"Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept your Word." (Psalm 119:67)
"Tribulation works patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope makes not ashamed." (Romans 5:3-5)
"Let patience [endurance] have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing." (James 1:4)
"You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." (James 5:11)
Nothing happens by accident in this world.
"The curse causeless does not come." (Proverbs 26:2)
No person on this earth ever suffered anything that was not made necessary, either by his own sins or the sins of others. If the suffering was wholly the result of his own sins and errors, it was in the nature of instruction and warning, that he might learn to shun the evil course and its consequences in the future; and so it was a message of peace.
And whether the suffering came for his own sins, or wholly because of somebody else's failure, it was that the sufferer might be filled to assist others in affliction. Even the Captain of our salvation was made "perfect through sufferings," (Hebrews 2:10) being "in all things ... made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He himself has suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted." (Hebrews 2:17-18)
Thus one object of the oppression which the Israelites suffered in Egypt was to teach them mercy. God said to them, "You shall not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow's raiment to pledge: But you shall remember that you were a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you thence: therefore I command you to do this thing." (Deuteronomy 24:17-18)
In many places were the Israelites admonished to be merciful, by the memory of what they had suffered in Egypt. Furthermore, if the children of Israel had never been oppressed, they would never have wanted to leave Egypt. They were situated in the most fertile part of the country, and if they had been left wholly at ease, they would have had no incentive to go to the far better country which the Lord had given them.
"As the eagle stirs up her nest," (Deuteronomy 32:11) throwing the young ones out when they will not of themselves attempt to fly, so the Lord dealt with Israel. Even so it is now. If we had everything to our liking, we should be far less likely to listen to the message of salvation. This is the way it is with those who are "not in trouble as other men," (Psalm 73:5) but who have only prosperity.
"Pride compasses them about as a chain; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness; they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression; they speak loftily. And they say, How does God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; the increase in riches." (Psalm 73:6-8,12-12)
But they stand in slippery places, and shall "be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." (Proverbs 1:31-32)
It is much better, therefore, to be afflicted and saved from ruin, than to have prosperity and go to destruction. For although God stirs His people out of their nest, He also, like the eagle, bears them on His wings.
"The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly [literally, "swarmed"], and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falls out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew." (Exodus 1:7-12)
Truly, "the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." (1 Corinthians 3:19)
That "new king," the first of a new dynasty from Assyria, who "knew not Joseph," and therefore "without cause" (Isaiah 3:4) oppressed Israel, thought that he was planning very shrewdly; but the very course that he took to crush the numbers and strength of the Israelites only caused them to multiply and grow stronger.
It was not simply that God worked an unusual miracle, to defeat the purpose of the heathen king; the truth is that hardship and toil, instead of breaking down the human frame, build up and harden it. Idleness and ease are the foes of health and strength. With the luxuries of civilization, and labor-saving machinery, come unfruitfulness, feebleness of body, and inability to resist disease.
There is a practical lesson here for us, not only as a nation, but as individuals. People are taught to think that their benefactors are those who procure them "shorter hours of labor," and to bring luxuries within their reach and "make life easy" for them. All this is indeed pleasanter for the time, and more acceptable to natural inclination; but if it be a benefit to have a long life of health, then it is a question whether all the "modern conveniences" are benefits. This is not an apology for oppression; for, "he that oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker." (Proverbs 14:31)
But it is a plea for people to exercise a wise self-restraint, and, like the Apostle Paul, to keep the body under, and "bring it into subjection." (1 Corinthians 9:27)
It is, indeed, a fact, that in spite of all the oppression of the poor by capitalists and trusts, the most of the real troubles of the poor in every land arise from their own evil habits and lack of desire for self-improvement.
In every government, though terror reign;
Though tyrant laws and tyrant kings restrain;
How small, of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.
Still to ourselves in every place consigned,
Our own felicity we make or find.
(Oliver Goldsmith, Poem: The Traveller)
"And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage." (Exodus 2:23)
Although oppression of God's people always causes them to prosper [for the man whose delight is in law of the Lord, and who meditates in it day and night will have prosperity whatever his circumstances (Psalm 1:2-3)], that does not make oppression a virtue. The Lord is always on the side of the oppressed, and against the oppressor.
"He has looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death." (Psalm 102:19-20)
"For the oppression of the poor, for the signing of the needy, now will I rise, says the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffs at him." (Psalm 12:5)
Read (James 5:1-8), to see how God regards the poor and their oppressors. The only obstacle in the way of the poor is disbelief in God, and the lack of regard for Him. If they would believe in Him as a present help in trouble, and would heed His commandments, walking in His ways, and would cry to Him, instead of to Parliament, they would see even in their adversity such prosperity as they have never dreamed of.
The treasure cities which the Israelites built for Pharaoh have ceased to exist. Their very sites unknown, and the treasures they contain have long ago been scattered to the winds, or consumed by the moth. The pyramids, which they doubtless helped to construct, are empty shells, serving only to show that there was once a great and powerful kingdom in the land of the Nile; but the poor, oppressed slaves, who were to be exterminated, are still flourishing.
Though still oppressed in many lands, they nevertheless multiply, and never swell the list of paupers. Even though they have forgotten God and His covenant, and have ceased to be His peculiar people, His mercy has preserved them as a monument of how futile it is to fight against the Most High. Though we believe not, "yet He abides faithful; He cannot deny himself." (2 Timothy 2:13)--Present Truth, October 31, 1901--International Sunday-school Lesson for November 10--Exodus 1:1-14.
E.J. Waggoner