Twelve children of Israel settled in Egypt with 70 total people in their clan (Exodus 1:5). They gave up their nomadic life for the agricultural way, and followed the rule of "Go forth and multiply." Each family (on the average) doubled every generation. This meant there were 140 people 25 years later, 280 people after 50 years, 560 after 75 years, and 1120 people after 100 years. No problem. But they stayed in Egypt 400 years.

All societies except those blessed by modern medicine have 35 to 50% infant mortality the first year. The Israelite mothers were having 7 to 8 children with 4 surviving to reproduce (on average). The perfect family - Dad, Mom and four kids - and the population kept doubling. According to the "Rule of 72," 72 divided by 25 years doubling time equals 2.9% per year growth rate. This is the same level observed in many third world countries today.

Well, back to Egypt. 125 years = 2240 people; 150 years = 4480 people; 175 years = 8960 people. After 200 years there were 17,920 people - a bustling metropolis for that time. 225 years = 35,840 people; 250 years = 71,680 people; 275 years = 143,360 people. After 300 years and 12 doublings, there were 286,720 Israelites, and Pharoah began to worry. The average age would have been about 15, so half were children and half the remainder were women. That still left almost 72,000 men!

320 years after the migration to Egypt, Moses was born. By this time hard labor and some infanticide had been tried unsuccessfully to slow the population explosion. At the time of Moses' birth the Egyptian people were under orders from Pharoah to drown all newborn Israelite boys. The population continued to grow, in spite of increasing efforts to limit it.

Moses led the people out when he was 80, which was 400 years after their ancestors entered Egypt. Continued doubling would have produced 573,440 people at 325 years; 1,146,880 peo ple at 350 years; 2,293,760 at 375 years; and 4,587,520 people after 400 years. The number which actually left Egypt after 400 years was about 2,414,200. (Numbers 1:46 says 603,550 men not including Levites.)

So how successful were Pharoah's abortion clinics? Not very. What can we do about the young Moses' around the world who want to lead their people to the Promised Land - the USA? Why not ban abortion and encourage larger families? In only two generations we can have ten plagues plus as many people as China! Then no one would want to move here.