Biblical History

Well, happy Sabbath again, brethren! Hope you already begin thinking about the Spring Holy Days, because as we prepare for the Spring Holy Days this year, I think it would be good for us to look at some actual history of the original events that led up to the Exodus. I think that would be helpful for us today as we look at ancient Israel and tie in some dates with actual historical events to reinforce, to begin to think about the Spring Holy Day season and the deeper meaning and the things that we can learn from what Israel experienced during that time. It's history that helps to bring biblical episodes to life, and it gives us a deeper understanding of what was going on. So that's the purpose of the sermon today, and I'm going to begin by asking a question, we'll look at some scriptures, and we'll come to some conclusions just by using some simple math. And the first question we're going to ask is, when was the biblical Exodus? Before we answer that question, we'll look at something that I found yesterday. It says the Internet. It's a lot like ancient Egypt, people writing on walls and worshipping cats. So I just thought you might find that helpful to understand the connection there. That had nothing to do with what the sermon is about. Just to see if you're paying attention. Let's begin by going to 1 Kings 6 and verse 1, if you would with me please. 1 Kings 6 and verse 1. 1 Kings 6 beginning in verse 1. I'm going to answer the question, when was the biblical Exodus and how do we get there? 1 Kings 6 and verse 1. Here's what it says. And it came to pass in the 480th 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 of the year around April, that he began to build the house of the Lord. Now virtually all scholars agree, and trust me, scholars don't agree in very much, but virtually all of them agree that the fourth year of Solomon's reign was around 960 BCE. That's before common era. They used to use the term BC, but in our politically correct world, that offended some scholars because BC meant before Christ and it assumes that Christ actually lived. So they had to kind of rephrase it and make it BCE and call it before the... Yes, it's gotten that bad, I'm ashamed to say. So now they use the term before common era. So virtually all scholars agree that the fourth year of Solomon's reign was about 960 BCE. If you add 480 years, which is what this scripture says, to this time it goes back to about the 1440s BCE. So that's one way, just by using simple math, by believing what the scriptures say, that we come to an approximate date of when the Exodus occurred. Let's take a look at another example. Judges 11 and verse 23. Judges 11 and verse 23.

Judges chapter 11 and verse 23. We'll see another example here and use some simple math to see why we calculate the Exodus in the 1440s BCE. This was from the Judges' lecture from Judge Jephthah to the Ammonites just before he got angered enough that he defeated them. They were arguing over land that God had dispossessed a people and was intended for Israel to inhabit. So Jephthah is engaged in a conversation and here's what he says. And now the Lord God of Israel has dispossessed the Ammonites from before his people, Israel. Should you then possess it? He says God is the one who took the people out. Why would you think that you have the right to possess that land? Verse 24. Would you not possess whatever kimash your God gives you to possess so whatever the Lord our God takes possession before us, we will possess. We're being a little sarcastic here. He says if kimash dispossesses people out of the land, then you have every right to go in there and take over that land.

Because that's not going to happen. But when the Lord God dispossesses a land, takes the people out of it, we have the right to go in and possess it. Verse 25. And now are you any better than Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Do you think that you can stop what we're trying to do?

Do you think you'll have any more success than anyone else ever had in trying to stop us from possessing this land? Did he ever strive against Israel? Did he ever fight against them? Well, Israel dwelt in Heshban and the villages and Aror and its villages and all the cities along the banks of the Arnon for 300 years. So, Jephthah is saying, look, we have been dwelling in this land for 300 years.

That's when we can trace our history as coming into Canaan. He says, why did you not recover them within that time? You've had 300 years to worry about us and to take the land that we possess. And you haven't done it. Verse 27. Therefore, I have not sinned against you, but you wronged me by fighting against me. May the Lord, the judge, render judgment this day between the children of Israel and the people of Ammon.

