The descendants of Jacob did NOT live in Egypt for 400 years. Is this statement a contradiction of the scriptures and Elohim? Let’s find out.
The trigger for that question involves the scripture detailing when Elohim spoke with Abram at the Covenant of the Pieces and told him that his descendants would be afflicted for 400 years.
Genesis 15:13 “ And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;”
On the surface, it seems very clear that Abram’s seed would be living in a land that is not theirs and they would be afflicted in that land for 400 years.
However, when we look at three specific Biblical evidences we will find out that the depth of the words Elohim spoke to Abram about 400 years is quite a bit different than what is on the surface.
We will look specifically at the 430 year prophecy. The 430 year prophecy is only revealed in scripture when the children of Israel leave Egypt. We’ll look into how we can know that Abram knew about this prophecy and passed it onward to his descendants.
We will look specifically at the prophecy of the 400. Abram was given this prophecy before the birth of Isaac and it is Isaac who is the trigger for this prophecy.
We will look into the specific genealogy of Moses and find out how he fulfills the third prophecy about the fourth generation.
First Proof: the 430 year prophecy
Exodus 12:40-41 “Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.”
Exodus 12:40-41 gives us a prophetic number of 430 years which the children of Israel were clearly marking and anticipating as the year of their departure from Egypt. How did they know to observe this count and when did it start? The clue in is verse 41 which states that “to the very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.” To ‘the very day’ of what?
This is a reference to the year and the day that Abram and his wife and nephew Lot left Haran and moved to Canaan. The language which Elohim used when the command came to Abram to move was very much like the language used for the children of Israel at the Exodus. Thus we can make the determination that Abram’s ‘exodus’ was the start of the 430 year count to the very day that his descendants would exodus from Egypt and go to the land that Elohim showed him.
Genesis 12:1-3 “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Exodus 13:4-5 “On this day in the month of Abib, you are about to go forth. 5 It shall be when the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey,”
Knowing that Israel left Egypt on Passover and knowing what the scripture says in Exodus 12:40-41 about ‘the very day’ indicates that Abram and Sarai made their exodus on Passover too. This is the original exodus. The second exodus was with the children of Israel. Interestingly, there will be a future third exodus of Elohim’s people from the four corners of the earth so they make their way to The Land which Elohim has stamped with the name YHVH (Jeremiah 16:14-15).
Jeremiah 16:14-15 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.”
Do we have dates for all these events? Yes we do. Using a spreadsheet to map dates and times from creation through to Abraham and onward to Jacob, will allow us to zero in on the actual date/year that Jacob entered Egypt and when Israel left Egypt. Knowing these two dates will establish the accurate length of time that Israel was in Egypt.
The chronology of the genealogy of Abraham is easy to track from Adam. Beginning the spreadsheet with the Biblical/creation year of ‘1’, we can progress through the scriptures with the births and deaths of the patriarchs mentioned. This way, we are able to determine which Biblical year Abram was born and which Biblical year he left Haran in Chaldea. When Abram left Haran at the age of 75 years, this is the Biblical year 2082. Isaac is born 25 years later which is the Biblical year 2107. We will get back to Isaac in the next segment about the 400 years prophecy.
Since we know the year that Abram and Sarai left Haran and we know “to the day” (Passover) that this day began the counting of 430 year prophecy, we can calculate from Abram’s exodus to know when his descendants make their exodus. As mentioned, Abram leaves Haran in the Biblical year 2082. Add 430 years and we arrive at the Biblical year 2512.
Can we confirm this date with the other evidences? Yes we can.
Second Proof: the 400 year prophecy
Genesis 15:13 “ And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;”
Elohim gave this prophecy to Abram during the Covenant of the Pieces sacrifices. Elohim had just promised Abram that he would have a son with his wife Sarai and gave further details about how fruitful his descendants would be through this son.
At this point in time, Abram was living in the land of Canaan. He has left Haran when he was 75 years of age, receiving the first promise of descendants as he left. He arrived in Canaan and took a detour to Egypt to wait out a famine, but returned to Canaan and received a second confirmation about descendants. Finally, with the Covenant of the Pieces, Elohim made the third confirmation to Abraham. All of these promises were made during a period of 10 years after he left Haran. We know this because after the Covenant of the Pieces, Abraham (as he is now called) married Hagar and had Ishmael. Scripture records that Abraham was 86 years old when Ishmael was born. It takes another 14 years before Isaac is born when Abraham is 100 years old.
What does all this have to do with the prophecy of the 400 years? We need this information to determine the year that Isaac was born, because Isaac is pivotal to this prophecy.
Let’s revisit the scripture pertaining to the prophecy about the 400 years.
Genesis 15:13 “ And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;”
Two points are noted;
1)“that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs”. At the time Abram received this promise he was a sojourner in Canaan and called Hebrew by the locals because he crossed over (hebrewed) the Jordan River. During Abram’s conversation with Elohim at the Covenant of the Pieces, Elohim clearly states that They will give The Land to Abram as an inheritance and Abram asks in Genesis 15:8, “He said, “O Adonai Elohim, how may I know that I will inherit it?” Notice the future tense of the words Abram speaks. He knows that Elohim has not given him The Land to inherit it – yet. This means he and his descendants fulfill what is noted in verse 13 about being “a stranger in a land that is not theirs”.
2) “they shall afflict them four hundred years;” This is the point that involves Isaac. He is the key to understanding WHEN the 400 years begins. We know the Biblical year that Isaac is born is 2107. Does Isaac’s birth begin the prophecy of the 400 years? When Isaac is born, the prophecy about the 430 years has been ongoing for only 25 years. There is a gap of 5 years. Does something significant happen when Isaac is 5 years old?
