Photo by Jaroslav Devia on Unsplash
Some accounts in the Bible are short and tucked between stories. The great Exodus is not
one of them. The story stretches for almost eight chapters, with a whole book of the Bible named for it. And so the great Exodus, like the stories of Creation and Noah’s Ark, is one that most people, believers and unbelievers, have heard a lot about. Bloody water, frogs, and hail. Eeesh. Seven more plagues, Moses, and an evil pharaoh. A three-and-a-half-hour movie starring Charlton Heston.
But, like the stories of Creation and Noah’s Ark, lots of folks are sure it never happened.
I hear there is one extra-biblical source called the Ipuwer Papyrus, an ancient Egyptian document that contains a possible record of the plagues in Egypt. That’s not much.
I guess that’s where faith comes in.
A good number of students, however, are preoccupied with the dating of Biblical events, as if plotting their occurrence on a timeline will convince the naysayers it really happened. Seriously, folks, all that will do is eat up your time while you could be praying or writing or loving.
But here’s my point:
Some Biblical events can indeed be crosschecked with other nations’ annals. The Israelites’ march to Babylon. The fact that King Cyrus sent them back. The fall of Ninevah. Some Biblical accounts may not be confirmed by secular sources, but do contain indicators of their timing: the year of a king’s birth, death, or reign. In the year that king Uzziah died. The fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah. The eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. So then, find out when wicked Pharaoh reigned and you find out when the exodus happened. Easy-peasy.
Except it’s not.
Somewhere early in my studies, I learned that “pharaoh” is only a title. So the great ruler who faced off with Moses? Not only do we not know when he reigned, we don’t even know his name.
Whether it was Ramses II, or Thutmose III, Adikam, or Malu, God only knows. Oh, you’ll find scads of articles and dissertations making the case for one or another, but if the scholars are still arguing, that means it isn’t settled. Now, for someone who played such a significant role in the history of Israel, don’t you think we should at least know his name? I would. But God didn’t.
Why? Perhaps He didn’t want to bestow that pharaoh with fame. In the estimation of God (He’s really the one that counts, after all) that scary pharaoh wasn’t even worthy of dishonorable mention. We don’t know the name of his daughter, either. Even though she was an incredible hero, she retained her anonymity. Perhaps to keep her father’s name out of the headlines.
We do know the names of a couple of other women, though, but it’s doubtful that will help the historians out.
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. (Exodus 1:15–17, NIV)
Shiphrah and Puah. Huh. Midwives. The Egyptians’ midwives. The pharaoh isn’t named, but they are.
Heroes. Honored by the mention of their names.
You’ve just gotta ask: did God chuckle when He had His scribe record them?
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