Category Archives: Study Helps

Timeline for the 38 Years of Wandering

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Much of this is not documented with timestamps but it averages out between thirteen and sixteen months per campsite. The longer time frame happens if you exclude the sites I put in italics from Numbers 21:10-20; they are not mentioned in Moses’ list of stages. (Please excuse the different size fonts as I was trying to keep it on one page.) My concordance does have meanings for some of the names of the campsites but they are usually just listed as “campsites.” (See the Number Thirty-eight in the Bible.)

Time Where Scripture What Happened
Rithmah Nu. 33:18Deut. 2:1 Should be the first camping area of the 38 yrs.
Rimmon Perez Nu.16, Deut. 11:6-7 Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Aaron’s staff buds, Perez means “breach” that is why I put this here.
Libnah
Rissah
Kehelathah
Mount Shepher
Haradah
Makheloth
Tahath
Terah
Mithcah
Hashmonah
Moseroth
Bene Jaakan
Hor Haggidgad
Jotbathah
Abronah
Ezion Geber
M1 y40 Kadesh/Desert of Zin(Sin) Nu. 33:36Nu. 20:1 Miriam died, Edom denies passage (would have been Passover)
D1 m5 y40 Mount Hor, a border of Edom Nu.20: 22, 33:37 Aaron died, king of Arad attacks and then is destroyed, the bronze snake
Zalmonah
Punon
Oboth Nu. 21:10
Iye Abarim, a border of Moab Nu. 21: 11
Zered Valley, River Arnon border of Moab and Amorites, Mattanah, Nahaliel, Bamoth, Valley in Moab by Mt. Pisgah Nu. 21:10 – 20Deut. 2: 14 + 24 – 3:11 Israel (no longer Moses) defeats Sihon and Og. Numbers 21: 21- 35 Pisgah is by the Dead Sea  – Deut. 3:17,26-29 Moses died there 34: 1
Dibon Gad Nu.21: 30
Almon Diblathaim, near Mount Nebo Nu.33: 47
D1 m11 y 40 Plains of Moab across from Jericho, from Beth Jesimoth to Abel Shittim this is near Beth Peor Nu. 25:1, 33:49Deut. 1:3, 3:29, 4:3-4, 23:3-6 In the story of Balaam, Moses talked about the division of the land

Timeline for the First Two Years of the Exodus

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This is the first two years of the Exodus journey; the actual time frame for this journey should have been two to three weeks for the journey to Jordan River. The next 38 years timeline is coming. (Please see Ten Times Testing God)

 Time Where Scripture What Happened
D1 m1 y1 Rameses Ex. 12:1 Started Calendar
D 10 Choose Lamb
D 14 Slaughtered Lamb – Passover
D 15 Ex. 12:33,Num. 33:3 Marched out boldly, plundered Egypt
Succoth
Etham, the edge of the desert
I can’t prove it but I will call it day 21 –the end of Unleavened Bread By the sea Num. 7:7Ex. 14:2 Camped by Migdol/PiHahiroth to the east/opposite of Baal Zephon
3 days to Desert of Shur(Etham)Marah Ex. 15:22Num. 33:8 What they originally asked for in Ex. 3:18, Second testing of God – bitter waters
Elim Ex 15:27 (Num.33:9) 12 springs and 70 palm trees
Red Sea Num. 33:10
D15 m2 (y1) Desert of SinBetween Elim and Sinai Ex 16:1Num. 33:10 Third testing by complaining about meat and bread. Got manna and stored some for a witness.
Dophkah Num. 33:12
Alush Num. 33:13
Rephidium Num. 33:14, Ex. 17:1 Amalekites attacked, water at Massah and Meribah in 17:6 it says this was at Horeb/Sinai, Jethro visits,
D1 m3 (y1) Desert of Sinai Num. 33:15, Ex. 19:1 It sounds like they went around to the other side of the mountain, got the LAW, leaders ate with God, the golden calf
D1 m1 y2 Ex. 40:2+17,Nu.9:15 Tabernacle finished, glory cloud covered it
M1 y2 Nu. 9:1 God spoke again to celebrate Passover
D8 m1 y2 Lev. 9:1 Priest start their duties
D1 m2 y2 Desert of Sinai Nu.1: 1+18 Census was ordered
D20 m2 y2 Nu.10: 11 Lord command to break camp – cloud lifted
D23 m2 (y2) Taberah, Kibroth Hattaavah no movement is recorded, possibly the same place Nu.10: 33Nu. 11:34 People complained about hardships (outskirts of camped burned) and quail fell and plague occurred
Hazeroth/Desert of Paran/Kadesh Nu. 33:17Nu. 13:26 Miriam leprous, spies sent out, people rebel

My Start to Out of Egypt

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Moses_Pleading_with_Israel

I guess I am marking this as the beginning of writing Out of Egypt. I have been tagging things for a while “Out of Egypt” especially the Tribes of Israel study. My thought there was if you are getting out of Egypt, a look at how you got in may not hurt.

As I have been collecting thoughts on this I realized that there are a lot of movies and TV shows on Moses and the Exodus. To go with all of the shows there is no end of opinions and arguments about how it happened or could not have happened. Even TV shows that seems like they are documentaries supporting the Exodus always have at least one area where they can’t go with the Biblical account. This is still possibly one of the more supportive; The Exodus Decoded by Simcha Jacobovici but even this one tries to relegate some of the miracles to natural events. These websites take the show to task on various subjects.

1. http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2006/09/debunking-the-exodus-decoded.aspx 2.  http://www.catholic.org/ae/tv/review.php?id=20866  I like what this site says,” In trying to find a “plausible scientific explanation” for Biblical events, the film misses a very important point: The Bible is a testament of faith, not a history or science book, written by authors who, inspired by the Holy Spirit, were trying to discern and understand God’s hand in the drama of salvation.”

