RPG Adults
POPULATION EXPLOSION IN EGYPT
MONDAY, MARCH 17
Genesis 46:8-27
Psalm 39
Live daily for the Lord.
POPULATION EXPLOSION IN EGYPT
Today’s reading may seem to be a monotonous recital of Hebrew names, and so it is to the casual reader! However, let not this obscure the great and historic fact that the founders of God’s chosen nation were being transplanted from Canaan into Egypt, to become like the stars of heaven for number (Gen 15:5). Note Genesis 46:27. All the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt were threescore and ten. And when the Israelites left Egypt 430 years later, they numbered “about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children” (Exod 12:37).
Who made up the original seventy souls? These included Jacob, his twelve sons, fifty-one grandsons, four great-grandsons, one daughter (Dinah) and one granddaughter (Serah). You will notice from this summary that of the seventy souls, sixty-eight were males! God in His providence had given Jacob this extraordinary preponderance of males to provide the base for the rapid enlargement of the nation.
At this point, an interesting question arises. Where did the wives of all these men come from? Jacob’s had come from Haran during his sojourn with Laban’s kindred. Joseph’s wife was Egyptian. Simeon’s was a Canaanite woman. For the others, we may presume that the women of Shechem captured by Simeon and Levi (Gen 34:29) were absorbed into the clan; then the daughters of Ishmael, Esau and Keturah could also have been taken into the family. After all, they were descendants of Abraham.
Look back and see Abraham ninety-nine and Sarah eighty-nine, still childless, although God had promised twenty-four years earlier to make Abraham “a great nation.” Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness (Gen 15:6).
Do you believe God, and take Him at His Word? Things may seem impossible, but to God, nothing is impossible! See how the Lord had been working thus far in Genesis. He is still working today in your life!
THOUGHT: (Read Isaiah 60:22.)
PRAYER: I praise Thee, O Father, for Thou art the omnipotent God!