Hi All,
I’m looking forward to being together this Sunday as we continue through the book of Exodus and focus in on the famous “10 Commandments”. If you’re heading away for the long weekend I hope you have a great time of rest and enjoying God’s world.
After Sunday my family and I are heading away on a week of leave as well and then I’ll be attending a conference in Queensland so I’ll miss being with you the following Sunday (16th).
A couple of people have asked me over the past couple of weeks about the question of whether the book of Exodus we’re looking at is historically accurate. This might be a book that’s shaped our world, but did the things we’re reading about actually happen? Wikipedia is just Wikipedia, but you might be surprised to find that if you go and look up the Wikipedia page about the Exodus you’ll see very quickly the claim that most ‘experts’ think the Exodus was just a legend and something that never actually occured.
My short answer is – actually I think there’s really good reason to believe that the Exodus may well have happened. But I thought I’d point you to a great resource and give you a couple of highlights from it, for those who might be interested in digging deeper.
The resource is a podcast hosted by John Dickson, I listened to it a little while back and really enjoyed it: https://undeceptions.com/podcast/the-exodus/.
Dickson interviews Egyptologist James Hoffmeier and they have a great and frank discussion together. The conclusion of the discusison really is that although you can’t go and dig up lots of records that confirm the events of Exodus (you can’t go and see Moses’ staff in a museum etc.), there are lots of points that make the events of Exodus really plausible and lots about the account that just fits. Cities mentioned in Exodus have the right names, the way Egyptians treated slaves matches other accounts, the stories of how young royals were educated line up well. We know too that the nation of Israel existed at about the right time (historians didn’t believe this either, untill fresh evidence was dug up more recently).
With these things in place it’s certainly rational to come to the Bible and trust that the Bible quite likely has the story right. It doesn’t necessarily mean we have to treat it like a historical blow by blow where every detail is historically perfect. Ancient people didn’t write histories in the same way we did, and Exodus is also meant to be a book that is about meaning and purpose, not just recounting history. But my conclusion is that there’s great reason to trust the book we’re studying, and even stronger reason to trust in the amazing saving power of the God who the book is written about.
Hope you can make it this Sunday as we keep going through it together,
Matt
Upcoming Dates:
Monday Evenings from June 10 – BCSA Public Lecture Series. https://biblecollege.sa.edu.au/bible-college-sa-celebrating-100-years/
Friday-Saturday June 14-15 – “A Firm Foundation” marriage enrichment course. https://www.trinitybay.church/upcoming-events/