Moses Study ch. 8 (Ex. 11-15:21)

Intro: History from Avaris

“After death nothing is, and nothing death:

The utmost limit of the gasp of breath.

Let the ambitious zealot lay aside

His hopes of heaven, whose faith is but his pride;

Let slavish souls lay by their fear,

Nor be concerned which way nor where

After this life they shall be hurled.

Dead, we become the lumber of the world,

And to that mass of matter shall be swept

Where things destroyed with things unborn are kept.

Devouring time swallows us whole;

Impartial death confounds body and soul.

For Hell and the cold fiend that rules

God’s everlasting fiery jails

(Devised by rogues, dreaded fools),

With his grim, grisly dog that keeps the door,

Are senseless stories, idle tales,

Dreams, whimseys, and no more.”

- Jon Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

“Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.” -Atheist Richard Dawkins

Again, we are in a section of the story filled with fantastic events on an incredible scale.

Nine plagues have rocked Egypt, we have seen frogs so that you couldn’t walk and locusts so that you couldn’t see.

The Nile turned to blood, darkness so think it could be felt, and now the worst plague, the plague of death, is coming

Moreover in these chapters the Red Sea parts!

It is important that we root these narratives into a belief in their historical reality. We do not believe in “dreams, whimsies, and no more.”

Avaris—the ancient Egyptian city with a surprising number of Semitic bones and what looks like Joseph’s tomb.

At some point, the skeleton remains of recovered at Avaris begin to change…

The obvious signs of wealth/prosperity fade, the bones show stress fractures associated with hard manual labor

The remains also demonstrate the average age of death dropped to the age of 30-32 years.

Additionally, the dig reports from Avaris show an incredible spike in the amount of infant burials (traditionally 25%, but at this time discovered that 50% of infants died within first 3 months of life)

The archaeologists described this as “an extremely high mortality rate”

Moreover, when the skeletons of those that made it to adulthood were examined, it was found that 60% of the population suddenly became female—the infants that were dying were male to a vast degree

This seems to demonstrate the killing of the Hebrew baby boys under Pharoah

Brooklyn Papyrus—a list of some domestic slaves/ servants in Egypt from this time

70% of the slave names on this document are Semitic, with some being overtly Hebrew, such as Menahem, Issachar, and Asher

Also the name Siprah, which is the name of one of the Hebrew midwives in

Final Plague (ch. 11)

The plagues God has unleashed against Egypt have systematically destroyed any confidence the Egyptians could possibly have in their “gods”

Moreover, the nation is in shambles—and it is about to Get worse

Pharoah is supposed to be the Egyptian god “Rah” to his people, the most powerful God—and his son would be the next in line…God is about to show Pharaoh to be powerless even to save his own son.

Note: those who oppose God fail.

Pharoah

Goliath and the Philistines

Babylonian, Syrian, Mede and Persian Empire

Satan himself

Faith lesson: Even when things look terrifying in our world—when our leaders and culture seem bent on destroying our faith, God is stronger!!!

So we can sing “A might fortress is our God!”

Historical note: The admonitions of Ipuwer

Papyrus The Admonitions of Ipuwer seems to describe the collapse of Egyptian society brought about by the wrath of God

However, Egyptian scholars have written off this document as a historical account of Egyptian calamity, because of a supposed contradiction.

Miriam Lichtheim, and influential Egyptologist writes: “The description of chaos in the admonitions is inherently contradictory, hence, historically impossible. On the one hand, the land is said to suffer from total want; on the other hand the poor are described as becoming rich, of wearing fine clothes, and generally of disposing of all that once belonged to the masters.”

The Passover (ch. 12)

A means of salvation in the midst of an indiscriminate plague

A lamb

Unleavened bread

Something to remember

Prepared to depart in haste

What is the lasting significance of the passover?

Faith lessons:

1. Israel is saved not because of their own goodness, but because of God’s grace.

2. Blood is the wage of death—but we have a more glorious covenant.

3. The Lord’s Supper looks back and looks forward (be ready to leave in haste!)

The Exodus (ch. 12:31)

Egyptians beg them to leave and give of their own possessions (see historical note)

This fullfills the promise of God

Pharaoh pursues…is destroyed

Faith lesson: Learning to trust God even in moments of fear (Bonhoeffer quote)

Historical note

120 miles south of Avaris there is a town called Kahun. It was walled and guarded and filled with a Semitic slave population.

Again, the inhabitants of this city seem to have disappeared overnight—Egyptologist Rosalie David says this town’s abandonment was “sudden and unpremeditated.”

A well known moment of collapse in Egyptian power is during the invasion of foreign Hyksos rulers. Egypt is on its knees, and this happens during this time in the Middle Kingdom, the only time of Egyptian subjection in 1000 years of Egyptian history.

There is a document from an Egyptian priest Manetho, who wrote a history of Egypt in the 3rd century BC. He says that in the reign of a king called Dudimose, one of the last kings of the 13th Dynasty (Middle Kingdom), that God (singular!!!) smote the Egyptians.

Manetho says that during this divine smiting, invaders from the north come and conquer Egypt “without striking a blow” as if Egypt had been left without an army due to the divine wrath

Faith Lesson 2—God is faithful to his promises to save his people

God’s silence for 400 years did not mean he had forgotten his promises or his people during the slavery in Egypt

God’s seeming silence during the 400 years of the intertestamental period did not mean he had forgotten his promises.

Even know, many scoff at the “promise of his coming” but God has not forgotten the promised deliverance of his people!