17. A Question of Numbers and a Calf

We Need More Water

My style is this: Red is Biblical text, Quotes from other sources are Blue; Pink represents when I put words into the speaker's mouth or maybe imagine a scene.

Do you like tough math questions? Try this one:

Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock. Ex. 12:37-38.

The Bible says that 600,000 Israelite men left Egypt. 

Assuming there was one woman for each man, add another 600,000, the total now is 1,200,000 people. 

The Bible also says, But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. Ex. 1:7. 

If we estimate, on the low side, we will say, 4 children per couple, that is 2,400,000 children. 

Now the total number of Israelites is 3,600,000. 

Then, get this, there was also A mixed multitude (Egyptians) ... and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock. 

My problem with such a huge crowd of people is that when they came to Elim, ... there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters. Ex. 15:27.   Would most of the 3,600,000 Israelites, plus some strangers and much livestock even have noticed it if there were only 70 palm trees? 

If they were divided into 12 equal groups, (one group for each well), there would have been 300,000 Israelites, plus strangers and cattle waiting for their turn at that one well.  Some would have died of thirst long before it was their turn to drink.  Is it any wonder that some people are sceptical of some of the facts presented in the Bible?  

I keep remembering this quote: The recording of history with literal exactness of detail is a fairly modern development. At the time, (the Bible was written), precise fact was far less important than the spiritual message of the stories shared. Jesus and his Times, by The Reader's Digest, 1987, p.14.

  

the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? Num.11:4. Then you shall say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; Num:11:18. And Moses said, Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to provide enough for them? Num. 11:21-22.  Moses finally voiced an opinion that seems so logical.  When they left Egypt the Israelites had a great deal of livestock.  Animals can replenish themselves, so if you want to eat meat, butcher something, don't just complain about being hungry.

The Golden calf

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings ... and bring them to me.” ... he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” ... “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” Ex. 32:1-5.

Then Moses went up, also Aaron, ... and they saw the God of Israel. Ex:24:9-10.  Moses had been up on the mountain top about one and a half months and the people were getting impatient, so they asked Moses' brother to make some gods for them.  Gods that would lead them; after all, that was the religion they had learned in Egypt.  Aaron had just had a "mountaintop experience" with the Lord.  

Aaron so much wanted to share his experience with the fellow Israelites, and worshipping Jehovah seemed like a good plan.  The Israelites themselves felt a need for the presence of God; like they had experienced in the Red Sea.  

After Aaron had formed the golden calf they said, This is your god, O Israel, ... Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.  In Hebrew the word, god, is plural, Elohim.  The Israelites said These are the gods that brought you out of Egypt.  From reading the story carefully it seems that this is not at all what Aaron had in mind; it was totally Aaron's intention that the Israelites would worship Jehovah the next day.

However, what Aaron didn't realize is that in the same time frame that he was busy forming a molten calf, Jehovah was telling Moses, One of the rules for Israel is; You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. Ex. 20:4-5.  However, Aaron did not know that yet!

Then, ironically, there was another coincidence that Aaron was not aware of.  Jehovah also said to Moses, Remember, while you were still in Egypt, I asked all the people to borrow golden jewellery from the Egyptians. Now, here is what I want you to do with that gold, From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering. And this is the offering which you shall take from them: gold. Ex. 25:2-3.  That gold will form part of the accoutrements and vestments for worship in the tabernacle that I want you to build for me. The Lord had plans for that gold but Aaron had confiscated it and changed it into a molten calf.

Later, when Moses confronted Aaron about that calf, Aaron said, I really don't know how that happened, I cast it (the gold) into the fire, and this calf came out. Ex.32:24.  Oh, really, Aaron, was there maybe a mold of a calf involved in this, somehow?  Did the engraving on the calf also happen by itself?

16. Fickle Faith Falters

The Exodus

Jacob's descendants were all pumped up and ready to go. They had eaten their last supper in Egypt; they had marched to the shore of The Red Sea, happy to be free from their bondage.   However, when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid. Ex. 14:10.

