Man, the title of my sermon tonight is Israel's Time in Egypt.
If you would flip over to chapter 12 in Exodus, Exodus chapter 12, verse number 40.
This is the key verse that I want to focus on tonight.
And as we look at this tonight, I'm going to show you that a lot of times in the Bible,
you're going to run into things that can be difficult to understand, things that
are complicated, and sometimes even things that are apparently contradictory when you're
studying the Bible.
And it's good to know how to deal with those things when we run into them.
And so it's not just this one issue that we're looking at tonight, but I hope that
you'll take the principles from this one issue and be able to apply them elsewhere
in your Bible study and your Bible reading when you run into difficult or complicated
things.
So what I'm going to say is that the only way to understand the Bible is, obviously
you have to be saved, you have to be indwelled by the Holy Spirit, but another key element
is that you have to go into it believing that the Bible is true and believing that
the entire Bible is true, meaning that we can't pick and choose which parts of
the Bible we're going to believe versus disbelieve.
No, we believe the entire Bible is God's word.
So if we run into two things that are seemingly contradictory, we have to ask ourselves, how
can these things both be true?
Because of the fact that we believe that they're both true.
It's just so easy sometimes for simple-minded people to run into something difficult and
just say, oh, it's an error, error, scribal error, oh, there's a problem here.
It's really just anything complicated, instead of trying to figure it out, it's easier to
just sort of punt and say, it's a mistake, it's an error.
It's not what the text should say.
So hopefully some of the principles that I gave you tonight are just kind of universal
for reading the Bible, but the specific issue that we're going to talk about tonight
is how long did the children of Israel spend in Egypt?
Now, the Bible gives us a very clear answer to this in Exodus chapter 12 verse 40,
and we could literally just read this verse and close our Bibles and go home and you
would know how long the children of Israel were in Egypt, but we're going to go through
this in great detail and leave no stone unturned and look at some of the problems
and objections to this.
Look at Exodus chapter 12 verse 40, the Bible says, now the sojourning of the children
of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was 430 years.
There we go.
Let's pray.
Do we thank you so much for allowing us to be?
No.
We're not going to just pray and go home, although we could.
But if we look at this statement, it's a very clear statement, and when we're studying
our Bibles and there are things that don't seem to add up, we should always start
with the clear statement.
It's sort of like algebra.
I know you guys might have hated math class, but in algebra, you start with what you know,
and you use that to figure out what you don't know.
It's like those little logic problems that you do on the airplane, and you basically
start checking in the facts that you know, and then you use those facts that you know
to figure out the part that you don't know.
Well, some things in the Bible are just really clear, really straightforward, really
explicit.
Other things are a little more cryptic and enigmatic, what the Bible would call dark
sayings.
And so it's good when you can start with just a clear, concrete statement and sort
of work from there.
And that's what we have here, a very clear statement.
And just in case you doubt the clarity, in the next verse, it becomes even more explicit
because it says in verse 40, now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt
was 430 years.
And it came to pass at the end of the 430 years, even the self same day, it came
to pass that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.
Because we know that sometimes the Bible rounds things off.
Sometimes the Bible gives approximate numbers.
Some people would even argue that sometimes the Bible uses symbolic numbers.
But here's the thing, when God flat out tells you it was 430 years, in fact, it
was to the day 430 years, the self same day, like the actual anniversary, the 430
year anniversary is when they left Egypt.
That's a pretty powerful, strong, clear statement.
That should carry a lot of weight right there.
That the children of Israel were down in Egypt for 430 years.
Now, what do we mean when we talk about the children of Israel being in Egypt for
430 years?
Well, if you remember, and I'm going to go through a lot of this history in detail,
but of course Abraham begat Isaac, right?
And then Isaac begat Jacob and Esau.
And then remember Jacob has 12 sons, which become the 12 tribes of Israel.
Jacob's name was changed to Israel.
So Israel is not only a country, but it's also a person, right?
The place Israel or the nation Israel is named after the person Israel.
What is Israel's original birth name?
Jacob, right?
Jacob and Israel are the same person, okay?
And so the person Israel has these 12 sons that become the 12 tribes of Israel.
They are living in Canaan land, Palestine, right?
What we would consider the modern day country of Israel.
And while they're living there, if you remember, they hated their brother Joseph.
And so they end up beating him up, throwing him in a pit.
They were talking about murdering him, but ultimately his brothers end up selling him
into slavery.
There are a bunch of Bedouins coming by, Ishmaelites, you know, they sell him into
slavery and then that caravan that they sell him into slavery to takes Joseph down
into Egypt.
Now is Joseph going down into Egypt?
Is that the sojourn of the children, plural, of Israel and Egypt?
No, it isn't.
That's one guy going down into Egypt, right?
Gives down in Egypt and of course Joseph works for Potiphar for a while, then he ends
up getting thrown into prison and he's in prison for a while.
Finally he gets out of prison and at 30 years old Joseph stands before Pharaoh and
he ends up becoming the second in command of the entire nation.
He goes from the prison to being second in command because he's able to interpret Pharaoh's
dream and not only does he interpret the dream about the bad times that are coming
and the famine that are coming, but he also comes up with a plan for Egypt to actually
get through the famine and to do well and prosper and thrive.
And so Pharaoh says, wow, you know, this guy's great, let's put him in charge.
He becomes the vizier or the second in command, Pharaoh's right hand man.
Only Pharaoh is more powerful than Joseph.
So instead of being just sold as a slave and being a prisoner, ultimately he becomes
a very powerful man in Egypt.
