Living Memorials to the Bible
Introduction
A. The Passover has been celebrated for 3,400 years. It is a living memorial to the Bible account of the birth of the nation of Israel as well as a prophetic anticipation of the death of Jesus the Passover Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
1. Christians observe the Lord's Supper on the day of Jesus' resurrection from the dead.
a. The is the foundation of the Gospel, the Faith of the church of Christ.
b. The Lord's Supper is one of five living monuments to the resurrection of Jesus:
(1) First day of the week assembly of Christians to take the Lord's Supper.
(2) The Lord's Supper itself in which the elements that we eat are the crucified body and the shed blood of Jesus symbolized by the bread and fruit of the vine. As often as we eat, we show forth his death until He comes again.
(3) New Testament which draws it credibility from the eye witness accounts of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
(4) Church of Jesus Christ which lives based on the belief that Jesus was raised from dead.
(5) Baptism which is a burial in water in which we are buried with Jesus into His death and raised to walk in newness of life as Jesus was raised from the dead.
2. God gives us many evidences to support our belief in Jesus Christ which are faith building, but the living monuments are a living reminder of the historical nature of God's intervention on this earth motivated by His great love for us.
B. Both the Nation of Israel and the Kingdom of Christ were begun by a great outpouring of Divine Power, signs, wonders, and miracles. This is real history, even as the Flood of Noah is history and the future Judgment Day planned for all human beings.
-- We are going to examine the Historical explanation for the existence of the Jewish Nation even as it points the world to the historical crucifixion of Jesus and His resurrection from the dead.
I. God set up this miracle.
A. Reminds us of how God set up the demonstration of His glory in healing the blind man of John 9
B. Promise to Abraham
1. Genesis 12:1-3 "I will make you a great nation"
2. Genesis 13:14 "Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are -- northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you I give to you and your descendants forever."
3. Genesis 15:13 "The He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the antion whom they serve I will judge; afterward they sahll come out with great possessions.... 16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."
C. Sale of Joseph into Egyptian Slavery
1. Genesis 37 Favoritism of Jacob toward Joseph caused his brothers to be resentful and hateful and eventually circumstance allowed them to capture him away from his father and sell him to a band of Midianites who resold him to Potiphar in Egypt
2. Genesis 39 Potiphar's wife accused him attempted rape and had him thrown into prison with the palace prisoners.
3. Genesis 41 Ultimately Joseph distinguished himself as a faithful servant as well as wise in matters of messages from God. Pharaoh was given a prophetic dream which none of his advisers could interpret. The butler remembered Joseph and had him summoned from the prison. Joseph interpreted the dream as a warning of God that they would have 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of severe drought, then he counseled Pharaoh to store up grain in the good days to endure the coming drought.
a. Pharaoh promoted Joseph to the highest rand possible below himself.
D. Israel moves to Egypt during the hard years of the drought and is cared for by Joseph.
1. Joseph saved Egypt, Genesis 41:55-57; 47:13-26, v.25 "So they said, "you have saved our lives; let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants."
2. Joseph saved his family, the descendants of Israel. Genesis 45:6 "For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be either plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance."
3. After Joseph's death, Egypt receives a new pharaoh who does not know or remember Joseph.
a. Exodus 1:8 The new pharaoh was frightened by the growth and prosperity of the descendants of Israel and Joseph.
b. Exodus 1:9-14 Enslaved the Israelites, but they continued to multiply.
c. Exodus 1:15-22 Attempted to control the growth by infanticide.
4. Moses was born in the era of infanticide. By the providence of God, he was rescued and raised by the daughter of the Pharaoh. Exodus 2:1-10
a. Exodus 2:11-25 Moses attempted to champion his people's interests but was rejected and fled to Midian.
b. Exodus 3 God sent Moses back to deliver his people with all the power of God backing him.
