Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20120722.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Casualties And Conquerors
Part XLVII: Trusting God For The Future Based On His Past Help
(Numbers 33:1-49 et al.)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    (1) In a great recession where meeting our livelihood issues is a great concern, we need to draw hope from passages like Jeremiah 2:5-7 KJV that tells of God's bringing Israel "through the wilderness . . . a land of drought, and of the shadow of death . . . a land that no man passed through . . . into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof . . ."

    (2) However, Jean-Pierre Isbouts' work, The Biblical World: An Illustrated Atlas, p. 140 reports that "no archaeological evidence has ever been found in Sinai of a mass migration in the 13th century B. C. E." Consequently, theories have risen trying to explain, to revise or even to contradict the Bible's record of the Exodus. (a) Some claim Mount Sinai is not in the southern Sinai Peninsula, but east of the Gulf of Aqaba in the land of Midian, for Paul's Galatians 4:25 claim that Mount Sinai is in "Arabia" means it is in Midian of "Saudi Arabia"! (b) Others think the Hebrew term "yam sup" that Israel crossed means "Sea of Reeds," referring to a marshy lake north of the Gulf of Suez or even at the Mediterranean seacoast en route to Canaan, not the Biblical record's "Red Sea" at the Gulf of Suez. (c) Others hold the Exodus occurred at the "late" date of 1290 B. C. contrary to the Bible's own timeline of a 1440+ B. C. date, that the Bible's chronology thus greatly errs! (Merrill F. Unger, Archaeology and the Old Testament, 1973, p. 140-152) (d) Still others deny that the Exodus even happened, that Israel just emerged as a people group in Canaan sometime in the 12th century B. C., the "12th century emergence theory." (Bryant G. Wood, "What has archaeology taught us about the origins of Israel?", ChristianAnswers.net)

    Thus, a front page story in a 2001 issue of The Los Angeles Times reported how Rabbi David Wolpe told his congregation: "The truth is, that virtually every modern archaeologist who has investigated the story of the Exodus, with very few exceptions, agrees that the way the Bible describes the Exodus is not the way it happened, if it happened at all!" (Bible and Spade, Spring 2003; emphases ours)

    (3) This is a critical issue for us, for, if the Exodus did not occur like the Bible presents it, the Bible errs, its revelation is not from God, our faith is undermined and we have no message of hope for handling our livelihood needs in today's great recession!

    So, we ask, "Did the Exodus occur like the Bible describes so that its God is true, and is willing and able to meet our needs?!"

    Need: "Did the Exodus occur as the Bible says so that I know the Old Testament God is true and willing and able to meet my living needs?!"

