Genesis 15 is all about Yehovah’s promise to Abram to give him “seed” [זרע, ze·rah]. This word often gets translated as “descendants;” but to be clear, when Yehovah talks about “seed,” He is always referring to men. It is the man who carries the seed of future generations and it is the man who produces after his own kind; ha·a·dam [the man] begat seed after his own image and kind after the fall, not Yehovah’s. But we will see, in this chapter, that the seed Yehovah is promising Abram, is spiritually born seed and this seed is Yehovah’s kind.
To really understand this portion of Yehovah’s word we must have a broad understanding of the Torah and Yasher in order to see how all the pieces fit together. Exodus 12 says that Israel, Yehovah’s spiritually born seed, came out of Egypt exactly 430 years to that very same day.
Now the sojourn of Israel’s seed who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years–on that very same day–it came to pass that all the armies of Yehovah went out from the land of Egypt. (Exo 12:40-41)
This number always bothered me because I knew that Israel could not have been under Pharaoh’s rule for 430 years; the numbers just do not work. When Jacob came with his family to Egypt, Levi and his sons, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, were already born and his daughter (their sister, Yochebed) was in uterus. She was counted among the 70 souls, but only 69 were enumerated in the role in Genesis 46.
Moses’ father was Amram, the son of Kohath, and his mother was Yochebed the daughter of Levi. So unless Yochebed had Moses at 350, something is wrong with this picture and I had to solve this mystery.
So how long were we in Egypt? Where does the count for the 430 years,
to the very same day, begin? How does the prophecy, which Abram received in his dream in Genesis 15, concerning the 400 years of Abram’s seed dwelling in “Egypt,” fit into this story? And how does a man become a spiritually born seed of Abram, a.k.a. “Israel’s seed”?
When I read Yasher for the first time (in 2008 or so) some of these answers started to emerge, but it was not until I was preparing this lesson for my Sabbath class this week that all the pieces fell together. Here is what I found then.
Jasher 81:4 And at the end of two hundred and ten years, Yehovah brought forth Israel’s seed from Egypt with a strong hand.
5 And Israel’s seed traveled from Egypt and from Goshen and from Rameses, and encamped in Succoth on the fifteenth day of the first month.
This is the day that we began by eating our Passover lambs and goats; it is the 1st day of the feast of Unleavened Bread. And because I know that Yehovah does not change and His word endures forever I had to find out what happened 430 years ago on that very same day.
Armed with this new number (210 years we were in “Egypt”) I began to work backwards. The 210 years had to start with Jacob arriving in Egypt. So how old was Jacob when he arrived?
Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How old are you?” And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.” (Gen 47:8-9)
Now, that was progress; 210 + 130 = 340 years; so I kept looking.
Next, in my quest to understand the 430 years, I asked, “How old was Isaac when Jacob was born? And I found that also.
Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. (Gen 25:26)
I see it now, but I did not see it then. Probably because I was looking for 430 years to that very same day and not 400 years to that very same day; 340 + 60 = 400! But my quest to understand the 430 continued with a partial answer right before my eyes. 430 years minus 400 years left a deficit of 30 years. Abram was 100 when Isaac (as we now know is the spiritually born seed) was born on the moed called “the time of Life.” But in Genesis, the 1st time Yehovah makes his promise to Abram concerning the seed he is 75 years old. Augh! that left me a 5 year shortage; instead of 430 years I could only come up with 425 years. I shared my research with some friends but they also had no answers.
Finally the day came (about 5 years ago) that I discovered the missing 5 years. I was again reading Yasher (for about the 4th time) and this verse literally jumped out at me.
