My Affliction is Working for my Multiplication
This Pharaoh realized that there were more Israelites than there were Egyptians. If they combined with one of Egypt's enemies, like the Hittites, the Egyptians would be in a bad place. So he enslaved them - appointed taskmasters over them.
Exod. 1:12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied
This is a principle of God - that growth comes from affliction. When the Israelites went through affliction, they multiplied. When the church goes through affliction, it too multiplies.
Paul wrote from prison to the Philippians,
Phil. 1:12-14 Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in {the cause of} Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.
When the persecution broke out against the church in Acts 8, it spread the Christians into Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. There they preached Jesus and a large number turned to the Lord.
That is why the American church does not grow exponentially - because we "enjoy" freedom from affliction. But the day will come that tribulation hits the Christians in our country, as it has the Christians in the majority of the rest of the world, and people will have to make a stand. The religious fakers will be weeded out from the true followers of Christ. In that day, the church will begin to see real multiplication. Glory
