from slaves in Egypt into free sons of God (Exodus 4:23).
12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.