3. Exodus And Conquest

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3. EXODUS AND CONQUEST

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

I. WESTERN ASIA AND EGYPT

1. These events took place sometime between 1550 and 1200 B.C.

2. In 1550 Amosis drove Hyksos into Palestine and Egypt took over the Euphrates territory. Egypt conducted 16 campaigns.

3. Only serious opposition the Egyptians met was the Hittites. Many local rulers were Indo-Aryans and worshiped Vedic gods—Indra and Mithra.

4. Amenophis IV changed his name to Ikhnaton, built a new capital, and introduced a monotheistic religion. This was about one hundred years before Moses.

5. Hittites and others were in revolt and took over Palestine.

6. The earliest historic reference to Israel tells about King Marniptah fighting the Israelites in Palestine.

7. Most of the early Canaanites were more properly called Amorites.

8. There were also many Hurrians and some Indo-Aryans in Palestine. The Horites (Hivites) were non-Semitic.

9. Among the early inventions of Palestine was the alphabet of the Phoenicians —passed on to Greeks and then to Europe.

10. Later, from somewhere, came the Edomites and the Moabites.

11. Date of the Exodus is in doubt. Probably in the thirteenth century. I Kings 6:1 places the Exodus 480 years before the fourth year of Solomon’s reign. This would be in the fifteenth century.

12. For the Moses story, see (1055.4) 96:3.1

13. Remember that Moses had spent years with Kenites before going back to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt.

14. There are almost two stories about the wilderness wanderings:

a. In one, they tarry a long time at Sinai.

b. In the other they seem to have spent this time at Kadesh

15. One of these narratives calls the mountain Sinai, the other Horeb.

16. Some students think it possible there were two invasions of Palestine:

a. The Kadesh group going in from the south by slow infiltration.

b. The Sinai group going over the Jordan from the east after the destruction of Jericho.

17. The conquest of Canaan was gradual and never complete.

II. FORMATION OF THE ISRAELITES

1. The Hebrews of Palestine were a complex and polyglot people. Moses was part Egyptian and no doubt many Egyptians came along.

2. The Exodus was referred to as a “mixed multitude.” Ex 12:38. Num 11:4.

3. There were also Midianites (Kenites) in the group. Num 10:29-32.

4. The wilderness horde may have numbered several thousand, but never 600,000 men of military age—as in Num 1:46; 26:51. Such an army would mean a total population well over two million.

5. In Palestine they freely mixed up with the natives. There was the Gibeonite confederacy. Josh 9.

6. That whole cities came over to the cult of Yahweh is suggested in Josh 24.

7. Remember: Moses’ religion was the worship of El Elyon or El Shaddai, until Yahweh revealed himself at the “burning bush.”

8. Also remember: That the Jews may have “crossed over,” not the Red Sea, but the “Lake of Reeds,” near the present town of Suez—the marshy district between Suez and the Great Bitter Lake.

9. Another point: In one place it says the Israelites were cattle raisers. In another place, industrial workers—slaves—brick-makers.