Well during this time there's a famine in the land of Canaan and so Joseph's brethren
come down to buy corn from Egypt because of the fact that they don't have food where
they're from and when they get down there they don't recognize Joseph because it's
been so long and Joseph is looking like an Egyptian and he's this powerful ruler and
he speaks to them through an interpreter so that they won't realize that he's their
brother.
You know, he acts like he doesn't speak their language or something, right?
And of course there's that powerful drama that goes back and forth between Joseph
and his brethren.
Ultimately Joseph's brethren realize that it's him.
He tells them who he is and he ends up telling them, go back home, get Jacob, also
known as Israel, get all your families, get everything and come down here and live in
Egypt with me because there are still five more years to this famine and so you're
going to want to come down here and ride this thing out.
So what happens is Israel, the person Israel and all of the children of Israel, all of
his 12 sons and their families, they all move down to Egypt for maybe what they
thought was going to be just a short period of time perhaps, but they end up coming down
there, they get settled in and they end up just living there permanently, okay?
And so all of the children of Israel end up coming down and living in Egypt.
That's what the Bible is talking about when it says the sojourn of the children
of Israel.
It's not talking about one guy going down there.
It's talking about the children of Israel in general going down there and living in
Egypt.
They get settled in Egypt.
They sojourn in Egypt and that is what starts the 430 years.
We're going to get into that more later.
And so when they're there for 430 years, when they first get there, everything's
great, right?
Because when they first got there, Joseph is the second in fact, let's look at some
of this in the Bible.
Flip over in your Bible to Genesis chapter number 45, okay?
Genesis chapter number 45.
Let's see some of these things in the Bible and I'm just kind of laying down some
of the foundation so that we can understand this issue of how long the children of Israel
were in Egypt.
Look at Genesis chapter 45 and verse number 17.
It says, and Pharaoh said unto Joseph, say unto thy brethren, this do ye, laid your
beasts and go get you in under the land of Canaan and take your father and your households
and come unto me and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt and you shall
eat the fat of the land.
Now thou art commanded, this do ye, take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your
little ones and for your wives and bring your father and come.
Also regard not your stuff for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours and the
children of Israel did so and Joseph gave them wagons according to the commandment
of Pharaoh and gave them provisions for the way.
Now look, this is a pretty generous offer.
He's saying, look, you don't even need to bring your stuff because everything down
here, man, will set you up.
You'll just show up.
We'll set you up with furnished dwellings.
We'll give you whatever you need.
You can have the fat of the land because Pharaoh's so grateful to Joseph for saving
Egypt.
He's saying, wow, Joseph's family's coming down.
He's rolling out the red carpet.
He sends a bunch of U-Hauls, you know, to go get their stuff.
But he says, man, don't even worry about your stuff because of the fact that the
whole land of Egypt is before you.
We got everything you need, man.
Just come down.
Don't be up there struggling in that, you know, famine and Canaan.
Get down here, man.
We'll take care of you.
And so that's what they do.
You know, they all move down there and he tells them you can dwell in the best
part of the land.
You can dwell in the land of Goshen and it's going to be great.
So when they first get there, everything's great.
Isn't that clear?
Everybody's happy.
Pharaoh's happy.
He loves Joseph.
He loves Joseph's family.
And so if it weren't good, they wouldn't have stayed.
I mean, they would have just maybe after the five years of famine's over and things
start getting good again, they'd be like, eh, you know, Egypt's not that cool.
We're out of here.
Part of the reason why they stayed is because it was going so good.
And so they end up being there for decades and it's going well and they just end up
just living there for the rest of their lives, right?
So that's how this works.
Now, if you would flip over to Genesis, chapter number 15, Genesis, chapter number 15.
So the sojourn of the children of Israel in Egypt, the time that they dwelt there
is 430 years to the day, okay?
Now look at Genesis 15 verse 13 and the Bible reads, he said unto Abram, this is
God speaking, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that
is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them for a hundred years.
And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, afterwards shall they come
out with great substance.
So the Bible is saying here that that nation, this foreign nation, they're going to live
in a foreign nation and that foreign nation is going to afflict them.
What does afflict mean?
Afflict them, mistreat them, trouble them for 400 years.
Now again, this makes perfect sense because if they spend 430 years there total and they're
getting afflicted for 400 years, that means that for the first 30 years, things are going
good and then after 30 years, things begin to go south.
The other thing I want to mention is that this number 400 years, it may be exact or
this could be a rounded number because it's a really clean, rounded number and it doesn't
say anything about to the day or anything.
So it could be that it's approximately 400 years because the phase from, hey, we
really like the Israelites to, hey, let's treat the Israelites like dirt, that might
not have been something that happened overnight.
It could be a slow, gradual process and so it was about 400 years that things were
bad for them in Egypt, right?
Now they don't fully become slaves until after Joseph is dead.
Well Joseph ends up living for another, I think it's about like 70 years or so.
It's hard to pin it down exactly but he ends up living for much more than 30 years
after they get there, okay.
It's after Joseph dies that actually things get really bad and ultimately they're put
into full blown slavery, cruel bondage, bitter servitude and that goes on for quite some
time.
Of course, the Bible says they're evil afflicted for 400 years.
Okay, this is quoted in the New Testament.
Now if you would flip over to Galatians Chapter 3, you go to Galatians Chapter 3
and I'm going to read for you this quote from Acts Chapter 7 where Stephen is preaching
and Stephen says, God spake on this wise that his seed should sojourn in a strange
land and that they should bring them into bondage and entreat them evil 400 years.
So I think so far everything's pretty clear, pretty easy to understand, right?
Four hundred and thirty years in Egypt and 400 years of that is bad, ultimately
culminating in severe heavy bondage and slavery for the children of Israel.
