Exodus

First, even as I write this, David's presentation from this morning is being uploaded to the Trinity YouTube site. To get there, you can go to this link or hit the link just to the right . Tell your friends who are reading with us but are attending another class or weren't able to make it.

This map is the best one I've found of the Exodus. I made another post of a larger (and clearer) version of this map which you can find under the "Map" tag so that you can refer to it as we spend the next 7 weeks in the desert with the Israelites.

It'll strain your eyes a bit, but you can get the general sense of where they were going. In particular, notice where Canaan is and the route they took. We're told in 13:17 that God instructed them to take this route in order to avoid the Philistines. 

The one thing I want to stress today is for you to keep a count, and begin it at 14:11, where the Israelites bewail "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?" I'm asking you the number of times the Israelites complain, and when we reach the last one (and that's some time down the road), I'll tell you the time frame in which these complaints were made, since I'm not sure we know that as of yet.

Consider this particular instance, however. I have no way of knowing and would love to hear from others who might know better, but the Israelites have been free (I'm guessing) for about one or two weeks. They had spent 430 years in Egypt, an unknown period of that in slavery (since Moses is 80, we can assume at least 100 years, which is more than enough), and they WANT TO GO BACK?!? Two weeks of freedom, and at the first sign of problems, they're ready to go French and surrender? 

And God delivers them, they sing the Song of Moses and Miriam, and then they complain again about having no water to drink--that's two, and we can't be more than a  month in. I think you'll be amazed at the final number when it comes in. Lucky for us we don't grumble like they did when adversities in life beset us...

Tomorrow will be Picture Day, when I'll show you some representations of just what 600,000 people means in terms we can grasp (hopefully). 

Scott