In Genesis 15 God warns Abram that his descendants will be enslaved in a foreign land for a time. Verse 16 reads: In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.What was going on in Canaan during the 400 years Abraham's descendants were in Egypt? And what would have become of them if they had remained in Canaan? Is it possible the wickedness that was growing in the Amorites, but had not yet reached its full measure, would have infected the twelve tribes of Jacob, too?
As bad as the Egyptian enslavement might have been, we don't know but that something even worse might have befallen them if they had remained in Canaan.
What do we know of them? Looking over good old Wiki was interesting - They evidently eimgrated to and eventually sacked Ur at one point so I expect Abraham was quite familiar with them. It looks like they worshipped the old Sumerian gods (sun, moon, etc). They might have seemed too familiar, both by association with 'the old home' and by their also being a nomadic people?
ReplyDeleteNot that Egypt's pantheon, etc. was an improvement on the spiritual beliefs - but perhaps the Egyptians were different enough that it was easier for them to maintain cohesion as a separate people? *ponders*
Amy, You wrote, "They might have seemed too familiar." I take it you're suggesting that as Abraham was establishing a new life for himself and his family, with loyalty to one God, that he was cutting any ties that could contaminate what they had. Is that close? If so, that would remind me of how the Reformers (the Calvinists and Radical Reformers more than the Lutherans and Anglicans) did away with anything in their new churches that might resemble Catholic trappings.
ReplyDeleteMmmm...perhaps. If it's what 'we' used to do it can be seen as legitimate heritage that might be returned to, especially if the other people still practicing it have the same basic lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteThe Calvinists saw those trappings as evidence of being manipulated by a foreign government as well as idolatry and were taking a stand that established them as 'something different' - Abraham's decendants, lacking the 'stand' their forefather took of physically leaving his old land would've had the danger of being gradually and insidiously turned aside to the 'local' beliefs and ways. Frogs in a frying pan. They didn't have Moses and his books of the Law to hang their hats on yet.