Now look at Galatians Chapter 3 verse 16.
It says, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
He saith not and to seeds as of many, but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ.
And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law
which was 430 years after cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect.
Now here we have again the 430 year number, okay?
Now here's the thing about this.
The giving of the law took place at Mount Sinai.
Well they were at the Mount Sinai receiving the law the same year that they left Egypt, right?
So our operative verse here, Exodus 1240 says, Hey the selfsame day after 430 years
they left Egypt, right?
Where do they go?
They go to Mount Sinai and they get the law.
So getting the law at Mount Sinai and leaving Egypt happened at the same time.
That's why this 430 year number is coming up, right?
So if we back up 430 years we have the children of Israel entering Egypt and then
they're there for 430 years and then they leave and receive the law.
What does the Bible say here happened 430 years earlier in Galatians 3.17?
It says, this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God and Christ,
the law which was 430 years after cannot disannul and here's what people do.
People come along and they say, wait a minute, well the children of Israel didn't really
sojourn in Egypt for 430 years.
In fact they were only there for 215.
Now that's a little bit surprising in light of the clear scripture that we've already
seen, right?
But if you go on all kinds of like creation science websites and just all kinds of ministries
and all, you know, you just kind of just Google charts about biblical timeline, Old
Testament timeline, you know, age of the earth, any of these things, virtually every
chart is going to show them in Egypt for 215 years.
They're wrong.
Now, I don't care how many charts say that.
I don't care how many people have taught that.
It's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says that the sojourn of the children of Israel was 430 years and that
they were evil and treated for 400 of that, okay?
Clear statements, I'm done, okay?
But I'm going to show you the evidence that the other side puts forth.
Why are all these charts wrong?
Why are so many people getting this wrong?
In fact, you'll often hear this statement that the world was created around 4004 BC.
And again, it's based on this bogus 215 years in Egypt, okay?
There was some, you know, bishop, usher from the dark ages or whatever that figured
this out.
I forget exactly who he was, but he was some kind of a priest or whatever.
And he figured this out and he said it was, you know, October 23rd at three in the afternoon,
you know, 4000 BC or some stupid thing, you know, getting all super specific.
And obviously there's no way that anyone could know that.
But all of these calculations are wrong by about 300 years.
And especially, and I'm not going to go into the other reasons that they're wrong, but
the big one is the 215 years of just shaving that off of the children of Israel's time
in Egypt.
And what proponents of this view will say is that, well, you don't start the clock
when the children of Israel actually sojourn in Egypt, but rather you start it with
when the promise was given to Abraham.
Now, how does that even work, my friend, if the Bible says the time of the sojourn
of the children of Israel is 430 years and you just say, well, let's just start it
with Israel's grandpa getting a promise before he's even born.
But what they'll do to justify that is they'll take you to Galatians chapter number
three here and say, well, look, it says here that Abraham received the promise and
then 430 years later was the law, except that that's not what this Bible verse says.
Look at the verse a little more carefully and what the Bible verse actually says is
that the covenant was confirmed 430 years before.
Now look, confirming something and making something are not the same thing, right?
Look, what if my wife and I had like a confirmation of our wedding vows or something?
You know, what do they do those things?
I'm not into this.
We're not doing it, honey.
What's that thing?
What do they call that thing?
We're renewing our vows.
We're confirming the covenant, okay?
Because here's the thing about that is that when God made the promise to Abraham,
that was much earlier before Israel was even born.
But according to Galatians chapter three, the promise was confirmed 430 years before
the giving of the law.
Let's see if we can find that event in the Bible.
Go to Genesis chapter 46.
Go to Genesis chapter 46 and let's see if we can find the confirmation of the promise.
Not when the original promise was given, but rather the confirmation of that promise
and not just to Abraham, but to Abraham and his seed as it says in verse 16 of
Galatians three.
But look at Genesis chapter 46 verse one.
It says that Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba and
offered sacrifices unto the God of his father, Isaac.
So who took the journey in verse one?
Israel took the journey, right?
And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob, and
he said, here am I, and he said, I am God, the God of thy father.
Fear not to go down into Egypt.
Here's the confirmation of the promise, my friend.
For I will there make of thee a great nation.
I will go down with thee into Egypt and I will also surely bring thee up again.
And Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.
This my friend is the confirmation of the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
It is confirmed the night before they go into Egypt.
And then 430 years later, they received the law at Mount Sinai.
No problem, no issue, okay?
Now the other piece of evidence that this crowd will bring up, and if you would go back
to Genesis chapter 15 where we were, is they will say, well, it's only four generations
that were in Egypt and so therefore it can't be 430 years.
And they have two pieces of evidence for this.
One of them is found in Genesis chapter 15 and the other one's in Exodus chapter
6.
Because here's the thing, I'm not just going to get up and only give my side, I'm also
going to give the other side because I think that you are smart enough to be able to
parse this information and figure this out.
And we're going to look at all of these things and leave no stone unturned.
But look at Genesis chapter 15, it says in verse 13, and he said unto Abram, know
of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and
shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400 years.
And also that nation whom they shall serve, what's that nation that they will serve?
Egypt.
Will I judge?
And afterward shall they come out with great substance.
And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age,
but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites
is not yet full.
Now, you know, what does that mean in the fourth generation?
In the fourth generation of what?
In the fourth generation starting when?
What exactly does that mean?
Not exactly as clear of a statement as what we have over in Exodus chapter 12 verse 40.
But if you would flip over to Exodus chapter 6, Exodus chapter number 6, and we're
going to look at the other piece of evidence that the other side will bring up.
Exodus chapter number 6, and look at verse number 16 of Exodus chapter 6.
