The Last Days Of Israel In Egypt

by S.K. SEATH, Toronto | Category: Lessons From The Last Days | Mar 1962

Sober reflection on those periods of history falling within the scope of "Last Days" will reveal a similarity of pattern. Beginning with a time of blessing, there follows a gradual but certain drifting from God, until, in the depths of sin and rebellion against God, men come to the end, to their "Last Days." These last days, in whatever era they occur, have a message for all. In some cases there is the message of impending disaster, while to others the opening of the portals to peace and prosperity brings a message of hope. We can find these two messages running side by side throughout this study.

That Israel should be in Egypt at all, might cause us to wonder. Egypt is the land referred to in Psalms 105 and 106 as the land of Ham. Ham, the son of Noah and the father of Canaan, was the head of one of the three main divisions of the human race. Canaan of this particular section was given, through the prophecy of Noah, a place of servitude to the other two races which sprang from Shem and Japheth. See Genesis 9.26, 27, "Let Canaan be his servant." Israel sprang from Shem, on whom the blessings associated with the "Name of Jehovah" were bestowed, and to whom' lordship over Canaan was given. Our present study will confirm what one has written: "God moves in a mysterious way." We can say that God moves, because the experiences of the children of Israel in Egypt were not only known to God before they occurred, but were permitted by Him in the development of His purpose in regard to Abraham and his seed, as well as for the glory of His own memorial Name.

Referring to the prophetic disclosure to Abraham we read:

"Know of a surety (1) that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, (2) and shall serve them; (3) and they shall afflict them (4) four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, (5) will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance (6) in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for (7) the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full" (Genesis 15.18-16).

In the fulfilment of these words of God the Israel people were to become sojourners in a strange land. It was, therefore, not simply a matter of prudence on Jacob's part that took him and his family into Egypt, but they were there according to prophecy. This does not only mean that God acted to bring them there. The further cause was what happened to Joseph, as well as the wickedness of Jacob's sons and of Dinah. The Psalmist had a deep understanding of this truth when he wrote:

"HE (God) called for a famine upon the land;

HE brake the whole staff of bread.

HE sent a man before them; ...

And Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham"

(Psalm 105.16-28).

Thus were the seed of Abraham, to whom God had promised the land of Canaan (Genesis 12.7) brought, according to the foreknowledge of God, to be sojourners in a land that was not theirs. In their coming to Egypt, they found food and sustenance, which in itself might seem sufficient warrant for making the journey to Egypt. More important, perhaps, is the statement concerning the presentation of Jacob to Pharaoh, "and Jacob blessed Pharaoh." God had blessed Abraham, saying, "I will bless thee and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing". So that the arrival of the family of Jacob in Egypt was a blessing, not only to themselves, but to the Egyptians as well.

God turned what would have been a great disaster to great blessing, and taught future generations much in the lives of Joseph and Moses, who both are types of Christ.

Having come into Egypt at the invitation of Pharaoh, the children of Israel were settled in the land of Goshen. Here they followed their occupation. They were shepherds, and the land of Goshen offered greater advantage for such pursuit than did other parts of the country. Not only so, but since shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians, it may be that this provided a definite aid to separation between the two peoples. In this way a state of peaceful co-existence was enjoyed, at least during the lifetime of Joseph and the Pharaoh who reigned in his time.

The continuance of these peaceful times would not have fulfilled the word of God to Abraham. Not only were his seed to become sojourners but they must become servants to the people in the land. In fulfilment of this we read, "the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour" (Exodus 1. 18); also "they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them " (Exodus 1.11). Having known blessing through their association with the people of God, they began to ill-treat those through whom such blessing had come.

How could this captive nation of Israel ever experience the fulfilment of the divine prophecy that they should come out of their captivity with great substance? The answer lay in the birth of a son to a God-fearing couple of the tribe of Levi. This infant was under the sentence of death from the moment of his birth. The new king of Egypt, who did not know Joseph, fearful that the Hebrews might become too strong for the Egyptians to keep in servitude, had decreed that all male children born to the Hebrews should be cast into the river. For the purpose of maintaining his power over the Hebrews, Pharaoh had thought to do the wise thing in connexion with his slaves. Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? Pharaoh did not know the purposes of God, far less did he know the God of these purposes. In his arrogance he failed to realize that he was only an instrument in God's hands for the fulfilment of those things which God had spoken concerning Abraham and his seed. God had brought Pharaoh to his high station, that in him He might show His own power and that His name might be published abroad in the earth.

