Moses, The Prophets, And Me! - Spencerport Bible Church

4. The Wisdom and Will of God regarding the Worship and the Walk of Israela. The concept: King Yahweh gave Israel a law code (the Mosaic [Old] Covenant) which touched every facet of public andprivate life, and which shaped the theology and testimony of the nation.b. The significance: That law code was intended by God to be the means by which individuals (Israelites or proselytes)could draw near to God, and by which Israel would be kept distinct from the nations (i.e., set apart, or “holy”).5. Regular Rainfall, Rapid Runoff, and God’s Requirement of Righteousnessa. The concept: By reason of the geology, geography and topography of the land, the people of Israel were constantlydependent upon the “former and latter rains” in order to survive agriculturally (Deut 11:10-12).Note concerning the agricultural cycle of the land of Israel:Winter rainy season (Oct/Nov – Mar/Apr)Begins with FORMER RAINS (necessary to break up soil, get plow in the ground)Concludes with LATTER rains (necessary to fully mature the grain, given very short growing season)Muust have regular rainfall in between theseRain necessary to grow grain crops (hay, barley, wheat), which are Harvested in the springtime (after the latter rains, but must be in before heat of the summer)Summer dry season (no rain at all)Heavy dew each night, sufficient to grow vineyard & orchard crops (grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives)These are harvested in the fall (after the former rains)b. The significance: God intended that abiding dependence upon regular and recurring rainfall to be to the people of Israela very practical and compelling impetus to obedience (Deut 11:13-17).Moses, the Prophets & Me – Bookman Ministries [www.bookmanministires.com], p 8

6. The Cycle of Calendar, Climate, Crops and Celebrationsa. The concept: Several elements of the Mosaic law gave a deliberate rhythm to the life of the covenant nation.One of the most important: the annual cycle of seven feasts (i.e., the three pilgrimage feasts – see below)(Note that each of these was necessarily related to the agricultural cycle.)The Springtime Feasts The Primary Feast: PassoverRELATIONSHIP TO THE AGRICULTURAL CYCLE Former rains necessary to break up fallow soil, latter rains tomature the crops Throughout the winter (rainy) season, all Israel longing for rain Included 3 distinguishable feasts(1) Passover(2) Unleavened Bread(3) First Fruits Remembered the exodus from Egypt Celebrated the harvest of the early grain cropsThe Summer Feast Pentecost Celebrated theharvest of theearly grain cropsIMPORTANCE OF THE CYCLE God established the month of Passover as the first month ofthe year (Ex 12:2) Exodus from Egypt greatest miracle of the OT; God intendedIsrael to remember it carefully First fruits—acknowledged that the harvest was from God,anticipated that the full harvest would be as the first fruitsRELATIONSHIP TO THE AGRICULTURAL CYCLE Harvest occurs soon after the latter rains; the crops had to be taken in quite soon once thoserains were past Came 50 days after the Sabbath of the Passover cycle (therefore, Feast of Weeks) After the latter rains, there is no rain whatever in Israel for several months (Mar/Apr – Oct/Nov)IMPORTANCE OF THE CYCLE Again, acknowledged that the grain/bread/feed necessary to life came only from GodThe Autumn Feasts (High Holy Days) Included 3 distinguishable feasts(1) Trumpets (1st day of 7th month)(2) Yom Kippur (10th of 7th month)(3) Tabernacles (15-21 of 7th month) Tabernacles (Booths)Remembered the wilderness wanderings,anticipated the Messianic Kingdom Celebrated the harvest of the summeror hillside crops (vineyards/orchards)RELATIONSHIP TO THE AGRICULTURAL CYCLE Time of great rejoicing, as most delightful crop is being brought in Much prayer for rain (for former/early rains, which will signal beginning ofwinter growing season), especially at the Feast of Tabernacles (cf. Jn 7)IMPORTANCE OF THE CYCLE Yom Kippur--most solemn day of the year; included fasting & contrition Tabernacles--most blessed period of the year; anticipated the day whenevery man would sit under his vine & fig tree (Mic 4:4)b. The significance:(1) The cycle of feasts was designed to remind God’s covenant people of their dependence upon Him:– in the early part of the (religious) year, the nation acknowledged that only Yahweh could send the rainsnecessary for the grain crops to do well– in the summer, after the grain harvest was in, the nation acknowledged God’s goodness/justice in providing theharvest they had taken in– in the latter part of the year, the nation rejoiced over God’s provision of the summer/hillside crops(2) The reality thus set before the nation season by season: only Yahweh can make life possible (i.e., provide thegrain crops necessary to have life, and only Yahweh can make life pleasant (i.e., give the hillside crops necessaryto enjoy life).In short: The focus of that rhythm was King Yahweh Himself!Moses, the Prophets & Me – Bookman Ministries [www.bookmanministires.com], p 9

