The Original Roe vs Wade
Partial Birth Abortion and Infanticide - 3500 Years Ago!Exodus 1
Lorraine Day, M.D.
8-7-06
Why study the Old Testament?
Many Christians call themselves “New Testament” Christians and view the Old Testament as nothing more than ancient history – a group of interesting stories, but stories that have little bearing on present-day living.
But Jesus said that the ENTIRE Old Testament is about HIM!
“You search the Scriptures, thinking that in them you have eternal (eonian) life. But they (the Scriptures) are they which testify of ME! (John 5:39)
Because the ONLY Scriptures available in the time of Jesus were the Old Testament Scriptures, Jesus is telling us that the Old Testament Scriptures testify of JESUS, Himself!
Also, please note that Jesus did NOT say that the Old Testament was about Israel! The Old Testament is about Jesus!
The Bible tells us:
“To know God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, is life eternal.” (John 17:3)
Therefore, we must learn as much as possible about the Old Testament – the Scriptures that testify, like the New Testament, of Jesus Christ.
In 1855, the famous preacher, C. H. Spurgeon, had the following to say.
“It is our firm conviction and increasing belief, that the historical books of Scripture were intended to teach us by types and figures spiritual things. We believe that every portion of Scripture history is not only a faithful transcript of what did actually happen, but also a shadow of what happens spiritually in the dealings of God with His people, or in the dispensations of His grace towards the world at large.
“We do not look upon the historical books of Scripture as being mere rolls of history, such as profane authors might have written, but we regard them as being most true and infallible records of the past, and also most bright and glorious foreshadowings of the future, or else most wondrous metaphors and marvelous illustrations of things that are verily received among us, and most truly felt in the Christian heart. . .
“We look upon the book of Exodus as being a book of types of the deliverances which God will give to His elect people: not only as a history of what He has done, in bringing them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and guiding them through the wilderness, but also as a picture of His faithful dealings with ALL His people, whom by the blood of Christ He separates from the Egyptians, and by His strong and mighty hand takes out of the house of their bondage and out of the land of their slavery to sin.
“The land of Egypt is a picture of the house of bondage into which ALL God’s covenant people will, sooner or later, be brought on account of their sin. Every one who enjoys the liberty wherewith Christ does make us free, must first feel the galling bondage of sin.. . . We must all serve in the brick-kiln; we must all be wearied with toiling among the pots; We must have bondage before liberty: before resurrection there must come death; before life there must come corruption; before we are brought out of the horrible pit and miry clay we must be made to exclaim, ‘I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing:’
“You will see that the deliverance of Egypt is a beautiful picture of the deliverance of ALL God’s people from the bondage of the slavery of their sins.”
C. H. Spurgeon, Sermon No. 56, Dec 9, 1855 www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0055.htm
We are studying the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt as it is a type of the “exodus” of every person from sin. The steps that the Israelites took, over forty years, along the way from Egypt – through the wilderness – to the Promised Land, are there for our study, to show us important lessons we must learn in our daily walk Out of Sin (Out of Egypt), Through Our Lives (Through the Wilderness) and on to becoming a New Creature in Christ (The Promised Land).
Because it is often perceived as just a “story for the children,” or just “Jewish History,” many of the important lessons of the Exodus have been lost and left unstudied by Christians of today.
Exodus, Chapter 1:
1 Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.
The name Jacob means Supplanter or Deceiver. When Jacob had finally learned that deception practiced will return to the one who practices it, he had a changed heart. God then changed his name, giving Jacob a new Spiritual name – Israel.
2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.
Reuben
The name Reuben means (See! A son). He was the firstborn son of Leah and Jacob but receives, like Ishmael and Esau, a subordinate rank. His father, Jacob, referred to him as unstable like water and violated the bed of his father. (Gen 49:4)
“Reuben had a subordinate place among the twelve, and his descendants had their allotment east of the Jordan, so that they went into captivity first. But he did seek to save the life of Joseph (Gen 37:22).” Unsearchable Riches, A.E. Knoch, The Sons of Jacob, p 152,153.
Simeon
Simeon (Heard) Leah’s second son was apparently named because Leah felt her prayers were heard. She wanted Jacob to love her because she had given him two sons. “In the division of the land among the tribes they (Simeon and Levi) received no distinct allotment, but dwelt in the center of Judah, whose portion was too much for them (Joshua 19:1-9).” Ibid, p 153
Remember that Simeon and Levi were involved in the horrible massacre of the Shechemites (Gen 34:25; 49:5-7).
Levi
“Levi (Obligated) was so named because Leah felt that Jacob, even if he did not love her, was greatly indebted to her for the three sons she had borne him. In the East any son is considered a great asset, and, now that she had enriched him with three sons, Jacob could not help being much obligated to her.” Ibid
Levi was a partner with his older brother Simeon in the massacre of the Shechemites, so he too lost a definite allotment in the land.
Judah
Judah (Acclaimed), is the fourth son of Leah who now acclaims God for what He has done to help her. Judah holds the leading place among the tribes and the large allotment. Above all, he is in the lineage of Jesus (Luke 3:33).