This godly couple, Amram and Jochebed, looking in faith to God for the time of their deliverance from the slavery of Egypt, saw in their newborn son one who was "fair unto God" (Acts 7.20, margin). In order that the purposes of God might be advanced, they defied the edict of the king and saved the little boy from the doom of death. God maketh even the wrath of man to praise Him. He overruled the execution of the death sentence in this case even to the extent of making this little boy, snatched from death, the responsibility of the daughter of the haughty Pharaoh. So this boy, Moses, was nourished by Pharaoh's daughter for her own son. He was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and works. But he also became a mighty man of faith. By faith he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. The pomp and treasure of Egypt did not compare, in his reckoning, with the reward that was his goal. So he would rather share ill-treatment with the people of God.

In presenting himself to the people of God, he thought that they understood how that by his hand God was giving them deliverance. Being now about forty years old, he realized that the time of fulfilment of the prophecy concerning their deliverance was near. Yet Israel had fallen to a low ebb of spiritual declension during their sojourn in Egypt. Would they have been well-pleased to have remained in Egypt, as would appear from their words both in Egypt and in the wilderness? An idolatrous spirit had been learnt in Egypt (Acts 7. 88-48). The last days showed them to be very far from God in spirit, when He showed His grace to deliver them. Moses understood, but they understood not. The time was not completely ripe. The purposes of God embraced not only Israel and Egypt, but the Amorite as well. This Canaanite nation also descended from Ham as did the Egyptians, and gave little if any attention to the claims of God for them. They were a wicked people when God spoke to Abraham. The intervening years had only served to increase their wickedness to the full. The fulness of their iniquity was to be contemporary with the liberation of Israel from Egypt. Their iniquity was to be punished, not by a flood, nor by fire, but by God working through Israel utterly to destroy the Amorite.

Those things that God promised to Abraham, and what He decreed concerning Pharaoh and the Amorite, He completely fulfilled. For He brought out Israel, in the fourth generation, after four hundred and thirty years (Exodus 12.40, 41; Galatians 3.17). He demonstrated His power in Pharaoh, and His name was published abroad in the earth. In addition, the iniquity of the Amorite brought about their eventual destruction, because they were utterly destroyed. See Joshua 2.8-11. Of particular interest are those words in verse 11, "the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath." This is the testimony of one whose only knowledge of God was in the report concerning Him that was being circulated in those days. Rahab had no special privilege beyond any others of her time and place. Yet she called God by a name, by which even the great patriarchs had not known Him. "By My name Jehovah I was not known to them" (Exodus 6.8). We do not overlook Genesis 15.2; 26.25; 27.27; and 28.21. The name was known but they did not know the meaning of it, as was afterwards revealed. After God's dealings with the Egyptians, His Name was published abroad in the earth.

The word of God would not have been completely fulfilled had the Israelites merely escaped from Egypt in a moment of weakness in that nation. They must come out with great substance. It is true that in Egypt they had their flocks and their herds, but we cannot associate great substance with a captive people. Yet He is faithful that promised, "Ye shall not go empty ... Ye shall spoil the Egyptians" (Exodus 3.20-22). How? By overpowering them in a revolution? No, but in calm and quiet faith in Him who had promised, and in humble submission to the word of God, feasting on the passover lamb, whose blood had sheltered them from the angel of destruction, they permitted God to fight for them and to prepare the way for them to come out with great substance.

The Egyptians, having felt the hand of God in judgement, were urgent upon the people to send them away out of the land in haste. "And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses ... and they spoiled the Egyptians" (Exodus 12.83-86). The word of Moses was nothing less than the word of God through him. Israel's peace and prosperity were bound up with their obedience to the word of God.

Having traced the fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham, we re-echo the words of Solomon: "There hath not failed one word of all His good promise" (1 Kings 8.56).

The last days of Israel in Egypt, were the first rays of light heralding the close of a long night of terror. For the glory of His own Name, God had permitted men to ill-treat His people. This they did of their own choice. But the time of reckoning came, as it always will, when men must be rewarded according to their deeds. For such who gave no heed to the claims of God in their lifetime, or who will not accept the report, as Rahab did, the dawn of day for the people of God becomes the beginning of their night of sorrow.

S.K. SEATH, Toronto | Mar 1962
Lessons From The Last Days