The Exodus of the
children of Israel from Egypt, extending over forty years, was both preceded
and accompanied by what we today might call unsettling and even disruptive
social, economic and political changes, both for the children of Israel and for
Egypt, not to mention nearby populations who were dislodged as a result.
Many of the people affected believed then, as many do today about our
current circumstances, that these changes had, and have, no spiritual dimension,
and that they are largely explainable in human terms as historical events and trends—and nothing more. Yet God remains firmly in charge and guides
these events and trends according to His purposes. More on this later.