So, this is, again, scholars agree in very little, but most do agree that this event would have occurred around 1100 BCE because David was on his throne about 1000 BCE. Jephthah was a judge. So, if you take that year, 1100 BCE, and you add 300 years, because that is what Jephthah said how long they were in the land.

That's 300 years, you add to that. And, again, add 40 years that Israel wandered in the wilderness. You add that time together. You come up again, once again, to the 1440s BCE. And that's why we come to that date. Now, I have to be honest with you. If you go on the Internet, if you read a lot of literature, people have lots of agendas. Some people agree with this.

Other people don't agree with it. Some people take these scriptures and they twist them to come up with a date that they want. It's very popular to have Pharaoh Ramses, for example, as the Pharaoh who was there when Moses left Egypt. So, people will do contortions with dates and they'll do all kinds of things in order to fit their favorite Pharaoh into being in the position of reigning when Moses left Egypt. And I just don't think that's healthy. I think what we have to do is we have to put together what we understand from biblical chronology and what we understand from true established historical dates and let the chips fall where they may.

And again, I'm going to give a disclaimer here. I'm going to say that you may not agree with the case that I present of which Pharaoh was reigning during particular times. And that's okay because scholars may shift some of the dates that Pharaohs reign. Some of the Pharaohs that I'm going to mention, scholars debate the dates that they reigned in Egypt. So, rather than focusing on names, on individuals, I think we should focus on the fact that history shows us the Bible is true and that we can learn a lot from history and it can help the Scriptures to come alive. And if I am, if over a period of time it proves that I have a Pharaoh wrong or a date is not exact, brethren, we're dealing with events that occurred 3,500 years ago.

That is a long time. People are still debating some of these things, so we would delude ourselves to think that we can be firm or dogmatic on any of these things. But what I hope to do today, again, is bring the Bible to life by, in a faithful way, putting together what the Scriptures reveal, like the date that we just looked at, and what history tells us regarding people who reigned who and what they were.

So now let's go to Exodus. Let's go to Exodus 12 and verse 40. So we saw here, I want to emphasize once again, because I want to answer another question. We just answered the question, what year the Exodus occurred. Now we're going to ask another question and answered, how long was Israel in Egypt from the time of Joseph until the Exodus?

How long were they in Egypt? And this is important because it's going to connect with a significant event in Egyptian history. And when we understand what that event was, then we will see why they despised the Hebrews and why they overreacted to the fact that the Hebrews were multiplying in their borders. So let's go to Exodus 12 and pick it up in verse 40. It says, Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.

And it came to pass at the end of four hundred and thirty years on the very same day. God doesn't do things by chance. God does things by plan. He does things for a reason. It came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.

It is a night of solemn observance to the Lord, bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord, a solemn observance for the children of Israel throughout their generation. So it was a very significant event. And it came to pass at the end of four hundred and thirty years.

So let's take a look at what this slide reveals to us. If they were in Egypt four hundred and thirty years and the date of Exodus was approximately the 1440s BCE, that means that Joseph brings his family to live in Egypt during and we know it was during a famine approximately the 1830s BCE. So why is this important? Well, let's go to Exodus. We're already in Exodus chapter. Let's go back to Exodus chapter one and verse six. And we'll see. Exodus chapter one and verse six. Very powerful statement. It says, and Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation.

Now here's a slide and I don't have time to go into the detail, but it basically breaks down the 430 years and gives you an approximation of what happened during those 430 years that we read about in Exodus 12 that we previously read. The years from the descent of Jacob into Egypt and the time that Joseph grew old and died about 71 years. From the death of Joseph to the birth of Moses was about 278 years. From the birth of Moses to his flight in the Midian, we know he was about 40 years old.

From the flight of Moses to his return to Egypt was another 40 years. He was about 80 years old. And from the return of Moses to the Exodus one year, that totals 430 years. So what we see from this slide is from the death of Joseph to the birth of Moses was about 278 years. What happened during that period of time that history tells us, without altering chronologies and without doing back flips, what does history tell us literally occurred in Egypt at that time that sets up the rest of this chapter so that we fully understand what was going on?

