The Minneapolis journal., 1901-11-02
Sabbath-SchooI Lesson.
FOR NOV. 10, 1901
Lesson 6-Fourth Quarter.
BY JOHN R. WHITNEY.


Israel Oppressed i'm Egypt-Ex. L. IA.
Golden Text-God heard their groaning and
God remembered his covenant.-Ex., H., "a
There are two important facts in the history
of men which should command from each one
very careful attention. The one is his
spiritual attitude towards God The other is
his spiritual condition in the world.
In the historical narratives Of The Book
Genesis" our attention has been turned to
the spiritual attitude In the historical mar
ratives of The Book Exodus" however
our attention will be turned to the spiritual
condition before us as one Of bondage-the
children OF Israel are now slaves in Egypt.
Spiritually, this is the condition of every SIN
ner, for our Lord himself said, ''Whosoever
committeth sin is the servant'--or slave-''of
SIN. (John viii. "a.
Between the death OF Joseph and this condi-
tlon In Egypt there was a great gap of many
years exactly how many it is impossible now
to determine 1t was probably, however
more than four hundred. 1t was thus as
great as that between the discovery Of this
country by Christopher Columbus and the
present time How vast the changes which
could take place in that time are clearly
shown in our history. 1t is interesting, also
to notice that this interval between 1.-The
Book Genesis and 1.-The Book Exo-
dus" is thus shown to be as great as be-
tween the last book in the Old Testament and
the first in the New, or between the time Of
the prophet Malachi and the appearance OF
John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth.
|. When JACOB, with his sons ard grandsons
came into Egypt in the time OF the famine
they formed little colony of seventy souls
". %. The full list, including Jacob himself
ana and Joseph. with his two sons, is given in
Gen. XVII, S-27. When they went out they
mad grown to about six hundred thousand on
root that Were men, besides children, and
mixed multitude, which went up also with
them (xii. 81, 3S). If each man represented
an average of five in each family, the whole
company must have numbered about three
millions. Thus, when the time of the promise
drew nigh which God had sworn to Abraham
the people grew and multiplied in Egypt
(Acas vii, 10, 'and the land was filed with
them" w.. 10.
The Pharaoh who governed at the time of
the oppression Is generally considered by
Egyptologists to have been Rameses II He
was one of the most powerful of mOnarchs
and belonged to a different dynasty from that
which ruled when Joseph was made prime
minister. Very naturally therefore, he knew
not Joseph, and felt under no obligations to
him for anything that he had done for the
country. To him tho descendants of Israel
were only part of a conquered people. But ha
found them separted people, occupying the
border territory to the northeast, between
him and the warlike tribes of southern Pales-
tine and of Arabia.
Probably also, he very soon learned that
they had strong expectations of returning
some day to the land of Canaan He there
fore, took what semeed to him to be prudent
measures to prevent both their return and
their union with other tribes. These measures
were probably at first not very severe for
ne dealt wisely with them" ". 18l.s His
rather than to destroy them. But as they
continued to prosper, he gradually burdened
tnem more and more with heavy taxes and
exacting labors, until at last he made their
nVes bitter with hard bondage in mortar and
IN prick, and in all manner of service in the
held-all their service wherein they made
them en- serve was with rigor'.' ". 14)
The facts connected with this oppression
AS revealed Dy modern research c1aarIv
set forth by Amelia b. Edwards in her in
teresting work entitled ''Pharaohs, Fellahs
and Explorers" published in 1891
She says: I'm 1883 the Egypt Exploration
Fund began its labors in the delta, the first
explorer sent out by the society being the
eminent Psychologist, M Naville of Geneva.
NJ Naville selected as the scene of his frst
excavation a celebrated mound in the Wady
Tumilat, a mound which Lepsius had con-
}ecturably identified forty. years before with
Rameses, one of the twin treasure cities
built by the forced labor of the Hebrew col
onists in the time of the great oppression
Here he found the site of temple, some
ruins or a city and a series of most curious
subterranean structures entirely unlike any
architectural remains ever discovered in
Egypt or elsewhere. Bith temple and city
proved to have been founded by Rameses H.,
the names and titles of that Pharaoh being
the earliest recorded in the Inscriptions dis
covered in Egypt or elsewhere
THE temple was dedicated to Tum the
god Of the setting sun, Tum being the patron
deity Of the town and the surrounding dis
trict. Its secular name proved to be Thu
kut, or 'Sukut and its sacred name Pa
tum.' Now, 'Pu-tum' means the house or
abode Of Tum, Pa being the Egyptian word
for house or abode. The Hebrews changed
Pa into FPf and "Tum' into 'Thom, and
when dealing with 'Pa-tum' they made it
'Pi-thom. Accordingly it is of this very
store-fort 'Pa-tum,' that we read And they
built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and
Rameses. The place, however, was not
Rameses, as conjectured by Lepsius but it
was Pithom. By its secular name, 'Sukut.'
It is also identified with succoth, and when
It Is remembered that the departing Hebrews