How Things Have Changed

 Exodus 1

            Exodus simply says, “A new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.” But that glosses over a lot of history! Let’s see if we can put together a timeline. (Caveat: scholars debate a lot of these dates, but this seems plausible.)

            Sometime around 1900 BC, the Pharaohs of Egypt lost influence, and Egypt was ruled by a Semitic people called the Hyksos. They governed especially northern Egypt for about 200 years. This would be the period in which Joseph rose to prominence in Egypt, which makes sense because a Pharaoh who himself wasn’t of pure Egyptian descent would be more open to an advisor who wasn’t Egyptian. This was also a period of upheaval in Egypt and the pure Egyptian Pharaohs still held sway in the south. Civil war might be too strong a term, but certainly a time of intermittent warfare.

            The Hyksos finally lost power at the dawn of the 18^th dynasty. (Ancient Egyptian history is organized around various dynasties, that is, ruling families. Much like in British history we find the houses of Tudor, Stuart, Hanover, and Windsor.) It is likely that the founding Pharaoh of the 18^th dynasty (Ahmose, 1550-1525) was the king referenced in Exodus 1:14. Let’s put this graphically

 

Date	Israel’s History	Egypt’s History
ca. 1900 BC		Hyksos “Takeover”
1876 BC	Jacob Goes to Egypt
1550 BC	Israel’s Oppression Begins	Ahmose I Expels Hyksos
1446 BC	Israel Leaves Egypt

 

            According to 1 Kings 6, Israel left Egypt 480 years before the dedication of the Solomon’s Temple (1446 BC), and according to Exodus 12:40-41, the left Egypt 430 years after Jacob migrated there (1876 BC). Therefore, Israel lived in Egypt in relative peace about 300 years, and the period of their oppression lasted about 100 years. Moses, about whose birth we’ll read tomorrow, was born about 25 years into Israel’s slavery.

            The point of all this is simple: a lot of time passed between the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus, and Israel’s condition deteriorated rapidly at the end of that time. Exodus is the story of the Lord freeing them from their newfound slavery.