Why Did The Children of Israel Suffer Hardship?

Question: Were the children of Israel’s hardships ultimately preparing them? 

Answer: The family of Jacob entered Egypt as pastoralists—and that was deliberate.

Joseph instructs his father to emphasise their shepherding identity because Egyptians despised shepherds. As a result of telling pharaoh they worked with sheep and goats etc. this secured them their own piece of land because the Egyptians, generally speaking, didn't want herds of animals treading down their cereal crops.

But Exodus 1 shows a dramatic shift in their work. The text says the Egyptians forced them into building (Pithom and Rameses), brick making and all kinds of work in the fields. They go from herding animals to construction, agriculture, and very likely mining (Serabit el‑Khadim is a strong candidate). 

This extra work is not accidental but in God’s plan. 

The Israelites, says the book of Exodus, were burdened with “all manner of service.” The mechanical skills that Josephus mentions could be partly linked to Egyptian mining operations. The Israelites certainly lived en route to the turquoise and copper mine at Serabit el-Khadim, so it would be easier for the Egyptians to conscript a number of them for the mining expeditions. 

Mining can be a messy and dangerous business, and at this stage the Egyptians would have no qualms about sending a few Israelites into the mines. 

The King James Bible relates that the Egyptians enforced the Israelites to complete “all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour” (Exod 1:14). 

The Hebrew word for “field” can also be translated as “land” or “countryside” and the mines were “out there” in the countryside, although what the Egyptians meant by “countryside” and the picture a modern person living in the West has of “countryside” may be different. 

The mining expeditions would certainly be classed as “rigorous.” 

Copper contained within rock would be dug out, then the rock, or ore as it is known, would be smelted. The smelting process is a skilled procedure and once copper has been extracted from the ore the copper can then be cast, which is also skilled work.

Later in the book of Exodus we find that there were two particular Israelites, by the names of Bezalel and Oholiab, who were particularly skilled in various sorts of metal work. Aaron too had some knowledge of how to cast. Examples of early copper work reveal the metal was usually cast. 

The Egyptians mastered the art and learned that copper can be alloyed with a small amount of tin resulting in bronze which made the technique of casting easier to perform. 

The mountain where the Sinai mine is located, Serabit el-Khadim, is not only famous for its ancient mines but it is also the place of the oldest known alphabetic writing, called Proto-Sinaitic script. The inscriptions are Semitic and closely linked to Proto-Canaanite script, which was a forerunner of Hebrew writing. 

These new skills become essential in the wilderness for when the children of Israel leave Egypt, they suddenly need to build tents construct the tabernacle (a highly technical project), work metals, fabrics, wood, and stone, organise large groups, manage logistics, survive harsh conditions. So where did they learn all this? Not in Canaan, or by being shepherds, but in Egypt—under hardship. Even Bezalel and Oholiab, the master craftsmen of the tabernacle, are described as being filled with the Spirit, but they also clearly had skills. Where did those skills come from? From years of forced labour in Egypt. 

Their suffering became their training. 

These skills were also essential for entering the Promised Land. The conquest required knowledge of fortifications, how cities work. They also needed to understand agriculture on a national scale, there was no time for learning on the job, too many people would starve, if they got things wrong. 

But these people understood metalwork for tools and weapons. Shepherds alone would not have had this. But a people shaped by years of forced labour would. 

God made sure they were ready. So Egypt was not just a place of suffering, it was a forge. 

Moses told the people: “As for you, the LORD took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are” (Deut 4:20). 

So not only did the children of Israel learn how to forge metal in a furnace, they themselves were in a furnace being forged. 

Israel’s experience is a template for our own. God is at work even in our hardships, for trials refine us and pressure strengthens us. Israel’s story teaches us that God sees ahead and prepares his people. 

The same God who brought Israel out of the iron furnace brings his people today through their own furnaces—not untouched, but transformed.