Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.
The 430 years are counted from the call of Abraham and include the years Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived as strangers in Canaan, not 430 years in Egypt alone, whose stay was about 215 years. The 400 years of affliction began about 30 years afterward, and on the very day the foretold period was completed the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt with fearful judgments upon their oppressors. He delivered them after lifelong degrading bondage to separate them from the customs of the world and bring them near to Himself, that He might manifest through them the principles of His kingdom and reveal His character to idolatrous nations. He led them to Sinai to proclaim with His own voice the law given in Eden, that they might obey His commandments and keep the Sabbath. That mighty deliverance is to be remembered with gratitude as proof of His power to give victory, for forgetting it leads to distrust, mourning, and murmuring, while remembering it calls for firm faith on the way to the heavenly Canaan.
Length and Setting Explained
The four hundred and thirty years are reckoned from the promise made to Abraham when he was called to leave Ur, and they include the years in which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived as sojourners in Canaan, so they do not mean that Israel spent four hundred and thirty years in Egypt alone, whose actual stay may have been about two hundred and fifteen years. The four hundred years of affliction foretold in Genesis 15:13 began about thirty years later, around the time Ishmael persecuted Isaac.
During this sojourning the children of Israel dwelt in the country round about Goshen in Egypt. That district was selected as a suitable dwelling place, having good pastures and plenty of water, where they could worship without disturbance from the ceremonies of Egyptian idol worship. Their stay in Egypt is spoken of as four hundred years, as nearly four hundred years, during which the people were enslaved and grievously oppressed and were corrupted by idolatry.
God Himself sent His people into Egypt and kept them there until His appointed time for bringing them out. On that very day when the period foretold to Abraham was completed, the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt in fulfillment of the promised deliverance. Joseph's bones went out with the people as a reminder of that promise through the years of bondage. That fulfillment of the word to Abraham after four hundred years of bondage came by visiting Egypt with fearful judgments, by bringing His people forth, and by destroying Pharaoh and his pursuing army in the Red Sea.
Deliverance and Its Purpose
In pity for Israel in slavery God broke the yoke of their bondage and placed Moses at their head to lead them through the wilderness to the promised land. Their release after the long enslavement and grievous oppression showed His power to guide and protect His people and to destroy the pursuing Egyptian army, revealing Him as ruler over all and greater than the heathen deities. He delivered them after four hundred years of bondage to accomplish His purpose, laying the land of Egypt desolate and giving Egypt for Israel, and taking them into the wilderness to be under the guidance of the unseen leader and teacher, wonderful in counsel, who led them in the ways of God. He acted for His chosen ones as a living, personal Redeemer, the mighty God who made nature, to show supreme power and command over nature and science and control over all powers that ventured to oppress, standing forth as the only God with no god before Him, and He taught them that if contrite in heart a powerful Ruler would work for them with nature as His servant.
He brought Israel forth from Egypt to separate them from the customs, habits, and practices of the world and to bring them nearer to Himself that He might make known to them His will. The deliverance was that He might manifest through them the principles of His kingdom in life and character, so that by beholding the goodness, mercy, justice, and love of God revealed in His church the world would have a representation of His character. He called Jacob's descendants out at the end of their long sojourn to lead them to Canaan to reveal His character to the idolatrous nations. He delivered them from four hundred years of bondage to make His holiness, grace, and love known to the idolatrous Egyptians, revealing Christ, the Light of the world, to Moses at the burning bush and appointing him to show that Jehovah is superior to every false deity.
The people who had been bondmen before God delivered them by His power became His church, a representation of His church in every age, belonging to Christ with all they held in trust belonging to the Lord. He brought them out so they could obey His laws and keep the Sabbath instituted in Eden. He called His people out of Egypt and brought them to Sinai to hear the proclamation of the law which had been given in Eden, proclaiming the Ten Commandments with His own voice in awful grandeur to demonstrate their fundamental importance and to make known His majesty and authority as Ruler of the world. The force and power with which the law was delivered reveals its importance as the faith once delivered to the saints by Christ the Redeemer speaking from Sinai, to impress upon the people the sacredness of His law and the importance of rendering obedience to it.
The bringing out came after lifelong slavery that left the people ignorant, untrained, and degraded, with little knowledge of God and little faith in Him, confused by false teaching and corrupted by long contact with heathenism. Few were prepared to work together with God in training their children, and the parents themselves needed instruction and discipline, and God sought to lift them to a higher moral level by giving them a knowledge of Himself. Even after this deliverance was accomplished by fearful judgments upon Egypt and the destruction of Pharaoh and his pursuing army in the Red Sea, Israel on the border of the promised land dishonored God by giving way to unbelief. Through disobedience and rebellion they were kept wandering in the wilderness forty years with only two of the adults who left Egypt entering Canaan, so that those who murmured and complained and refused to turn from their evil ways perished in the wilderness, while those who were obedient were sustained and strengthened by God and were light-bearers to the nations through whose land they passed.