Then, Moses gets all the blame and the people do not believe that Jehovah can save them. They grumbled to Moses: Didn't we tell you this would happen; it's all your fault.  They said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? “Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?’ 14:11+12

The Lord said, "Why do you keep calling out to me for help? Tell the Israelites to move forward." TCEB.  Now is not the time for prayer, now is the time for action.  Moses, after all your experiences in Pharaoh's house, haven't you learned yet that the staff in your hand is My method for delivering Israel?  Use it.  

Tell the children of Israel to go forward.  They are not to turn north, where there is a road; they must not turn south, where there is nothing in their way; they are to go the only way which they cannot go, straight ahead into the Red Sea."  Speak of moving out in faith!

We are thankful for the medical teams in our hospitals, and we thank the Lord for them, but then, when a loved one isn't cured, we find fault with them and with Him.  Faith comes easy right after delivery from the land of slavery, but then, when you are caught between the pursuing army and the Red Sea, that's where faith is really put to the test.

You talk of faith when you're up on the mountain
Oh, but the talk comes so easy when life's at its best
But its down in the valley of trials and temptations
That's where faith is really put to the test.

For the God on the mountain is still God in the valley
When things go wrong He'll make them right
And the God of the good times is still God of the bad times
And the God of the day is still God of the night

After they were safe on the other side of the Red Sea, everything was cool again.  So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians ... Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt; so the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses. Ex. 14:30-31.

Then, in their exuberance, they sang a long song of praise to Jehovah. Ex. 15:1-18.  Some Bible teachers call this, The Song of Moses, and there is a reference to The Song of Moses in The Revelation 15:3.  However, as far as the words are concerned there is very little similarity, but both speak of redemption, and in that sense they are similar.

I have written earlier that Moses and the early Israelites were polytheists.  In this song, there is another reference to that belief; they sang  Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Ex. 15:11.  For more evidence of this go to: 

http://spaceshiptheology.blogspot.com/2013/07/b-the-plurality-of-gods.html

Marah and Manna

However, their faith and praise did not last long, they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. ... And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” Ex. 15:22-23.  This statement does not mean that they had nothing to drink for three days, it means that they had no opportunity to refill their water containers for three days. When they finally arrived at Marah they found that the water was bitter.  The word Marah means bitter.

There will be another post on the "waters of Marah" later.

After they had travelled a month and a half, safely on the Eastern side of the Red Sea, they were hungry and the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.  And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! Ex. 16:2-3.  At this point I can imagine the Lord thinking, Well, if that is the way you feel about it, I can arrange for that happen.

the children of Israel said to Moses and Aaron, For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.  Exodus 16 is all about how the Lord provided manna for all the Israelites.  This manna, which means, What is it? became their main source of sustenance for the next forty years.  They complained about it but not even once is it recorded in the Bible that anyone ever said thank you for it.

Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? ... there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” Num. 11:4-6.  A spiritual lesson here for Christians is that if they spend too much time with non-Christians, the mixed multitude, people who are not members of the covenant, those people will drag the Christians down to intense craving for worldly pleasures.

From there they marched to Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, “Give us water, that we may drink.” ... and the people complained against Moses, and said, “Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!” And the Lord said to Moses, ... I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” Ex. 17:1-6.

Again, no record of singing praises or of being thankful.  Just grab what you can, and complain.  Most of us are just like that.   When things go wrong it does not take us long to lose our faith in God and start complaining about our situation and our leaders.

Several times during the wilderness wanderings the Lord threatened to destroy the nation of Israel. Ex. 32:10. Num. 14:11; Num. 16:20. The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness. Num. 14:29.

15. The Plagues of Egypt

Symbolism or Literalism

I find it interesting that biblical literalists insist that the whole world was covered by water during "Noah's flood" because the Bible says so.  They also insist that during the plagues of Egypt, The Nile River turned to actual blood because it is stated that way in the Bible.  Those same people, when they read that Moses saw Jehovah, deny that it actually happened, even though the Bible says that it did happen. 

Theologians have invented interesting words to get around this problem. These sightings of Jehovah are called theophanies.  That is another way of saying we don't believe what the Bible says so we will give it a fancy name.  

When the Bible speaks of Jehovah's physical characteristics they are called anthropomorphisms.  It seems that, in cases of their own choosing, accepting the Bible literally is not important.  

Whatever they have learned is what they will believe even if they have to change the Bible to make it agree with what they believe.  This has been done a lot in the modern easy to read versions.