Yes, Isaac was weaned.
In historical documentation, it is recorded that children of ancient times were weaned between the ages of 3 to 5 years[i][ii]**. This was done to add an extra layer of protection for children at those early years, since infant mortality was high. With both of Isaac’s parents being elderly in age, they must have been highly motivated for this one and only son to thrive, and probably held off weaning him until he truly was a strong and sturdy child.
This falls perfectly within the 5 year time and indicates that Isaac was weaned when Abraham had left Haran 30 year earlier.
But there is more that confirms the accuracy of this prophecy. Elohim spoke to Abraham and put conditions on the 400 year prophecy. This prophetic count would not start until his descendants experienced affliction. During the festival of Isaac’s weaning, is the account of Sarah catching Ishmael mocking Isaac. This is the beginning of the affliction of his descendants.
Genesis 21:8-9 “The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.”
Isaac’s weaning took place in the Biblical year 2112. Even though Isaac’s age is not scripturally documented, the cultural information is very strong evidence.
This confirms that the 400 year prophecy began 30 years after Abram and Sarai left Haran. With both prophetic counts aligning with regards to their start times, the Biblical year 2512 becomes solidly confirmed to be the year that Israel left Egypt.
Now to figure out how long Israel was actually in Egypt.
Isaac was 60 years old when his sons Esau and Jacob were born. This is the Biblical year 2167. We know from Genesis 47:9 that Jacob was 130 years old when he came before Pharaoh upon his arrival into Egypt to be with Joseph. This is the Biblical year 2297. Joseph is 39 years old that year. As we know from the evidences of the 430 and 400 year prophecies, Israel left Egypt in the Biblical year 2512.
From the time that Jacob entered Egypt to Israel’s exodus out of Egypt, is a period of 215 years.
Were the children of Israel slaves in Egypt for the whole 215 years? No, they were not. When Jacob arrived into Egypt, he and his family were under the protection of his son Joseph, the Viceroy of Egypt. Joseph was 39 in the year of Jacob’s arrival and lived a further 71 years before his death at the age of 110 years. This is the Biblical year 2368. From this year forward to the time of their exodus, the children of Israel did not have the protection of Joseph and served under a new pharaoh who did not know Joseph.
Since we have already determined through the two evidences of the 430 and 400 year prophecies that the exodus from Egypt happened in the Biblical year 2512 we simply subtract the year of Joseph’s death (year 2368) and we discover that the period of Egyptian bondage is 144 years.
Third Proof: the Fourth Generation prophecy
Genesis 15:16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
During the 215 years that Israel was in Egypt, we can safely say that more than four generations would be born, since the average is 3-4 generations per one hundred years[iii]. Israel was in Egypt for a little over two hundred years which means we can calculate approximately 6-8 generations were born in Egypt.
However, there is one genealogy that stands out; the lineage of Moses and Aaron.
In Exodus chapter 6 we are given the generations of Levi.
Exodus 6:16-20 “16 These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon and Kohath and Merari; and the length of Levi’s life was one hundred and thirty-seven years. 17 The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, according to their families. 18 The sons of Kohath: Amram and Izhar and Hebron and Uzziel; and the length of Kohath’s life was one hundred and thirty-three years. 19 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites according to their generations. 20 Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses; and the length of Amram’s life was one hundred and thirty-seven years. “
The genealogy of Moses fulfills the 4th generation prophecy.
Ø Levi① fathered Kohath②
Ø Kohath fathered Amran (Jochebed)③
Ø Amran fathered (Miriam), Aaron and Moses④
Summary
All three of these numeric prophecy counts act as confirmations helping us to know with certainty just how long Jacob and his descendants were physically living in Egypt. It was not 430 years or 400 years, but 215 years with 144 of those years being in bondage as slaves. The clincher is the genealogy of Moses and Aaron.
By working with the spread sheet, starting with year one being the year of creation and applying the Biblical information given in the scriptures that provides timing points (such as the births of son), we are able to apply the Biblical year dates to events throughout history, such as Abram and Sarai leaving Chaldea and Israel’s exodus out of Egypt and entrance into the Promised Land. This has given us the true time frame of their lives in Egypt and also helped us to understand when the prophetic counts began and the significant event that prompted the start of each count.
Let this mind be in you that is in Messiah, Yeshua
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** There is debate that Isaac was weaned at the age of three, based on the account of Samuel in 2 Chronicles 31:16. However, this is many centuries later and the focus upon Samuel involves service at the Tabernacle. His weaning was for a specific purpose and part of the promise which his mother Hannah had made with Elohim. It is assumed by many that the 3 year old males mentioned in 2 Chronicles 31:16 are weaned, but the scripture itself does not make a stipulation to that point.
Therefore, the points that leads to Isaac being 5 years of age when he is weaned still stand. Isaac himself was an extra ordinary person in his own right.
https://creation.com/the-date-of-noahs-flood This website is in agreement with my information about the timing of events I have developed in the Google Sheets document that provides dates from creation to the final year of the 120 Yovel cycles of mankind in 2044/2045.
[i]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2720507/#:~:text=Ancient%20Hebrews%20completed%20weaning%20at,years%20of%20age%20(5). [ii] https://medium.com/@colinthomson_51961/at-what-age-was-a-child-weaned-in-biblical-times-cd31350c6aeb [iii] https://www.genealogytoday.com/columns/everyday/020305.html
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