Remembering the Deliverance Today
The grand march from the land of bondage that closed the sojourning of the children of Israel was rehearsed in solemn silence as part of the paschal service at Jerusalem. That rehearsal included the night assembly, the men with girded loins and shoes on feet and staff in hand, the hasty meal of the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, the story of the sprinkled blood, and the death-dealing angel. The same story was recounted to Hebrew children as families journeyed to meet with God in His holy habitation, with the songs that had cheered the wilderness wandering and the chanting of God's commandments. Bound up with the blessed influences of nature and of kindly human association, it was forever fixed in the memory of many a child and youth to stir the imagination and impress the heart.
God's mighty work in delivering Israel from Egyptian bondage, together with opening the Red Sea before them and destroying their pursuing foes, proves His power to bring victory. Forgetting that deliverance leads to distrust of God, mourning and lamenting, desperation, and murmuring like rebellious Israel under the false report of the unfaithful spies. In that forgetfulness the people received the false cruel words of the unfaithful spies, felt greatly abused, mourned and lamented over themselves, fell into desperation, and distrusted God. Remembering it with gratitude calls for firm faith in God's leadings on the way to the heavenly Canaan, refusing doubt, unsanctified sympathy, and words of discouragement. The lesson is not to be ungrateful and forgetful of God but to refuse to repeat the sin of murmuring rebellious Israel.
In pity for Israel in slavery He broke the yoke of their bondage and placed Moses at their head to lead them through the wilderness to the promised land. That same pity reaches the colored people in America, who though freed from legal slavery remain in the slavery of ignorance and degradation. It calls those who name God's name to lift them from it. The deliverance was to manifest through His people the principles of His kingdom in life and character, so that by beholding the goodness, mercy, justice, and love of God revealed in His church the world would have a representation of His character. The same purpose holds for His people today, that when the law of God is exemplified in the life even the world will recognize the superiority of those who love and fear and serve God above every other people.
The 430 years are counted from the call of Abraham and include the years Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived as strangers in Canaan, not 430 years in Egypt alone, whose stay was about 215 years. The 400 years of affliction began about 30 years afterward, and on the very day the foretold period was completed the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt with fearful judgments upon their oppressors. He delivered them after lifelong degrading bondage to separate them from the customs of the world and bring them near to Himself, that He might manifest through them the principles of His kingdom and reveal His character to idolatrous nations. He led them to Sinai to proclaim with His own voice the law given in Eden, that they might obey His commandments and keep the Sabbath. That mighty deliverance is to be remembered with gratitude as proof of His power to give victory, for forgetting it leads to distrust, mourning, and murmuring, while remembering it calls for firm faith on the way to the heavenly Canaan.
Length and Setting Explained
The four hundred and thirty years are reckoned from the promise made to Abraham when he was called to leave Ur, and they include the years in which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived as sojourners in Canaan, so they do not mean that Israel spent four hundred and thirty years in Egypt alone, whose actual stay may have been about two hundred and fifteen years. The four hundred years of affliction foretold in Genesis 15:13 began about thirty years later, around the time Ishmael persecuted Isaac.
During this sojourning the children of Israel dwelt in the country round about Goshen in Egypt. That district was selected as a suitable dwelling place, having good pastures and plenty of water, where they could worship without disturbance from the ceremonies of Egyptian idol worship. Their stay in Egypt is spoken of as four hundred years, as nearly four hundred years, during which the people were enslaved and grievously oppressed and were corrupted by idolatry.
God Himself sent His people into Egypt and kept them there until His appointed time for bringing them out. On that very day when the period foretold to Abraham was completed, the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt in fulfillment of the promised deliverance. Joseph's bones went out with the people as a reminder of that promise through the years of bondage. That fulfillment of the word to Abraham after four hundred years of bondage came by visiting Egypt with fearful judgments, by bringing His people forth, and by destroying Pharaoh and his pursuing army in the Red Sea.