So since the Exodus occurred around 1440 BCE and Moses was about 80 years old, Moses was born approximately 1520 BCE. If you add the 278 years since the death of Joseph and he died approximately 1800 BCE, then a dramatic event occurred that changed history forever. And indeed, that's exactly what history shows. Here's the event. In the 281 years that happened between the death of Joseph and the birth of Moses, lower Egypt became politically weak and militarily weak, and it was literally taken over. There was a coup d'etat, and it was taken over by a non-Egyptian alien people.

And these people are known in history as the Hyksos, and they dominated. They literally made themselves Pharaoh, and they controlled lower Egypt. And if you take a look at a map of Egypt, and we have one a little later, I know it can be confusing. Lower Egypt is actually in the north near the delta, all right? So it can be a little bit confusing, but they literally dominated Egypt for about 100 years. And here's that map that I promised. And again, I want you to notice that lower Egypt is on the top near the delta area, and that upper Egypt is actually under it. So that can be a little confusing sometimes when you don't understand the difference between the two.

And then we'll see some comments made about Nubia, which is a little land down here to the southeast. So just make a mental note of that. So the Hyksos were foreign non-Egyptians, and they were likely Semites. In other words, the same ethnicity as Abraham had come from, and that Israel was descended from. They were Semites who came from Canaan, and they raided Egypt with superior military technology. It is believed that some may have lived in Egypt for years within their border before they seized the power of the country.

One of the ways that we suspect that they were Semites, well there is a Stella. And a Stella is just basically an obelisk with a writing on it. It's a stone that has writing on it in ancient Egyptian. And a Stella refers to one of their kings, king Apophis or a Peppi, as a chieftain of the Retgenu.

Now, Retgenu was ancient Egyptian for the land of Canaan. So it referred to this Hyksos king as a chieftain of the Canaanites to show the origin of where he came from. In history, they're known as the 15th dynasty, and they reigned from approximately 1650 to 1550 BCE. Here's a quote from a book that's highly respected called The World of the Past by archaeologist Jacquetta Hawkes. Quote, it is no longer thought that the Hyksos rulers represent the invasion of a conquering horde of Asiatics.

They were wandering groups of Semites who had long come to Egypt for trade or other peaceful purposes. And what we need to understand with this background is that the Hyksos rocked their world. All right? They had a coup d'etat. They took over Egypt. They made themselves pharaohs. And because of this event, which isn't long before what we're going to pick up the verses here beginning in verse 7, because of this event, the Egyptians were suspicious. They had been burned.

They were looking at these Hebrews within their borders in a way that was negative and in a fearful way that much like the Hyksos, that they would grow in number so much that they also would take over Egypt. Let's pick this up now in verse 7. We're still in Exodus 1. Verse 7.

But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And after 200-something years, by the time that Moses was born, there are going to be pharaohs who have heard of Joseph. They know that a man named Joseph lived at one time, that he was a high official, but they didn't know him. They didn't have a relationship with him. Verse 9. And he said to his people, Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Now, were they really mightier than the Egyptians? Not yet.

But because they were growing in numbers and influence and power, and because of what had occurred with the Hixos, they feared the fact. They were terrified by the fact that Israel and its peoples were growing abundantly within the borders of Egypt and the land of Goshen. Verse 10. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply. And it happened in the event of war, remember they were conquered militarily by the Hixos, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land. Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens, and they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Ramesses. So as long as Joseph lived, he was a high officer to Pharaoh. He was highly respected.

The term Pharaoh, by the way, isn't a family name. It's a title. It's a title that means the one who lives in the big house. That's what the word Pharaoh means in Egyptian. But again, when the generation of Joseph and that particular Pharaoh died, from that period of time until the birth of Moses, this shocking event with the Hixos occurred and happened within Egypt, and it changed their attitudes about Semitic peoples. I'd like to read to you something from the Believer's Study Bible that is a comment regarding verse 7 through 11 that we just read.

