A saga of slavery

Some 2,500 years ago an entire nation was in bondage. When we first encounter Israel as a nation in the Bible, the Israelites had gone from being guests in Egypt, enjoying the bounties of the land side by side with their Egyptian hosts, to being slaves. The Bible says the Egyptians set "taskmasters" over the Israelites "to afflict them with their burdens," forcing them to construct cities such as Pithom and Ramses' (Exodus 1:11).

The Israelites were cruelly forced to labour at projects designed to honour the proud Egyptian kings. So brutal were these Egyptian masters that they even murdered Israel's newborn male babies (Ex 1:22).

Such suffering of slaves in Egypt is verified by archaeological evidence from the land of the Pharaohs. "... The famous wall painting from the Theban tomb of Recamier ... (depicts) the overseer of the brick-making slaves during the reign of Thutmose III" (Expositor's Bible Commentary, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1990, Vol. 2, p. 304).

The painting on Rekhmire's tomb shows "overseers armed with heavy whips" (ibid.). Hard labour and beatings were a harsh reality of Israelite life. "Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren" (Exodus 2:11).

The Israelites cried out in their suffering. God said, "I have surely seen the oppression of My people ... and have heard their cry ..." (Exodus 3:7).