Jasher 13:17 And it was in the fifteenth year of Abram’s dwelling in the land of Canaan, which is the seventieth year of the life of Abram, and Yehovah appeared to Abram in that year and he said to him, I am Yehovah who brought thee out from Ur Casdim to give thee this land for an inheritance. 18 Now therefore walk before me and be perfect and keep my commands, for to thee and to thy seed I will give this land for an inheritance, from the river Mitzraim unto the great river Euphrates. 19 And thou shalt come to thy fathers in peace and in good age, and the fourth generation [this is referring to Moses, the only other man in Torah to call Yehovah “adoni” / “my master”] shall return here in this land and shall inherit it forever; and Abram built an altar, and he called upon the name of Yehovah who appeared to him, and he brought up sacrifices upon the altar to Yehovah.
From the time Abram was 55, he had dwelt in Canaan for 15 year and in Haran for 5, before he left for Canaan, for the 2nd time, at 75 as recorded in Genesis 12. Yehovah first spoke to Abram about his seed, the spiritually born men, inheriting their land when Abram was 70 (at the end of his 1st sojourn in Canaan); and this solved the riddle for me concerning the 430 years to that very same day. What is it that Yehovah is teaching us about that very same and special day?
What day (that very same day) was it that Yehovah spoke to Abram? I have found that Yehovah speaks to His men primarily on His moeds; Sabbaths, new moons and feast days. That day, that very same day, was what we now call the Passover; but back then it was called “the time of life.” That very same day that Abram’s spiritually born seed, Isaac, was birthed; and the very same day that Israel’s seed, Yehovah’s spiritually born men, were birthed as well. Here is my out-line for both the 430 and the 400 year prophecies which Yehovah gave to Abram when he was 70 and when he was 78, respectively. So much to learn, so little time.
Abram’s Spiritually Born Seed
0 Yehovah‘s promise to Abram
Jasher 13:17 And it was in the fifteenth year of Abram’s dwelling in the land of Canaan, which is the seventieth year of the life of Abram, and Yehovah appeared to Abram in that year and he said to him, I am Yehovah who brought thee out from Ur Casdim to give thee this land for an inheritance. 18 Now therefore walk before me and be perfect and keep my commands, for to thee and to thy seed I will give this land for an inheritance, from the river Mitzraim unto the great river Euphrates.
+5 years later Abram (75) departs from Haran
So Abram departed as Yehovah had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. (Gen 12:4)
+ 25 years after Abram leave Haran Isaac is born
Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. (Gen 21:5)
+ 60 years is Isaac’ age when Jacob is born
Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. (Gen 25:26)
+130 years is Jacob speaks to Pharaoh when he arrives in Egypt with his family
Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How old are you?” And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.” (Gen 47:8-9)
+210 Years in which we actually did live in Egypt
Jasher 81:4 And at the end of two hundred and ten years, Yehovah brought forth the sons of Israel from Egypt with a strong hand. 5 And the sons of Israel traveled from Egypt and from Goshen and from Rameses, and encamped in Succoth on the fifteenth day of the first month.
___
430 Years Total
This means that Abram received this prophecy, when he was 70 years old, on the 15th day of the first month!
Oh my, the ramifications of this new knowledge is mind-boggling for folks who will leave their doctrines and traditions of men behind and begin to learn only Yehovah’s words given through Moses.
WE are so blessed to have Yehovah’s word, in some ways more than Abram. He could not see what we can now see clearly if we will take the time and do the work to understand the message line upon line.
“Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” (Isa 28:9-10)
- Abram was in spiritual Egypt his whole life.
- Ishmael can not be the promised seed.
- Isaac and Israel’s seed were both born on the same day.
- The “smoking stove” and the “flaming torch” that passed through the pieces in Abram’s dream was the “pillar of smoke and fire” which appeared with Moses and led us out of our Egypt and into Yehovah’s kingdom and toward our land.
- All this is going to happen again!
Please consider joining my Sabbath classes each week; but be warned, these classes are NOT for those who love the doctrines and traditions of men that we have all learned. This is strong meat, for those who have eyes that see and a heart that desires to understand more.
Here is what we went through in this week.
Abram’s Spiritually Born Seed
2G19 Genesis 14:19 – 15 – Abram’s Spiritually Born Seed
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