The Hyksos Key

“Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” Exodus 1:8

So I’ve got the last Sunday school of 2012. Praise God that all that “Mayan Calendar” malarkey has passed us by. Not too sure who it all happened to but I guess they’re in a happier place? Anyway…I have to review some key verses from the Sunday school booklet and I was introduced to a new group of people. They are the Hyksos and I found them mentioned in Nelson’s KJV Parallel Bible Commentary. I Googled them and found some interesting facts that I would like to share this morning.

The first one ties in with Exodus 1:8…”Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” An interesting fact here to note is that 20 years before the birth of Moses, Egypt had enacted a “get –tough–with-the-slaves” policy. This policy was enacted because a strong reaction to foreigners, which included the rapidly growing population of Israelites, began after the Hyksos were expelled. “Who were the Hyksos?” you may be asking…well they were a mixed people that came from West Asia. They adopted the Egyptian desert and storm god “Seth” as their own because it identified with their own native storm god. 

The Hyksos brought several technical improvements to Egypt and the height of power came to the Hyksos came around the 15^th Dynasty and by the 18^th Dynasty, under pharaoh Ahmose I, the Egyptians successfully expelled the Hyksos out of Egypt. Now it was time for those Israelites to be put under foot! This brings me to a second interesting fact that ties in with Hebrew 11:23…“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.”

If we take a look at where we read “and they were not afraid of the king’s edict” we not only understand that Moses’ parents were not afraid that Pharaoh commanded the Egyptians (and that may have meant the Egyptian Army) to throw all Hebrew male babies into the Nile but that they didn’t even observe it. It was a command that is contrary to nature, to the laws of God and at that time to the promise of God’s multiplying of Abraham’s descendants. It was even contrary to their hopes of deliverance from the very same Egyptians who wanted to decrease their population so they could subdue them in the same fashion that the Hyksos had done to them. Slow infiltration to assimilate a culture into submission to another.

The last interesting fact ties in with Exodus 3:17. God the Father revealed to Moses that the Abrahamic Covenant has reached it’s time of fulfillment and that He will be using Moses to bring His people out of Egypt. So here’s the interesting tidbit…when the Egyptians chased the Hyksos out from Egypt, they were chased into “the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” The very same land that God had promised to give to the children of Israel. According to some secular historians these same peoples that were living in Canaan when Joshua comes in leadership of the nation of Israel will remember the resiliency of the Hebrews slaves and they will greatly fear the coming Israelite invasion.

This may not have been your usual Freedom Fighter but I hope you can see what God was doing at a time when His people needed revival…kinda like today huh? – Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a regular Freedom Fighter blogger

Daily Bible Reading: Genesis 4-6/Romans 2

Quote of the day:  The doctrines of grace humble a man without degrading him and exalt him without inflating him. Charles Hodge

Bible Memory: But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself; so that I may finish the race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:24