REFERENCES TO EGYPT

ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT EVENTS in all of human history was Israel's deliverance from Egypt. They were in Egypt for 430 years (Ex 12:40). When they went down to Egypt, there were seventy of them (Ex 1:5). While they were in the land, they multiplied, even under harsh oppression. The Word of God declares, "And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them" (Ex 1:7). When they came out of Egypt, they were a vast multitude. The fighting men, twenty years and older, numbered 603,550 (Ex 38:26; Num 1:19-46). The Levites were not numbered in the census. Later, by the commandment of the Lord, Moses and Aaron numbered the Levite males from one month old and upward. There were 22,000 (Num 3:39). The Levites between 30-50 were 8,500 (Num 4:46). Factoring in all of the non-Levite children, older men, and women, there probably were somewhere between 3-6 million Israelites that came out of Egypt. They came out in an orderly manner, and in one night. A mighty deliverance, indeed! How did the Spirit refer to Egypt – that once mighty nation from which the people of God were delivered?

IRON FURNACE. As they neared the promised land, Moses reminded the people, "But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day" (Deut 4:20). This was not a furnace for keeping warm, but one for smelting, or refining precious metal. The NIV reads, "the iron-smelting furnace." Not only did the people multiply in Egypt, they were refined there. Their hard bondage and difficult labor helped to remove pride them. It also toughened their spirits, so they could endure more. Years later, the prophet Jeremiah referred back to this great deliverance. He told the people God "brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace" (Jer 11:4). Some-thing happened there of which the Egyptians were totally ignorant. It was not their furnace. It was God's refining furnace. There, in Egypt, He prepared the people.

HOUSE OF BONDAGE. On the day Israel marched triumphantly out of Egypt, it is written, "And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place" (Ex 13:3,14). When the Ten Commandments were given, God began by saying, "I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (Ex 20:2). Joshua reminded the people of "the house of bondage" (Josh 24:17). In the days of Gideon, when the people were oppressed by the Midianites, God sent a prophet to them who said, "Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage" (Judges 6:8). It was a time when they were not free, but restrained. By the mercy of God, it was a house, not a pit like Joseph was thrown into. It was a house, not the belly of a fish in which Jonah was refined. You can move about in a house, but cannot leave its confines. Too, everything about Egypt was a "house of bondage." Hardship and hindrance were everywhere in that place.

IT IS GOOD TO REMEMBER where we have come from. We came from both a furnace and a house. A furnace where we were refined, and a house wherein we were held. It was God who delivered us from both through the Lord Jesus!

– Given O. Blakely