And We Were Slaves in Egypt for 400 Years

Nadene Goldfoot                                       

The Mayflower of 1620

Pilgrims from Holland: 1620

From the time Jacob's 12 sons went into Egypt until they came out was 400 years.  Four hundred years is  a long long time.  The United States, formed in 1776, is only 242 years old.  The first Pilgrims from England via Holland came to the shores of America on the Mayflower in 1620.  Four hundred years from then will be  the year, 2020; in two more years!  Can you imagine all that our Israelites went through and the condition they were in when Moses led them back to their old homeland that of course had gone through so many changes as well?

Jacob's family of 70 had gone in and out came them with others adding up to about 600,000.  Moses lived from 1391 BCE to 1271 BCE.   It took this Exodus of people 40 years to reach their goal of Canaan.  He died at age 120 years.
                                                                             

Moses delivered the Israelites out of slavery when he was 80 years old which would have been in the year of 1311 BCE . Even so, Moses knew enough to take 2 different census of his charges, one at the beginning of the Exodus and one at the destination.  The people were marching with their own tribes, and at the beginning of the Exodus all totaled 603,550 people.  Many died during the 40 years, so at the end they had 601,730, even with births along the way.  They had been depleted by 1,280 lives.  Some people had been old at the onset of the trek and had not lasted.  Moses was left with a new generation that he had helped to mold into a new mind-set.  Now they were made up of a strong people, leaving slavery behind them.  Joshua , from the tribe of Ephraim, was one of those people and would take the reigns when Moses died. 

With 25 years making a generation, from 1271 BCE to 2018 CE,  the past 3,289 years produces 131.5 generations that have gone by.  Even with that, and with G-d's help through Moses, these immigrants were lectured by Moses as to what kind of people they were from Abraham's teachings to what is expected of them after hearing these lectures.  This was the price they had to pay for being delivered out of Egypt.  They were a mixed family line that had most likely intermarried with these others who were also most likely related to them by then.  It had been a long time of living together in extreme hardship in slavery.