Lately the focus has shifted to Moses; one recently talks about him as a military leader. I did not get the name, but I hope to see it replayed again. Its focus was on Moses as leader and offered what he did as natural, and took the miraculous out of the Exodus story. It tried to paint the picture that Israel were not just slaves before the Exodus. These websites do deal with some of these possibilities: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0009_0_09361.html and http://www.northforest.org/BiblicalArchaeology/moses.html . It should be clear that if Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s house he would have had military training and the Camp Order is supposedly an Egyptian battle formation. My thoughts about Israel in Egypt were changed when I read about Ephraim’s sons being killed in a raid in 1 Chronicles 7:21; maybe they were not just quite shepherds.

One website that is Christian based and deals with the Red Sea crossing site is http://www.wyattmuseum.com/red-sea-crossing-02.htm but it definitely does not go along with many current avenues of thought.

I am going to agree with the Catholic website; I am not looking for a “plausible scientific explanation.” He is a miraculous God and we, as His children need to celebrate that fact. I feel we have made many of His miracles into “common kid stories” and not taught them as fact like they really are. I am glad when there is an explanation for how God has used His creation to bless His children, but God is still God and if He wants to do an extraordinary act outside of His laws of nature that is fine with me.

Moses picture: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Moses_Pleading_with_Israel_(crop).

Tribes of Israel – Manasseh

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Manasseh was the first-born child of Joseph who was put as a “second son” by Jacob. Joseph in naming Manasseh and Ephraim demonstrates that he was perfectly happy with his new life and had no intention of going back. (Genesis 41:51+52) He had the power to send a message back to his family but he did not.

I wonder how these two acted around the rest of the family? They were children of the ruler of the country they lived in and because of being Egyptian possibly had more privileges. From Genesis 48:1 I would wonder if Joseph even allowed them to live around his brothers? Joseph may have had them marry within the family but Manasseh definitely owned slaves and even had a foreign concubine.

1 Chronicles 7:14+15 talks about Manasseh’s two notable descendents: Gilead and Zelophehad.  In Numbers 36 Zelophehad dies in the exodus and leaves only daughters, these girls stand up for themselves and their father’s lineage. The daughters go to Moses and plead their case before God; this leads to a new decree to acknowledge women as heirs. It may not sound like much but that was groundbreaking territory when women were viewed much of the time as second-class people or property.   The other descendent was Gilead who was to lend his name to the area of the east bank of the Jordan River that wasTwelveTribesofIsraelebible the inheritance of the tribes of Manasseh, Rueben and Gad. This is a contrast to Zelophehad’s daughters; Gilead comes from an Aramean concubine and a group of people who were not Israelites (Huppites and Shuppites). Just like Bilhah and Zilpah this concubine was a slave that Manasseh used and was so elevated to a slightly better status in the household. You get the feeling that the children were valued but not the mother (Sarah and Hagar).

In 1 Chronicles 5: 18 -26 it gives two contrasting stories; one of faith and trust in God and the other of unfaithfulness to Him. In verse 20 the East Bank tribes cry out to God for help in the middle of a battle and are helped and overcome their enemies. In verse 25 it tells of the unfaithfulness that gets them taken away by Tiglath-Pileser.habor_river

Actually, Manasseh’s descendents were on par with the other tribes; they did their part in taking the Promise Land and showed up at all the right times and were active during the life time of Saul and David. Lo Debar is in the allotment of land given to Manasseh and it was this area that David went to when he ran from Absalom.

Map from http://www.biblestudytools.com/resources/maps/twelve-tribes-of-israel-map.html and eBibleTeacher.com.

http://bibleatlas.org/full/habor_river.htm  large map,

Tribes of Israel – Ephraim

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Ephraim

The second son of Joseph or after being claimed by Jacob and elevated in status he was Jacob’s thirteenth son. Born and raised in Egypt from the daughter of an Egyptian priest we know very little about his life.  He and Manasseh were probably in their early twenties when they received the blessing from Jacob; they were born before the famine started and Jacob lived in Egypt 17 years before he died. The only story about Ephraim outside of Genesis is in 1 Chronicles 7:20-24 where it recounts a raid gone bad in Gath where two of his children were killed. That changes my idea that the children of Jacob lived quite lives in Egypt tending flocks and growing crops.

Now being the “first-born” of the beloved son of the favored wife Ephraim received the double-portion blessing of Jacob. The blessing is in Genesis 48: 15 Then he (Jacob) blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day 16 the Angel who has delivered me from all harm —may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly on the earth.”(NIV) This made them equal to the eleven and combined with Joseph’s blessing in Genesis 49 did truly set them above the others.

I want to mention two of Ephraim’s children Joshua and Jeroboam. Joshua, Moses’ military leader and a faithful spy really set a high standard for anyone to follow. He truly is the picture of a “double blessing” person and worked hard for all the tribes he led into the Promise Land. Jeroboam was a man that had a truly great blessing put in front of him and ignored it. His story starts in 1 Kings 11:26; he had a prophetic call to rule Israel because of Solomon’s unfaithfulness. All he had to do was walk after the ways of David and he would have had an “enduring dynasty.” I feel that this opportunity was extended to him because he was an Ephraimite and had the right to the double blessing from Jacob. Instead, he took the ten tribes given to him by the Lord and led them astray. He got a second chance in 1 Kings 13:6 but he could not trust God to fulfill the promise so his linagetop of timeline died out rather quickly. His son Nadab only ruled for a short time and was killed. (see my King’s Timeline)