The Sabbath-School

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 4, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 22.

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The Sabbath-School.

LESSON FOR THE PACIFIC COAST—JULY 4.

Inheritance of the Saints. (Continued.)

SOJOURNING IN A STRANGE LAND.

1. What question did Abraham ask on one occasion when the Lord repeated the promise to him?

"And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" Gen. 15: 8.

2. What did the Lord say in reply?

"And he said unto him, Take me a heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon." Gen. 15: 9.

3. What did Abraham do?

"And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another; but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away." Gen. 15: 10, 11.

4. What happened when the sun was going down?

"And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him." Gen. 15: 12.

5. In this vision, what did the Lord say to Abraham?

"And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years." Gen. 15: 13.

6. How long were his seed to be strangers in a strange land?

7. When the time was expired, what was to be done?

"And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterward shall they come out with great substance." Gen. 15: 14.

8. What was the name of the land which they were to have as their own?

"And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." Gen. 17: 8.

9. Why could they not at once take possession of it?

"But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." Gen. 15: 16.

10. When the Lord did at last deliver the Israelites from bondage, what did he say to them?

"And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine; and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel." Ex. 19: 3-6.

11. What did he say they should be?

"And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel." Ex. 19: 6.

12. In making this promise, what was the Lord doing?

"For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God; the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people; but because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." Deut. 7: 6-8.

13. Then with what is Ex. 19: 3-6 parallel?

14. What was the condition of the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

15. And what was the condition of this promise to the Jews?

"Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine." Ex. 19: 5.

"Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years." Gen. 15: 13. The student must not put the idea that this refers solely to the bondage in Egypt, for Paul tells us (Gal. 3: 17) that from the announcement of the promise to Abraham until the giving of the law, at Sinai, was but four hundred and thirty years. This four hundred and thirty years is thus computed: From the giving of the promise until the birth of Isaac, twenty-five years (compare Gen. 12: 1-4 with Gen. 21: 5); from the birth of Isaac until the birth of Jacob, sixty years (Gen. 25: 26); from the birth of Jacob until the going down into Egypt, one hundred and thirty years (Gen. 47: 8, 9), making 215 years from the giving of the promise until the beginning of the sojourn in Egypt; and Josephus says ("Antiquities," chap. 15, ¶ 2) that 215 years was the length of that sojourn. Thus the 430 years of Gal. 3: 17 and Ex. 12: 40, 41 are accounted for.

The text under consideration (Gen. 15: 13), however, is more difficult. It is evident from the text, and also its parallel in Acts 7: 6, that the four hundred years' sojourn ends at the same time as the four hundred and thirty years' sojourn, viz., at the deliverance from Egypt. Then the four hundred years' affliction (Gen. 15: 13) must have begun thirty years after the giving of the promise. Dr. Clarke and others say that the mocking by Ishmael when Isaac was weaned (Gen. 21: 1-10), called persecution by Paul in Gal. 4: 29, marks the beginning of the four hundred years. Isaac was born twenty-five years after the promise, and the age of weaning is placed at about five years (see Clarke on Gen. 21: 8), thus making the thirty years from the promise.

This is certainly not inconsistent with Gen. 15: 13; for if Abraham's seed was to be afflicted four hundred years, we would expect that persecution to begin with Isaac. The only difficulty remaining is to show the harmony of these texts with Ex. 12: 40, 41, which speak of the children of Israel as sojourning four hundred and thirty years. But Dr. Horne ("Introduction to the Study of the Scriptures," Vol. 1, part 1, chap. iii., sec. vi.) says that the text, according to the ancient Samaritan Pentateuch, should read thus: "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, and of their fathers, which they sojourned in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years." This rendering, which is confirmed by the Alexandrian manuscript of the Septuagint, makes perfect harmony.