This probably indicates a change in the dynasty of Egypt. Beginning in 1720 BC, a Semitic people called the Hixos moved in the lower Egypt, the delta, and eventually usurped to the throne, taking advantage of the floundering Egyptian dynasty. About 1570 BC, Pharaoh Othmosus expelled the Hixos and established the 18th dynasty. The expression, did not know Joseph, does not mean that he had never heard of Joseph, but he did not honor the previous relationship the Egyptians had with Joseph and his people. A reasonable explanation for this is that the Israelites were too similar, both being Semitic, to the hated Hixos who had just been expelled.

So historically, this event happened, and it influenced, through God's plan, it influenced the attitude that the Egyptians would have towards Israel. So in time, the welcome relatives of Joseph, after a couple hundred years, became the unwelcome, despised descendants of Joseph to the Egyptians, and they were forced to become slaves in order to work on massive building projects. And we'll see in some of these slides how much was actually done by the pharaohs of the 18th dynasty. The Israelites became numerous, and this frightened the Egyptians.

Pharaoh told the first wife and later all the people to kill the male children as they were born.

But it didn't happen, and they couldn't stop God's plan. So with that being said, I'd like to survey some of the pharaohs of this dynasty and see what we can learn about them. Before we do that, I just want to give you an idea of the influence that the Hyksos had. It was the Hyksos who introduced the horse and the chariot and the composite bow and improved battle axes and advanced fortification techniques to the Egyptians. So if you see a piece of artwork and you see this Egyptian riding a chariot, that's because the Hyksos taught them about chariots. That was after this period of time. And one reason why the Hyksos, who were much fewer than the Egyptians, were able to have a coup d'état is because they had this advanced military technology. The Hyksos kingdom was centered in the eastern Nile Delta and Middle Egypt and was limited in size. It never extended into Upper Egypt again, which is the southern portion. Upper Egypt remained under the control of the Theban-based rulers, meaning the native Egyptians. So let's take a look and survey some of the pharaohs who existed during this time. And these dates that I have are taken from what most historians believe were the dates of their reigns and their influence. The first is almost the first. He was the first king of the 18th dynasty. He reigned from about 1550 to 1525 BCE. He was the pharaoh who expelled the Hyksos from ruling Lower Egypt. He is the one who defeated them and brought the pride of the Egyptians back to having a true Egyptian as their pharaoh. Moses was born around the 1520 BCE, either near the very end of his reign or just after his reign. It's very close to when this man's reign ended. So it's possible that Hamos the first was the pharaoh when Moses was born, but it could also be the next pharaoh as well. Hamos the first. Here are some achievements. As you can see, he didn't age very well. So you could use a little face cream probably or something.

This is his mummy. And these are actual, by the way, these are actual statues of each of these pharaohs and they're actual mummies that you're seeing. He completed the conquest and the expulsion of the Hyksos from the delta region in Egypt history. That was considered a good thing. He was a great warrior. He took his armies as far as the Euphrates River past Syria, past Canaan, past Syria, and had battles near the Euphrates River. So he was a great warrior. He renewed royal support for the arts and he was the one who began monument construction to a large degree. And what do you need when you have monument construction?

You need a lot of workers to build those monuments, don't you? And the idea was, is, of course, cheap labor like enslaving the Israelites was their desired path because they wanted them to be so tired and so exhausted from hard work, so emaciated that they would not multiply, that they would not be fruitful and multiply and continue to expand in their population. He is considered by history to be a very successful pharaoh. Then the next was Hemenhotep. And this could very well also be, some believe, the most likely pharaoh when Moses was born. He was the second eldest son of Ahmos I. You will see that in many of these pharaohs that they were not the eldest son because the eldest son had already died by the time the existing pharaoh had died.