These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations, Gershon, Kohath,
and Mararai, and the years of the life of Levi were 130 and 7 years.
Sons of Gershon, Libnai, and Shimei, according to their families, the sons of Kohath, Amram
and Ishar, and Hebron and Uzziel, and the years of the life of Kohath were 133
years, and the sons of Mararai, Mahalai, and Mushai, these are the families of Levi
according to their generations.
And Amram took him, Jacob, his father, sister, and wife, and she bare him Aaron
and Moses, and the years of the life of Amram were 130 and 7 years.
So here's what they'll say, they'll say, well, wait a minute, if we look at this
passage, Exodus 6, 16 through 20, and we go, okay, Levi has a son named Kohath
in verse 16, right?
So Levi has a son named Kohath, Kohath has a son named Amram, Amram has, you know,
a son named Moses, and so therefore it's just only a couple generations, so, you know,
they're doing it in the fourth generation, and so therefore it can't be 430 years
because, you know, these people, it even tells you how old these people were when
they died, and so therefore, you know, it can't be 430 years.
So we're basically faced with, you know, this kind of apparent contradiction or these
two options.
We've got the crystal clear point blank statement that the children of Israel were
in Egypt for 430 years to the day, and then a couple of statements to back that
up saying they were evil and treated in a land that was not theirs for 400 years,
which that jibes with the 430 year number.
But then over on the other side, we have this genealogy that only has three people's
names here, and so, you know, it's not enough generations, so which one is it,
you know?
Do we go with this genealogy or do we go with the clear statement that just says
they're there for 430 years to the day, okay?
What do we do?
Now, look, we're not going to throw anything out because we believe that the entire Bible
is true.
Here is the solution to this problem.
It is kind of an obvious solution is that this genealogy is not complete.
The genealogy is skipping people's names that we don't care about, okay?
Now, I don't know about you, but when we read the Bible, there are a lot of names
in the Bible, big long lists of names and genealogies.
I don't know about you, but I do not long for and wish for more names to be added
in the Bible of insignificant people that don't really matter.
I mean, do you ever just read your Bible and just think, man, I wish these names were
longer?
I mean, these lists of names just aren't long enough.
I just can't get enough of these genealogies, give me more.
Nobody really thinks that when they're reading the Bible.
Obviously, we want to know the important people, we want to know the key players,
and you say, well, Pastor Anderson, you just made that up right now that genealogies
skip people.
I mean, I can prove to you that in a bunch of places in the Bible, genealogies skip people
all the time.
In fact, Matthew chapter 1 is a great example.
Flip over to Matthew chapter 1.
Because really, on the one side, we have the clear statement saying that they're there
for 430 years, but then on the other side, we have this idea that says, well, if
it's Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses, that can't be 430 years.
But here's what I'm saying, is that that is not the whole family tree.
Those are just the important people, and we are skipping generations of insignificant
people that aren't important to the story.
Now, if that's true, then I should be able to show you other places in the Bible where
people's names are skipped.
If I'm just going to say, well, this genealogy is skipping people, well, then I should be
able to show you other examples of that, right?
Well, I can easily do that.
Because for example, famously, in Matthew chapter 1, verse 8, the Bible says, and Asa
begat Josaphat, and Josaphat begat Joram, and Joram begat Ozias.
Now, I'm not expecting you to have the genealogy of all the kings of Judah memorized,
so let me just tell you that between Joram and Ozias, at the end of verse 8 there, it
says Joram begat Ozias, there are three people missing.
Because actually, it goes Joram, Joash, Amaziah, and then Uzziah.
And so you have people being left out of these genealogies.
You have three kings of Judah being left out.
If you go back and study, you know, in the Book of Second Chronicles and compare,
you're going to find that this is not giving you every person, and that it's skipping
over three names, okay?
And obviously, it can be a little bit tough at first because the spellings are different,
but you know, Ozias is, you know, Uzziah, and so forth.
And sometimes Uzziah is called Amaziah, it can get convoluted.
But if you study it, it's very clear that three people are left out, okay?
So what do we make of that?
And then, not only are three people, everyone agrees that three people are left out here
in this verse, because it's obvious, but not only that, look at verse 17.
So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations, and from David until the
carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto
Christ are 14 generations.
Now, you want to know why that math is so clean?
And you got 14, 14, and 14, because you left out three people's names.
Otherwise it wouldn't have been 14, would it?
Be 17, and that would mess up the math.
Why?
Because the point here is to provide a certain list that could be, I don't know, maybe
easily remembered or just to make it symbolically match up.
It's not a statement about how much time went by, because if you look at, for example,
how much time went from, because we're looking at Matthew 1.17, from Abraham to
David, okay, well that's approximately just roughly, it's like a thousand years, roughly.
From Abraham to David, it's like a thousand years, 14 generations, okay?
From David until the carrying away into Babylon, you know, that's like approximately, what,
400 years or something?
Carrying away into Babylon unto Christ is around 600 years or something.
I'm just totally rounding these numbers off and making them very roughly.
But they're not, it's not a statement about how much time went by.
It's just a list of names letting you know the important players, the important families,
the important people, and just giving you some symbolic numbers, because obviously numbers
in the Bible have significance and meaning and so forth.
And so when the Bible says it's 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations, you know,
from David until the carrying away into Babylon, is it saying that there are only 14 generations?
Because if it said there are only 14 generations,
that wouldn't be true because you left out three generations.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
So are generations a reliable way to tell time in the Bible?
Are genealogies a way to figure out exactly which people occurred from point A to point
B?
No, because genealogies sometimes will leave people out, as I just demonstrated to you
from the Bible.