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  1. In Numbers 33:1-49, God had Moses record Israel's itinerary to verify His past aid to spur Israel to conquer Canaan in her future, Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Com. on the Whole Bib. , 1977, p. 137.
  2. Moses' itinerary place names reveal the reality of the Exodus:
    1. Scholars are unsure of the identity of many place names in Moses' itinerary, Ibid., p. 137-138; Bib. Know. Com., O. T., p. 254-256; The New Bib. Com., 1970, p. 198; The Wycliffe Bib. Com., 1971, p. 152.
    2. However, enough match known places to clarify his route: Rameses is Tanis; Succoth is Tell el-Maskhutah; Rephidim is Wadi Refayid in the south Sinai Peninsula; Ezion Geber is at the N of the Gulf of Aqaba; Kadesh is Ain Qedeis NW of that; Zalmonah is es-Salmaneh S of the Dead Sea; Punon is S of that; Iye Abarim is near Wadi Zered east of the Dead Sea; Dibon Gad is Dhiban, N of the Arnon R.; Almon Diblathaim is N of Dhiban, and the Abarim mts. are near Nebo, i. e., Jebel Nabba, Ibid., B. K. C., O. T., p. 254; Ibid., The New Bible Com.
  3. Moses' geographical descriptions reveal the reality of the Exodus:
    1. The Exodus 15:4 Hebrew term for the sea Israel crossed in the Exodus is "yam suph," and it is used in Numbers 33:10-11 for the Gulf of Suez and in Numbers 14:25 for the Gulf of Aqaba. (Kittel, Bib. Hebr., p. 101, 254, 216) Also, ancient secular Greek writers Herodotus and Strabo and Jewish writer Josephus identified the "Red Sea" as the water of the Indian Ocean, using it for the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez. (R. Larry Overstreet, "Exegetical and Contextual Facets of Israel's Red Sea Crossing," TMSJ 14/1 (Spring 2003), 63-68 [tms.edu]). Israel did not cross a lake, but the Gulf of Suez neck of what the ancients knew was part of the Indian Ocean!
    2. Gordon Franz's "Mt. Sinai is not at Jebel el-Lawz in Saudi Arabia," a paper read at the 11/15/2001 ETS/NEAS mtg., claims Israel crossed 4 miles south of the north end of the Gulf of Suez, that the ridge Jebel Ataqa, slanting in from the northwest toward the sea, pressed Israel in on her right as she went south pursued by Pharaoh, pressing her up against the Red Sea to her left as Exodus 14:3 relates, with a viable land bridge for Israel to cross once God parted the sea, Idolphin.org.
    3. In Numbers 33:10, Moses noted Israel left Elim and camped by the Red Sea (yam suph). If Elim is Wady Ghurundel as some hold (Ibid., J. F. B.), "(t)he road . . . leads to the interior" due to "a high continuous ridge which excludes all view of the sea . . . (A)fter about three days march, it opens again on a plain along the . . . Red Sea" (Ibid., J. F. B.), evidence Moses witnessed such details!
    4. Traditional Mount Sinai (Num. 33:15), Jebel Musa in the south Sinai Peninsula, is ideal for Israel's 11 month stay: in front of the mount is a 2 mi. x mi. plain, with 4 streams in the area, I. S. B. E., 1937, v. IV, p. 2803-2804; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Ex. 19:1.
    5. Also, Exodus 18:1, 5, 27 and Numbers 10:29-31, 33 show Mount Sinai is NOT in Midian east of the Gulf of Aqaba as some say: Jethro and Hobab LEFT Mount Sinai FOR their own land of Midian!
    6. Besides, Paul's Galatians 4:25 claim that Mount Sinai is in "Arabia" did not mean it was in Saudi Arabia, for, in Paul's era, the Sinai Peninsula was part of "Arabia," Z. P. E. B., v. One, p. 236-237!
    7. Moses named 18 stops between Hazeroth and Kadesh, but only 11 days were needed to go between them (Dt. 1:2), evidence of the years of wandering about for changes in pasture, Ibid.; Num. 33:18-36.
    8. Numbers 33:36 records a 100 mile trip from Ezion-geber to Kadesh with no stops! (Ibid., J. F. B.) There must have been such stops, but none are named likely since they were already mentioned in the 18 stops noted above and did not affect the basic route of the Exodus.
  4. In validating the Exodus, Moses' itinerary shows the faithfulness of God's supply: Israel was in the wilderness for 40 years (Num. 33:38), and God daily supplied her needs all that time, Ex. 16:35.
  5. In validating the Exodus, Moses' itinerary shows the graciousness of God's supply: Israel spent a long time in the wilderness so the faithless generation could die off in judgment, Num. 14:33. Yet, God CONTINUED His miraculous provisions for a sinful nation!
  6. In validating the Exodus, Moses' itinerary shows the greatness of God's supply: even Israel's clothes and shoes (Deut. 29:5) did not wear out in the desert, and their feet did not swell (Deut. 8:4)!
Application: May we (1) believe in Jesus Christ to have eternal life, John 3:16. (2) Then, may we be sure God is willing and able to meet our needs today as He did His people's needs in the Exodus!

Conclusion (To illustrate the message . . . )

 Though our sermon answers two of the critiques of the Bible record of the Exodus noted in our introduction, that of (a) the location of Mount Sinai and (b) the sea Israel crossed, we have material evidence that answers the other two critiques, (c) that the Exodus occurred at the 1290 B. C. "late" date in contrast to the Bible timeline, and (d) that it never happened as Israel emerged in Canaan in the 12th century B. C. This evidence is on the Merneptah Stela, a stone telling of the exploits of Pharaoh Merneptah, ca. 1212-1202 B. C., and one of its lines reads, "Israel is laid waste, its seed is not." (Ibid., Wood)

The text is in Egyptian hieroglyphic, a language using written but unspoken determinatives to clarify key nouns, and, with the noun "Israel" appears the determinative for "foreign people" ("a throw stick plus a man and a woman over three vertical plural lines'"), not the "city-state or foreign country" determinative ("a throw stick plus three mountains'") as with the city of Ashkelon in the same text. (Carol A. Redmount, "Israel in and out of Egypt," The Oxford Hist. of the Bib. World, 1999, p. 97 as cited in "Merneptah Stele," turkcebilgi.com).

M. G. Hasel in "Israel in the Merneptah Stela," Bulletin of the Am. Schs. of Orient. Res. 296:45-64 (cited in Wood, Ibid.), concluded the word "seed" (prt) in this text via Egyptian usage meant "grain", not "offspring," and finds show grain storage pits were a common part of Palestine hill country sites in the 13th century B. C. (Ibid., Wood). He summed: "Israel functioned as an agriculturally-based/sedentary socioethnic entity in the late 13th century B. C., one . . . significant enough to be included in the military campaign against political powers in Canaan . . . (1994; 54; 56, n. 12).'" (cited in Wood, Ibid.)

The Merneptah Stele thus destroys the "12th century emergence theory" of Israel's origin, for it shows she was a serious foe to Egypt in the previous century. It also counters the "late" date for the Exodus: Israel was not a newcomer to the land in Merneptah's view as would be the case with a 1290 B. C. Exodus, but a respectable foe worthy of his boast to defeat. Then, his claim that Israel lost her grain fits Judges 6:1-11, for as she then was apostate, others seized her crops! The stela thus actually supports the Bible's timeline of a 1440 B. C. Exodus!

The Exodus occurred like the Bible describes it, so the God Who met Israel's livelihood needs in the Exodus is both able and willing to meet our needs today. May we trust Him to that end!