Pharaoh enslaved the Hebrews with intent to diminish their numbers but, we notice in verse 12 above that the Hebrews instead multiplied and grew thereby yielding results that Pharaoh dreaded so he had to change his tactics. He moved ahead and commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill all Hebrew male children at birth. But the midwives, who feared God and were conscious of their vocation to protect and birth life, chose to lie to Pharaoh that Hebrew women gave birth before they got there. This tactful resistance to Pharaoh’s command caused the Hebrew population to continue to multiply as we find in Exodus 1:15-21.

​

“Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?” And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.” Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.”

​

The Hebrews kept increasing and this caused Pharaoh to unleash a sweeping command to everyone in Egypt to throw every Hebrew boy child into the Nile. We find this in Exodus 1:22 CEV as,

​

“until finally, the king gave a command to everyone in the nation, “As soon as a Hebrew boy is born, throw him into the Nile River! But you can let the girls live.”

​

The Bible is silent about the number of Hebrew boy children who were drowned in the River Nile by this order. However, we know that God saved the life of His servant Moses who was born at the time when this order was in place.

​

 

• Now it came about that when Moses was forty years old he decided to jumpstart his calling ten years before its time (Acts 7:23 -25), and instead caused his people to stay in bondage for four hundred and thirty years (Exodus 12:40-41) when God had said that their bondage would last for four hundred years (Genesis 15:13).

 

• Acts 7:23-25 NLT reads as follows:

 “One day when Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel. He saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite. So Moses came to the man’s defense and avenged him, killing the Egyptian. Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn’t.”

​

• See also Exodus 12:40-41 NASB

 “Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.”

​

And Genesis 15:13 NLT,

 “Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.””

​

• ​In 1 Chronicles 12:32 NASB we read,

“Of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their kinsmen were at their command.”

​

We understand that on August 25, 1619, a set of slaves from Africa were brought to Point Comfort (known today as Fort Monroe in Hampton, VA), in the very manner as prophesied by the prophet Isaiah in chapter twenty and verses three to five.

​

​​

• Isaiah 20:3-5 KJV

“And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.”

 

​

           This involuntary walk of shame brought about by connivance between the West and Africans against other Africans marked the beginning of our four hundred years of retribution punishment for what we, Africans, did to Abraham’s offspring. Some two hundred and sixty-five years later (November 15, 1884 – February 26, 1885), major European nations met in Berlin and set ground rules for the colonization of Africa to pit Africans against fellow Africans and plunder Africa. The impact of the Berlin Conference was not supposed to last beyond one hundred thirty-five years but seems like it will continue for another thirty years just as was the case of the Israelites leaving Africa. These extra thirty years could come from the activities of the French whose Franco-African cooperation accord, under the false pretext of ensuring future development of the continent is an anti-African mask (unfavorable economic ties, diplomatic loyalty, military, security and political patronage) that enables France to support dictators and other corrupt African puppets in order to defend its interests, however arbitrary they may be, at the expense of the African people.

 

          This accord has a thirty-years cycle which Africa must have to break. August 25, 2019 was commemorated as the 400th anniversary of the landing of slaves in the United States of America. This ushered in a season and a time when like sons of Issachar the church must arise and call forth God’s justice over Africa, Africans, and the Africans who were sold to slavery by Africans. It is time for Africans to ask God to restore our dignity, respect, and unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

​