You could check me out on this and, you know, see if I'm telling the truth about
Matthew 1, verse 8, leaving out three people, but it is.
And yet he turns around and says, 14 generations.
Yeah, because it's 14 after we left out three people, because that's not the point
that he's trying to make, that it was a certain amount of time.
It's just the way the story is being told.
Is it true?
Absolutely.
It's a true story.
We just listed 14 names, 14 generations.
We're not talking about three generations because it doesn't matter.
This is not the only place that does this.
Go to Luke chapter 3, Luke chapter number 3.
Now a lot of people, they have a really hard time with this concept of a genealogy
skipping over someone.
But honestly, there's no issue here, okay?
It's not important.
The idea, the point of a genealogy is to tell us what family people came from.
And so we don't need to necessarily know the blow by blow to understand that Jesus
is descended, you know, from David on his mother's side, according to Luke chapter
3, or that Joseph, who is the husband of Mary, is descended from King David along
that kingly line in Matthew chapter 1.
That's the point.
That's what matters.
Every single step along that road isn't necessarily important, is it?
We don't really care.
We just want to know that Jesus is the King of the Jews.
Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham.
That's what we care about.
But look at Luke chapter 3, verse 35.
It says, which was the son of Sarac, which was the son of Raghal, which was the son
of Felek, which was the son of Heber, which was the son of Salah, which was the son
of Kayinan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Shem.
And so when we look at this, we see that between Salah at the end of verse 35 and
Arphaxad, we have a guy named Kayinan in between those two, whereas if we went
back to Genesis chapter 11, we would see that Arphaxad lived thirty and five years
and begat Salah.
So the Bible says that Arphaxad begat Salah, but then over here we can see that Arphaxad
is actually the grandfather of Salah, okay?
The Bible also calls Belshazzar the son of Nebuchadnezzar.
It's actually his grandson.
Why?
Because of the fact that the word begat doesn't necessarily mean it's your son.
You could also have grandchildren that are begotten by you because you're the ultimate
source of those grandchildren, great-grandchildren.
Jesus Christ is the son of David, but obviously we know that that means he's
actually his great-great-great-great-grandson, okay?
And so when we talk about Belshazzar's father, we're actually talking about his
grandfather because of the fact that that's the way the Bible works.
You don't necessarily have to like or agree with the way the Bible always does things
or counts things, but it's our job to look at the Bible and see how the Bible
works and then apply that to how we understand the Bible and not say, well, that's not
how I would do it.
Well, you know, okay, Joseph Smith, go write your own Bible then.
But at the end of the day, God wrote the Bible and he purposely made many things easy
and he purposely made many things complicated and he wrote it the way he wrote it.
And guess what?
Genealogies sometimes skip people.
Now again, a lot of people, they hate this idea of a genealogy skipping people.
It doesn't bother me at all because I don't want to read additional names.
But you know, for example, Answers in Genesis had an article on their website about this
passage in Luke chapter three.
Here's their answer.
It's a mistake.
It's an error.
Kayinan shouldn't be there.
It's a scribal error.
And here's what's funny about these people is that they say the Bible is inerrant in
the originals, but they don't necessarily believe that the Bible that we have today is inerrant.
And I'm not talking about a particular version.
I'm talking about any version.
I mean they would even just say that there are certain verses in the Hebrew Old Testament
that they would just say are so corrupt that we have no idea what they say.
Well you know what?
No.
Jesus Christ said that not one jot or one tittle would pass from the law until all
be fulfilled and that heaven and earth would pass away, but that his word would not
pass away.
So I do not believe that there are errors in the Bible.
So that, but that's just an easy way out.
You know you run into a missing name in a genealogy and you're just like, well you
know we really need these genealogies for our little timeline of the age of the earth
and so you know it's an error.
It's a mistake in the Bible.
Like rather than admitting that a genealogy can skip people sometimes, which is demonstrably
true about Matthew 1, they'd rather just say the Bible has errors in it.
Folks, the Bible is not an error.
Luke is correct here.
Luke is being inspired by God.
He's not just copying a genealogy from Genesis chapter 11.
Rather he's being inspired by God.
He's writing scripture and he knows about a guy that's not mentioned in Genesis 11.
Why is this guy not mentioned in Genesis 11?
I don't know, but probably because he just didn't matter.
He's just not important.
It's not significant so he's left out.
Beget can also refer to the birth of a grandson.
This is how the Bible works.
So with that in mind, are we really just going to die on this hill of, well, it's got
to be just Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses?
No way, because I guarantee you there are a whole bunch of other guys that we just
don't care about because we don't need more names than we already have.
The important thing we need to know is that Moses is descended from Levi.
That's the important thing.
Here's the other important thing that he is specifically of the family called the Kohathites.
That's what's important.
That's what matters.
The Kohathites and the Mararites and the Gershomites, that's what matters, not necessarily
every guy in between over the course of 430 years.
So again, I think this is very clear what the Bible is saying.
Now, let's talk about the dumb theory that is out there to try to justify this whole
215 year business, right?
Because we believe that they were there for 430 years and that there's just simply
names left out of the genealogy.
Piece of cake, easy.
But go back if you went to Genesis chapter 12, Genesis chapter 12.
Here's the ridiculous theory that people who want to sort of salvage this 215 year
business, here's the theory that they end up coming up with.
And by the way, I think part of the reason why the 4004 BC figure is so popular and
why so many charts get this wrong is because people in the 20th century, they really had
their heart set on Christ returning in the year 2000.
They were really big on that and they had this thing of like 4,000 years of Old
Testament, 2,000 years of New Testament, and then millennial reign of Christ, 1,000
year reign of Christ.
A day is like 1,000 years, 7,000 years of human history.
