To Know Him - Exodus 1:8

Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

Exodus 1:8

Joseph was an unusual man, in that all who ever got to know him were blessed by him. Living in prison, Joseph was a blessing while there. Moving up to the palace, nothing changed. He was still a blessing to all who knew him. His family, that rejected him years earlier, were blessed when they came to know him. Even those who didn’t know Joseph because he had died were blessed by him. Joseph’s bones were kept in a box in Egypt (Genesis 50:25), and when people saw that box, or heard about that box, it gave them great encouragement to know that Egypt’s bondage would one day be over! God would bring them back to their homeland. To know Joseph and to put your trust in him was a blessing.

But in Exodus 1:8, there is a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph! He put Joseph’s people under hard bondage and wanted to destroy all the male babies. When he died, his successor, the new Pharaoh who also knew not Joseph, didn’t listen to Moses either; and when Moses shows up, he refuses to let Israel go from Egypt and mocks the God of Joseph. The last time this king is mentioned in scripture, he and his armies were drowned in the Red Sea as Israel marched on, as God said.

Joseph, as said this past Sunday, is a type of Christ! He (Christ) is a blessing to all those who know Him. To reject Him, as these kings did, is certain death.

Our eternal future hangs on whether or not we believe in Jesus and His gospel that leads to salvation, or listen to the new kings over Egypt (type of Satan) that lead to destruction.