God Does Not Forget the Humble

Exodus 1:13-14 – And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage… The Hebrew word translated as ‘rigour’ in v13 in the KJV is perek. Strong said that it comes from a root that means to break or fracture. So the Egyptians were not simply using the Hebrews for their labor. They were trying to keep them weak by breaking their spirit through cruel and pointless labor.

(The hard labor to which Israel was put may explain some of the disparity between the numbers of men and women who came out of Egypt. The nature of much manual labor tends to shorten the lives of men significantly, even today. Robert Sheaffer wrote, “As for contemporary American society: women live an average of seven years longer than men. Twenty-four out of the twenty-five jobs ranked worst in terms of pay and working conditions by the Jobs Related Almanac have one thing in common: they are all 95%-100% male. Of those killed in work-related accidents, 94% are men.”* If that is true for modern America with OSHA rules and modern safety equipment, it must be doubly true for slaves constructing bronze age megaliths.)

There were five genocides recorded in Scripture, that were either ordered by God or perpetrated directly by God’s hand. Each of them was precipitated by severe injustice, usually combined with sexual immorality.

1. Noah’s flood – Tyrants who were particularly abusive toward women. Possibly sexual immorality involving demons. Completely destroyed by God except for one family.
2. Sodom & Gomorrah – Extreme hostility toward travelers. Sexual immorality. Completely destroyed by God except for one family and one small community.
3. Egypt – Severe mistreatment of slaves, infanticide. Brother-sister marriages were encouraged, although that isn’t mentioned in the Bible. Population decimated, economy and military destroyed by God.
4. Canaan – Child sacrifice, hostility toward travelers. Selectively destroyed, displaced, or subjugated by Israel at God’s command.
5. Nineveh – Unspecified systemic violence. They repented and God relented.

The victims in each of these injustices were essentially defenseless. (Sodom was already guilty before the angels arrived to witness the fact.) God acted for them and removed the perpetrators. In the case of Canaan, he used the Israelites as his tool.

In Psalm 10, David alluded to the connection between the dispossession of the Canaanites and their injustices.

v1 Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
v2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
v3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.
v4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
v5 His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
v6 He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.
v7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
v8 He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.
v9 He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.
v10 He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
v11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.
v12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.
v13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.
v14 Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.
v15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.
v16 The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.
v17 LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
v18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

Every biblical genocide ordered by God was prompted by ubiquitous injustice, and the plagues of Egypt were no exception. The same principle works in families. Tyranny will break family bonds as surely as it breaks those within and between nations. God executes justice for those who are unable to defend themselves. Justice might not come when we would expect it, want it, or even recognize it, but it inevitably comes. A father (or mother for that matter) who deliberately provokes his children or a husband who cruelly uses his greater strength against his wife will eventually pay a price.

(See also Numbers 3:39, 3:43, and Ephesians 6:4.)

* Robert Sheaffer. “Feminism, the Noble Lie.” The Domain of the Patriarchy. http://www.debunker.com/texts/noblelie.html.