It is so easy to attribute anything unknown to supernatural forces.  One of the plagues that fell on Egypt, before Pharaoh dismissed his slaves, was that the water in the Nile turned red.  We read all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.  Literalists, of course, insist that it means that the water became blood.  

Basically, I am a literalist, but when there is a logical interpretation, why twist common sense out of shape?  In my blog of The Revelation, I wrote: There is a danger of rewriting the Bible if one adds or subtracts words from the text, and yet, the meaning must make sense or it is nonsense. Certainly here, in Rev. 8:11, when it says, the water became wormwood, something needs to be done with the meaning. The only way this statement could be true, as it is written, is if The Mediterranean Sea became a plant called wormwood.  A much more likely meaning is that the waters became as bitter as wormwood.

Check out: The Amazing Amalgamated Apocalypse Amplified

Why Water Turns Red

So, since there is a logical explanation, why not accept it. In reference to The Nile turning red, notice the following:

In Texas, government agencies similarly explained the phenomenon naturally, claiming the red color in the reservoir was the result of severe droughts in the area, which produced a lack of oxygen in the water, causing certain bacteria to thrive.

In the Netherlands, local officials have downplayed speculation that the supernatural is turning the canal red, declaring the phenomenon is “almost certainly” a natural bacterium.

Delfland Water Board spokeswoman Inka Vogelaar told Telstar, “We’ve been through this once before. That was this summer in a ditch somewhere in Westland.”

Read more at:

http://www.wnd.com/2013/11/video-dutch-water-turns-blood-red/#exYCvYsMu3RBTQwz.99

the red color in the reservoir was the result of severe droughts in the area, which produced a lack of oxygen in the water, causing certain bacteria to thrive. This is a particularly interesting statement, in light of the fact that the story of Joseph in Egypt, shows us that Egypt was subject to droughts. In Joseph's time, they had a severe drought that lasted seven years.

Many types of bacteria can infect multiple organs of a fish. One such common infection is caused by the Aeromonas salmonicida bacteria. It is generally due to poor sanitation or nutrition, and is recognized by the red ulcers which cover the fish.

http://www.petmd.com/fish/conditions/skin/c_fi_aeromonas

So the evidence seems to align with the idea that the red water was the result of the bacteria in the water, which, in turn, was the result of a drought. Perhaps it was the bacteria in the water that killed the fish in the Nile at the time of Moses. Let's not look for supernatural causes if natural causes seem evident.

So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt. Ex. 8:6-7.

How bizarre! The magicians were more interested in their own prestige than they were in the comforts of their fellow Egyptians. If they could, indeed, produce frogs, could they not also have destroyed some. It would have been much more practical and comfortable than trying to prove that they were just as powerful as the God of the Hebrews.

The last plague that troubled Egypt at that time was the death of the firstborn. The following quote is from a blog I did earlier. Then, one day, when the Lord had just had enough of Pharaoh's stubbornness, He spoke to Moses and said, now is the time of beginnings. Ex. 12:2.   A new year is starting and new things are going to happen to you and to my people. I want all of my people to kill one lamb per family, if possible; they are to eat the meat, but above all, they must put blood on the doorposts and on the lintels.

Why? Because it is the Lord’s Passover. Ex. 12:11.  That is, the Lord will pass over the houses of the Egyptians and the Israelites in a UFO, and, with an undefined blood detector, he is going to take readings of all the doorposts.  If the Lord’s blood detector does not reveal any blood on the doorposts the Lord will kill the firstborn of that house, whether Egyptian or Israelite.

If, in fact, this God of the Israelites knows everything, why did he need the technicality of actual blood on the doorposts?  Why not just let Jacob's offspring exercise faith, a faith that the Egyptians apparently, did not have.  Could the Lord not have based his “killing mission” on the presence or absence of faith?

The Lord himself said it is the LORD’S passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. Ex. 12:11-12.

The word, Passover, seems so very expressive of the Lord passing over a nation's buildings, perhaps, in some kind of a flying machine.

14. Moses meets Jehovah

A Changing God

It is obvious to anyone who has studied the Bible, even a little, that sooner or later if they accept the Bible as being literally accurate, in every case, they meet up with contradictions in it.  A good example of this is the nature of God. 