Death in childbirth at this time was phenomenal. And because of our modern technologies, we just don't seem to grasp the fact that it was very common for people to either die in childbirth or for small children to die. I've been reading a book recently called The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers. For example, you know, 250 years ago, Martha Washington had four children. All of them died before any of them reached adulthood. Thomas Jefferson's wife had six children. Four of the six died either in childbirth or young adults. Remember, there were no antibiotics. There was no penicillin. Those were difficult times to live, and life expectancy was not very high.

And his brother, in this case, actually died before him, so he assumed and became pharaoh in 1526 to about 1506 BCE. And he may most likely have been the pharaoh when Moses was born. It's his father who had expelled the Hyksos from ruling Egypt. Let's take a look at his achievements.

He dominated the surrounding nations, including Nubia. Remember on that map, and the corner down here I showed you where the land of Nubia was, so he conquered Nubia. There was a renaissance in Egyptian art and literature and building design that flourished during this period. Remember, it was only his father who had defeated the Hyksos, so there was kind of a renaissance of Egyptian culture going on at this time. And, of course, Israel remained under oppression during his reign. Now, let's go to Exodus chapter 2 beginning in verse 1. Exodus chapter 2 beginning in verse 1. It says, And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi, so the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she took an arc of bull rushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, and put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank.

And his sister stood afar off to know what would be done to him. This was actually very brilliant because the Egyptians worshipped the Nile. And to find a child in the Nile would be considered a gift. It would be like a gift that God was giving back to you in this case. And that's how the Egyptian princess interpreted what she found. Let's pick it up here. Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked along the riverside, and when she saw the arc among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it, and then she had opened it, and she saw the child, and behold the baby wept. Perfect timing. Boy, is this going to bring out the mommy instincts in her, isn't it? And sure enough, so she had compassion on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children. So does she obey the command of Pharaoh and kill him? No, she doesn't. His name Moses means being brought out of the water in Egyptian. That's the Egyptian interpretation of Moses, something that was brought out of the water. To her, he was like a gift from the Nile God, and she wasn't going to allow him to die. She was going to be disobedient to her own father. Let's continue here. Pick it up in verse 7. 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? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go, so the maiden went and called the child's mother. 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. And isn't that like our great God? Isn't that the way God works things out?

Not only does the baby not die, but God ensures that Moses' very own mother can nurse him and care for him and get paid for doing it. Now that is a great God who works things out to our benefit and our behalf. Moses would have most likely been born during the reign of Amenhotep the first, even though it could have been the earlier Pharaoh. The name Moses has different twists in either Hebrew or Egyptians. You may notice that some of the pharaohs that we will talk about have the name Moses attached to them like Tut Moses. So it's primarily of Egyptian origin, and it means son of the water in Egyptian. And again, the princess looked at this as a gift from the Nile God, a son of the water. Again, Moses would have been born around 1520 BCE, and as a baby he was saved by this Egyptian princess who actually paid Moses' mother to care for him as a baby and as a small child. Now oftentimes, people see this daughter of Pharaoh, and they try to fit in specific prominent female pharaohs like Shepsut, who we will talk about in a little bit, so that they can be the daughter of Pharaoh who did this. But here's the reality. All the Pharaohs, remember, the Pharaoh lived in the big house. The Pharaoh had a number of wives. All pharaohs had a major wife, and they all had lesser wives, which means they all had all kinds of children. They all had many sons. If they lived long enough, they had many daughters. So this could have usually been one of the daughters of Pharaoh of a lesser wife. It doesn't specifically give her name, which may indicate the fact that she was not necessarily a prominent daughter of the primary or the favored wife, but yet she was still the daughter of Pharaoh. Let's pick it up now in Exodus chapter 2 and verse 10. It says, 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. Now it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren, and he looked at their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way, meaning he knew what he was about to do was wrong, something he should not do. He's being sneaky about it. He's trying to avoid being caught. He knew this would get him in trouble. And when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. Verse 13, And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, Why are you striking your companion? And then he said, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? So Moses feared and said, Surely this thing is known. Verse 15, And when Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses, but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

