1-4 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. 5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all, including Joseph, who was already in Egypt. 6-10 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were fruitful and increased rapidly; they multiplied and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become too numerous and too powerful for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase even more; and if a war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”

11-14 So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and flourished; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. They worked the Israelites ruthlessly and made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields. Every service they imposed was harsh. Exodus 1:1-14 Berean Study Bible (for ESV)

Having reached the end of the first section of Genesis which spoke of Noah's family tree down to a man named Abram, I thought to spend some time in Exodus, the second book of the Old Testament. The story begins over 600 years after Abram when the descendants of his grandson Jacob (who was known as Israel) had ended up in the land of Egypt. They are listed in vs 1-4 of today's reading. Verses 6-10 describe how these descendants multiplied at such a rate that the Egyptians became afraid of them. It's the sort of tension one sees today where migrants are flooding nations. So how did the Egyptians try to deal with the situation? (vs 11-14)

In short, they made the lives of the Israelites utterly miserable. They were slaves of the Egyptians. Slavery didn't start in the days when Spain, England and other nations colonized the world, it went way further back than that. But, as I noted in Genesis, God was steadily bringing His plan of salvation into the world. That's something we can take heart from when our circumstances are very dark. The misery the Israelites were going through did not mean God's plans had been thwarted.

A good summary of what we are told in Genesis about Abram, and what we see about his descendants in Egypt, was given by a follower of Jesus named Stephen when he was on trial for teaching things Jesus had taught. Stephen began his defence with the following words: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’ So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child.” (Acts 7:2-5)

Stephen continued, and said: “God spoke to Abraham in this way: ‘For 400 years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’ Then He gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.” (Acts 2:6-8)

The 'twelve patriarchs' Stephen mentions are the names we see in Exodus 1:1-4, along with Joseph who was already in Egypt. We see how perfectly the Bible's books all fit together. It's different parts all combine like a jigsaw puzzle to show how God's plan of salvation was brought about.