THE EXODUS AND MOSES
During our previous lecture we looked at the mention of the 430 years prediction concerning the exodus. We checked both the Old and New Testament Bible verses. What happened at the end of that prophetic period? First it was bad news but they it was good news, wonderful good news.
Genesis 15:13,14 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
Verses 15,16 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
Let’s refresh our minds with the date of the exodus. Does the Bible give us the date of the exodus? If we can establish this date we will know for sure when Abram was born. We will also know exactly when made the promises to him at Haran.
1 Kings 6:1 And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.
Let’s travel to Israel in our research. It is quite an exciting experience to visit the ancient sites Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer. Excavations tell us that Solomon used the same architecture in the construction of all the city gates. The fourth year of Solomon’s reign was in 970 BC. To what date do you come when you add 480 years?
Was there a pharaoh who died in 1450 BC? Here we have the date of the death of the greatest pharaoh of antiquity. When you study the architecture of the tomb you discover skilled work by the first team.
A second team of unskilled workers completed the inside decorations of the tomb in a hurry. They made a mess. The evidence point to the fact that the Hebrew slaves left Egypt during the year of his death?
Could it be that Tutmosis III drowned in the Red Sea? What happened when Harris and Weeks X-rayed the so called mummy?
Looking at the date of Tutmosis III’s death helps us to add the 430 years 1450 and what do we get? 1880. This date takes us the time when God made His promises to Abram at Haran. How old was he at that time? Add 75 to 1880 and what do you get? 1955.
MOSES
Do you think the devil studied this prophecy of a future deliverance of the descendants of Abram? What cruel plan did he devise to kill the male deliverer?
Exodus 1:8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; 10 come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.”
Verses 11-13 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. 13 So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor.
Verses 14-16 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor. 15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah;
Verses 16,17 and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive.
Verse 20 So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”
This was the devil’s plan. What is his plan for you and me? I wonder how many baby boys died in the Nile.
GODS RESCUE PLAN
Did God predict that this would happen to Abram’s descendants? But now we come to God’s rescue plan.
Exodus 2:1 And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi.
Verses 2,3 So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. 3 But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank.
Verses 4,5 And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him. 5 Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it.
Verses 6,7 And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?”
Verses 8,9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the maiden went and called the child’s mother. 9 Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.
How did she explain her actions to her father, the king? When did he rescind the death decree on male babies?
Verse 10 And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
What Egyptian name do you think, she gave her adopted son? Who was the Pharaoh? What was his daughter’s name? Tomb of Tutmosis I first to be built in the Valley of the Kings.
Is Moses a type of Christ? Is Cyrus a type of Christ?
“While this decree was in full force, a son was born to Amram and Jochebed. The mother succeeded in concealing the child [Moses] for three months. Then, finding that she could no longer keep him safely, she prepared a little ark of rushes, making it watertight by means of slime and pitch; and laying the babe therein, she placed it among the flags at the river’s brink.
“She dared not remain to guard it, lest the child’s life and her own should be forfeited; but his sister, Miriam, lingered near, anxiously watching to see what would become of her little brother. And there were other watchers. The mother’s earnest prayers had committed her child to the care of God; and angels, unseen, hovered above his lowly resting place.
“Angels directed Pharaoh’s daughter thither. Her curiosity was excited by the little basket, and as she looked upon the beautiful child within, she read the story at a glance. The tears of the babe awakened her compassion, and she determined that he should be saved; she would adopt him as her own.” PP 241
What kind of education did Moses receive?
Acts 7:22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds
Question. Did Moses know that he would be the future deliverer of the Hebrew slaves? Did God communicate this to the leaders?
“The elders of Israel were taught by angels that the time for their deliverance was near, and that Moses was the man whom God would employ to accomplish this work.
The 430 year prophecy was nearing its fulfilment. Only 40 years left.
“Angels instructed Moses also that Jehovah had chosen him to break the bondage of his people. He, supposing that they were to obtain their freedom by force of arms, expected to lead the Hebrew host against the armies of Egypt. PP 245
Acts 7:23-25 Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. 25 For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.
35. Verses 26-28 And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’ 27 But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?
Verse 29 Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.
He fled from fame to shame; From a somebody to a nobody; From a conquering general to a fleeing shepherd
Have you like Moses thwarted God’s purpose for your life? Did you want to achieve goals by force? Are you in a lonely desert of self-reproach? Do you at times feel that God has forgotten about you?
Exodus 2:23 Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.
Who was pharaoh that died during the forty years that Moses spent in Sinai? Moses fled in 1490 BC. Hatshepsut was killed in 1488 BC by Tutmosis III. Was she influenced by the theology of Moses – monotheism?
Rejected the title: Wife of the god Amun, like Tiy and Nefertiti.
Why did the children of Israel groaned? Tutmosis III was no longer a co-ruler with Hatshepsut and the devil urged him to destroy the Israelites. Did God hear their groaning? Does He hear me?
Exodus 2:24,25 So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.
Who is He going to use to deliver His people from the mightiest pharaoh who ever ruled? For the first 40 years of his life, Moses wanted to become a somebody, for the next 40 years he wanted to become a nobody. And during the last 40 years of his life, God showed the world what He could do with such a man.
At Sinai one can visit a sample of the burning bush at Santa Katarina. God met Moses at the burning bush to tell him that he is restored to the position of the deliverer of His people.
And how did Moses reply? “Well Lord. I appreciate your wisdom in chosing me. So glad you realise my potential and take cognisanse of the fact that I am the most learned man on the face of the earth.”
Exodus 3:10,11 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
It is not so much about “Who am I” as it is “Who is God.”
When we become humble and repent of our mistakes, God can use us. What He did for Moses He wants to do for you and me. Just remember one thing when you hear Him calling: All His bidding are enablings.
“It is not the capabilities you now possess or ever will have that will give you success. It is that which the Lord can do for you. We need to have far less confidence in what man can do and far more confidence in what God can do for every believing soul.
“He longs to have you reach after Him by faith. He longs to have you expect great things from Him. He longs to give you understanding in temporal as well as in spiritual matters. He can sharpen the intellect. He can give tact and skill. Put your talents into the work, ask God for wisdom, and it will be given you. COL 146
In our next lecture we will walk with Aaron and Moses to Nile. This is where the pharaoh worshipped Hapi, the god of Nile. We are going to look at new dimensions of God’s saving love. We are going to see how archaeology supports the truth of the Bible