So obviously, as the son of a princess, Moses lived a pretty good life in Egypt. He grew up privileged. He grew up with the best education you could receive in that time. He grew up living in a life of luxury, far better than the average Israelite or even the average Egyptian. Yet he seems to have had a natural compassion for his own people. We don't know all the events that led him to do that, but this implies that from a very early age, he knew he was destined for big things. He knew he was destined some way to lead the people from their oppression out of the land of Egypt. The problem here at this point in his life is that he tries to do it his way instead of the way that was part of God's plan. And what happens, even if our motives, even if our intentions are good, what happens when we try to do something our way and force God's hand rather than waiting for God's true and sure timing? Well, normally what happens is it backfires on us, doesn't it? And it gets us in trouble. And this is exactly what happened to Moses. The man he killed was most likely a high religious or a high official, and the king who tried to kill Moses was a pharaoh, if we connect the dots again with the chronology and these events, was a man known as Thutmose II would have been the king who tried to kill Moses. But first we'll look at his father, Thutmose I.

Again, he was not the eldest son of Amenhotep I. He reigned from 1506 to 1493 BCE, and this date is a little bit disputed. He was also the father of a very prominent woman who became pharaoh during this time, known as Hepshetsoot, who was a female pharaoh and a co-regent for Thutmose II and III. He had a short reign with a small impact. So we'll move on to Thutmose II, and again, if we connect the dots, this would have been the king who tried to kill Moses.

Again, he was not the eldest son of Thutmose I. He was actually from a lesser wife. He married his royal half-sister, Hapshetsoot, to secure the throne because she had rural blood. And the short length of his reign also is something that's debated, but most believe it was between 1493 and 1479. And again, he was most likely the pharaoh when Moses fled Egypt to Midian. Let's look at his achievements. Again, he had a short reign with few military victories. He did little in building projects, and he died around 30 years old. And they have looked and they've examined his mummy through modern technology, CT scans and so on. He was extremely diseased. He was even in bad shape at 30 years old before he died. But during this time, something else kind of interesting happens.

Someone arises known as Hapshetsoot. She was a female pharaoh, and she reigned over Egypt more than 20 years. She served as queen alongside her husband, Thutmose II. She married him. But after his death, remember he didn't live very long. He lived to be about 30. After his death, she claimed the role of pharaoh while acting as regent to her nephew. Here's another picture of her. She was one of the most prolific builders in ancient Egypt, commissioning hundreds of construction projects throughout both lower Egypt and upper Egypt. And what do you need when you have hundreds of construction projects? You need cheap labor. You need to oppress people in order to force them to work. And that's exactly what occurred during this time. She increased trading networks with other nations, and she developed a lot of wealth for Egypt. Let me read a little bit about her here. She lived a remarkable life. She was born the daughter of Thutmose I, and as an adult again, she married her half-brother, Thutmose II, but he died shortly after he became pharaoh. When he died, she maintained her royal power by marrying her stepson, Thutmose III, as he became her second husband. She was also his aunt and ruled jointly with him until his death. Now, some of you are smiling, but now you understand why in God's law, very early, that God instituted in the Old Covenant right relationships and the fact that you shouldn't marry your half-sister, and you shouldn't marry your aunt, and you shouldn't do these things, because these were very prominent in ancient Egypt, especially among the royals, in order to consolidate and to keep power. But she was considered a pharaoh, and she even commissioned statues made of her with male attributes. Some of the statues of her include her having a beard. Remember, she's living in a male-dominated world, so she has to be very savvy in the way that she presents herself to the people. Now, it was upon her death that Thutmose III was finally able to rule alone, and we'll see about Thutmose III in just a little bit. Let's go now to Exodus chapter 3 and verse 1. If you'll turn there with me, Exodus chapter 3 and verse 1. While you're turning there, Acts 7.23, which we don't have time to turn to today, tells us this Moses was about 40 years old when he killed the Egyptian and he fled to the land of Midian. Exodus chapter 7 verse 7 states that he was 80 years old at the time of the Exodus. So those are very important dates. So when he's about 80 years old, 79, 80 years old, this event occurs in Exodus chapter 3 and verse 1. It says, now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked and behold the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight why the bush does not burn. Verse 4. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here I am.