And I got to admit, it sounds cool.
Sounds great, right?
7,000 years of human history.
It's so clean.
4,000 in the Old Testament, 2,000 in the New Testament, 6 days shalt thou labor, 1,000
years of rest.
Here's the problem.
The problem is that it's 2024 now.
That's the problem.
Okay.
Here's the other problem.
The world wasn't created in 4004 BC.
It was created something closer to 4300 BC, somewhere in that neighborhood.
And we don't know the exact year, but it was at least a few hundred years older than
what they're claiming, but they kind of really wanted it to be.
And so you have all these people, he's coming back in 1988.
He's coming back in 2005.
Depending on how they did the math, they were all into that.
But in 2024, it's safe to say that it was nowhere near that 2000 AD figure that
they had in mind, right?
I mean, can we admit that now in 2024?
It's not a thing.
So I think that's part of the reason for the popularity of this in the 20th century,
but it's the 21st century now.
It's time to leave behind these inaccurate charts and admit that the children of Israel
were in Egypt for 430 years, like the Bible says.
Now how in the world can they put the children of Israel in Egypt for only 215 years
when the Bible says 430?
Seriously, they say, well, when it says the sojourn of the children of Israel, the clock
actually starts with Abraham receiving the promise from God because then he went to
Egypt briefly.
He did a little visit in Egypt.
So Abraham gets a promise from God.
This is their version of the story.
Warning, not accurate, but I'm just telling you their version.
When he's 75 years old, he gets the promise from God, and then the same year, he goes
and visits Egypt.
So when Abraham, Israel's grandpa, visits Egypt, that's the start of the sojourn of
the children of Israel in Egypt.
That's a stretch.
Israel's not even born yet.
Israel's dad isn't even born yet, but that's the start of the children of Israel, sojourn
in Egypt.
Abraham's not Israel's child.
Abraham is Israel's grandpa.
There aren't going to be any children of Israel for hundreds of years, but that's
when they start the clock.
They say, well, Abraham received the promise, Galatians 3, and he visited Egypt, boom, and
then they have to find a date for something bad to start happening 30 years later, right?
Because it says like, you know, they're there for 430, but then they're evil and
treated in a land that's not theirs for 400.
So then they come up with Ishmael making fun of Isaac, two kids, and one of them's
teasing the other, in Canaan, not in Egypt.
And so Ishmael picking on Isaac, they say, well, that starts the 400 years of being
evil and treated by this wicked nation.
Because, you know, Ishmael's half Egyptian.
But here's the true story, okay, Isaac, the person Isaac never left the promised
land.
He was born there, he lived there, and he died there.
Abraham did visit Egypt briefly, and, you know, later, of course, Jacob is going to
go get his wife in Syria, and ultimately he's going to end up in Egypt, but Isaac
never leaves the promised land.
Isaac is just in the promised land.
But supposedly, Isaac getting made fun of by his half-brother is the children of Israel
being evil and treated in the land of Egypt.
That's part of the 400 years of them being mistreated in Egypt.
It's a big stretch, folks, right?
I mean, that's pretty wild of an idea.
But now let's just completely dismantle that, let's just completely tear that apart.
First of all, here's what I would start to dismantle this with, I would say, well,
first of all, is it true that Abraham went to Egypt the same year that he got the promise
from God?
Because that's what this whole theory relies on.
It relies on this idea that, well, in Galatians 3, the confirmation of the promise
is the same thing as when he went down into Egypt or whatever.
First of all, when he first received the promise, it was actually much earlier.
If you go to Genesis chapter 12, the Bible says in Genesis chapter 12, verse 1,
Now the Lord had said unto Abraham.
Now why does the Bible say the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country
and from thy kindred and from thy fathers?
Why doesn't it say just the Lord said to Abraham?
In fact, in this Bible right here, it has little notes in the column, it says just read
said here.
But yet the King James Bible has translated this, the Lord had said unto Abraham.
Why did they translate it that way?
Well, the reason why is because over in Acts chapter 7, and you don't have to turn
there if you don't want to, but Acts chapter 7, Stephen is preaching, and here's what
Acts chapter 7 says, Men and brethren and fathers hearken, the God of glory appeared
unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran.
So according to Stephen, the promise was not made to Abraham when he was in Haran,
but it was actually made to him when he was in Mesopotamia before he even came to
Haran.
And Abram then came to Haran with his dad, ultimately his dad died, and then when his
dad died, then he went to Canaan, and then when he went to Canaan, then he ended
up going down into Egypt, and maybe that wasn't even the same year.
I mean that's a lot to happen in one year my friend, in fact it's impossible.
And so if you back up to Genesis chapter 11, verse number 31, it says, And Terah took
Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law,
his son Abram's wife, and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go
into the land of Canaan, and they came unto Haran and dwelt there, and the days
of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.
And then it says, The Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country.
Stephen in Acts chapter 7 says that that's what he told him in Mesopotamia.
Now it makes sense, God tells Abram in Mesopotamia, Leave your father's house and go to a land
that I'm going to show you.
Abram doesn't quite do that because instead of leaving his father's house, his dad actually
is the one who goes with him.
And his dad goes with him, and they all go, instead of going to Canaan, they go
to Haran.
But they're heading for Canaan, but they just don't quite make it to Canaan.
They stop in Haran, and they are there until the death of Terah, and then once Terah dies,
then they move on and go to Canaan.
Then once they get to Canaan, some unknown period of time goes by, and there is a famine
in the land, and they go down into Egypt and whatever.
So this idea that people could be taking for granted that somehow Abram visits Egypt
at the same time as receiving the promise, well no, these two events are very far apart
geographically and almost for sure chronologically as well.
