428 – The Nation of Isreal Goes into Egypt

SEMESTER 2

428 – The Nation of Isreal Goes into Egypt

BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE

COURSE:  BIBLE SURVEY II LESSON # 28
THE NATION OF ISRAEL GOES INTO EGYPT

Read Gen. 45:1-15, Gen. 46:26-34. Read as a companion lesson 28 in MAJOR BIBLE EVENTS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT and recommended Scriptures.

INTRODUCTION:

1. In the previous lesson I gave you an overview of the history of the twelve tribes of Israel from origin to partial fall.
2. In the next lesson we will study how a great nation suffers in Egypt.
3. But how did God’s chosen people get into the position of Egyptian bondage?

I. WHY DID THEY GO INTO BONDAGE?

1. We can only draw certain conclusions about divine decree and that through three sources:

i. Prophecy
ii. Specific biblical explanation
iii. Unfolding progressive revelation

2. What are some understandable reasons for Israel’s bondage in Egypt?

i. It was God’s eternal purpose. (Gen. 15:13, Gen. 45:5-8)
ii. It was deliverance from starvation, (Gen. 45:5-8) but remember God sent the famine.
iii. It was to later bring an army of destruction upon the sinful inhabitants of the land.

II. THE MEANS OF THEIR ENSLAVEMENT

1. Resistance toward divine sovereignty, manifested in gifts given to Joseph. (Gen. 37:1-36)
2. Their envy, which made them hate their brother enough to kill him.
3. Their greed, which influenced them to sell him instead.
4. The sins of people in Egypt, which put Joseph (through provi­dence) in the governorship.
5. The sins in Egypt and in Canaan, which brought on the famine.
6. The overruling of all these by God, which brought about this result, as opposed to all the other catastrophic possibilities.

III. TIME ELEMENT AND SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

1. It is approximately 1681 B.C., Joseph is 17 years old and his father is 108, when he is sold into slavery.
2. The time frame is now approximately 2216 years after creation and 560 years after the flood.
3. Joseph spends 13 years in Egypt, as a slave, and more than two of those years in a prison dungeon.
4. He is thirty years old when he stands before Pharaoh, 7 years before the famine begins. Compare Gen. 37:2 to Gen. 41:46.
5. He is 39 years old when he reveals himself to his brothers, and Israel comes to Egypt. Compare Gen. 41:46-54 and Gen. 45:6.
6. At this point Jacob is 130 years old (Gen. 47:9) and will continue in Egypt until his death 17 years later.
7. Joseph has now been in Egypt 22 years.
8. When Jacob went into Egypt, Isaac had only been dead 10 years and Abraham only 85. Noah had been dead only 232 years.

IV. HOW THINGS CHANGE

1. Jacob and his family go into Egypt a total of 70 souls (excluding wives and including Joseph and his sons). (Gen. 46:26,27)
2. They come out 215 years later, an exceeding great nation.
3. But how many of their sons were slaughtered while they were there?
4. Could Jacob have left Goshen and returned to the land of Canaan after the famine, had he so chosen?
5. Could Joseph have led his family out during the remaining prime years of his life?
6. Had either done so, would they have become a great nation, or would they have intermingled themselves with the Canaanites?
7. Hypothetical questions are endless, but this we know:

i. God sets up and puts down kings and kingdoms just as He pleases. (Dan. 2:21, Dan. 4:35)
ii. He worketh all things as He pleases. (Eph. 1:11)
iii. Man sins, rebels and plots his own domain, but God overrules, so as to execute His eternal purpose. (Gen. 50:15-21, Ps. 76:10, Eph. 1:11)