The Time of Their Sojourning part 2

by John Thomas Lowe
(Woodruff, S.C.)

part 2
IV. COMPLETENESS OF THE VICTORY. Here discuss whether Pharaoh's permission was conditioned or unconditioned; and show that with Pharaoh's resistance, God's demands increased and that the king's surrender must have been absolute, despite Exodus 14:8, 9. Note the pathos of the prayer of the now broken-hearted, "Bless me also," Exodus 12:32.
V. THE BATTLE ARRAY. See 13:18. Perhaps a good translation, instead of "harnessed," would be "militant," including the outer armedness and the inner valorous and jubilant spirit; both ideas are original. Observe; the nine or ten months of preparation, the organization in which the "elders" and Hebrew "clerks" of the works may have taken part, the arms they indeed possessed, as witness the battle at Rephidim - how probably they had become marshaled into detachments - and places of rendezvous been appointed.
VI. THE FESTAL RAIMENT. Israel "asked," Egypt "gave," under Divine influence (Exodus 12:36), gold, silver, and raiment; these might be regarded as the "spoils" of Israel's victory under God. These spoils were, as women might ask of women (see Exodus 3:22 - "neighbor" is Feminine in Hebrew), such as women value. They were to be put not only on themselves but also on sons and daughters. Now then, why this spoiling? The contributions of Egyptian women must have been immense in quantity and value. Israel might march, not like a horde of dirty, ragged enslaved people, but in a festal army. Compared with Egypt's slavery, the future might have been one long holiday, one holy day unto the Lord.
VII. PARTAKERS OF THE JOY (Exodus 12:38). Low caste people probably, even as it is at this day in the mission field of India. However, the lesson is obvious - the Lord's salvation is for the sinful, the outcast, and the miserable.
VIII. TRUTHS

1. The moment of salvation is the beginning of a new time. Israel's history as a nation dates from that night. So the history of a soul dates from its conversion to God.
2. The new time is festal.
3. The redeemed should assume festal attire (Luke 15:22), a bright eye, a cheerful countenance, etc.

4. He must don armor, and the Church must be militant.
5. The Church should welcome all comers, for the miserable need salvation, and the rudest are capable of some service. Comp. Deuteronomy 29:11, with Exodus 12:38.
6. The salvations of God are full-orbed in their completeness. All was complete from the months of preparation until Israel went out in a festal array.
7. The moment of salvation is to be held in everlasting remembrance (see Exodus 12:42). So of the still greater salvation.
Testament
The sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt lasted 430 years. This number is not critically doubtful, nor are the 430 years to be reduced to 215 by an arbitrary interpolation, such as we find in the lxx, ἡ δὲ κατοίκησις τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ ἥν κατῷκησαν (Cod. Alex. αὐτοὶ καὶ οί πατέρες αὐτῶν) ἐν γῇ Αἰγύπτῳ καὶ ἐν γῇ Χαναάν, κ.τ.λ. This chronological statement, the genuineness of which is placed beyond all doubt by Onkelos, the Syriac, Vulgate, and other versions, is not only in harmony with the prediction in Genesis 15:13, where the round number 400 is employed in prophetic style but may be reconciled with the different genealogical lists, if we only bear in mind that the genealogies do not always contain a complete enumeration of all the separate links, but very frequently intermediate links of little historical importance are omitted, as we have already seen in the genealogy of Moses and Aaron (Exodus 6:18-20). For example, more than the four generations were mentioned in Exodus 6:16. Between Levi and Moses is placed beyond all doubt, not only by what has been adduced in Exodus 6:18-20 but by comparison with other genealogies
also. Thus, in Numbers 26:29., Exodus 27:1; Joshua 17:3, we find six generations from Joseph to Zelophehad; in Ruth 4:18., 1 Chronicle 2:5-6, there are also six from Judah to Nahshon, the tribe prince in the time of Moses; in 1 Chronicle 2:18 there are seven from Judah to Bezaleel, the builder of the tabernacle; and in 1 Chronicle 7:20., nine or ten are given from Joseph to Joshua. This last genealogy shows most clearly the impossibility of the view founded upon the Alexandrian version, that the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt lasted only 215 years; for ten generations, reckoned at 40 years each, harmonize very well with 430 years, but certainly not with 215.
(Note: The Alexandrian translators have arbitrarily altered the text to suit the genealogy of having no bearing upon his subject at the time.)
The statement in Exodus 12:41, "the self-same day," is not to be understood as relating to the first day after the lapse of the 430 years, as though the writer supposed it was on the 14th Abib that Jacob entered Egypt 430 years before. However, it points back to the day of the Exodus, mentioned in Exodus 12:14, as compared with Exodus 12:11., i.e., the 15th Abib (cf. Exodus 12:51 and Exodus 13:4). On "the hosts of Jehovah," see Exodus 7:4.