Edward Belotte
9/12/14
Dr. Strasser
The fixation by God and the Egyptian Pharaoh over the Hebrew People differ entirely in intention. God yearns to fulfill the covenant he had with Abraham, the forefather of the Hebrew people. The Hebrew people are destined to inhabit the land set aside for them by God, reaping the benefits for generations to come. The Pharaoh on the other hand foresees a much more gloomy future for the Israelites. The Egyptians acknowledge the Hebrews as an inferior race, destined to forever build great Egyptian cities such as Pithom and Raamses. The daily life of a Hebrew would be filled with nothing but hard labor to please the all-powerful Pharaoh and Egyptian gods.

God sees the Hebrews as his chosen people. Since the time of Abraham, God had a plan for them to forever live under his watchful eye and be their caring eternal father. However, this plan had gone completely array with the Israelites being enslaved in ancient Egypt for the better part of four centuries. The Hebrews were forced to do hard labor and many began to question whether God still cared for them or if he existed all together. Everything God had done up to that point from choosing Abraham as the father of nations seemed to be all for nothing. God knew he had a covenant with the Hebrews to uphold and entrusted Moses to save his chosen people. This illustrates a glaring difference between how the pharaoh and god treated the Israelites. The Egyptians demeaned the Hebrews as a worthless slave race while God saw them as his own people, created in his image. God had an unconditional love for them that could not be broken even if the Hebrews began to stray away from him. God says to them “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God (Ex. 6:7.)” God assures the Hebrews that he will forever be a constant force in their lives to guide and protect them.
In revealing himself to the Hebrews as “I AM”, God shows that he is fully committed to freeing them of their plight with the Egyptians and no longer wants to see them suffer. These sentiments are expressed in (Ex.6: 6): “I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and will deliver your from their slavery.” The freedom of the Israelites is of utmost importance for God. “The Israelite people have multiplied and become more numerous than we are, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase (Ex.1: 10).” This quote perfectly depicts the reasoning behind the Hebrews’ captivity by the Pharaoh. The only crime against the state of Egypt committed by the Israelites was their futility. A common emotion amongst rulers of any great nation, Paranoia was beginning to set in for the pharaoh. He saw Israel as a threat to his thriving and vibrant empire, and the only way to eliminate this threat was suppression. By killing the newborn males multiplication of Hebrew numbers would no longer be a threat. “Throw into the Nile very boy that is born, but you may let all the girls live. (Ex.1: 22)” is what the pharaoh demanded. These measures would ensure that Egypt would reign supreme for another 430 years. However, what else can a great nation possibly need when they’re already on top? The answer is more. Egypt wanted to continue to grow in size by constructing towering cities. The Israelites would be the labor force needed to build these meccas of civilization. Hebrew workers in unruly conditions built Cities such as Pithom and Raamses. God’s ultimate vision for the Hebrews was a utopian environment of sorts, with metaphorical milk and honey flowing throughout the land. The Israelites would no longer be under suppression by the Egyptians and would be free to worship the one Lord, contrary to the polytheistic principles of ancient Egypt. There would a rejuvenation of sorts of belief in God, and –the Hebrew loyalty would rarely waiver from the God who led their mass exodus from Egypt. Under Pharaoh the Hebrews would have been oppressed for centuries to come, void of basic freedoms of religion and speech. Eventually, with the continued genocide of first-born sons, the Hebrews would become a miniscule race and eventually suffer an extinction of sorts. The spoils of their labor would lead to lavish Egyptian cities of proportions foreign to that era. God believers would be scarce and the exploits of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would be forgotten. The Israelites would become a polytheistic race, following Egyptian customs and traditions. The goals for the Hebrew people held by God and the pharaoh run on completely different spectrums. Continued suppression in Egypt would have certainly marked the end of the spread of the Christian faith and the end of God’s covenant with the Hebrew people. However through God’s intercession, Moses was able to lead a mass exodus and free the Israelites, leading to a new covenant and a revamped belief in God that would endure for centuries.