Then he said, do not draw near this place. Take off the sandals from your feet or take your sandals off your feet for the place where you stand is holy ground. You know, make sure there's none of that the sheep residue on your sandals and you're on holy ground. You need to approach the Lord God in a respectful and sanctified way. Verse 6. Moreover, he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. In other words, I am the God of all of your ancestors. And Moses hit his face and he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt. Remember what we've read about the construction projects that are going on at this time in history in the case of hapshetzut, hundreds of construction projects going on throughout both lower and upper Egypt. He says, getting back to the scripture, and I've heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows, so I have come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians and to bring them up from the land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorzites and the Perezites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Verse 9, Now therefore behold the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you will bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

So God speaks to Moses when he is about 80 years old, a time in life when most people don't want to do anything but sit in their rocking chair and take it easy, because you're usually pretty worn out at 80 years old. Most people are. But God sends him on a special mission. We know, of course, that Moses really doesn't want to go. He makes excuses. I don't talk well. You know, I can't go for this reason. The people won't respect me. What should I tell them your name is? And on and on and on, he really doesn't want to go. But here's a lesson for us. The lesson for each and every one of us is the lesson that God had for Moses. And that is, indeed, we alone are nothing. But with God, by our side, we are invincible. You see, brethren, as we approach the spring holy days, we need to understand that far too many of us allow our own poor self-image to be a false substitute for humility. We have to realize that with Christ in us, we are capable of incredible, magnificent achievements. Moses said he was not a great man. And the truth is that God has always done great things through ordinary men and women, just like you. So realize that alone, indeed, we are nothing, and we can achieve nothing. But with God in us, we are absolutely invincible and can achieve anything that God wants us to achieve. Now, let's get back to the history. So about 1445, 1440s BCE, Moses returned to Egypt to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. He was about 80 years old. And, you know, he must have thought that his early life in Egypt, which was over 40 years ago, seemed like another lifetime. What Moses failed to realize is that his entire life, including the 40 years immersed in the Egyptian culture, and in contrast, the 40 years that he was a shepherd, was all part of God's grand plan to prepare him for service. And that's a lesson for you and I today. Everything that you have ever experienced in your life, the good times, the bad times, the joy, and the sorrow is there for a reason. It's there to conform us and make us into being a better people. It's there to teach us patience. It's there to teach us how to celebrate at the right times. It's there to teach us how to be thankful for the things that we have been given. Everything in our lives, including the stupid things that we have done, are there for us to analyze, to learn, to grow from, and to prepare us for greater service, just like he worked with Moses. Exodus 4 and verse 18. Let's go to Exodus 4 and verse 18.

It says here, So Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt and see whether they are still alive.

Apparently he thought maybe the harsh taskmasters had killed most of his brethren. He didn't quite know what to expect. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace, and the Lord said to Moses and Midian, Go return to Egypt, for all the men who sought your life are dead. That means that there is a new Pharaoh.