The scepter was taken from Reuben, the firstborn, and given to Judah. “The tribe descended from him received the largest allotment and the leadership after David ascended the throne. When the kingdom was divided, Judah remained true to the worship of God.” Ibid.
3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin
Issachar
Issachar (There-is-Reward) was Leah’s fifth son. She took him as payment for giving her maid to her husband. Jacob, in his last prophecy, calls Issachar a boney donkey reclining between two saddlebags. This is not very complimentary, although the donkey is the most reliable and patient animal in the land. Issachar is never mentioned again in the records. The tribe received a small allotment on the western side of the Jordan below lake Galilee, bordering on the valley of Jezreel.” Ibid. p 155,156
Zebulun
Zebulun (Preferred) is Leah’s sixth son and indicates Leah’s triumph over her sister Rachel. This tribe lived toward the seashore (Gen 49:13), though not actually on the coast which was given to Ashur.
Benjamin
“Benjamin (Son of the Right Hand) was “added” to Joseph’s mother, Rachel, later. He is compared to a wolf (Gen 49:27). Ephraim (Fruits) and Manasseh (Oblivion), the sons of Joseph, came later, and recorded his fruitfulness and his obliviousness as to the trials and toil of his early years (Gen 41:51,52).” Ibid, 157
4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
Dan and Naphtali
It was Dan (Adjudication), the son of Rachel’s maid Bilhah, whose tribe brought idolatry into Israel. This tribe stole a graven image and set it up and had a priest of their own (Judges 18). Jeroboam set up one of his golden calves in Dan
(2 Kings 10:29).Naphtali (Twistings), the second son that Bilhah bore gives further evidence of her low spirituality, so he and his tribe play a subordinate part in Israel. Naphtali was located in the north, between Dan and Ashur.
Gad and Asher
These were Jacob’s two sons by Leah’s maid, Zilpah. When foretelling Gad’s future, Jacob predicts that he will be raided, yet he will raid their heels (Gen 49:19). Indeed, the name Gad means Raid. His descendants lived on the far side of the Jordan.
The tribe that descended from Ashur (Progress) was apportioned the coast, north of Mt. Carmel.
5 And all those who were descendants of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.
Joseph (May-He-Add) is the cry of a long tried mother heart for a child. Rachel “had borne the reproach of barrenness, while her unloved sister bore Jacob many sons. But we should look deeper than that, for Joseph undoubtedly inherited much from the long testing and trial and humiliation of his mother that prepared him to become a type of the suffering Christ, and was worshiped by all his brothers, and even his parents.
“Joseph received the longest and richest blessing from his father. Nearly the last to be born, he is granted the riches of the firstborn. First he is praised because of his fruitfulness. Indeed his progeny was so numerous that it was divided into two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, which later stretched clear across and took most of the center of the holy land (Gen 49:22).” Ibid p 157.
Seventy: Genesis 46:8-27 lists all the names of the 70. The purpose of Exodus 1:1-7 is to underline the fact that the total Jacob-Joseph group originally resident in Egypt was very small – simply, in terms of the ancient East, a family – but that life in Egypt was for a while benign, beneficent, and altogether blessed. This is made clear by the effective emphasis in repetition: they (1) were fruitful, (2) increased greatly, (3) multiplied, (4) grew exceedingly strong; and all to such an extent that (5) ‘the land was filled with them.” Napier, B. Davie, The Book of Exodus, John Knox Press, 1963, p 1
6 And Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation.
7 And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increase abundantly, and multiplied, and became very numerous; and the land was filled with them.
It is doubtful if “the land” spoken of here refers to the land of Egypt. It is more likely the “Land of Goshen” where the family-clan of Jacob (Israel) was assigned. (Gen 45:10; 46:28-34; 47:1-6,27; 50:8; Exod 8:22; 9:26)
The region of Goshen is located in northeastern Egypt, in the Delta of the Nile River, where it empties into the Mediterranean Sea. The Sinai Peninsula is just to the east. It is north of Cairo, which is north of both Memphis and Thebes, two cities of great importance in ancient Egypt.
8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, who knew nothing about Joseph.
9 And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more numerous and staunch than we:
10 Grant attention! Let us deal shrewdly toward them; lest they multiply, and they who hate us, join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.
11 Hence they placed over them taskmasters to humiliate them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh bulwark (fortified – now referred to as “treasure”) cities, Pithom and Raamses.
Pithom and Raamses are ancient cities located just south of Goshen, and north of Cairo.
12 Yet just as they were humiliating them, they multiplied and grew. Hence the Egyptians were irritated in view of the sons of Israel.
13 So the Egyptians made the sons of Israel serve with rigor,
14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in clay, and in bricks, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigor.
As is well known, the eternal motto of present-day Israel is “Never Forget” with the implication also of “Never Forgive.” Even though the present-day Israelis are Khazars, from Khazaria, (an area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in what is now western Russia) and have no Semitic blood and therefore are NOT in any way descendants of Abraham and his grandson, Jacob (Spiritual name Israel), they suppose themselves (through their ancestors) to have been oppressed and enslaved by Assyria, Babylon AND Egypt, as the Bible depicts the lot of the Israelites.
