During our Bible studies, we’ve been so focused on studying the history of Israel I think we sometimes overlook what was happening in other parts of the world.
For example, during the time of the Exodus, the Assyrians in the north were becoming a new and menacing power with imperial ambitions.
In the west, the Greeks had begun to explore other parts of world with their ships sailing as far as England and Ireland.
And at this time, Crete, the largest Greek island in the Mediterranean, in terms of civilization, art and science reached a level that surpassed even the Egyptians.
However, this advanced civilization on Crete slowly vanished until now it is only remembered as myths.
This mysterious disappearance is something scholars debate to this day.
Back to the Israelites, during the Exodus it was estimated that the size of the population Moses led ranged anywhere from between 3 thousand to 3.5 million people.
The only numerical reference we have from the Bible is in Exodus 12.
“The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.”-Exodus 12:37
Now let’s consider that the eligible age for military is from between 18-45 years old.
Well, we can multiply that number by 5 or 6 to take into account all of the women and children not to mention the elderly.
In spite of the plain wording of Scripture, many liberal scholars still have a bone to pick with the figure 600,000 males.
Why?
Simply because they can’t fathom that including all of the women, children and elderly the number would be so much bigger…
…and they just can’t wrap their head around such a huge population simply picking up and leaving Egypt.
My response?
Look man, that big of a number shouldn’t be such a huge stretch.
Recall the Egyptians were so afraid of the huge number of Israelites that the evil Pharaoh at the time…
…issued a decree that all Hebrew firstborn males were to be aborted upon birth.
Other evidence we have that the Israelite population was really that big is the fact that after the Israelites left Egypt, all construction projects in Egypt came to an instant halt resulting in immediate economic chaos…
…kind of like the recession we’re experiencing because of this crazy COVID 19 pandemic today.
Also, chew on this.
Amongst a population of about 10-12 million people, if there was really only a couple of thousand of Israelites, they wouldn’t have posed any threat to the majority population.
And there certainly wouldn’t have been fear of economic breakdown if such a small number of people picked up and left.
On the other hand, if as the Bible clearly tells us a whopping quarter of the whole population just picked up and left, well that’s an entirely different can of worms altogether and would explain why Egypt’s civilization pretty much came to a halt once Israel left Egypt.
So the big takeaway here is…
…a number ranging from 2-3 million people is not only probable it’s necessary to properly explain what happened to Egypt after the Exodus.
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