Genesis 15:13-14

[CantThinkofaUserName]

Did the slavery that God spoke to Abram about ever play out? Did his descendants ever become slaves for 400 years? If so, is it mentioned in the bible?

 

[drich0150]

Gen 15:
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

Exodus 1

The Israelites Oppressed

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. 5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy[a] in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.

6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7 but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.
8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. 9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”
11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. 22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

 

[CantThinkofaUserName]

Thanks.

Are we to assume, that because God said it would last for 400 years, that it did? In other words, does it not say, nor imply it anywhere that it did, as God had mentioned, last that long?

 

[drich0150]

Thanks.

Are we to assume, that because God said it would last for 400 years, that it did? In other words, does it not say, nor imply it anywhere that it did, as God had mentioned, last that long?

The verbal tradition said that is how long it lasted. Before Israel became a unified nation under Moses there was no written record.

 

[CantThinkofaUserName]

What exactly do you mean by, "verbal tradition?"

And how exactly was the 400 years mentioned, the "deep sleep" mentioned, and not how long it lasted? Maybe I'm not getting something...but God provided all of that information in both Genesis and Exodus and neglected to mention that it lasted as long as he said it would?

 

[drich0150]

What exactly do you mean by, "verbal tradition?"

Before we wrote our history down it was pass verbally through official story tellers/historians.

And how exactly was the 400 years mentioned, the "deep sleep" mentioned, and not how long it lasted?

The bible does not say.

Maybe I'm not getting something...but God provided all of that information in both Genesis and Exodus and neglected to mention that it lasted as long as he said it would?

What you seem to be missing is that Moses penned the Pentateuch. That is the first five books of the bible. This includes Genesis 15 and Exodus 1

 

[razeontherock]

I think we do have it recorded that Israel's slavery was 400 years. Drich's point still stands, that Moses wasn't there for that.

 

[drich0150]

I think we do have it recorded that Israel's slavery was 400 years. Drich's point still stands, that Moses wasn't there for that.

I did a little more digging and found that Luke in Acts 7 starting at verse 6 confirms the prophesy of Gen 15, the 400 years in Egypt and the accounts recorded in exodus.

But again, we are back to the same source material and verbal traditions I pointed to, except in the book of Acts we now have a 2000+ year old commentary to go along with it.

 

[CantThinkofaUserName]

I think we do have it recorded that Israel's slavery was 400 years.

Do you know where, exactly?

 

[CantThinkofaUserName]

I did a little more digging and found that Luke in Acts 7 starting at verse 6 confirms the prophesy of Gen 15, the 400 years in Egypt and the accounts recorded in exodus.

But again, we are back to the same source material and verbal traditions I pointed to, except in the book of Acts we now have a 2000+ year old commentary to go along with it.

Thanks, Drich. Wouldn't you say that the Acts verse is more a quote than it is a confirmation? Isn't that verse literally quoting what God said in Genesis?

 

[drich0150]

Thanks, Drich. Wouldn't you say that the Acts verse is more a quote than it is a confirmation? Isn't that verse literally quoting what God said in Genesis?

No, this was Stephen's speech to the Sanhedrin. It parallels or confirms the words and works of the OT (including the bit we are discussing) to show a logical conclusion in the finished work of the Christ.

Because it has been identified as a "Speech" is the reason I labeled this section of scripture as a commentary. Luke records Stephens words, and His words are summing up the events of the OT. The fact they parallel the OT confirms His version of the OT is the same as ours.