But you say, no, no, no, the promise is confirmed to Abram right before he goes down
into Egypt.
Okay, well then if we're talking about a confirmation, how about the confirmation
when the children of Israel actually go down into Egypt in Genesis 46, 3 and 4 that we
already looked at earlier, which actually matches what the Bible says.
But let's talk about the real big problem, because that's not a huge problem with the
theory, but I'm just showing you everything.
Let me show you the colossal problem with this dumb theory, okay?
Look if you would at Genesis chapter 12, verse number 10.
There was a famine in the land, and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for
the famine was grievous in the land, okay?
So this is Abram, not the children of Israel.
Isaac hasn't even been born yet, Israel hasn't even been born yet.
We have Abram going down into Egypt just for a quick little sojourn because there's
a famine in the land.
And how is Abram treated when he's down there?
It says in verse 16 that Pharaoh entreated Abram well for her sake, and he had sheep
and oxen and he asses and men servants and maid servants and she asses and camels.
So when Abram goes down into Egypt in Genesis chapter 12, not to live there, not
to dwell there, and by the way, he's not the children of Israel, he's the grandfather
of Israel, when he goes down there, things actually go good, right?
He's treated well.
So how do we get the 400 years of being evil and treated, right?
You'd have to say that 30 years later, something bad started happening, right?
And this is where we get to what they would claim is the start of that 400 year number.
Go to Genesis chapter 21 verse 8, Genesis chapter 21 verse 8.
And so we find that when Isaac is weaned, this is when Ishmael mocks him.
It says in verse number 8, the child grew and was weaned and Abraham made a great feast
the same day that Isaac was weaned.
And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.
Wherefore she said unto Abraham, cast out this bond woman and her son, for the son
of this bond woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac, and the thing
was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son.
So here's what happens, according to them, Isaac is being weaned at five years old in
order to make their math work because they're trying to find something 30 years later.
Well folks, that doesn't make any sense because you just don't wean a five year
old, okay?
You know, we got a lot of kids here tonight.
Who here has children that are breastfeeding?
Put up your hand if you have children in your home right now that are being breastfed,
right?
Who here has ever had children?
Put up your hand if you have had children, right?
Yeah, so here's the thing, we that have had children, we know that our wives are not
breastfeeding our children when they're five years old, okay?
That's just kind of crazy because they got a whole bunch of teeth and they could
eat whatever by then, right?
I mean, you know, they start getting teeth when they're like one.
Some kids get teeth when they're seven, eight, nine months old, right?
Our kids usually get teeth about one year old, but by the time they're five, they got
a full set of teeth, they got all kinds of teeth, and you know what?
You can feed them adult food at that point.
I mean, you know, you can give them, now obviously sometimes you want to cut up their
steak for them or something, but you know what?
My wife's not walking around breastfeeding a five year old.
If they can stand next to you and breastfeed in a standing position, they're too old
to breastfeed at that point.
I mean, what kind of a crazy, and here's the thing, people will try to point out some
bone-in-the-nose culture where these super poor, backward, like hand-to-mouth type people
are breastfeeding four or five year olds or something and say, see, this is how they
did it in the Bible days in primitive times.
Here's the thing, I don't believe that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were primitive, okay?
I would not compare them to some bone-in-the-nose guy because Abraham has 316 servants trained
in his household.
He doesn't need to save money on his grocery bill by having his wife breastfeed
a five year old.
It's absurd.
But either way, that's not really the main point.
The real main point is just how ludicrous it is to claim that Ishmael, making fun
of Isaac, is the children of Israel being evil and treated in a land that's not theirs,
and that God's going to punish the nation that evil and treated them.
Folks, that is such a ridiculous stretch because stop and think about this, when Ishmael
makes fun of Isaac, what happens to him?
He's immediately kicked out.
So this making fun of Isaac thing doesn't last very long.
In fact, Isaac's probably weaned when he's like two years old.
That would make a lot more sense, right?
That you'd quit breastfeeding like a two year old.
So two year old Isaac gets made fun of by Ishmael, Ishmael's promptly kicked out
of the house.
He probably doesn't even remember ever being made fun of Ishmael.
I don't think it was that traumatic for him.
He goes through the whole rest of his life living in the promised land.
He never leaves the promised land.
Isaac lives in the promised land the entire time.
But here is the big colossal problem with this, okay?
Is that remember how we talked about earlier that when the children of Israel first got
to Egypt, they were treated super well?
Just stop and look, I hope you're not glazing over because the sermon's getting too complicated
or something.
You know, you can watch cartoons later.
Right now, you need to focus, okay?
Focus grasshopper, okay?
Listen to me.
Stop and think about this.
Here's what I'm saying.
Abraham has Isaac.
Isaac has Jacob.
Jacob gets renamed to Israel.
Israel has 12 sons.
That whole family goes down and lives in Egypt and they're there for 430 years.
That's called the sojourn of the children of Israel in Egypt.
The first 30 years are going good.
Joseph's the second in command.
Everybody likes him but at some point, the honeymoon's over.
Maybe approximately 30 years later, maybe exactly 30 years later but at some point,
the honeymoon's over and they start treating him bad, eventually totally enslaving him.
Everybody got that?
Here's the other theory.
The other side is saying, no, the 430 years starts with Abraham just briefly visiting
Egypt and then 30 years later, Isaac gets made fun of by Ishmael.
That starts the 400 years of being evil and treated in a land that's not theirs.
Here's the problem with that.
If the 400 years of evil and treated in a land that's not theirs starts with Isaac
and Ishmael, okay, well then you know what that means?
