In Genesis we learn of a man in Ur named Abrams. He was born around 2000 BC, some say it was 1996 BC. He lived for 175 years. The name Abrams means “high father”. God changed his name to Abraham after he made a promise to him. Some say Abraham means “father of many nations”, but this is not technically correct. The name better translates to “a strong leader who made a covenant;" which is what God and Abrams did.
In Genesis 15:13 God tells (Abrams) Abraham his “offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted 400 years.”
Ten years after God promised Abram (Abraham) that he would make him a great nation, Abraham is dwelling as a nomad in Canaan and with Hagar, an Egyptian woman, conceives Ishmael., who is born the next year. God proclaims to Hagar that he will make Ishmael a great nation, which will always be a thorn in the side of Israel.
Then in Genesis 21:5 Abraham is 100 year old when Isaac is born. This is 25 years after God initially promised Abram he would make him a great nation and it is 405 years before the Exodus.
5 years later (Genesis 21:8-9) Isaac is weaned and Sarah, his mother and Abraham’s wife, sees Ishmael laughing at Isaac. Genesis 4:29 informs us this was: “He born according to the flesh persecuting him born according to the spirit.” The affliction of Israel (Isaac) by Egypt (Ishmael) has begun. It is 400 years before the Exodus. God’s prophesy to Abraham that his offspring will be afflicted 400 years has begun.
Joseph was born 176 years after God’s promise to Abraham or 254 years before the Exodus (totaling 430 years), and Joseph dies at age 110 (144 years before the Exodus). Only 64 years pass after Joseph’s death until Moses is born and placed in a basket to be saved from death under Pharaoh’s decree that all Israeli baby boys must be killed.. It is 350 years since God made his promise to Abraham. (176+110+64=350)
Moses is 80 years old when the Exodus begins, exactly 430 years since God’s promise to Abraham. (350+80=430)
In Exodus 12:40-41 it is stated: The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.
Keep in mind, the time of the people of Israel began with Abraham because at the time of the promise Abraham did go and sojourn in Egypt. So from the beginning of the Israelites until the Exodus was 430 years.
Now obviously since there were only 64 years between the death of Joseph and the birth of Moses, the Israelites could not have been enslaved in Egypt 400 years. But that was not what God had said.
Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for 400 years.”
First of all, God said they would be sojourners. Sojourn means to stay or visit temporarily. To be sojourners would be people who traveled in and out of this place or that, which the Israelites certainly did from Abraham’s first journey there. And during 400 hundred years of sojourning they were afflicted by a land not their own. This affliction began with Ishmael’s mocking of Isaac and ended with the Exodus. God said they would be afflicted by Egypt for 400 years, not that they would be servants that entire time. He only said at some point they would be servants there.
Here we are 64 years after Joseph died and there is Egypt with a brand new Pharaoh who doesn’t even remember Joseph and he is showing fear at the growth of the Israelites. He doesn’t necessarily know how they got there, he is just afraid of their growth. So in that 64 year time span between Joseph and Moses he has indeed enslaved them and now he is killing their boy babies. (Exodus 1: 7-22)
The Israelites needed a new deliverer and along came Moses.
Moses killed an Egyptian, relying on his own strength, not on God, and he had to flee Egypt. In the land where he went he came across a burning bush one day and God was in it.
Moses killed an Egyptian, relying on his own strength, not on God, and he had to flee Egypt. In the land where he went he came across a burning bush one day and God was in it.
Moses was no youngster when he saw the burning bush and God ordered him to lead the Hebrews out of Egyptian bondage. He was 80 years old by then. I am pushing hard on 80 and with my beard, sandals and walking stick have been called Moses by people who pass me. I’ll confess, right here and now, I am not anywhere near up to the rigors Moses was going to face.
There were times when Moses felt his age and once he did have two men hold his arms up as he tired in a battle against the Amalekites (Exodus 17:12-14). Well, one week doing these Bible Studies I required my own Aaron and Hur; let's call them Bill M. and Kenny G., to hold me up and get me home.
Anyway we know Moses led the Israelites across the red sea, on dry land no less. Getting from the Red Sea to the Jordan River bordering the Promise Land of Canaan should not have taken the 40-year ordeal it became, not really.
