A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

most impressive Pharaohs of Egyptian history. Conservative scholars tend to identify Hatshepsut
with the daughter of Pharaoh who found the baby Moses in the Nile River.
Hatshepsut was followed by Thutmosis III, the Pharaoh of oppression (1504-1450 B. C.).
Actually, he was a co-Pharaoh with Hatshepsut for much of his reign but did not have liberty to
act on his own as Pharaoh until the death of Hatshepsut. Then he acted with a vengeance to
destroy every memory of Hatshepsut. He defaced the buildings she had built and scratched her
name off any monuments. If the conservative chronology is correct, it was this Pharaoh who
sought to destroy Moses for killing an Egyptian slave master and who must have died just prior
to God calling Moses back to Egypt.
Thutmosis III was followed by Amenhotep II, the Pharaoh of the Exodus (1450-1415
B.C.). Though the Egyptian chronicles record many of the athletic exploits of this Pharaoh as a
young man, it is strangely silent on any great accomplishments during his reign. He apparently
fathered a son, but that son never became a Pharaoh. All of the mystery surrounding Amenhotep
II fits in perfectly with the events which not only marked the historic birth of the nation Israel,
but also must have resulted in a traumatic social and economic crisis for the Egyptians, the
Exodus (1445 B.C.).
There is a tendency among liberal scholars to date the Exodus much later in Egyptian
history, during the reign of Raamses II (1280-1220 B. C.). There are several problems with this
view. First, it contradicts the only biblical hints of the date of the Exodus. Galatians 3:16-17; 1
Kings 6:1; and Judges 11:26 each allude to chronological details which suggest the date 1445 B.
C. Further, at least two archeological discoveries are more harmonious with an earlier rather than
a later date for the Exodus. The Stele of Mernaptah dated 1218 B. C. lists Israel as one of the
peoples firmly established in the land of Palestine at that time. Also, the earlier date is more
consistent with the apparent time of the destruction of Jericho.
PREPARATION FOR DELIVERANCE
(Ex. 1:7-2:25)
As Egypt was adjusting to a new era in their long and rich history, God was preparing to
bring His people out of that land into the land He had promised Abraham. The preparations
began over eighty years before the actual Exodus took place. First God had to find midwives
who would trust Him and defy the order of the Pharaoh that all male children be killed at birth.
Then He had to find a couple who would preserve the life of their son when the order to drown
male children was made, and who by faith would raise that son to have the values that would
help him make the right choices during the later crises of his life. Gradually, everything came
together. There were midwives like Shiphrah and Puah who believed it was more important to
preserve life than to destroy babies on the order of an Egyptian Pharaoh. Then one day it
happened. In the home of Amram and Jochebed, a son was born.
For a while, the parents could hide their child from the authorities. It was not easy, but it
was necessary. If the authorities learned a son had been born to them, that son would have been
drowned in the Nile River. So, while like other parents they longed to share their joy with others,
to preserve the life of their son they abstained from telling others of his birth.
Soon it became impossible to keep the secret. When the child got hungry, he became
vocal. His cry for food endangered his very existence. Still, the deepest longing of his parents
was that his life be spared, regardless of the cost to them personally. Soon a plan was devised
and initiated by the child’s mother.