• The Bible teaches that God can do anything He wants to; 
• it also teaches that God is limited.  
• It teaches that God is invisible but 
• it also says that God has been seen.

The first time that Jehovah introduced Himself to Moses, He said, I AM THAT I AM.  All our Bible teachers have taught us that this means, I am the self existent One!  Or, I am the eternal unchanging One.  Matthew Henry wrote: (Jehovah is) A name that denotes ... That he is eternal and unchangeable, and always the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Ex.3:14. The KJV Bible Commentary writes, God expressed the unchanging, eternal, self-existence of His being.

We, like spoon-fed babies, who swallow without chewing, have carelessly accepted statements like that.  Let's do some chewing for a change.

Karen Armstrong, in A History of God, explained that when the Lord said, to Moses, I AM THAT I AM, He used what might be called a Hebrew idiom.  She writes: When the Bible uses a phrase like, "they went where they went," it means: "I haven't the faintest idea where they went." So when Moses asks who He is, God replies in effect: "Never you mind who I am!" or "Mind your own business".

If we look at the Hebrew words used, we clearly see that it does not mean, the eternal unchanging One.  In Hebrew, it reads like this: and is saying Elohim to Moses, I-shall-become who I-am-becoming. http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/OTpdf/exo3.pdf

• We notice that there is nothing in these words that speak of Jehovah's self-existence or eternality. It is just that Bible teachers have believed the doctrine of Jehovah's eternality so long that they feel obligated to find proof of it where ever they can, even if the proof is not there!

• By Jehovah's own description of Himself, we learn that He is changing; I-shall-become who I-am-becoming.  How did our teachers ever come up with the idea that this means that Jehovah is unchanging? Unless they also were spoon fed and did not bother chewing before they swallowed.

The Burning Bush

Alexander and Zhenia Fleisher relate the biblical story of the burning bush to the plant Dictamnus.  They write: Intermittently, under yet unclear conditions, the plant excretes such a vast amount of volatiles that lighting a match near the flowers and seedpods causes the plant to be enveloped by flame. This flame quickly extinguishes without injury to the plant. Wikipedia - The Burning Bush.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews: Ex. 9:1.  Again, Jehovah says, I am the God of the Hebrews.  I am not the God of the Egyptians or any other nation.  

Just in passing, it might be mentioned, that later Jehovah claimed absolute control over the whole earth, but that did not happen till after the death and resurrection of Christ.

Jehovah has only one Son and because of His love for humans, He (Jehovah) gave Him (Christ) as a gift to the people of this world.  After Christ had sacrificed His life for humans, the other gods were forced to admit defeat.  

Perhaps, it was then, the gods repeated the words of the Psalmist, Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord; nor are there any works like your works. Psalm 86:8.  They knew that they could not rival a gift like that.  Mr Meek, in Hebrew Origins, writes, Yahweh, it was true, was the supreme god by right of conquest.

The idea that there is only one God has come to us from the Hebrew’s assertion that they have only one God.  The biblical writers did not deny that there were other gods, but they did keep on insisting that they, as a nation, had only one God.  

In speaking of the plurality of the gods, Moses and the Israelites sang this song. Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Ex. 15:11.  It is not surprising that the Jews felt this way about Him, for Jehovah, the God of the Hebrew people, had just finished delivering them from slavery and out of the hand of the Egyptians.

The Lord said, On all the Gods of Egypt I will execute judgement. Ex. 12:12.  He did not say on the idols of Egypt, nor did he say, on the beings worshipped as gods in Egypt.  He said, on all the gods of Egypt.   

If they cross His path, He will deal with them.  Jehovah allowed for the fact that there are other Gods than He, but He will not tolerate His followers to pay homage to other gods, regardless of how insignificant those gods seem!

13. The Story of Zaphnath-Paaneah

A Handsome Young Slave

A clever, young, good-looking Hebrew lad ended up in Egypt against his wishes.  One of the leading men of Egypt bought him as a slave.  This Zaphnath-Paaneah excelled in whatever his slave master told him to do.  Soon his master made him head of everything he owned. The problem was that Zaphnath-Paaneah was so good looking and intelligent that the slave owner's wife tried to seduce him many times. 

