Please read the passage before reading the comments.
The Israelites were in Egypt. The new administration did not know or remember how Joseph fit into the country’s history. It saw the Israelites as a threat to the good of Egypt. His solution to the problem as he saw it was to enslave the Israelites and make they stay in Egypt. Today’s pharaohs may try to solve the problems as they see it by expelling the people from the country.
The pharaoh pushed more and more labor to the Israelites to break their spirit. He apparently did not realize that by taking all recreation from them, except sleep, he was helping the Israelites to increase and multiply.
He even tried to use the midwives to advance his designs, but the midwives said that they found the Israelite women stronger and more resourceful than the Egyptian woman. His last attempt to control the Israelites, by commanding that all baby boys be drowned in the rivers, was thwarted by the ingenuity of women.
The author sets the book of Exodus up as a clash between the power of pharaoh and the power of God. Can the One who made the seas and dry land save the Israelites through the same element? Can he change pharaoh’s drowning waters into the saving waters of the Red Sea?
God constantly reminded the Israelites to be mindful of strangers because they were once strangers in a foreign land (Exodus 22:20; 23:9 and many other places). We who follow Christ must also keep in mind to respect and cherish the foreigners among us. The Bible lifts up pharaoh to us as an example whom we should not imitate.