All those who went to Egypt with Jacob—those who were his direct descendants, not counting his sons' wives—numbered sixty-six persons. – Genesis 46:26

Today's Scripture Reading (September 13, 2021): Genesis 46

It is an old math trick that proves the power of doubling. The agreement is that if you guarantee me a job for a month and also agree to pay me a penny a day, but every day, you will also double my wage, I will take the job. In the early days of the month, the employer will definitely get the best of the worker. During the first week of employment, the employee will only earn a grand total of $1.27. But the day of the worker is coming, and it won't take long. Week number two cost the employer considerably more, but it is still a deal for the employer. The employee only earns $162.56 for their seven days of work during that second week. But then the tide turns. In week three, the benefit shifts to the employee. Their week three paycheck will total $20,812.18. Not bad for seven days of labor. And during week four, the employee's wage blows through the roof into the realm of the rich and famous; $2,663,383.04. Almost three million dollars for a single week of work. And to think that just twenty-eight days earlier, the starting wage was only a penny a day. (Hmm, that might be an excellent idea for a television game show; win today, and your prize money is a penny, but we will keep doubling it every day that you can win. By the end of the month, if you keep on winning, you will be playing for over 10 million dollars a day, assuming a thirty-one-day month. Of course, keeping the winning streak going until you can get into the real money realm would be difficult, but it might be worth it. Another aside, this is why the strategy of betting on something and then doubling your bet if you lose doesn't work. The stakes go through the roof too quickly if you can win in the early rounds.) Isn't math fun?

Israel started slow. Only sixty-six people who were related to Jacob went down to Egypt with him. But God had promised that in Egypt, he would build a nation from these sixty-six people. At the time, Jacob likely thought that that was an impossible task starting with such a small number, living in a strange land. But God knew that in Egypt, they would be isolated into a community and that that community would become a nation. And God knew the power of math. The building of a nation in Egypt would not take as long as Jacob might think from the original sixty-six descendants of Jacob. When Israel would leave Egypt a little more than four hundred years later, the number of Jacob's direct descendants would number over two million. Israel would be the mighty nation that God had promised Jacob they would become.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Genesis 47