E. The Passover is part of the great liberation that included numerous Nationwide signs, wonders, or miracles of God.
1. Ten plagues Exodus 5-13
a. Waters turned to blood
b. Frogs
c. Lice
d. Flies
e. Murrain of the Cattle
f. Boils and blisters
g. Hail mingled with fire
h. Locusts
i. Darkness for three days
j. Death of the first born in Egypt -- where ever the Passover was not observed.
2. Israel was freed but then pursued to the banks of the Red Sea by the armies of Egypt
a. Pillar of Cloud and Fire protects Israel
b. Waters of the Red Sea part for Israel, Exodus 14:21-31
c. Returning waters destroy the Egyptian army
d. Witnessed by millions of Israelites and Egyptians. Known throughout the ancient world.
II. Secular Historians Mention strikingly similar experiences for Egypt.
A. Heliopolis historians, city near Cairo where the god Ra was worshipped
B. Diodorus Siculus, Greek historian of the First Century BC, Agyrium, Sicily, in Bibliotheca Historica. Quotes from Ephorus (480-340 BC) and from Hieronymus of Candia (323-302BC) on the Ichthyophagi who lived near the Red Sea.
1. They had a tradition handed down from a long lineof ancesors that the whole bay was once laid bare to the very bottom, the waters retiring to the opposite shores; and that afterward they returned to their accustomed channel with a most tremendous revulsion.
2. The inhabitants of Corondel preserve the memory of a mighty army having once been drowned in the bay which Ptolemy calls Clysma.
3. The geographical names mentioned in the Mosaic account have not changed to this day.
C. Egyptian Papyrus Ipuwer
1. Quoted in Ages in Chaos, Immanuel Velikovsky. Dates roughly to the times of Moses.
2. Egyptian point of view of what they experienced that is strikingly similar to the 10 plagues
a. Papyrus 2:5-6 "Plagues throughout the land. Blood is everywhere."
Exodus 7:21 "There was blood all throughout the land of Egypt."
b. Papyrus 2:10 "The river is blood."
Exodus 7:20 "all the water that were in the river were turned to blood."
c. Papyrus 2:10 "Men shrink from tasting -- human beings, and animals thirst after water."
Exodus 7:24 "And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water in the river."
d. Papyrus 3:10-13 "That is or water! That is our happiness! What shall we do in respect thereof?" "The fish in the lakes and rivers died, and worms, insects, and reptiles bred prolifically."
Exodus 7:21 "and the river stank."
e. Papyrus 4:14 "Trees are destroyed." 6:1 "No fruit nor herbs are found"
Exodus 9:25 "and the hail smote every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field."
f. Papyrus 2:10 "Forsooth, gates, columns and walls are consumed by fire."
Exodus 9:23-24 "the fire ran along upon the ground ... there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous."
g. Papyrus 10:3-6 "Lower Egypt weeps ... The entire palace is without revenues. To it belong (by right) wheat and barley, geese and fish."
Exodus 1:15 "there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the fields, through all the land of Egypt."
Papyrus 6:3 "Forsooth, grain has perished on every side." 5:12 "Forsooth, that has perished which yesterday was seen. The land is left over to its weariness like the cutting of flax." 6:1"No fruit nor herbs are found ... hunger."
h. Papyrus 5:5 "All animals, their hearts weep. Cattle moan..."
Exodus 9:3 "the hand of the lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field .. there shall be a very grievous murrain."
i. Papyrus 9:2-3 "Behold, cattle are left to stray, and there is no one to gather them together. Each man fetches for himself those that are branded with his name."
Exodus 9:19 "gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field .. And he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field."
j. Papyrus 9:11 "The land is not light..."
Exodus 10:23 "and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt."
k. Papyrus 2:13 "He who laces his brother in the ground is everywhere."
Exodus 12:30 "there was not a house where there was not one dead."
Papyrus 3:14 "It is groaning that is throughout the land, mingled with lamentation."
Exodus 12:30 "there was a great cry in Egypt." The death of the Pharaoh is also confirmed by the Papyrus 7:1-2 Exodus 14:3