Hap Shetzut is dead. Tod Moses II is dead. So all the men who sought your life are dead. Verse 20. Then Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey and returned to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the rod of God in his hand. Now, again, just tying together biblical chronology that we looked at as we began the sermon today and what historians understand as the reigns of the Pharaohs, Tod Moses III is the most likely candidate for being the Pharaoh of the Exodus. He was the son of Tod Moses II, again by a secondary wife. He reigned from 1479 all the way to 1425 BCE, and certainly that would include the 1440s. He reigned for 53-plus years. The first 22 years he was a co-regent to Hap Shetzut, his stepmother and his aunt, and as soon as she died, what did he do? He went around and obliterated every remembrance of her that he could, smashed her statue because she was female, smashed her statues, destroyed her cartouches, did everything he could to eliminate the memory of this woman from ancient Egypt. Thankfully, he was unsuccessful because we know a lot about her. He wasn't able to get everything. She was his stepmother and his aunt and his wife, and the list goes on and on. So it is believed that he was, because of the chronology, the Pharaoh of the Exodus who confronted Moses.

Again, he also did not age very well, but history tells us he was a great warrior, and he led a number of successful military campaigns. He was a great builder pharaoh. He constructed over 50 temples. Again, what do you need when you're constructing 50 temples in your lifetime? You need lots of cheap labor. Historians say that he took the degree of craftsmanship and brought it to a whole new higher level in ancient Egypt. Could it be because of the influence of the Jewish craftsmen that this happened? And oftentimes, I know it's easy to say that when we look at the book of Exodus that it says it has Egypt was ruined, and the Egyptians don't say Egypt was ever ruined. Well, we have to understand their culture. The culture of the Egyptians was much like we see in the culture of the Middle East today. Remember Sodom who's saying before the Gulf War, we will have the mother of all battles. In these cultures, there's bluster, there's exaggeration, there's hyperbole. They never admit to any of their failures because that would require humility. And that's the way these cultures are. The Egyptians never mentioned their failures.

They always exaggerated the things they did do because that was part of their culture. So we should not be surprised that in spite of the fact that Israel left Egypt during the reign of Thutmose III, that the Egyptians do not mention it at all. Yet the scriptures say that when they left Egypt that Egypt was in sorry shape, very sorry condition. Let's go to Exodus our last scripture today. Exodus chapter 5 beginning in verse 1. So Moses does go to Pharaoh. And again, if you were a great warrior and you led a number of successful military campaigns, if you were a great builder Pharaoh and you constructed over 50 temples, if you brought the craftsmanship of Egypt to a zenith, how do you think you would react to this request? And after he words Moses and Aaron, went in and told Pharaoh, thus says the Lord God of Israel, let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?

I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go. Verse 3. So they said the God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence and with the sword. And verse 4, and the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why do you take people from their work? Get a job. Go back to your labor.

That's basically what Pharaoh tells him. Now in history, it's after this encounter with Pharaoh that God began a series of plagues upon Egypt to punish the Egyptians for their resistance to God's will. And a cycle was created that was constantly repeated. God punishes, Pharaoh or the people relent. They beg that Moses will intervene. The punishment ends. Pharaoh changes his mind, and God punishes again. And it happened over and over again as the plagues occurred. But that's for another time. What we've done today is we've reviewed history and the events leading up to the Exodus and tried to tie together secular history with the dates that we understand that the Exodus occurred. And we've discussed a few lessons along the way. As we prepare for the spring holy days, let's remember the focus on the spiritual applications of this ancient history, because that's what the spring holy days are all about for those of us who are part of the new covenant.

God has taken us out of our own slavery in this harsh world by the shed blood of his son Jesus Christ, who was the ultimate Passover. And in this sense, we too are still in a physical wilderness. We're halfway out of the world, and yet we're still forced to live in this world. And we'll be reminded of that when we open that door and we walk out of this hall a little later on today. We're longing for the kingdom of God, but we are not there yet. Please be assured that Satan, the taskmaster, the Pharaoh of this world, is not happy that you are free from the wages of sin and death.

And he's going to continue to chase us. He's going to continue to make our lives difficult, but we have to keep our faith in God and our faith in God's promises. In spite of what we see, we have to believe what God says in his word and never, ever turn back to spiritual Egypt, a life of sin and a life of compromise. Be sure to have a wonderful Sabbath, and I encourage all of you about the rich and wonderful meaning of the Spring Holy Days this year.