That means that hundreds of years later when we have Joseph as the second in command
of Egypt, the children of Israel are being evil and treated while Joseph's the second
in command?
Can you explain to me how that could possibly work?
Joseph's down there ruling the place.
Then when Joseph's family come, are they evil and treated?
No.
Joseph is telling them, you don't even need to bring anything.
We got everything, right?
And until the death of Joseph, right, they're not being enslaved or anything.
So here's the thing.
Here's what you'd have to swallow, the whopper that you'd have to swallow is that
the children of Israel are being evil and treated the whole time, 400 years.
That would include Joseph being in charge, eating of the fat of the land, being set
up in Goshen, Pharaoh is just so happy to see all of them and everything.
Do you see how ridiculous that is?
Stop and think how misleading.
And here's the thing, you know, it's important as an intelligent person that you be able
to understand what the other side is saying, right, and actually entertain the possibility
that they might be right.
And then you can actually analyze both viewpoints, right?
Simple-minded people, they can't even process like that someone has another opinion
in them, okay?
And this is why a lot of times when you're arguing with simple-minded people, first
you have to explain to them what they believe, then you have to explain to them why it's
wrong, okay?
But see, you should be able to understand the other side.
But here's the thing, let's do that.
Let's do that as an exercise.
Let's pretend for a minute that the other side is right, okay?
If we pretend for a minute that the other side is right, now read, and I'm going
to be done with this, go to Exodus 12, let's finish in Exodus 12, let's pretend
that the other side is right for a minute, okay?
And we're going to pretend that the clock starts with Abram going down into Egypt, and
the 400 years starts with Ishmael and whatever, okay?
So with that in mind, let's go to Exodus 12 and just read this verse without a mind,
pretending that they're right.
Now, the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was 430 years.
I mean, that's a super misleading verse if it's actually 430 years from Abram visiting
Egypt one time.
I mean, doesn't that feel like just a really misleading verse?
And then especially when it digs in and says in the next verse, you know, it came
to pass at the end of the 430 years, even the same day it came to pass, that
all the oaths of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.
I mean, that feels like a really misleading verse right there, because that's not,
according to them, that's not what that verse means at all.
It really means that 430 years is, you know, from Abraham or whatever.
And then that's why, by the way, that's why corrupt Bible versions like the Greek
Septuagint changed this verse, because, I mean, that's a pretty clear verse, right?
Well change it then.
So the Septuagint says, well, the time of the sojourn of the children of Israel
in Egypt and Canaan was 430 years.
Well, that's not what the Bible says.
Okay.
That's somebody coming along and saying, well, you know, no, and just changing
it because they perceived a problem or whatever.
And then now also thinking about pretending that the other side is right.
Think about this verse, Genesis 15, 13.
Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not
theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400 years.
Like, try to make that fit, this other theory.
400 years of the children of Israel being afflicted in a land that's not theirs.
Folks, it kind of hurts to try to do this because it's just like, well, no,
it just doesn't work.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Because they're not being evil afflicted in the days of Joseph.
Things are going good.
But, you know, again, this is what the other side is saying.
And so, you know, I hope that I didn't, you know, bore you tonight with this.
I hope that, you know, everything was clear, that I didn't confuse you.
I tried to break this thing down as simply as I could, but I think that it's
super obvious that they were there for 400 years.
And by the way, it makes it a lot more sense that they multiplied from 70 people
to, like, probably approximately 3 million in 430 years versus 215 years.
It's a lot easier to make that math work because that would be kind of an
incredible growth rate, you know, to take them there in only 215 years,
especially if you're going to claim that it's only four generations.
Well, how do you go from 70 people to millions in only four generations?
That just, you know, simply is not realistic, okay?
And the thing about that is that when the children of Israel leave Egypt,
it counts the males that can go to war as 600,000, 603,000 or something.
So if you have about 603,000 guys that are, like, the age to go to war,
well, what about guys that are younger, guys that are older, wives, children?
That's why I would say it's several million people.
In order to have 600,000 men of war, you have to have several million people
to include everyone else.
And so not only have we learned tonight, hopefully, that the children of Israel
were actually in Egypt for 400 and some years, not 200 and some years,
I hope that also this would just help you when you're approaching other
problems in the Bible because you're going to run into stuff that appears
to contradict.
You're going to run into things that don't quite add up.
And you have to know, what do I trust?
Do I trust the clear statement or do I trust the genealogy?
Well, you know, obviously, trust both in the sense that they're all true,
they're all God's word.
But understand that things like genealogies are not necessarily a reliable
way to tell time.
Now, it'd be one thing if it says, this guy's this old when he begat
the next son and then he's this old when he begets the next son.
We don't see that in Exodus chapter 6, do we?
You know, because these ones in Genesis, it's like, he's this old,
he begets this guy.
He's this old, he begets this guy.
That, okay, you can actually tell some timing there.
But when it just says, this guy begat this guy, this guy begat this guy,
you don't know if people are being skipped because the Bible
repeatedly skips people.
And so, when you're studying the Bible, don't use a parable to override
a clear statement.
Don't use a story to override a clear statement.
Don't use something vague or dark to override something clear.
Always base what you believe on the clearest, most concrete piece
of evidence and use that which is clear to interpret that which is vague.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word and, Lord, we thank you for the clear
teachings of your word, Lord, and we also thank you even for the difficult things
in the Bible, Lord.
I thank you that everything is not super easy to understand because we would get bored
studying the Bible if everything were just so simple and clean.
Lord, thank you for giving us some things that are a little bit challenging and certain puzzles
that we need to solve, Lord, but give us the wisdom to properly solve them and help
us to never deny clear scripture in our interpretation of your word.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.