The leaders of the present day “Jews” have a boiling hatred for the countries that now occupy these lands, even though the present inhabitants of these lands had nothing to do with oppressing even the true Israelites of 3500 years ago.
The ancient nation of Assyria included a portion of Egypt along the Nile River, present-day Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and a portion of Iran.
But “Never Forget” it is! And now the Israelis – through the covert use of the U.S. Military composed of the sons and daughters of Americans – are devastating Iraq (the ancient nation of Babylon), are marching into Syria to destroy that nation, and plan to conquer and subjugate the entire Near and Middle East, eventually including Egypt, to establish what they refer to as Eretz Israel (Land of Israel), what they fraudulently claim as THEIRS! – the Biblical borders of the land of Israel given by God to Abraham. (Genesis 15:18)
Falsely believing they are “God’s Chosen People” and consumed by arrogance and chutzpah, present-day Israel plans to punish by death everyone living in the areas where ancient Israel was taken into captivity and humiliated as slaves.
15 And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives (of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah),
16 And said; In your midwifery for the Hebrew women, when you see them on the bracing stones, if it is a son then you will put him to death, and if it is a daughter, then she will live.
17 But the midwives feared God, and they did not act as the king of Egypt had spoken to them; and they kept the boys alive.
18 Then the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them: Why have you done this thing and have kept the boys alive?
19 And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are livelier and before the midwife comes to them, they have already delivered.
The Israelites, both men and women, were not people of leisure and laziness as were the prosperous Egyptians. When the Israelites first came to Egypt, in the land of Goshen, Joseph told his father and his brothers:
“I will go up and tell Pharaoh, My brothers and my father’s house, which were in the land of Canaan, are come unto me; and the men are shepherds for their occupations have been to feed livestock and their herds and all that they have.
“And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation? That you will say, Thy servants’ occupation has been with livestock from our youth even until now, both we, and also our fathers; that you may dwell in the land of Goshen: for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.” Genesis 46:31-34
The Israelites worked hard raising cattle, sheep, and other animals. The women, most probably, spun the yarn and made the cloth as well as helping in the fields. They participated in regular exercise which made their birthing much easier and faster than the Egyptian women.
20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and were very staunch.
21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.
22 Then Pharaoh instructed all his people, saying, Every son born to the Hebrews, fling it into the river, and every daughter you shall keep alive.
Is there evidence that the Israelites once lived in Egypt as the Bible says?
“Ancient Rameses is located in the eastern Delta of the Nile River, approximately 100 km northeast of Cairo. In antiquity, the Pelusiac branch of the Nile flowed past the site, giving access to the Mediterranean. In addition, the town lay on the land route to Canaan, the famous Horus Road. Thus, it was an important commercial and military center.
“Jacob and his family arrived in Egypt around 1880 B.C., based on an Exodus date of ca. 1450 B.C. At that time, the name of the town (later named Rameses) was Rowaty, “the door of the two roads” (Bietak 1996: 9,19)
“The earliest evidence for Asiatics at Towaty (Rameses) occurs in the mid 19th century B.C. At that time a rural settlement was founded. It was unfortified, although there were many enclosure walls, most likely for keeping animals. The living quarters consisted of rectangular huts built of sand bricks (Bietak 1986: 237; 1991b: 32). It is highly possible that this is the first material evidence of Israelites in Egypt. It is the right culture in the right place at the right time.
“Not all residents of the first Asiatic settlement in this area lived in huts. One of them, evidently an important official, lived in a small villa. The Bible tells us that Joseph became a high official after he correctly interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams (Genesis 41:39-45). We are not told where Joseph lived while serving in the Egyptian bureaucracy. It seem logical to assume, however, that after discharging his duties associated with the famine, he would have moved to Rameses to be near his father and brothers.
Could this villa have been Joseph’s house?
“The villa was 10 X 12 meters in size, situated on one side of an enclosure measuring 12 X 19 meters. It consisted of six rooms laid out in horseshoe fashion around an open courtyard. The most striking aspect of the house is that the floor plan is identical to the Israelite ‘four-room house’ of the later Iron Age in Palestine (Holladay 1992a).
“Nearby, arranged in a semi-circle around the villa, were poorer two-room homes, approximately 6 X 8 meters in size. If the villa was the home of Joseph, then the surrounding huts might have been those of Joseph’s father and brothers. Approximately 20% of the pottery found in the settlement debris was of Palestinian Middle Bronze Age type (Bietak 1996: 10). In the open spaces southwest of the villa was the cemetery of the settlement. Here, some of the most startling evidence was found.” www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a027.html
As we shall find later, there is a high probability that Joseph’s tomb has been found in this location.
Bibliography
M. Bietak, Avaris and Piramesse: Archaeological Exploration in the Eastern Nile Delta, (London: The British Academy, 1986); Avaris: The Capital of the Hyksos, (London: British Museum Press, 1996)
J.S. Holladay, Jr. “House, Israelite,” in D. N. Freedman, editor, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Volume 3 (New York: Doubleday, 1992a), pp 308-18.
© Lorraine Day, M.D. 2006. All Rights Reserved.
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