7. The Struggle for the Soil and the Soul of Israela. The concept: Because God has graciously provided this one people as the means by which He would put Himself ondisplay to the world, He caused that people to be set apart from the world in many ways – to be uniquely and inevitablythe people of Yahweh.[Note that Israel as a people has played this role irrespective of the number of individual Israelites who personally claimed thepromises of God for salvation. That is, Yahweh chose this one people to bear His name before the world, and the grace and justicewith which He has dealt with this people across the ages is one of the most important testimonies to His power and faithfulness,regardless of the prevailing spiritual condition of that people.]But the world despises and resents Yahweh, and thus the contempt and hatred with which they regard that one nationwhom He chose to bear His name before them.b. The significance:(1) Because of her position as the unique people of Yahweh, Israel has been especially hated and hounded by herneighbors in every place and in every age. Thus the struggle for the soil of Israel!(2) Because of that recurring and rabid hatred, Israel has been often tempted to abandon her distinctiveness – i.e., toassimilate. Thus the struggle for the soul of Israel!ReviewI. The Intent and Importance of Israel’s InfluenceII. The Principle of Providential PlacementIII. The Dynamics of Distinctive DivisionsIV. The Wisdom and Will of God regarding the Worship and Walk of IsraelV. Regular Rainfall, Rapid Runoff, and God’s Requirement of RighteousnessVI. The Cycle of Calendar, Climate, Crops and CelebrationsVII. The Struggle for the Soil and the Soul of IsraelMoses, the Prophets & Me – Bookman Ministries [www.bookmanministires.com], p 10

Focus #2A Chronological Overview of the Old Testament Narrative[Some basic issues regarding the time and the sequence of Old Testament events]Note: In order to understand the Old Testament, you have to understand the historical narrative of that portion of Scripture. Butin order to understand that historical narrative, you have to have some grip on the chronology of that period. Chronology is thebackbone from which history is hung. It’s not always intriguing, but it is important. Therefore, we will quickly consider fourspecific issues relative to Old Testament chronology.ISSUE #1: Dating Abraham (with apologies to Sarah)1.The basic Scriptural passage: 1 Kings 6:1For an explanation of how the “anchor date” of 966 BC is calculated, see the article by Eugene Merrill entitled “The Basisof Old Testament Chronology.” The article is found on the next two pages of these notes.2.On the basis of this passage, the following chronological calculations can be made.Note: There is very little speculation here. This is basically hard data and simple arithmetic.1.ScripturePassage1 Kgs 6:1Event which occurredin this yearChronological datain the passageExodus occurred 480years before the 4thyear of Solomon2. Given the data in the chart, a number of specificevents from the Patriarchal period - i.e., from the daysfrom Abraham to Joseph, recorded in Genesis 12-50.966 Temple building begunby Solomon 4801446 Exodus from EgyptEx 12:40Israel in Egypt for 430years 4301876 Jacob & his clan toEgypt to join JosephGen 47:9Age of Jacob when heto Egypt 1302006 Jacob is bornGen 25:26Age of Isaac whenJacob born 602066 Isaac is bornGen 21:5Age of Abraham whenIsaac born 1002166 Abraham is bornThe article below explains how the anchor date for Old Testament chronology is calculated.Moses, the Prophets & Me – Bookman Ministries [www.bookmanministires.com], p 11

