Who are the Israelites?????

Not too long ago, I was reading through my Bible plan, and I had just completed Genesis, and moved on to Exodus, and then all of a sudden the word "Israelites" showed up.  I remember thinking, "who the heck are they?! And how am I supposed to know who they are and where they came from?"  I was so confused because the word just appeared out of nowhere it felt like.  So, instead of passing over it, I decided to investigate.  I started thumbing through the last part of Genesis, and then BAM, there it was!  Genesis 35:10 says, 

"God said to [Jacob], "Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob, your name will be Israel.  So he named him Israel."

But later I read that Moses was an Israelite, so I continued to investigate and I found that...

Jacob/Israel had 12 sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.  Now, Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery (Genesis 37), and the people they sold him to went to Egypt.  In Egypt, God gave Joseph success, and Joseph was then in charge of the Pharaoh (person over Egypt)'s captain of the guard official (whose name was Potiphar).  Potiphar's wife tried to seduce Joseph, but Joseph continued to (have self control and) say no to her.  In her anger, she made it look like Joseph tried to sleep with her, so Joseph was thrown in jail.  Joseph later interpretted dreams and got out of jail and became "in charge of the whole land of Egypt". (Woah!)

Now, during Joseph's dream interpretting, they found out that there was going to be a famine for 7 years, and the people of Egypt made plans accordingly.  The countries around Egypt did not, including where Joseph was from (and where his family was currently).  Before too long, Joseph's brothers came to Egypt to see if they could get food (and they didn't recognize Joseph who was the head of the country now).  Joseph basically pranked his brothers a couple of times and then invited them to come be with him.  Pharaoh invited them too and told them that they would have the best of the land they Egypt had to offer.  

And that's where the story ends for some of us.... but it continues.

Joseph and his brothers passed away, but before they did, they had kids... who had kids... who had kids and they "multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them." (Exodus 1:7)

THIS is when the new king saw this massive family (the Israelites) and started to get worried because there were SO MANY of them.  Therefore, in fear that this family (the Israelites) would one day go to war with them, the new king "put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor. (Exodus 1:11)  The Egyptians began to treat the family/Israelites very, very poorly even though the family continued to multiply.   Because they continued to multiply, the king told the midwives to kill the baby boys when/if they were born (but could keep the girls). (They refused, but the king got on to them, then told them to throw the babies in the Nile.)  One of the Levite women (Levi was one of the sons of Jacob/Israel, so this baby was a great (or great great or etc.) grandson to Levi who was a son of Jacob/Israel) had a baby (Moses) and hid him for 3 months and then put him in a basket on the river, and Pharaoh (the king)'s daughter found him, and years later, Moses went through the plagues to help get his people (his family, the Israelites) out of Egypt because the Egyptians were mistreating them so badly.  

So, I hope that helps clarify who the Israelites are and where they come from.  I know it was an "aha" moment when I finally figured that out, so I hope this was helpful for you and helped clarify the Bible just a little bit more.  

I love you!  Let me know if you have any questions like this or would like for me to explain something that's kind of confusing.  I'm still confused on a good bit, but love learning new things and would love to learn alongside you!

Thanks for reading!  TGBTG, Maria