Why did God require the Israelites to leave Egypt while he could ..have still chose them as his people?

Question

while still in Egypt?

2) It is written in Exodus that God hardened the hearts of Egyptians in order to be in conflict with them and showed his power. Does that mean that God provokes disobidience and then punishes people like he did with Egyptians?

3) When the Israelites were starving because of femine, God said they should go to Egypt. This implies that His chosen people would have perished if they didn't go to Egypt. When Jesus was born, his "parents" were told to take him to exile in Egypt. This means that Christianity wouldn't have come to being as Jesus would have died but for fleeing to Egypt. So, why Egypt in this two important events of formation of Christian history?

PS. I am no Christian or believer in any religion. I'm just trying to make sense of the bible.

Answer 1

1) He chose the Jews perhaps because of their stubbornness. He could have chosen someone who just blindly and continually follows him, but for some reason God chose a rebellious and oppressed people. The Jews have constantly been trampled on, so one would wonder why God would chose such a people, yet perhaps it is an indication how stubborn God is, that he is persistent as well. He doesn't merely side with the mightiest kings or the most technologically advanced civilizations....

2) I do not yet know Hebrew so I cannot say for sure what the phase "hardened their hearts" meant... But I'll be sure to look into that when I learn Hebrew, and until then I wont give an answer out of mere guesswork or ignorance.

3) For the first case, God absolutely had to preserve the ancient Israelites from destruction. Since God promised the Messiah would come from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's descendants, if the Jewish line was destroyed by famine or war then God's promises would be broken. In the second case, in order to fulfill his mission, the Messiah couldn't be killed in his childhood. The fact that, in both cases, Egypt was the place of refuge, while reflective, I do not think is significant or relevant in any matter of doctrine.

Answer 2

To restate it slightly for purposes of accuracy, God delivered the Hebrews from Egypt because they had become enslaved there. Such was not the case in the beginning. As you mentioned, famine occurred in the land where Jacob and his family resided and Joseph (who was already in Egypt) provided them food and then ultimately told them to move to Egypt. This they did. According to Genesis 46:1-4, God let it be known that this move had his blessing and approval.

As for Pharaoh, God did not harden his heart - Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Sometimes the Bible speaks of God doing a thing when in fact he merely allows it. Exodus 8:32 states that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Exodus 8:15 says whenever he got relief from a plague, he would once again harden his heart. God does not provoke disobedience in people and then punish them for their disobedience. That is incompatible with a God of justice about which we read at Deuteronomy 32:3-4.

When Jesus was born, his parents were instructed to flee to Egypt until they could safely return without Jesus' life being on the line. This does not mean that Christianity would not have come into existence. God would never have allowed Jesus to die until the appointed time. Taking him to Egypt was God's means of protecting him at that time.

Egypt does figure fairly prominently in the Bible but there is no link between it and the formation of Christianity.

Hannah J Paul

Answer 3

Why did God require the Israelites to leave Egypt ?

because in egypt they were slaves he wanted them to be free !

Answer 4

Just trying to make sense of the bible! Try doing something acheivable, like solving global warming or the Middle East conflict.

Answer 5

Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to teach someone? You really have to get their attention, first. Using parent and child as example, do you not recall how your parents allowed you to stumble and fall so you could learn? As you grew older, were you not allowed to use your judgment about certain things, instead of being 'told' what to do? Sometimes you got hurt, yes, but you learned and usually did not repeat the mistake again.

It works much the same way with God and His people. Sometimes He allows us to become weak to feel the need for Him. It might help to remember He calls us His 'sheep' for a reason. Sheep are about the dumbest animals on the planet!

Sheep have no defenses and no healthy awareness of fear: a shepherd must watch over them. (The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want...)

Sheep cannot fend for themselves, and must be led to grazing areas. (Thou preparest a table before me)

When left to their own devices, they will walk into bad situations unless the shepherd corrals them with his staff. (He maketh me to lie down in green pastures .. leadeth me beside still waters...)

They are also prone to all sorts of maladies and parasites that require a shepherd's care (He annointeth my head with oil).

Sheep are blissfully unaware of predators, too, and would have died out long ago but for the careful protection of shepherds. (Yea, tho I walk through the valley of the shadow of death ... thy rod and thy staff will comfort me).

Now, for your question. God will never provoke sin. Never.
Sin comes about as a result of our choice. It is a result of the exercise of free will. We were given this extraordinary gift because love that is forced is not truly love.

When God hardened the hearts of people, you should realize they had already made their choice. When the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years, it was because of their decision to make and worship an idol instead of Him.

I know that the Bible can be hard to understand, but basically the Old Testament is a written history and genealogy. It provides instructions on how to live so those nomadic and desert-dwelling people of the time could be healthy, strong and happy without destroying their bodies or the environment. It provides lessons on the consequences when people failed to heed those instructions. It is also prophetic (did you know that the sites of Sodom, Gomorrah and Babylon to this day are uninhabitable, just as the Bible said they would be?).

The New Testament is the written history (eyewitness and first-hand accounts!) of the time of Jesus, including the periods shortly before His birth and after His death. It, too, contains instructions on life, which are different than the Old Testament because Christ became the Sacrifice. Now the books are couched more in terms of love letters to His people. There is prophecy here, too; both fulfilled and yet to be fulfilled. For example, the story of the people of Galatia (Galatians) tells of their move eastward into the area we know as China; recent discovery of non-oriental mummies in China fit in with the time line.

Archaeology, fulfilled prophecy, preservation, changed lives and authorship are just a few of the reasons for believing the Bible as truth. Did you know it was written by about 40 different authors over about 1500 years? They could not have conspired and yet managed to weave together very agreeing truths.

If you are interested in matching science to the Bible, try this site: http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/qa.asp

I'll be happy to answer whatever questions I can, also.

Answer 6

That's cause Jews wrote the bible, Jews aren't God's chosen people... that's all made up.

Answer 7

You will never make sense of the Bible because spiritual things are spiritually discerned.

Answer 8

there is no god