So Much Treasure

“The time the children of Israel had stayed in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.” Exodus 12:40

Although the Exodus and the Passover recounted in the Torah is central to Jewish belief, many consider it just a legend or even a fairytale with no basis in fact. Many Biblical scholars and archaeologists argue about different issues of this part of Jewish history, but many of them agree that it did occur in one form or another. 

I like “digging” around for archaeological evidence, listening to YouTube videos of archaeological finds and reading about proof of the Hebrews sojourn in Egypt. One clue was found in diggings uncovered by the University of Chicago in the 1930s which showed the remains of a complete house characteristic of Israelite dwellings in Western Thebes, Egypt. Then in the book, “Unearthing the Bible “ by Titus Kennedy, the author wrote, “Hieroglyphic inscriptions mentioning the ‘land of the nomads of YHWH’ were discovered on the walls of two New Kingdom Egyptian temples and a temple pillar in Sudan. Currently, these are the earliest known texts that contain the name YHWH (Yahweh), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible.” 

Then there is the Sphinx Dream Stele. “Scholars consider this text to demonstrate that Thutmose IV was not the natural heir to the throne,” Kennedy writes, “but the death of his older brother, the firstborn and original heir, allowed him to eventually become pharaoh…Thutmose IV had an older brother named Amenhotep who was the heir, but he mysteriously disappeared or died.” Was Amenhotep the first born who perished with all the Egyptian first born sons in Exodus 12:29? 

I personally choose to believe that God reveals Himself through the many different stories in the Bible. We can see the Exodus as a foreshadowing of the resurrection and salvation of Jesus- His saving us from the slavery from the bondage of sin bringing us to the promised land of freedom and rest. Again as in so many narratives of the Bible, the New Testament is concealed in the Old, and the Old Testament is revealed and fulfilled in the New, as St. Augustine said. 

Moses prefigured Christ just as the manna prefigured the Eucharist. In the 430 years the Hebrews were toiling and suffering in Egypt, it may have seemed as if God was not hearing their prayers. But it just took one day for God to save and free them from this bondage. The same is true whatever hardship we are experiencing right now. It is so easy for God to save us with His mighty hand. We just need to put our full trust in His love and mercy. So much treasure to dig up in God’s Word!