Population Control

“So Pharaoh issued a general order to all his people: “Every boy that is born, drown him in the Nile. But let the girls live.”” (Exodus 1:22, The Message)

After Joseph died, there arose a Pharaoh (King) who didn’t know Joseph. He started to use the Hebrew people as slave labor as a means of population control. There are many countries that use population control to restrict certain ethnic groups, keep a country’s leaders and political philosophies in power. China comes to mind as a modern example. (Although they may be changing that policy soon because of an aging population.) It is a repressive form of government control and it often ends in the persecution of a specific ethnic group. In the case of this population control effort, there was the double danger for the Israelites of losing their ethnic identity to the Egyptians (because all the males were killed and not all of the females). God eventually rescued his people through a man named Moses who survived this ethnic cleansing effort.

“The woman became pregnant and had a son. She saw there was something special about him and hid him. She hid him for three months. When she couldn’t hide him any longer she got a little basket-boat made of papyrus, waterproofed it with tar and pitch, and placed the child in it. Then she set it afloat in the reeds at the edge of the Nile.” (Exodus 2:2–3, The Message)

God always makes a way to help people in times of population persecution. Christians today are also in danger of population control all over the world. Places like the Middle East are purging Christians as a means of religious population control. The process is known as Islamization. As Christians, we should not be surprised at this type of population control against us. We can even learn to endure it. For Jesus said:

“You will be hated by everyone because of My name. But the one who endures to the end will be delivered.” (Matthew 10:22, HCSB)