As you make the transition from Genesis to Exodus, there’s an interesting link which ties the two stories together that is sometimes missed in the more “prime time” moments of the Exodus story. We of course can see God raising up Moses to be the deliverer of His people, and how that foreshadows Christ. We know that the 70 who went down to Egypt at the end of Genesis have now become a great multitude.
However, we should remember that at the end of Genesis, Joseph saved Egypt from a seven year famine which would have been quite the undoing of that ancient empire. As we read the plagues which God brings upon Egypt we should see that what Egypt and been spared from under Joseph has now come with more severe judgement. Pharaoh did not remember Joseph, and as a result also thought that all the riches of his kingdom were the result of his ancestors. Kings need to know better. God is the one who raises kings up and brings them down. God is the one who blesses a kingdom and spares it from famine. God is also the one who will bring severe judgement on ingratitude for those blessings.
The people of Egypt ought to have joined the Hebrews in the worship of their God. Instead they insisted on keeping their religion, their ways, presuming that they were untouchable. Instead, Egypt was brought to ruin, routed, and plundered by God’s people. Exodus shows us the mighty power which God will display in order to redeem His chosen people. However, we also learn from it His great wrath upon unbelief, ingratitude, and refusal to bow before the Living God.
