Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

THE PROMISE AND COVENANT 1 S : 12-17
gods, and in particular those monstrosities which character-
ized Egyptian paganism. Jamieson (CECG, 145) : “The
exodus of Israel from Egypt was to be marked by a series
of severe national judgments upon that country; and these
were to be inflicted by God upon the Egyptians, not only
because the subjects of their grinding oppression were the
posterity of Abram, but on account of their aggravated
sins particularly that of idolatry.” As Dr. Will Durant
writes (OOH, 197-200) : “Beneath and above everything
in Egypt was religion. We find it there in every stage and
form from totemism to theology; we see its influence in
literature, in government, in art, in everything except
morality.” The Egyptians heaped unto themselves gods of
every kind and description: sky gods, the Sun-god (Re,
Amon, or Ptah), plant gods, insect gods, animal gods (so
numerous that they “filled the Egyptian pantheon like a
chattering menagerie”), sex gods (of which the bull, the
goat, and the snake were especially venerated for their
sexual reproductive power) , humanized gods (human
beings elevated to “godhood”: even these, however, re-
tained animal doubles and symbols). The Nile River was
especially an object of veneration (with good reason, to
be sure, because all life in Egypt depended on its inunda-
tions). It is a matter of common knowledge that every
one of the great Plagues (Exo., chs. 7 through 12) was
directed against some form of Egyptian worship. In
addition to all this, phallic worship in its grossest forms
characterized all aspects of Egyptian ritual and life (Cf.
Rom. 1:18-32). 3. Their return to the Promised Land
“in the fourth generation,” when the iniquity of its in-
habitants should be “full” (cf. Gen. 6:S). 4. The specific
boundaries of the land: it would extend “from the river
of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” This
geography is further clarified by the enumeration of the
Canaanite peoples who occupied the land (vv. 19-21).
"The River of Egypt”: not the Wady el Arish, at the
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