Each time the lad refused her advances, because, as a Hebrew who had been trained to high morals, he believed that yielding to her would interfere with his worship of Jehovah.  So the slave owner's wife framed Zaphnath-Paaneah and accused him of attempted rape. 

When the wife's husband heard about this he was so upset that he had the young lad put in prison.  Even in prison, he was so likeable and capable, that he was soon promoted to be in charge of the other prisoners.  Because of this, he got to meet them all and converse with them, and it was soon learned that this innocent, young victim had the gift of interpreting dreams.

One night Pharaoh had two dreams and he wanted to have them interpreted, so a former prisoner, one who had done his time, told Pharaoh that there was a man in prison who could interpret dreams.  Zaphnath-Paaneah was a humble man and he did have that special gift; with Jehovah's help, he could interpret dreams.  Zaphnath-Paaneah always gave his God the credit for his gift.  He was brought into Pharaoh's court and he interpreted Pharaoh's dreams, and because of that, he was set free from prison.

Egypt Is For Sale

Soon after that, Pharaoh arranged for the ex-prisoner to marry Asenath, the daughter of a priest in the polytheistic religion of Egypt.  Zaphnath-Paaneah and Asenath had two sons; Manasseh and Ephraim.  That is the last we hear of Asenath in the Bible.  It was then that Pharaoh gave Joseph the name, Zaphnath-Paaneah.  However, the story did not end like someone thought it should and so he (or she) added another 29 chapters to the story, but they are not in our Bible.  

The problem with the story, as it is in our Bible, is that those two sons each became a leader of a tribe in Israel.  It seems unlikely that Jacob, or Joseph's brothers, would have allowed the sons of a polytheistic mother to attain to such a status. 

The story needed to be changed, and in the new story, the mother of the two boys gave up her old religion and became a monotheist before Zaphnath-Paaneah (Joseph) would even consider marrying her.  

So if you are interested in reading a fiction romance story, go to the web and type in, Joseph and Asenath.

The famine was over all the face of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians. And the famine became severe in the land of Egypt. So all countries came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all lands. Genesis 41:56-57.  

Again, the idea that all the countries of the world were in starvation mode seems unlikely.  Even if such a coincidence did occur, how would the people of Australia or North America, for example, have come to Egypt to buy grain almost 4000 years ago?  

Would they have come in huge cargo ships so that they could haul enough grain to feed their country back home?  It seems that here, just like in the story of "Noah's flood", we must not think of the whole world, but rather just the "whole world" in the area of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Egyptians could not eat food with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. Genesis 43:32.  This sounds rather ironic, considering that later, the Jews had so many rules about what to eat, and traditions as with whom to eat.  Here it was the Egyptians who thought they were above eating with the Hebrews.  Later in this story, the role was reversed and it was Joseph who refused to eat with the Egyptians.

So when the money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us bread, ...Then Joseph said, “Give your livestock, and I will give you bread for your livestock.”  So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange. Thus he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year. ... they came to him the next year and said to him, ... "There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands. ... Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants of Pharaoh; "

Then Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for every man of the Egyptians sold his field, because the famine was severe upon them. So the land became Pharaoh’s. And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have one-fifth. Genesis 47:15-20+26.

Archaeology confirms that this actually happened in Egypt at the time of Moses.

From Archaeology

Page numbers from "Pharaohs and Kings" by David Rohl

The local chieftains found their own grain silos exhausted and were forced to sell their land holdings to the Pharaoh. The power of the governors of Egypt was broken and Pharaoh became the sole authority in Egypt — the evidence for this is that the grand tombs of the governors of Egypt ceased to be built. This signals the diminution of the authority of a semi-independent nobility and the return of political control to the kingship. (pg 342)

Joseph was a shrewd businessman.  When Pharaoh's countrymen were down and destitute, Joseph legally stole their property from them so that the bulk of Egypt belonged to the pharaoh.  

Back in the "dirty thirty's" in Canada, when the famine was severe year after year, the government did not repossess the farmer's property, rather it sent monthly cheques with which the starving farmers could buy some food.  

As the depression carried on 1 in 5 Canadians became dependent on government relief.  Thirty per cent of the Labour Force was unemployed, whereas, in Canada, the unemployment rate had previously never risen above twelve per cent.  

Even though we, Canadians, love to complain about our government, we have very much to be thankful for.