After crossing the Red Sea and escaping Pharaoh, Moses led the Israelites across a desert until they camped at the base of Mt. Sinai, also called Mount Horeb. Making this encampment only took about three months or so after leaving Egypt. While there Moses went up the mount where he got the Ten Commandments, and he was gone 40 days. After a bit of a delay to deal with the people’s impatient revolt, where they began worshipping a golden calf while Moses was away, they set out straight for the Promised Land. The average man or woman on the street would most likely tell you, if asked, that it took them 40 years to get there.
No, it didn’t, not that first time.
Say what? The first time?
Yep, there were two trips to the Promise Land.
These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side of Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
(There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.)
And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them…(Deuteronomy 1:1-3)
Yeah, see, “And it came to pass in the fortieth year”, right?
No, in the fortieth year Moses spoke to the Hebrews all that God had commanded to them. This is not when they first arrived on the edge of the Promise Land nor how long it should have taken to travel there. It was Moses giving an overview of their trip.You must look at verse 2, the one in parenthesis in the King James version. “There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.”
So what does this mean?
After Moses and the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea out of Egypt, they escamped at Mt. Sinai, also known as Horeb. Then we find in Deuteronomy 1:19:
“Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea.”
It was eleven days journey from Mt. Sinai to Kadeshbarnea. That’s all. In far less than a year, the Hebrews should have been entering the Promise Land and taking it as directed by God.
Here we see clearly the faithless nature of these people. After seeing the Red Sea parted and the fate of Pharaoh’s army, they were still afraid to trust God. Well, we saw that back at Sinei, didn’t we? Moses disappears up the Mount for just over a month and these people were already making a new idol to replace God in their hearts.
Kadeshbarnea in on the southern border of Israel, across the Jordan River in what is now called Transjorden and about 5 miles from Petra, Jordan. Back then it was part of what was known as Edom. And what happened back there at Kadeshbarnea when the Hebrews arrived the first time?
The people again lost heart.
Moses send 13 men to spy out Canaan on orders from God, “from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.” (Numbers 13:2)
Now one may ask, 13? Were there not 12 tribes? Where dd this 13 come from?
These spies and their tribes are listed in Numbers 13: 4-15, but Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, are named as two tribes because back in Genesis 48 Jacob basically adopted them as his own, thus there were 13 men sent.
These men then slipped into Canaan, where they spied for 40 days before returning to Moses with their reports. All but two came back shaking in their sandals, fearing they had no chance again the giants and powerful occupants of Canaan. Only Two came back ready to go in and take the country. These were Joshua and Caleb.
As a result of this lack of faithfulness, God condemned the Hebrews to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, one year for each day those spies had been in Canaan. The punishment was that not a single Hebrew who came out of Egypt would live to go into the Promise Land, except Joshua, Caleb and the children under 20 years of age, and so it was to be. Even Moses didn’t get there because of his own disobedience in striking the Rock of water. (Numbers 20:2-13).
Caleb, son of Jephunneh, was a member of the Judah tribe. When Caleb was given his allotment in the Promise land he had this to say in Joshua 14:10-12:
“Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”
Once I said I will be like Caleb, but I cannot say it anymore. I am not 85, I’m just short of 80, but not so strong as I was at 65. Doesn’t mean I back down from speaking out for God, though. More pertinent, when we finally get around to the three hombres again, we’ll find Caleb plays another roll.
Joshua was no spring chicken himself. There is no exact birth date given for him nor how old he was when he and Caleb spied out Canaan, but most believe he was 30 or 40 at the time, so after 38 years wandering about the wilderness, he would have been between 68 and 78 when he led the Israelites into the Promise Land. In Joshua 24:29 we are told Joshua was 110 when he died. Therefore, 32 to 42 years passed while he was leading the Israelites through the conquest of Canaan. And after his demise is when things went south for the Israelites.
Things started out looking good, of course. Joshua led him to the banks of the Jordan and he sent two spies to Jericho, this big fortified city in Judah. The two men got into the city proper just fine and a prostitute hid them. This prostitute it is believed became the wife of one of these spies and he was Salmon. They had a son named Boaz and Boaz became the husband of some woman from Moab you might have heard of, named Ruth. Ruth and Boaz began Obed, who was the grandfather of David. If you keep going you find that this one-time Prostitute was a grandmother of Jesus.
Funny the way things work out.
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