October 4, 2007

• Coming up for “air”…

  No, I haven’t been neglecting my posts but I thought I’d let you in on what’s going on here.

  Certainly, I’ve been “offline” due to a huge increase in business
  activity lately but I’ve still been hammering away at a really
  interesting study that seems to have stumped a lot of folks in the
  past.  I’ve been attempting to answer the question of how long did
  Israel really stay in Egypt. While that might seem to be a simple
  question to answer from Exodus 12:41 yet based on other passages there
  are some interesting considerations to that number and I’m chasing down facts and perhaps bringing this to a close soon.
  However, I’ve come across something very interesting that I’d like to share
  with you in the meantime…

  
  Abram and the First Exodus

  What “first Exodus” you might ask? Let’s compare the lives of Abram and Jacob.

  If we go back to Genesis 12, we find that Abram, after his father dies,
  leaves Haran at 75 years old and Lot comes with him. He comes to
  Shechem where the Lord appears to him and promises him the land of
  Canaan. So Abram builds an altar there and then moved on to the
  mountain east of Bethel, built an altar there and called on the name of
  the Lord. He doesn’t stay there and almost moves to the Negev. We are then
  told that there was a famine in the land and perhaps that was why he
  had kept moving. In fact, the famine drives Abram into Egypt and we
  have the account where he makes an agreement with his wife, Sarai, to
  claim that she is his sister. As he had surmised, the Egyptians saw
  that Sarai was a beautiful woman and took her into Pharaoh’s house. 
  Abram was treated well for her sake and he received sheep, oxen,
  donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys and camels.  Now
  Pharaoh and his house were struck with great plagues due to him taking
  Sarai, Abram’s wife. Pharaoh finds out that he’s got Abram’s wife and
  reprimands Abram and send him and Sarai away being escorted out of
  Egypt with all that he owned.

  Now let’s move the clock forward to Jacob. In Genesis 33, we see Jacob
  has left Paddan-Aram after he got Leah and Rachel for wives after 20
  years of service for Laban and having met with his brother, Esau,
  again, had now come to Shechem, where he apparently intended to stay
  shown by his purchase of a piece of land. However, we have also seen
  that Shechem, son of Hamor, had laid with Jacob’s daughter without her
  permission and Jacob’s sons retaliate and wipe out Shechem (the town)
  and looted it even taking the women and children.  This drives Jacob to
  move out of Shechem because of fear of the people of the land. So God
  tells Jacob to move to Bethel and build an altar there.  It is here
  that everyone sheds all their things having to do with foreign gods and
  they leave them at Shechem before they proceed to Bethel. It is at
  Bethel, God names Jacob Israel. Jacob comes to his father Isaac at
  Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. Isaac dies and then
  Jacob resides in  Hebron. It is after this that we come to the story of
  Joseph (after some information about Esau) and their brothers’
  treachery and Joseph ends up in Egypt. Later, after some years, God
  gives Pharaoh a dream that Joseph is able to understand and Joseph is
  exalted to manage the food stores to get through the upcoming famine. 
  As we have already studied, this is the famine that drives Jacob and
  the rest of his sons to come down to Egypt and stay in Goshen, which
  eventually leads us to the story of Moses and the Exodus.

  So let’s put these “milestone events” of Abram and Jacob together…

  Abram comes from Haran to Shechem.
  Jacob comes from Padan-aram to Shechem.
  (Haran is a city in the area of Padan-aram or very close to it.)

  Abram travels from Shechem to Bethel.
  Jacob travels from Shechem to Bethel

  Abram travels from Bethel toward the Negev. Hebron is just about to the Negev.
  Jacob travels to Hebron.

  A famine drives Abram to Egypt.
  A famine drives Jacob to Egypt.

  After Abram arrives in Egypt, Sarai is taken from him to be Pharoah’s.
  After Jacob arrives in Egypt, the sons of Israel becomes slaves to Pharaoh.

  Abram is given many gifts by Pharaoh on account of Sarai.
  “Jacob” (the sons of Israel) is given many gifts by the Egyptians on account of God’s working. They “plundered” Egypt.

  While Abram’s wife, Sarai, is in Pharaoh’s custody, great plagues fall upon Pharaoh and his house.
  While Israel, God’s people, were in Pharaoh’s custody, great plagues fell upon Pharaoh and Egypt.

  Pharaoh expels Abram and all that he owned from Egypt.
  Pharaoh expels Israel and all that they owned from Egypt.

  Aside from the different particular events in Abram’s and Jacob’s life, the path and sequence are exactly the same.
  I thought you might be interested in this. I’m still studying on the other.  Mr.Vee

  • 1:59 pm
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