No 5

(Israel in Egypt)

We read in the Old Testament that the Israelites lived in Egypt for four hundred years. It all started in Genesis 37 :28 when Jacob’s sons sold Joseph to a band of Ishmeelites (Arabs) for twenty pieces of silver. God had a plan for His people. The story continues, years later when a famine came to the land and Jacob told his sons to go and buy corn in the land of Egypt. From that point on, God’s plan was to have His people, the 12 tribes of Israel, live in Egypt and more precisely, in the land of Goshen. The Israelites multiplied rapidly and over the centuries, they became slaves to the Egyptian Pharaoh Exodus 1 :12-14. Then God delivered them out of Egypt with Moses and they returned to their land. The departure out of Egypt, together with the passover (Exod 12 :14) is remembered every year by the Jewish people today. Why did God do all this? A famine does not last 400 years. Why did God leave His people in Egypt all these years?

The answer was given prophetically by God to Abraham hundreds of years before in Genesis 15 :16 when God said : “The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” . In order to keep the covenant that the Lord had made with Abraham, He sent His people into Egypt and kept them there to cleanse the Promised Land. The book of Joshua describes how God used Joshua to take the Promised Land and gave him the assurance that : “as I was with Moses, so shall I be with thee; I will not fail thee nor forsake thee” Joshua 1 :5. God keeps His promises.