Moses, the Prophets & Me – Bookman Ministries [www.bookmanministires.com], p 12

Moses, the Prophets & Me – Bookman Ministries [www.bookmanministires.com], p 13

Note: There is a great deal of skepticism concerning the historical reliability of the Old Testament, andespecially concerning the patriarchal period (Gen 12 – 50). The excerpt below is taken from an articlefound at http://www.uhcg.org/news/is-bible-true.html. It is included here as a basis for discussion. Noticeespecially the synchronism noted in the final paragraph.AGE OF THE PATRIARCHSThe book of Genesis traces Israel's ancestry to Abraham, a monotheistic nomad who God promises willbe "ancestor of a multitude of nations" and whose children will inherit the land of Canaan as "a perpetualholding." God's promise and Israel's ethnic identity are passed from generation to generation -- fromAbraham to Isaac to Jacob. Then Jacob and his sons -- the progenitors of Israel's 12 ancient tribes -- areforced by famine to leave Canaan and migrate to Egypt, where the Israelite people emerge over a periodof some 400 years.Modern archaeology has found no direct evidence from the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1500 B.C.) -roughly the period many scholars believe to be the patriarchal era -- to corroborate the biblicalaccount. No inscriptions or artifacts relating to Israel's first biblical ancestors have beenrecovered. Nor are there references in other ancient records to the early battles and conflictsreported in Genesis.Moreover, some scholars contend that the patriarch stories contain anachronisms that suggest they werewritten many centuries after the events they portray. Abraham, for example, is described in the 11th and15th chapters of Genesis as coming from "Ur of the Chaldeans" -- a city in southern Mesopotamia, ormodern-day Iraq. But the Chaldeans settled in that area "not earlier than the 9th or 8th centuries" B.C.,according to Niels Peter Lemche, a professor at the University of Copenhagen and a leading biblicalskeptic. That, he says, is more than 1,000 years after Abraham's time and at least 400 years after thetime of Moses, who tradition says wrote the book of Genesis.Yet other scholars, like Barry Beitzel, professor of Old Testament and Semitic languages at TrinityEvangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill., are neither surprised nor troubled by the apparent lack ofdirect archaeological evidence for Abraham's existence. Why, they argue, should one expect to find thenames of an obscure nomad and his descendants in the official archives of the rulers of Mesopotamia?These are "family stories," says Beitzel, not geopolitical history of the type one might expect tofind preserved in the annals of kings.While there may, indeed, be no direct material evidence relating to the biblical patriarchs, archaeologyhas not been altogether silent on the subject. Kenneth A. Kitchen, an Egyptologist now retired from theUniversity of Liverpool in England, argues that archaeology and the Bible "match remarkably well" indepicting the historical context of the patriarch narratives.In Genesis 37:28, for example, Joseph, a son of Jacob, is sold by his brothers into slavery for 20 silvershekels. That, notes Kitchen, matches precisely the going price of slaves in the region during the 19thand 18th centuries B.C., as affirmed by documents recovered from the region that is now modern Syria.By the 8th century B.C., the price of slaves, as attested in ancient Assyrian records, had risen steadily to50 or 60 shekels, and to 90 to 120 shekels during the Persian Empire in the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. Ifthe story of Joseph had been dreamed up by a Jewish scribe in the 6th century, as some skeptics havesuggested, argues Kitchen, "why isn't the price in Exodus also 90 to 100 shekels? It's more reasonableto assume that the biblical data reflect reality."Moses, the Prophets & Me – Bookman Ministries [www.bookmanministires.com], p 14

Issue #2: Dating the Exodus (with apologies to Archeology)1. The biblical date of the Exodus (calculated above):B.C.2. The archeological community almost universally rejects this date, insisting that the exodus (such as itwas, in the minds of most of them) occurred about 1260 BC.a.The basic argument:After the exodus came the conquest of Canaan. A conquest such as that would have left a wide-spread pattern ofdestruction (burning cities) which archeologists can always identify. But there is no widespread pattern of destructionin Israel from the 15th century BC (1400's). On the other hand, there is such a pattern of destruction in the 13th century(1200's).b. The biblical response:1) There is a clear Biblical reason why there is no evidence of widespread destruction in the fourteenthcentury—Compare Joshua 11:13—2) In fact, there were only three cities destroyed and/or burned by Israel in the Conquest - Jericho (Josh6:24; Ai (Josh 8:28), and Hazor (Josh 11:11-13). Aling carefully considers the archeological record ateach of these sites (Egypt and Bible History, p 89-92) and concludes that "the archeological record doesnot categorically support the late date for the exodus, as is often claimed."In this connection, see Merrill's Palestinian Archaeology and the Date of the Conquest: Do Tells Tell Tales? in GraceTheological Journal, 3(1982), 107-213) The Bible does offer an explanation as to the archeological record of widespread destruction in Canaanin the late thirteenth century BC—Eugene Merrill:The Book of Judges makes it very clear that Israel was overrun time and time again by enemy peoples from bothwithin and outside the land. At no time was this more devastating to Israelite life than in the thirteenth century,that is, at precisely the time in which advocates of a late date for the exodus set the conquest. Traditionalchronology requires the judgeship of Deborah during this period, and that of Gideon shortly thereafter. Thoughdetails concerning the extent of damage caused by the respective foes, the Canaanites and Midianites, arelacking in the narratives, the facts that Jabin of Hazor "cruelly oppressed" Israel for twenty years (Judg 4:3) andthat many of the tribes were rallied under Deborah and Barak in order to break the Canaanite stranglehold (Judg5:12-18) suggest widespread military engagement which could have inflicted tremendous physical damage onIsrael's cities.A carefully constructed chronology based on a legitimate hermeneutic requires that this [latethirteenth century BC] destruction be explained on the basis of something other than the conquest. The bestalternative is the oppression of Israel by Canaanites and Midianites and the redressing of that oppression by theheroic efforts of the Judges.4) There are secondary arguments, but it is this argument that drives so many to abandon the biblicaltestimony concerning the date of the Exodus.NOTE: THE chart on the following page is designed to demonstrate that if the biblical date is accepted, thenarrative of the Exodus in Scripture fits perfectly with what can be known from extra-biblical history.Moses, the Prophets & Me – Bookman Ministries [www.bookmanministires.com], p 15

The EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY of EgyptAMHOSE(1570-1546)[Completed expu lsion o f H yksos][Prob ably issu ed decree tomidw ives to slay Hebrew son s]AMEN HOTEP I (1546-1526)[ Probably --soon after he came tothe throne--issued decree to simplyslay Hebrew boys]HATSHEPSUT[Daugh ter by royal w ife]THUTMOSE I(1526-1518)b Moses born (1526)THUTMOSE II (1518-1504)Points at which Moses possiblyhad to refuse to be called theson of Pharaoh’s daughter[Son b y lesser, non -ro yal wife]THUTMOSE III (1504)HA TSHEPS UT reigns alone[Set aside b y H atshe psut](1504-1482)b Moses flees (1486)THUTMOSE III (1482-1450)[Regains thron e after death of H atshep sut;set ou t to destory memory of H atsheps ut]AMENHOTEP II (1453-1415)b The Exodus (1446)Points of contact between the narrative of Exodus and the Eighteenth Dynasty of EgyptÎ Amhose expelled the Hyksos from EgyptThe Hyksos thus become the dynasty which includes the “pharaoh who knew not Joseph” [Ex 1:8].Ï Thutmose I issues the mandate to throw Hebrew male children into the NileIt is reasonable that Thutmose I had witnessed earlier attempts to retard the growth of the Israelite nation, and was aware thatthose attempts were unavailing; therefore he resorted to this stratagem. Further, because Thutmose I came to the throne justmonths before Moses was born, we have an explanation as to how Aaron (3 years Moses’ senior) escaped the dictum to drown allnew-born Hebrew male children.Ð Hatshepsut is the daughter of Pharaoh who discovers Moses in the river, raises him as her own son.Hatshepsut is the only woman to have ruled over Egypt as [quasi-] Pharaoh. All that we know of her personality and career fitperfectly with the biblical description of the woman who rescued the child Moses from the river. (Note that her statues have allbeen disfigured; this reconstruction provides the perfect explanation for that remarkable act.)Ñ Thutmose III is Hatshepsut’s rival for the throne of Egypt, and thus the enemy of MosesVery possibly, Thutmose III regards Moses as a rival as well; it is this fact that renders Moses’ situation so precarious after heslays the Egyptian taskmaster. (That is, by thus aligning himself with Israel against Egypt, Moses had equipped his enemy,Thutmose III, with a rationale for attacking him.)Furthermore, according to Ex 4:19, when Moses was called by YHWH at the burning bush, he was told that “the ones who soughtyour life are dead.” Thutmose III died in 1450, just four or five years before th

Apr 19, 2009 · II. The Patriarchal Age Genesis 12-50 The F AMILY of Abraham A. Abraham *Abrahamic Covenant B. Isaac C. Jacob D. Joseph III. Israel becomes a Nation; The Life of Moses Exodus – Deuteronomy A. The Exodus from Egypt B. The Giving of the Law at Mt Sinai * Mosaic Covenant (aka Sinaitic Covenant, or Old Covenant) C.