a man will reap whatever he sows. (10) The strong family ties, seen especially in the matter of marriage. (11) The fundamental value of faith in life. (12) God’s judgment and blessings of heathen people on behalf of his own chosen people. (13) The different immigrations of Abraham and others. (14) The places of historical importance mentioned. (15) The promises or types and symbols of Christ and the New Testament times.

Chapter V.

From Egypt to Sinai.

Ex.  Chs. 1-19

Israel in Egypt.  The length of time the Hebrews remained In Egypt is a perplexing question.  Exodus 6:16-20 makes Moses the fourth generation from Levi (See Gen. 15:16; Num. 26:57-59).  This would make it about 150 years.  Gen. 15:13 predicts 400 years.  Ex. 12:40 says they were there 430 years and Paul (Gal. 3:17) says 430 years from Abraham to Sinai.  These apparently conflicting dates may be explained because of different methods of counting generations, probably based on long lives of men of that period or they may have had a different point to mark the beginning and end of the sojourn.  If the Pharaoh of Joseph was one of the Hyksos or Shepherd kings, as has been the common view, and if the Pharaoh “that knew not Joseph” was, as is the general belief, Rameses II, the period of 430 years would about correspond to the historical data.

Their oppression grew out of the fear of the king lest they should assist some of the invaders that constantly harassed Egypt on the North.  They may have assisted the shepherd kings under whom Joseph has risen and who had just been expelled.  To cripple and crush them there was given them hard and exhaustive tasks of brick making under cruel task-masters.  There still remains evidence of this cruelty in the many Egyptian buildings built of brick, made of mud mixed with straw and dried in the sun.  When it was found that they still increased in number in spite of the suffering.  Pharoah tried, at first privately then publicly, to destroy all the male children.  This order does not seem to have been long in force but was a terrible blow to a people like the Hebrews whose passion for children, and especially for male children, has always been proverbial.

It is difficult to gather from this narrative the varied influence of this sojourn upon the Hebrews themselves.  They doubtless gained much of value from the study of the methods of warfare and military equipment of the Egyptians.  They learned much of the art of agriculture and from the social and political systems of this enlightened people.  No doubt many of their choicest men received educational training that fitted them for future leadership.  Their suffering seems on the one hand to have somewhat deadened them, destroying ambition.  On the other, it bound them together by a common bond and prepared the way for the work of Moses, the deliverer, and for the real birth of the nations.