Deliverance and Its Purpose
In pity for Israel in slavery God broke the yoke of their bondage and placed Moses at their head to lead them through the wilderness to the promised land. Their release after the long enslavement and grievous oppression showed His power to guide and protect His people and to destroy the pursuing Egyptian army, revealing Him as ruler over all and greater than the heathen deities. He delivered them after four hundred years of bondage to accomplish His purpose, laying the land of Egypt desolate and giving Egypt for Israel, and taking them into the wilderness to be under the guidance of the unseen leader and teacher, wonderful in counsel, who led them in the ways of God. He acted for His chosen ones as a living, personal Redeemer, the mighty God who made nature, to show supreme power and command over nature and science and control over all powers that ventured to oppress, standing forth as the only God with no god before Him, and He taught them that if contrite in heart a powerful Ruler would work for them with nature as His servant.
He brought Israel forth from Egypt to separate them from the customs, habits, and practices of the world and to bring them nearer to Himself that He might make known to them His will. The deliverance was that He might manifest through them the principles of His kingdom in life and character, so that by beholding the goodness, mercy, justice, and love of God revealed in His church the world would have a representation of His character. He called Jacob's descendants out at the end of their long sojourn to lead them to Canaan to reveal His character to the idolatrous nations. He delivered them from four hundred years of bondage to make His holiness, grace, and love known to the idolatrous Egyptians, revealing Christ, the Light of the world, to Moses at the burning bush and appointing him to show that Jehovah is superior to every false deity.
The people who had been bondmen before God delivered them by His power became His church, a representation of His church in every age, belonging to Christ with all they held in trust belonging to the Lord. He brought them out so they could obey His laws and keep the Sabbath instituted in Eden. He called His people out of Egypt and brought them to Sinai to hear the proclamation of the law which had been given in Eden, proclaiming the Ten Commandments with His own voice in awful grandeur to demonstrate their fundamental importance and to make known His majesty and authority as Ruler of the world. The force and power with which the law was delivered reveals its importance as the faith once delivered to the saints by Christ the Redeemer speaking from Sinai, to impress upon the people the sacredness of His law and the importance of rendering obedience to it.
The bringing out came after lifelong slavery that left the people ignorant, untrained, and degraded, with little knowledge of God and little faith in Him, confused by false teaching and corrupted by long contact with heathenism. Few were prepared to work together with God in training their children, and the parents themselves needed instruction and discipline, and God sought to lift them to a higher moral level by giving them a knowledge of Himself. Even after this deliverance was accomplished by fearful judgments upon Egypt and the destruction of Pharaoh and his pursuing army in the Red Sea, Israel on the border of the promised land dishonored God by giving way to unbelief. Through disobedience and rebellion they were kept wandering in the wilderness forty years with only two of the adults who left Egypt entering Canaan, so that those who murmured and complained and refused to turn from their evil ways perished in the wilderness, while those who were obedient were sustained and strengthened by God and were light-bearers to the nations through whose land they passed.
Remembering the Deliverance Today
The grand march from the land of bondage that closed the sojourning of the children of Israel was rehearsed in solemn silence as part of the paschal service at Jerusalem. That rehearsal included the night assembly, the men with girded loins and shoes on feet and staff in hand, the hasty meal of the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, the story of the sprinkled blood, and the death-dealing angel. The same story was recounted to Hebrew children as families journeyed to meet with God in His holy habitation, with the songs that had cheered the wilderness wandering and the chanting of God's commandments. Bound up with the blessed influences of nature and of kindly human association, it was forever fixed in the memory of many a child and youth to stir the imagination and impress the heart.
God's mighty work in delivering Israel from Egyptian bondage, together with opening the Red Sea before them and destroying their pursuing foes, proves His power to bring victory. Forgetting that deliverance leads to distrust of God, mourning and lamenting, desperation, and murmuring like rebellious Israel under the false report of the unfaithful spies. In that forgetfulness the people received the false cruel words of the unfaithful spies, felt greatly abused, mourned and lamented over themselves, fell into desperation, and distrusted God. Remembering it with gratitude calls for firm faith in God's leadings on the way to the heavenly Canaan, refusing doubt, unsanctified sympathy, and words of discouragement. The lesson is not to be ungrateful and forgetful of God but to refuse to repeat the sin of murmuring rebellious Israel.
In pity for Israel in slavery He broke the yoke of their bondage and placed Moses at their head to lead them through the wilderness to the promised land. That same pity reaches the colored people in America, who though freed from legal slavery remain in the slavery of ignorance and degradation. It calls those who name God's name to lift them from it. The deliverance was to manifest through His people the principles of His kingdom in life and character, so that by beholding the goodness, mercy, justice, and love of God revealed in His church the world would have a representation of His character. The same purpose holds for His people today, that when the law of God is exemplified in the life even the world will recognize the superiority of those who love and fear and serve God above every other people.